13 rare Symptoms of MS!

Nauman Nazir
6 min readOct 21, 2021

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It is difficult to live with a chronic and unpredictable disease like Multiple Sclerosis. The quality which makes MS so unique is the fact that it is full of unusual symptoms.

Some of those symptoms are rare and some are strange. You cannot anticipate the future.

Multiple Sclerosis is so unpredictable. An MS patient does not know what the next moment may bring. Patients are content from sunrise to sunset with their health one day, but face strange symptoms the very next day.

“What’s surprising about MS symptoms is that they can affect so many different functions that people rely on every day in their lives,”

Rosalind Kalb, PhD, a clinical psychologist and a consultant to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS).

RARE MS SYMPTOMS

Some symptoms such as fatigue, pain, and mobility issues are common in many patients, others are rare and may surprise them. Kalb says,

“Some are physical, some emotional, and some intellectual. We tend to focus on the ones we can all see, but many people may be living with a variety of symptoms that just aren’t apparent.”

In this article, we describe twenty such rare MS symptoms which may shock many people.

Many people may live with a variety of symptoms that just aren’t apparent. Some MS patients have complained of relapses after long-haul flights. Scientists are yet to prove the underlying cause. It can either be due to a high altitude or confined setting.

THE STRANGE “MS HUG”

This super strange symptom of MS is very interesting!

Patients feel like they are being squeezed and hugged by ‘someone’ around their stomach and torso. Patients may also experience difficulty in breathing. Who will you approach if this happens to you, a doctor or a ‘baba’ (exorcist)?

People will consider it related to MS in the west, but in the east, beliefs are different!

In the east, especially in Pakistan & India, people consider ‘MS hug’ because of some spell or a demonic possession.

According to those people, the person does not need medicine, but an amulet!

UNCONTROLLED SOBBING OR LAUGHING

Nerve damage in the area of your brain which controls emotions can cause extreme reactions. Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), or emotional incontinence, prompts arbitrary upheavals of laughter or tears.

Sometimes it’s frustrating; especially if a person bursts with laughter at a funeral.

Treatment: Antidepressants, for example, tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and particular serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can help diminish the recurrence and seriousness of PBA.

HEARING PROBLEMS:

Another uncommon problem is the problem with hearing. People may hear a ringing bell or hear nothing at all.

This symptom of MS is very rare. If you experience this problem, I recommend that you talk to your neurologist and an audiologist.

VERTIGO

Dizziness is a common symptom of MS. In dizziness, the patient feels lightheadedness, fainting, or off-balance.

“When you have a vertigo episode, you feel as though the room is spinning around you “To experience how vertigo feels like spin round and round, then stop. Now the world is spinning? Multiple Sclerosis patients with vertigo feel similar to what you are feeling now. Vertigo can make you off-balance and injure yourself.

Dr. Kalb

To treat vertigo, first, visit an otolaryngologist — a fancy name for an ENT specialist. If you are certain that the vertigo is because of MS, then visit your neurologist as early as possible.

I don’t recommend any drug; it’s the doctor’s job. The drug I name is just for education purposes.

FACE FLASHES

One of the strange symptoms of MS is Face Flashes.

Damage to nerves can trigger trigeminal neuralgia. It is a stabbing, burning, or stun-like pain in your jaw or cheek. The feeling may quickly blur away or remain for a couple of minutes.

It very well may be the first sign of MS.

You may feel it as pain on one side of your face similar to dental pain, or tingle..

SPEECH DISORDERS

When the nerves which control speech in your brain and also those in the spinal cord are damaged, speech problems are experienced. Mild to severe speech problems depends on:

  1. the damaged part of the brain, and
  2. how much that area is damaged.

Symptoms:

  • Nasal-sounding speech
  • Trouble changing the tone of voice
  • Slurring words. It usually happens because of a weak tongue, lip, and mouth muscles.

Proper treatment can improve your speech and make speaking as easy as it was earlier.

EYE PAIN

Patients experience pain in one or both eyes. We know this pain as optic neuritis. It it is caused by the damage to the sensory nerves between the brain and one or both eyes. The condition may get better or worse over the course of the disease.

Regularly visit an eye specialist. He/she will prescribe you drugs and/or other treatments.

SWALLOWING DIFFICULTIES:

It’s another unusual & very annoying MS symptom. An MS patient faces trouble swallowing food and drinking the liquid.

Doctors have a name for swallowing disorder, dysphagia.

Patients will have varying degrees of this problem; some have mild and some have severe.

Following are the most obvious symptoms of this problem:

  • Patient Feel like food is lodged in their throats,
  • Cough or choke when they eat
  • Get a lot of lung infections, like pneumonia, that ordinary people can’t explain.

One of the biggest issues because of this problem patients may face is that they take the food to their lungs through the windpipe.

Because of this difficulty in eating and drinking, patients eat or drink as little as possible.

ITCHING

MS can damage the nerves responsible for communication with the skin. This damage can cause you to feel itchy despite any sign of irritation.

It is an intense and sudden tingle prickle anyplace on your body.

Is it allergy: There’s no skin irritation or allergy to apply rash cream to. Surprisingly, this sort of itch doesn’t originate from your skin. Synesthetic itching is a nerve-related impression that passes rapidly.

Any skin cream or herbal product won’t help because the problem is neurological.

Treatment: It’s treatable with prescriptions for epilepsy. The National MS Society (NMSS) prescribes several medications for itching.

These include anticonvulsants such as Tigerton (carbamazepine) & Neurontin (gabapentin); Ataraxic (hydroxyzine); and antidepressants such as Elavil (amitriptyline).

FIERY FEET

An undesirable sensation of thorny pins-and-needles and burning, & that of numbness anywhere in your body. It is termed as Synesthesia.

For instance, your feet may all of a sudden vibe blistered, without any heat source.

Treatment: MS patients can treat the weird emotions with nerve pain medicines.

ELECTRIC ZAPS IN THE SPINE

It’s an unexpected “electric” zap that shoots down your spine and legs. It happens for the most part when the patient flexes his/her neck forward, or when he gets his hair cut.

Reason: Lesions in the cervical spine — the neck region.

BLURRED VISION

In it, the MS patient’s vision quickly goes blurry when your body temperature rises. (Other MS symptoms may also worsen).

Make sure to do the following before you practice or go out in the warmth.

  • Take a cool shower,
  • Use a gel pack, and
  • Drink cool water.

OPTICAL ILLUSION

MS can play a trick on you called Ulrich phenomenon. The optic nerve connects the eye to the brain. Damage to it is called Optic Neuritis. Optic neuritis is responsible for this one as well.

One may miss a ball as (s)he attempts to catch it. Is this the reason why our fielders drop catches! The coach should make an appointment with an ophthalmologist.

SUDDEN SPASMS:

Sudden, brief spasms, called paroxysms, may flood through the patient’s arm or legs, or the muscles they use to eat and talk.

Paroxysm happens when electrical signals pass the injured areas of a patient’s brain.

The session ordinarily ends in a couple of months.

Treatment: You can treat it with antiepileptic prescriptions.

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Nauman Nazir
Nauman Nazir

Written by Nauman Nazir

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A writer who have been professionally writing since 2015 for blogs. Nauman is a post graduate in marketing. He likes to write on lifestyle and technology.

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