Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men contracting the disease. There is no cure, and MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S., and 2.5 million worldwide.

It is now generally accepted that MS involves an autoimmune process—an abnormal response of the body’s immune system that is directed against the myelin (the fatty sheath that surrounds and insulates the nerve fibers) in the central nervous system (CNS—the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves).

In multiple sclerosis, damage to the myelin in the central nervous system (CNS), and to the nerve fibers themselves, interferes with the transmission of nerve signals between the brain and spinal cord and other parts of the body. This disruption of nerve signals produces the primary symptoms of MS, which vary depending on where the damage has occurred.

The Society funds more MS research, provides more services to people with MS, offers more professional education and furthers more advocacy efforts than any other MS organization in the world. The Society is dedicated to achieving a world free of MS. To learn more about the National MS Society or MS visit www.nationalmssociety.org.