MS Symptoms in the Elderly
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that impacts the central nervous system. The disease affects people of all ages, but generally begins between the ages of 15 and 50. MS can affect the elderly, and in such cases the symptoms are not consistent among people who have been diagnosed. It appears that the symptoms of MS can be random and last for different lengths of time. The following are the most common MS symptoms in the elderly.
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Visual Symptoms
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Multiple sclerosis impacts the optic nerve, which can cause impaired vision. Some of the MS symptoms in the elderly are blurred vision, loss of color vision, blindness, double vision and flashing lights when the eyes are moving. The elderly may also feel eye pain, have jerky eye movements, constant and overshooting eye movements, lack of coordination between the two eyes and abnormal pupil responses.
Motor Symptoms
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Symptoms of MS are most noticeable to others when the disorder impacts the motor skills. These symptoms again vary from person to person and do not have a specific age then they begin. However, some of the symptoms of MS that can impact the elderly are muscle weakness, which may include mild or partial paralysis; total or near total loss of muscle strength; and loss of muscle tone that causes stiffness, pain and restriction of using the affected limbs. Other symptoms are slurred speech; muscle loss; involuntary contraction of muscles; posture problems; tics; jerking and twisting of muscles; involuntary leg movement; and foot dragging.
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Sensory Symptoms
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MS symptoms can cause different kinds of feelings in the body, which will give different sensory symptoms. MS can cause partial numbness, tingling, buzzing and vibration sensations. The elderly may also feel complete numbness or loss of sensation; pain without apparent cause; burning, itching and electrical shock sensations; buzzing sensations when moving the head; loss of awareness of location of body parts; and facial pain.
Coordination and Balance Symptoms
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Often people with MS feel a loss of coordination and have a difficult time keeping their balance. Some of the symptoms of MS that impact coordination and balance are shaking when performing fine movements; constant under- or overshooting limb movements; abnormal balance function in the inner ear; nausea, vomiting or sensitivity to travel sickness from vestibular ataxia; problems coordinating speech; stuttering; slow limb position feedback. There may be a loss of ability to produce rapidly alternating movements, for example to move to a rhythm.
Bowel, Bladder and Sexual Symptoms
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Unfortunately, MS symptoms are not discriminatory about where they affect the body. There are some symptoms that can affect the bowels, bladder and sexual performance. These symptoms include urinary urgency and incontinence; urinary hesitancy and retention; male and female impotence; inability to achieve orgasm; ejaculating into the bladder; inability to become sexually aroused; infrequent or irregular bowel movements; bowel urgency; and bowel incontinence.
Cognitive Symptoms
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MS attacks all areas of the body and does have some cognitive symptoms. The patient can begin to have short-term and long-term memory problems; forgetfulness; slow word recall; dementia; mood swings and/or euphoria; bipolar syndrome; anxiety; and impairment to speech comprehension and production.
Other Symptoms
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The symptoms of MS are a long list of areas in the body where it can become an issue. These symptoms are common for many other diseases or illnesses, as well, and just because you have some of these symptoms does not mean that you have MS. If you have any concerns, seek medical advice from your physician. Some other symptoms that do not necessarily fit into a category are fatigue; increase in severity of symptoms with heat; acid reflux; impaired sense of taste and smell; epileptic seizures; swallowing problems; respiratory problems; sleeping disorder; inappropriately cold body parts; and autonomic nervous system problems.
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