Actor Selma Blair Says She Has Multiple Sclerosis. What is MS?

What is Multiple Sclerosis? Actor Selma Blair’s post helps spread awareness.

Actor Selma Blair wrote about her Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.

(Photo: Instagram/Selma Blair)

In an Instagram post, Hollywood actor Selma Blair, of Cruel Intentions fame, has revealed that she suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. It’s a life long condition that can often be disabling.

She wrote in her Instagram post, “I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS.”

Multiple Sclerosis diagnoses can be devastating. It is a disease of the central nervous system that affects the brain and spinal cord. According to Mayo Clinic, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body.

Symptoms take a while to establish and may vary depending upon the extant of damage to the nerves.

Symptoms

Selma writes about dropping things, wanting to sleep all the time, lack of coordination, all symptoms associated with MS, according to Mayo Clinic.

• Numbness or weakness of the limbs, affecting one side of the body.
• Loss of vision, starting with one eye
• Tingling or pain in parts of the body
• Tremors
• Slurring
• Fatigue
• Dizziness

While the cause of MS remains unknown, it is an auto immune disease. 70-80 percent people are diagnosed with a form of MS that relapses and remits, broken by disease free period. Degeneration happening over a period of time.

It is 2 to 3 times more likely to occur in women.

According to Multiple Sclerosis Society of India, there are 2 lakh people who suffer from MS in the country.