Early MS often feels like unpredictable, strange sensations, like pins and needles, numbness, or electric shocks (Lhermitte's sign), along with overwhelming fatigue, balance/coordination issues (stumbling), vision problems (blurry/double vision, eye pain), muscle stiffness/spasms, and cognitive fog (memory, concentration). These symptoms vary greatly, can come and go, and might seem unrelated, but they stem from myelin damage in the central nervous system, affecting nerve signals.
Here's where MS (typically) starts
You may experience eye pain, blurred vision and headache. It often occurs on one side and can eventually lead to partial or total vision loss. Spinal cord inflammation, or what's called partial transverse myelitis, is the second most common symptom Shoemaker typically sees.
Early signs and symptoms of MS include: Changes to your vision (optic neuritis, double vision, vision loss) Muscle weakness (usually affecting one side of your face or body, or below your waist) Numbness or abnormal sensations (usually affecting one side of your face or body, or below your waist)
Stage 1 - Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS) or Relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) is characterised by distinct episodes of symptom flare-ups, known as relapses or exacerbations, followed by periods of partial or complete remission where symptoms improve or disappear entirely.
Leg and feet swelling can occur in people with MS for a number of reasons, particularly if it has become difficult to walk and your mobility is now limited. In this situation, excess water may build up in the tissues and cause the lower legs to become swollen.
MS Symptoms in Legs
The top symptoms in the legs include: Weakness: Legs may feel heavy, fatigued, or harder to move, especially after walking or standing for long periods. Numbness or Tingling: A “pins and needles” sensation, or complete numbness, often starting in the feet and moving upward.
MS-related itching can happen anywhere on the body and can affect one or both sides. It most commonly affects the face, torso, arms, and legs.
Symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS)
Some of the most common symptoms include: feeling extremely tired (fatigue) problems with your eyes or your vision, such as blurred vision or eye pain. numbness or a tingling feeling in different parts of the body.
Numbness and tingling can occur in your feet, legs, hands, arms or face. In my example, it started in my feet and then spread to my legs.
The term benign MS is sometimes used to describe a version of relapsing remitting MS with very mild or no attacks separated by long periods with no symptoms. 'Benign' means 'something doesn't cause any harm'.
The tests include:
Though dizziness can have many causes, MS-related dizziness is typically more severe and lasts for at least two days. You may feel off-balance and unsteady, like you can barely walk without holding onto something.
Talk to your GP in the first instance. Your doctor will likely carry out some initial tests to try and gauge what is going on. They can't diagnose MS, but they can refer you to a neurologist who can.
Vision problems
The most common problems with vision in MS are optic neuritis and eye movement problems. Optic neuritis is often an early symptom of multiple sclerosis, although you might have problems with your eyes at any time.
The hot bath test reflects the effect of heat that many people with MS notice. Hot weather, hot baths or showers, exercising or an infection can all raise your internal body temperature. The raised temperature can cause your MS symptoms to appear or worsen. This is known as Uhthoff's phenomenon.
MS can damage the nerves in your spinal cord or brain that control your muscles. That can cause painful muscle spasms. Nerve pain can also cause painful or unusual sensations on the skin. These types of pain can happen anywhere but are usually in the face, arms and legs.
Some people with MS lose sensation in their tongue. Some health care providers refer to MS-related tongue issues as “MS tongue.” Loss of sensation or numbness can make it difficult to move your tongue when you speak, chew, or swallow. Tongue numbness may also diminish sense of taste.
Numbness and Tingling Sensations
One early sign of MS is MS numbness in feet. It feels like the feet have no feeling or like wearing thick gloves. This can make it hard to balance and walk safely, raising the chance of falling.
Other more advanced symptoms include hand weakness, wrist drop (difficulty raising hand), curling fingers, poor sensation. You may notice that you drop items or have difficulty gauging how to pick up an item.
What are the early symptoms of MS?
The 'MS hug' is symptom of MS that feels like an uncomfortable, sometimes painful feeling of tightness or pressure, usually around your stomach or chest. The pain or tightness can feel like a tight band stretching under your breasts, around the ribs and back or stomach, or it can be just on one side.
The exact trigger for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is unknown, but it's believed to be a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors, including certain infections (like Epstein-Barr Virus), low Vitamin D levels (linked to less sunlight), smoking, obesity, stress, and potentially genetic susceptibility. These factors can trigger an autoimmune attack where the immune system mistakenly damages myelin in the central nervous system.
It is often described as a persistent, unrelenting itch that is difficult to satisfy, leading to scratching that provides little relief. The sensation can vary from a tingling or crawling feeling to a burning or stabbing sensation. Many of our patients describe an “under the skin” or “deep-seated” itch.
Paresthesia is an abnormal skin sensation such as tingling, tickling, prickling, itching, numbness, or burning. In people with MS, nerve damage causes these sensations to occur randomly, most often in the hands, arms, legs, or feet – but occasionally in places such as the mouth or chest.