The study revealed that 17 percent of patients at Cedars-Sinai and 19 percent of patients at UCLA had been misdiagnosed and were incorrectly treated for multiple sclerosis for an average of four years.
Researchers found that nearly 1 in 5 people who had received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis had other unrelated conditions.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a widespread disabling neurological condition in which the immune system attacks and destroys the fatty tissue that surrounds the nerves. This leads to nerve damage, which affects communication between the nerves and the brain.
People with MS may experience symptoms, including numbness or weakness in the limbs, tremors, and lack of coordination. However, some of the symptoms have similarities to other debilitating conditions, including
stroke and
migraine.
MS and stroke are very different conditions, but they both harm the brain. Some of the symptoms they share include attention issues, dizziness, numbness in the limbs, slurring, visual impairment, and difficulty in walking.
MS and migraine attacks also have some symptoms in common, including dizziness and vision impairment. A recent
study pooled data on people who had received a wrong diagnosis of MS and
found that 72 of the 110 patients had other conditions, including migraine.
Comment: It should be noted that there are certain genetic markers that make the people who have them more prone to choline deficiency than the rest of the population. These people need to be more aware of the potential for deficiency and eat or supplement appropriately.
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