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Talking about MS and the society

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Talking about MS and society

Here are some messages that will help you talk to people about what multiple sclerosis is and what the National MS Society does to move us closer toward a world free of MS.

About the National MS Society

  • MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn’t.
  • The National Multiple Sclerosis Society supports more MS research, offers more services for people with MS, provides more professional education programs and furthers more MS advocacy efforts than any other MS organization in the world.

About the Chapter

  • The Chapter, founded in 1955, is one of 62 chapters across the United States and is located in downtown Minneapolis.
  • The Chapter serves more than 10,000 people with MS in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

About multiple sclerosis

  • MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system.
  • MS interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and stops people from moving.
  • Symptoms can range from numbness and tingling to paralysis or loss of vision.
  • The symptoms of MS appear because nerves in the brain and spinal cord lose their ability to effectively transmit signals. Myelin, a substance that surrounds and insulates nerve fibers, is essential for nerves to conduct electricity and carry out their function.Myelin is destroyed in MS.
  • MS symptoms are unpredictable and vary from person to person and from time to time within the same person.
  • The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS.

Facts to know about MS

  • Every hour of every day someone is diagnosed with MS.
  • There are an estimated 400,000 people living with MS in the U.S.
  • MS is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50.
  • MS is not fatal, contagious or directly inherited.
  • After many years of research, there are now six FDA-approved treatments for MS that can reduce relapses and slow progression of the disease in many people with MS.
  • No one knows what causes MS and there is no cure.