Video explains multiple sclerosis, often known as the 'invisible' disease

With the incidence of MS on the rise in Australia, a new educational video resource attempts to demystify and explain the complex and often invisible disease that now impacts more than 33,000 Australians.

Commissioned in 2022 by MS Australia to mark its 50th anniversary year, the video What is MS? - above - is aimed at the general public and people living with MS, especially those newly diagnosed. It explains the causes, different types and common symptoms of a condition that currently has no cure.

"MS affects everyone differently," said MS Australia chief executive Rohan Greenland.

"People living with MS will sometimes be well one day and then be quite unwell the next.

"So it's really important for employers, for family, carers, and for others in the community to have a better understanding of how MS impacts people living with the condition."

MS Australia president, Associate Professor Des Graham, lives with MS and agrees there is an inherent challenge in trying to explain the condition to the general public.

"The public see someone with no visible symptoms and naturally struggle to understand the challenges that individual is dealing with, or incorrectly assume there's nothing wrong with them," he said.

Of even greater concern, Associate Professor Graham says that lack of understanding extends to areas of government support such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme. "If you've got MS and you're in a wheelchair, government may provide the support that you require, but if your symptoms are less visible, you are too often left out in the cold."

The video launch comes in the wake of new prevalence data released by MS Australia in February, which showed the number of Australians living with MS increasing at a significant and accelerating rate. It showed that 33,335 people living with the condition in 2021, an increase of 30 per cent over the four years since the previous update.

MS is the most common acquired chronic neurological disease affecting young adults, often diagnosed between the ages of 20 to 40 and, in Australia, affects three times more women than men. There is no known single cause, but many genetic and environmental factors have been shown to contribute to its development.

In MS, the body's own immune system mistakenly attacks and damages the fatty material - called myelin - around the nerves. Myelin is important for protecting and insulating nerves so the electrical messages the brain sends to the rest of the body, travel quickly and efficiently.

As the myelin breaks down during an MS attack - a process called demyelination - patches of nerves become exposed and then scarred, which renders the nerves unable to communicate messages properly and at risk of subsequent degeneration. This means the brain cannot talk to other parts of the body, resulting in a range of symptoms that can include a loss of motor function (for example, walking and hand and arm function, loss of sensation, pain, vision changes and changes to thinking and memory).

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