The Brain, while all the
pieces that make up our bodies are important, it is the reason all of those
pieces can work together. Inside this mass of tissue is not little men
sometimes displayed in cartoons working in an office sending requests but an
intricate and sensitive system of about 100 billion neurons. It is beyond my
span of thinking to imagine that while I do everyday activities my brain is
constantly sending messages neuron to neuron through the axons. And that without the Blood-Brain barrier or
any damage to the myelin that covers the axons, my body would not function the
way I’m used to it. I can’t imagine what it would be to go from being
completely healthy and nothing functionally wrong with any of the rest of my
body, to my brain malfunctioning and causing the rest of me to go haywire.
Multiple Sclerosis literally destroys your nervous system, and can take away
tasks that we take for granted like writing, and speaking.
The worst part of all of this is
that the perceived cause is the immune system attacking the myelin, and there
isn’t a way to know why or when it happens, just that when the myelin is
damaged the axon can’t deliver the message as efficiently and quickly as before
and your whole system is thrown off. It's almost as if your own body turns against you when this occurs.
Very interesting, I didn’t know that multiple sclerosis was an autoimmune disease. I find autoimmune diseases very interesting, because it makes you wonder why your body would attack itself, how is it that it doesn’t recognize that the body is not bacteria, fungi, or any other foreign substance, and why myelin sheaths.
ReplyDeleteI also was fascinated by the affects of the body on itself. Unfortunately the immune system is so good at its job, it may be too good. It is very sad the results of being affected from diseases and it is frightening not knowing why it happens. It seems that we could possibly be taking for granted out abilities to move as we like.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite interesting that the brain controls what our body does. The immune system is the system that protects the body from bacteria and viruses but in the case of Multiple Scelorosis, the immune system is actually working against the body. I cannot imagine how to handle a disease that is somewhat "internal".
ReplyDelete