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MS (multiple sclerosis) is a chronic, potentially disabling disease of your central nervous system. Your central nervous system is composed of your spinal cord and brain.

Researchers believe that MS is an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are those in which your immune system for some unknown reason attacks the cells and tissues of your own body as if they were something foreign that is invading your body

In the case of MS, your autoimmune system mistakenly sends white blood cells and antibodies to attack the proteins in your myelin sheath. Your myelin sheath is a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibers in your spinal cord and brain. This results in inflammation and injury to your myelin sheath and ultimately to your nerves that your myelin sheath surrounds. This, in turn, may cause multiple areas of sclerosis (scarring). Eventually, this damage can slow or block your nerve signals that control your vision, muscle coordination, strength and sensation.

An estimated 300,000 people have MS in the United States and probably more than 1 million people around the world. Women are twice as likely as men to develop MS. Most people experience their first signs and symptoms between the ages of 20 and 40.

As stated earlier, MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease. Your autoimmune system mistakenly destroys the cells that make your myelin sheath. However, researchers do not know why your body’s immune system reacts like this.

Genetic factors may play a role in causing MS. Researchers also believe that a virus like a cold or flu may trigger episodes of your MS.

MS varies in severity and is unpredictable. MS can range anywhere from being relatively benign and mild, to a little disabling, to devastating with permanent disability.

The signs and symptoms that are produced by MS vary widely. They depend on where the nerve fibers are that are affected by the disease. Some of the signs and symptoms that you may experience are:

• Dizziness
• Blurring of your vision or double vision
• Fatigue
• Pain or tingling in parts of your body
• Partial or complete loss of vision
• Electric-shock sensations that happen when you make certain head movements
• Numbness or weakness in one or more of your limbs
• An unsteady gait in your walking
• Tremor or lack of coordination.

Ataxia can refer to a sign or symptom of incoordination that is associated with injuries, infections, other diseases or degenerative changes in your central nervous system. Ataxia also refers to a group of specific degenerative diseases of your nervous system. These are called sporadic and hereditary ataxias.

The reason ataxia causes problems with your coordination is because if affects the parts of your nervous system that controls balance and movement. Ataxia can affect your hands, fingers, arms, body, legs, eye and speech movements.

When nerve cells in your cerebellum degenerate, are damaged or lost, you lose coordination or have less muscle control. Infection, injuries, diseases and degenerative changes in your central nervous system can cause this to happen, which results in some type of ataxia. Some of the things that can result in ataxia are:

• Chickenpox
• Paraneoplastic syndromes
• Toxic reactions
• Trauma to your head
• Cerebral palsy (link to page, “Cerebral Palsy and Disability”)
• Multiple sclerosis (MS) (link to page, “Multiple Sclerosis and Disability”)
• Transient ischemic attack (TIA)
• Tumor
• Stroke
• Heredity or genetics.

The signs and symptoms that you experience will depend on the type of ataxia that you have and whether it is a form of the disease or a sign or symptom of an underlying condition. Poor coordination and balance are usually the first indications of ataxia. Other signs and symptoms that you may experience, depending on the type and reason for your ataxia are:

• A tendency to stumble and an unsteady walk
• Change or slurring of your speech
• Problems with fine-motor skills like writing, buttoning a shirt or eating
• Difficulty swallowing
• Slow eye movements
• Loss of balance
• Loss of muscle coordination in your leg, arm or hand
• Walking with your feet further apart to compensate for problems with balance.

Onset of these signs and symptoms will vary due to the type of ataxia that you have. Often, they begin in childhood, but indications can begin in adulthood in your 20s or 30s. They can even begin in your 60s.

You or a loved one may some form of ataxia. This may be why you are disabled and unable to work.

Have you or your loved one applied for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability caused by ataxia and/or complications resulting from or other conditions causing ataxia? Were you or your loved one denied?

If you or your loved one appeals the denial by the Social Security Administration, consider this. People who are represented by a disability attorney like the one you will find here are approved more often than people who do not have a lawyer.

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 as susceptible to multiple sclerosis as men. Most people experience their first signs or symptoms between the ages of 20 and 40.

Multiple sclerosis is unpredictable and varies in severity. Multiple sclerosis can range anywhere from being relatively mild and benign, to somewhat disabling, to devastating with permanent disability.

The effects that are caused by multiple sclerosis vary widely, depending on the location of your nerve fibers that are affected. Some of the ways that you may be affected are: 

• Blurring of your vision or double vision
• Pain or tingling in parts of your body
• Dizziness
• Electric-shock sensations that happen when you make certain head movements
• Fatigue
• An unsteady gait in your walking, tremor or lack of coordination
• Weakness or numbness in one or more of your limbs
• Partial or complete loss of vision.

 These effects may keep you or a loved one from working. Multiple sclerosis may be the cause of you or your loved one’s disability.

If this is true, you or your loved one may need assistance. You may need financial help.

Have you or your loved one applied for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability caused by multiple sclerosis? Were you or your loved one denied?

You or your loved one may plan on appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration. If you decide to do this, here is something that you need to think about.

You will need an established disability lawyer like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com to represent you in what can prove to be a long and trying process. The reason this is true is because people who are represented by an experienced disability attorney are approved more often than people who do not have a lawyer. 

Do not wait. This may affect you or your loved one for the rest of your life. Contact the good disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.