Por Ada Mendez
Miami Dade Health
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a very challenging disease that has no cure, but medicines and lifestyle changes can help you manage it.
Multiple sclerosis is thought to be an autoimmune disease; however, the exact cause is not known. Early signs and symptoms of MS are fatigue, bladder and bowel problems, vision problems, and numbness, tingling, or pain in certain areas of the body.
Along with the other essential components of comprehensive MS care, some medications help people manage their MS and enhance their comfort and quality of life.
According to neurologists who treat the disease, beta interferons are some of the most common drugs used to treat MS because they ease the severity and frequency of flares.
Like almost any medication beta interferons have side effects such as flu-like symptoms, aches, fatigue, fever, and chills. The other downside to using this particular medication is that they make you slightly more likely to get an infection because the active ingredient in this drug lowers the number of white blood cells, which help your immune system fight illnesses.
As a matter of fact, treating MS is about impeding your immune system to go overboard and react to the effects of the disease.
Some US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved disease-modifying therapies for MS have been found through clinical trials to reduce the number of relapses, delay progression of disability, and limit new disease activity. These are:
Injectable medications
Avonex (interferon beta-1a)
Betaseron (interferon beta-1b)
Copaxone (glatiramer acetate)
Oral medications
Aubagio (teriflunomide)
Gilenya (fingolimod)
Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate)
Infused medications
Lemtrada (alemtuzumab)
Novantrone (mitoxantrone)
Ocrevus (ocrelizumab)
Treating relapses
MS relapses are caused by inflammation in the central nervous system that damages the myelin coating around nerve fibers. This damage slows or disrupts the transmission of nerve impulses and causes the symptoms of MS. Most relapses will gradually resolve without treatment.
For severe relapses, most neurologists recommend a treatment with a three-to-five-day course of high-dose, intravenous corticosteroids to reduce inflammation.
