Source: Thailand Medical News Dec 07, 2019 5 years, 2 weeks, 4 days, 53 minutes ago
Though traditionally,
Multiple Sclerosis has always been a sickness associated with adults, doctors worldwide are witnessing a phenomena of more teenagers especially girls developing the disease over the last 6 years especially in developed countries.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Eventually, the disease can cause permanent damage or deterioration of the nerves.
Signs and symptoms of MS vary widely and depend on the amount of nerve damage and which nerves are affected. Some people with severe MS may lose the ability to walk independently or at all, while others may experience long periods of remission without any new symptoms.
There's no cure for
multiple sclerosis. However, treatments can help speed recovery from attacks, modify the course of the disease and manage symptoms.
Multiple Sclerosis that affects children or teenagers under the age of 19 is termed as
pediatric multiple sclerosis. For
pediatric patients with
multiple sclerosis, there are more admissions among girls and among white children, according to a research letter published in the forthcoming February 2020 issue of
Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.
Dr Kamleshun Ramphul, M.D., from the Shanghai Xin Hua Hospital, and colleagues examined aspects of pediatric multiple sclerosis using data from the Kid's Inpatient Database 2016 only focusing on the US. The database was narrowed to include 5,765,224 admissions for children aged 18 years or younger.
The medical researchers identified 869 admissions for patients with a diagnosis of
multiple sclerosis (29.8 and 70.2 percent boys and girls, respectively). The highest admission rate was seen in the southern part of the United States (44.0 percent of cases), and the highest number of admissions occurred among white children (40.0 percent). September had the highest monthly admission rate (11.2 percent of cases), but this finding was not statistically significant. The mean age of admission was 15.08 years; from age 13 to 18 years, there was a gradual rise in admissions, although a decline was seen at age 17. The mean total charges were $50,379.72, and the mean length of stay was 4.62 days.
The authors told
Thailand Medical News,"We believe that our study can be used as a stepping stone to further clinically investigate the findings."
Many
pediatrics and researchers attribute this rising figure due to dietary habits and metabolic syndrome issues coupled with environmental toxins. Children are exposed to too much processed foods in developed countries and parents do not have time to cook wholesome meals. Typically low category body inflammations can be developed by bad dietary habits involving processed foods, that can in turn give rise to metabolic sy
ndrome diseases which affects the immunity system.
Reference: Pediatric multiple sclerosis in the United States in children ages 0–18, Kamleshun Ramphul ,Stephanie G Mejias,, Jyotsnav Joynauth
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2019.101874
