TV personality Jack Osbourne is one of thousands living with multiple sclerosis, and that number is rising. Lisa Salmon asks the experts what causes the disabling disease

INCREASING numbers of people are living with the potentially devastating consequences of multiple sclerosis, with latest research showing there are 127,000 sufferers in the UK – an increase of 2.4 per cent a year between 1990 and 2010.

Only last year, Dancing With the Stars contestant Jack Osbourne was diagnosed with the debilitating neurological disease, which disrupts the transmission of signals in the central nervous system and can affect balance, coordination and vision. There are about 100,000 diagnosed sufferers worldwide.

On the face of it, the UK increase is huge, but the Dundee University study also found that the number of people being diagnosed with the illness is falling – suggesting that more people are living longer with the condition.

The research also found that multiple sclerosis (MS) mortality rates fell by about three per cent a year.

Sue Farrington, director for education and communication at the Multiple Sclerosis Society, says that MS is estimated to potentially reduce a person’s lifespan by no more than five years. “Generally, you don’t die from MS. What you might be looking at is your quality of life being reduced,”

she says. “This is a condition that people have for life. That’s quite a burden to carry.”

It’s a burden that Jack Osbourne, who has the most common form of the disease, relapsing remitting MS, found he was carrying last year, only weeks after he became a father.

There are four different forms, and in the most common form sufferers have relapses (an unpredictable flare-up of symptoms) followed by remissions, where symptoms can sometimes disappear completely.

The 28-year-old son of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne talked about the impact of his diagnosis on UK TV for the first time this month, when he fronted the MS Society’s BBC Lifeline Appeal. He said: “I think the scariest moment in my life was when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I lost the vision in my right eye, and found out that the numbness in my legs from 18 months earlier was a result of the same thing.

“MS is unpredictable, which means I never know how or when it’s going to affect me – whether problems with my vision, numbness, fatigue – that’s just something my family and I have to think about every day.”

He admits that the past year has been tough, but says: “I now know that life doesn’t end when you are diagnosed with MS. I’d just become a father so I was determined to not be beaten by it. But learning to adapt can be a real challenge.”

MS occurs when a protein called myelin, which surrounds nerve fibres and helps them conduct electrical impulses, is damaged or destroyed. This disrupts the nerves’ ability to conduct electrical impulses into and from the brain. In MS, myelin is lost in multiple areas, leaving scar tissue called sclerosis, which produces the symptoms of the disease.

SYMPTOMS vary, depending on which part of the nervous system is affected, but it can cause loss of vision – usually in only one eye – muscle stiffness leading to uncontrolled muscle movements, difficulties with balance and co-ordination, and extreme fatigue.

“MS affects different people in different ways,” says Sue Farrington. “For some people it may be their sight that’s the first indicator there’s something wrong, or it may be that their speech becomes slurred, or they have problems with their mobility.”

The condition used to be difficult to diagnose because symptoms are so varied, but the advent of MRI scanning has improved diagnosis.

However, while it’s known what happens inside the body to cause the symptoms of MS, it’s not known why it happens or what the specific causes are. It is thought to be an autoimmune condition, as the body is attacking itself when myelin is destroyed, and recent evidence suggests some people may have a genetic predisposition to develop MS.

“It would be wonderful if we could just identify one thing that caused MS, but it’s very complex,”

says Sue. “We think there’s some sort of link to genes, but it’s probably a combination of genes and other things, as not everyone with the genes will develop MS.

“There are a number of environmental factors too. MS is more common the further away you live from the Equator, and there’s growing research that suggests a lack of vitamin D could be a factor in causing it.”

Research is also looking into the role of viruses in triggering the disease, but no single virus has been identified as a definite contributor.

However, there’s growing evidence that the Epstein Barr virus, which is commonly caught in childhood, may act as a trigger.

A number of studies have also found smoking appears to increase some people’s risk of developing MS, although it’s unclear why. The search goes on for a cause and a cure, although in the meantime, treatments for relapsing remitting MS, which often eventually develops into another type of the disease, secondary progressive MS, have greatly improved.

Disease-modifying drugs are used to slow the progression of the disease and reduce the number of relapses. However, the drugs are not suitable for all people with MS.

NEIL Kemsley, chairman of the MS National Therapy Centres, a national charity which supports 56 member centres across the UK and funded the University of Dundee study, says he believes a good diet, exercise, oxygen treatment and physiotherapy can make a “huge” difference.

“There are plenty of people who’ve had an MS diagnosis for ten to 20 years who are still able to walk and live life relatively well, probably because they’ve taken control of their condition and done something about it in terms of exercise and diet,” he says.

Part of that taking control is also taking advantage of the services available at the nearest MS therapy centre, says Neil, whose wife has had MS for 26 years.

The centres, which rely on donations, usually provide physiotherapy, fitness training, oxygen therapy and complementary therapies, as well as advice on diet and continence, and the opportunity to meet others with MS.

“I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard a person in a wheelchair saying they wish they’d come to a therapy centre years before, because they probably wouldn’t be in a wheelchair now,” he says. “The therapy centres are full of individuals saying, ‘I’m going to take charge of my life and find a community of people in the same situation, and between us we’ll find ways of helping ourselves’.”