Multiple Sclerosis: The Facts You Need

Multiple sclerosis -- MS -- strikes about one in a thousand North Americans, usually in early adulthood, when they are building careers and starting families. Because the disease involves the central nervous system, its effects are wide-ranging and difficult to predict.

Multiple Sclerosis: The Facts You Need -- part of the Your Personal Health Series -- is a fact filled, comprehensive guide to living with MS, supported by diagrams, case histories, a drug table and an extensive list of helpful books and organizations. Topics include:

• what MS is, and who gets it;
• how MS is diagnosed as "possible," "probable" or "definite";
• why the disease affects different people in different ways;
• how "relapsing-remitting" MS differs from "progressive" MS;
• how people with MS and their families, can adapt their homes, careers and lifestyles to cope with the disease;
• which treatments work, which don't and what help is on the horizon.

Combining authoritative medical advice and practical hands-on tips, Multiple Sclerosis: The Facts You Need is an invaluable guide for anyone affected, directly or indirectly by this complex disease.

Dr. Paul O'Connor has been treating people with MS for over 15 years. He is director of the MS Clinic at the University of Toronto, and chief of the Division of Neurology at St. Michael's Hospital.