Multiple sclerosis may begin a decade before neurological symptoms appear: Study
Multiple sclerosis (MS) may begin far earlier than previously thought. Canadian researchers have decoded that the earliest warning signs of the immune system disorder may emerge more than a decade before the first classical neurological symptoms occur.
The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, challenge long-held assumptions about when the disease truly begins, offering the most comprehensive picture to date of how patients engage with a range of health care providers in the years leading up to a diagnosis as they search for answers to ill-defined medical challenges.
"MS can be difficult to recognise as many of the earliest signs -- like fatigue, headache, pain and mental health concerns -- can be quite general and easily mistaken for other conditions," said senior author Dr. Helen T...
