According to the National M-S Society, as many as 20 thousand adolescents have Multiple Sclerosis.
Childhood symptoms like numbness, clumsiness and excessive fatigue often went unexplained. But now with an MRI, doctors can see inside the brain and make the diagnosis much earlier.
There's still no cure, but early diagnosis is important because new treatments can delay the progress of M-S.
Dr. Michael Stein is a Neurologist and says, "Those have revolutionized the whole therapy of MS, because it used to be, if somebody was diagnosed with MS, the attitude was, well what does it matter? You can't do anything for them. You can't help them. And now we can say, yes we can help you. We get you started on these medicines and the future outlook is very good."
New research in the Journal Neurology found that M-S can also affect childrens IQ, memory and language skills. Doctors say this research makes early diagnosis even more critical.
