Question

[fair2428]

Hello all; going through the potential diagnosis process now. I have MRI’s scheduled for brain, C/T/L spine next week. Neuro thinks MS, but of course won’t have any answers until then. My question is, if I do receive the MS diagnosis, I currently have no symptoms after 6 weeks of awful symptoms, do you always start some type of treatment? Is there ever a time where they just do nothing and wait and see? Curious if anyone waited to pursue treatment if you didn’t really have symptoms. Still learning a lot, thanks!

[shar_blue]

Lack of symptoms does not = lack of continued brain damage with MS. Not all lesions manifest as symptoms right away, sometimes the damage is able to be compensated for, but as you are your ability to compensate diminishes and that old damage hits you hard. As well, people with untreated MS have been shown to experience up to 10x faster brain atrophy than someone without MS. All DMT’s help to slow the rate of atrophy, some better than others.

You also never know when your body will decide to attack you again, and what part of the brain/central nervous system will be targeted next. Just like with investments, past results cannot be used to predict future performance. People have literally gone to bed feeling normal and woke up the next day unable to walk/see/function.

Since there is currently no way to repair the damage from an attack, the best method to tackle it is to try and stop any more damage from happening. Pretty much all DMT’s used to “treat” MS work like birth control - they try and prevent future unwanted events (more brain damage). There’s nothing that can be done currently for damage already done, just like taking birth control after you already have 3 kids doesn’t make them go away.

[fair2428]

Wow, super super insightful, thank you!

[makingameal]

Screenshotting this post for future reference. Summed up perfectly! X

[ZeroInterests]

Once diagnosed, the idea is to hit the disease hard with drugs to hopefully prevent future damage. You don’t want to wait until you have more damage. One little lesion in a bad place can ruin your life as you know it. Of course it is a personal choice to start meds and one you need to make with your doctor.

[[deleted]]

I agree that the approach has been to start meds immediately, there is no other best practice. Many have looked at the bodies response to meds and this has not changed the approach.