Although we haven’t talked much about Multiple Sclerosis (MS), we have brushed up on MRI neural brain imaging, which is one of my favorite topics. A head MRI uses magnetic and radio waves to scan the brains nerve tissues Head MRI. Without the technology of MRI, my Father probably wouldn’t have found out about his disease and what causes his body to work the way it does.

About 10 years ago, my Father had a stroke. His whole left side of his face looked like it was melting and he was unable to speak properly. This was because he had lost control in his nerves on the left side of his body. The doctors had no idea what caused the stroke up until two years later when he had his head scanned in an MRI.

Multiple Sclerosis is the damage of the nervous system that disrupts the flow of information between the body and the brain. For more information on MS here is the link for National Multiple sclerosis Society webpage. Basically my Father was slowly losing control of moving certain parts of his body. MS usually effects people cognitively as well but my Father hasn’t dealt with that side of MS yet, only the physical part. What I mean by physically, he has trouble with fine motor skills, such as using a fork and a knife when he eats or using a cane to help him walk. From how my Father explained it to me it was like his bad nerves were attacking his good nerves which prevented him to have normal body movements.

Now going back to the use of MRI’s, his knowledge on his MS is very dependent on getting scans every 6 months. Thats a lot compared to the average person. To see the difference between a normal brain image compared to progressive or relapse image of MS click this Link. Since there is no cure for MS, only monthly medication to help slow the disease down, my Father is able to see every 6 months if his MS is progressing or not. Thankfully through the years of getting brain scans he and his doctors are able to see what his brain looks like and which medication helps more then others. Good news is that he has been in remission for a couple of years now! Which means the MS has not progressed!

I feel that a lot of people bash on technology advancing, when for my Father it has had some major benefits. With out MRI scans, we would not be able to have a clear cut image of whether his MS was worsening or not and if his medication was helping. Hopefully there will be further advancement in MRI brain images that could help find a cure to stop MS completely.