Feb 1, 2024 4 min read

Multiple sclerosis, by definition from the Mayo Clinic, is “a disease in which the immune system eats away at the protective covering of nerves … resulting in nerve damage that disrupts communication” between the brain and the rest of the body.

It is a complex disease, to be sure, one that causes many and various symptoms, including pain, bladder issues, eye problems, weakness, diminished coordination, fatigue and other issues.

“Almost everyone has fatigue,” said Mark Hospodar, MD, a neurology specialist with St. Clair Medical Group. “But each patient has a particular set of problems, and some are more affected than others. It’s like fingerprints. No two patients have the same constellation of problems.”

Yet it is a disease with which a patient can live a long, active and healthy life — provided they take modern medications and receive proper care and support.

It is not a high-profile illness, although several entertainment figures have been stricken with it. They include Teri Garr, Christina Applegate, the late Richard Pryor, Julia Roberts, Montel Williams, Selma Blair, Annette Funicello and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

Hospodar says multiple sclerosis has some unusual tendencies. It is the leading cause of disability in young people, affects women more than men by a 3:1 ratio and is more common in countries located 40 to 60% latitude north and south.

“We have to be careful with pregnant women,” Hospodar said, “but as soon as we deliver, we get them on medications. One worries about the unborn child, but we haven’t seen any problems with these meds.”

A McDonald native and Fort Cherry alum, Hospodar has specialized in treating MS patients for 35 years. He said St. Clair Health serves about 400 people with multiple sclerosis.

For decades, treating MS was a formidable quandary for medical personnel. “When I started, there was nothing (medicinal-wise),” Hospodar said. “Before ’91, we only used steroids, which reduced inflammation and the length of (MS) episodes a patient would have. But they did not really change the disease process. The same damage was being done, and the damage remained.”

He said medications introduced in the early ’90s slowed the process some. “We went from one or two patient exacerbations a year to one every 10 years. The medications we have now are much better.”

Meds produced in more recent years, called disease-modifying treatments, “changed the natural history of the disease.”

Because of insurance limitations, Hospodar said, “We have meds in this country, but not all are available.”

He advises patients, and would-be patients, to be patient — and vigilant — with treatment or testing for multiple sclerosis. Trust the science.

“People shouldn’t blow off a diagnosis. They should get everything looked at and get treated. What we get is, ‘I had something three years ago but got better and didn’t go to a doctor.’ If you get people on medication early today, they will be less debilitated. They’ll be a lot happier 20 years from today.

“If (this disease) is not treated, a patient will age three times as fast. The brain atrophy is three times faster without treatment.”

He lamented the mindset some Americans displayed in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic when they shied away from a vaccine that ultimately saved numerous lives. A number still adhere to that mindset.

“Because it is a variable disease, there is a high rate of ‘I don’t want you to tell me what to do in America.’ But if you get treated, we can slow it down tremendously in 85 to 90% of the people.”

Another challenge in the MS battle, according to Hospodar, is a nationwide shortage of neurologists, a figure he set at about 15,000.

The medical profession has been aware of MS since the mid-1860s when French neurologist John-Martin Charcot gave the disease an identity: sclerose en plaque. But for more than a century, treating it was largely a mystery.

Strides, fortunately, have been made over the past three decades-plus, yet the race still has a way to go.