2023-05-30 11:36:00
Multiple sclerosis: 13,000 people in Austria live with this diagnosis. Thanks to modern therapies and highly specialized patient care, the “face of MS has changed significantly,” as Christian Enzinger, President of the Austrian Society of Neurology, explained on MS Day today. In this way, the aim is to drive the stigma of the disease, which leads to the most severe disabilities, out of people’s minds: “Our goal today is to enable those affected to lead a normal everyday life and to keep them in work.”
This is made possible by modern antibody therapies, which specifically intervene in the process behind the disease: the attack of the body’s own immune cells on the central nervous system. The antibodies specifically intervene in the misguided immune response. The balance between activation and regulation is restored in the immune system.
Earlier diagnosis, less severe courses
“Today we diagnose the disease earlier, so we can intervene faster and more decisively in the disease process and therefore see many more mild and moderate courses of MS today,” says Enzinger, who heads the clinical department for neurology at Med Uni Graz. Twice as many patients are diagnosed within the first year that symptoms appear. “In most cases, we can prevent patients from reaching an advanced stage,” says Enzinger.
What are the first symptoms of MS? Typical are: One-sided visual disturbances, which usually manifest themselves as blurred vision, which can also lead to poor eyesight; sensory disturbances that spread slowly and last for more than two days; Paralysis and seeing double vision. Young adults are particularly affected, women three times more often than men.
High doses of vitamin D do not help
Enzinger also makes it clear: High doses of vitamin D have no effect on the frequency of relapses in multiple sclerosis. While low vitamin D levels increase the risk of MS, there is no evidence to date that taking high doses of vitamin D in people who have already been diagnosed with MS affects the frequency of relapses or the risk of recurrence. Now shows with the VIDAMS investigation another study (in addition to the “SOLAR” and the “EVIDIMS” studies) that high-dose vitamin D has no positive effect on the course of multiple sclerosis.
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