Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, potentially disabling
disease that affects your central nervous system. Your central
nervous system is made up of your brain and spinal cord.
Multiple sclerosis is thought to be an autoimmune disease.
Autoimmune diseases are those in which your immune system
attacks parts of your body as if they are something foreign.
With multiple sclerosis, your body mistakenly sets white blood
cells and antibodies against proteins in your myelin sheath.
This is a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibers in your
brain and spinal cord. This leads to injury and inflammation to
your myelin sheath and ultimately to your nerves that it
surrounds. This in turn may lead to multiple areas of scarring
(sclerosis). Eventually, this damage can block or slow your
nerve signals that control your strength, sensation, vision and
muscle coordination. Multiple sclerosis affects an estimated
300,000 people in the United States and probably more than 1
million people around the world. Women are twice a