The month of May is not only a time where the weather gets warmer, flowers bloom, plants grow, and farmers are seeding, but in 2019 it's also a month to bring awareness to multiple sclerosis (MS) across the country.

Canada currently has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the world, with an estimated 77,000 Canadians living with the disease; an estimated 3,700 of those live in Saskatchewan.

MS is an auto-immune disease of the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves). The disease affects people by attacking attacks myelin (the protective covering of the nerves) causing inflammation and damaging the myelin.

Myelin is necessary for the transmission of nerve impulses through nerve fibres. If the myelin is damaged nerve impulses travel with minor interruptions. If the damage is substantial and if scar tissue replaces the myelin, nerve impulses may be completely disrupted, and the nerve fibres themselves can be damaged.

Jessica MacPherson, director of government relations and communication for the MS Society of Canada Saskatchewan Division, said that the goal of the month is to bring awareness to the invisible signs of MS.

"MS really impacts Canadians and people in Saskatchewan. I don't think you would have to look very far to find someone who has been touched by MS whether that's a family member or a friend," she said. "May is really the month where we try and enhance the awareness of the disease, which many times can be invisible. Many times people who live with MS live with invisible symptoms like fatigues, cognitive issues. People might think somebody who lives with MS looks perfectly fine and they might not be, they might be really struggling with the diagnosis."

She added that MS awareness month is an opportunity to engage people out in communities by participating in MS Walks across Saskatchewan and Canada. 

MacPherson said, to add onto the sometimes invisible symptoms, those symptoms might not always be the same from one person to another.

"MS is really different for every person," she said. "There are no two people that would have the exact same impact of the disease, and that's sometimes hard for families to appreciate or recognize, but it's an important fact. Most people live with relapsing/remitting MS, and the symptoms would be things like extreme fatigue."

"It could affect people's mobility, coordination, weakness, tingling, bladder programs, cognitive impairment and mood changes. Those are just some of the physical and cognitive changes that can be impacted by MS."

No one test can diagnose MS. The diagnosis of MS is only made once other potential causes for the symptoms have been ruled out.

Medical history and a neurological exam are fundamental to the diagnostic process of MS. An MRI, evoked potentials and occasionally lumbar puncture, are tests that may be useful in confirmation when a diagnosis of MS is suspected.

Though there is no cure to MS, MacPherson said that right now there is more that can be done for those with MS than ever before.

"There is an incredible amount of hope right now," she said. "20 years ago if you were diagnosed with MS, the available MS drugs would have been very different than it is today."'

"In the 90s, there were a couple of medications that someone could be given to help manage their disease. Today we have 14 Health Canada approved therapies, and the first Health Canada approved therapy to treat primary progressive MS. The distance that we have gone in 20 years is extremely promising, and I think there is a lot of hope in terms of what researchers are looking at and what they are learning about the disease."

MacPherson added that they want to focus on pushing forward by talking to people who live with MS about what is important to them, and what they want to research into.

They then could drive the research agenda forward to make sure that people are learning more about the disease and help enhance the quality of life for people who live with MS.