MS Sufferers Can’t Take the Heat

People with multiple sclerosis (MS), especially those who live in the southern states, dread the approach of the summer with the 100 degree heat. The reason is that the heat really aggravates symptoms of MS and prolongs suffering. The way that many people exist in the summer months is going from one air conditioned location to another via air conditioned transportation. Popular outdoor summer time pursuits like amusement parks, zoos, camping, nature walks and more are put off until the late fall and winter months.

The intolerances to heat effectively exacerbate the normal MS symptoms that you might experience during the course of a day, week or any time frame. Your “normal” MS symptoms may even be in remission but the heat can aggravate your condition, causing some symptoms to appear to crop up. However, once you are totally cooled down, those symptoms “magically” disappear again.

During these heat intolerant episodes, it may seem as if they are causing damage but that is not the case. In fact, for the most part, most people not experience any additional inflammation once they are in cool conditions and that means no further damage to the myelin, the protective sheath around your nerves.

Symptoms Brought on by Heat

Since the heat aggravates your MS, even temporarily, during these episodes you can expect regular symptoms of MS as if you were in a relapse mode. You may experience numbness in your extremities like feet, hands, toes and fingers. General fatigue and weakness can occur in parts or all of your body too. Tremors, prickly sensations, blurry vision and even declining thought processes can occur.

In actuality, any and all MS symptoms that you might have suffered from can be dreadful in the heat. In fact, you could even experience new symptoms that might not have made them known before your heat predicament. This could be due to new lesions formed that were still in their beginning stages and were not bad enough to exhibit any symptoms until the heat exacerbated the problem.

Of course, not every person with MS will react in quite the same way to the heat. There are some with a higher threshold for showing symptoms or having pain and could get along quite well with the proper precautions like cold drinks and a personal cooling fan. Others may have a lower threshold and start avoiding the outdoors when the temperatures reach 75 degrees.

The stage of MS that a person is in could also affect how the heat is tolerated. You might have just tingling in your extremities in 80 degree heat while another might be down for the count with fatigue. Indeed, recovery time will also differ for each person in terms of heat situations.

Heat Issues Explained

Many people with MS have a problem with the heat due to the degeneration of the myelin protecting the nerves. There is often plaque build-up on the areas where myelin has degenerated and as a result, slows down nerve function to these affected areas. For some extremely sensitive people, just a minute difference in their body temperature can kick off symptoms of MS.