MS Numb Arms - As An Early Symptom of MS, Numb Arms Indicate a Need for Diagnosis

Multiple sclerosis is a progressive degenerative disease that presents itself via a variety of different symptoms. Of the many symptoms of MS, numb arms can be one of the symptoms that end up being ignored for a long time before the person thinks about seeking an explanation as to why his arms keep going numb. For a long time the numbness is probably thought to be nothing more than sleeping on them funny or being cold, no one wants to think that this painful numbness might be the symptom of a major disease.

Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis

When it comes to MS, numb arms are a viable symptom of this devastating disease and any person that suffers from frequent or severe numbness should not ignore the problem. The simple fact is that the earlier you can catch a disease like multiple sclerosis the better your prognosis is. There are as many as 50 other symptoms that can be an indication of this disease. Just like the numbness of your arms, many of these symptoms either go unnoticed or ignored.

Symptoms such as vision problems can be passed off as being overtired, lack of balance and coordination blamed on sinus infections and the various numbness and tingling in extremities as pinched nerves. As you can see it is easy to ignore these symptoms even though they can be an indication that there is something serious going on inside your body. If you do not seek a proper diagnosis you may end up dealing with worse symptoms of MS than numb arms.

Testing for Multiple Sclerosis

While it is easy to associate numb arms with MS, your doctor is going to have to schedule you for a series of tests to help diagnose the disease. In reality there are no specific tests for multiple sclerosis, in most cases the tests they use today are those that can be used to eliminate many of the diseases that can have similar symptoms.

Only when all other diseases have been eliminated will a specialist feel comfortable giving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. While very hard to detect in very early stage MS, an MRI may be able to detect the lesions that cause the numb arms of MS. If the lesions are visible in the image, then it becomes very obvious that you are indeed among the millions of others who live with this disease every day of their lives.