Well there I was at 5:00 am this morning just thinking about MS and numbers. Do you really think that there is only 100,000 people diagnosed with it? Hmmm. Now this is just who I know in my small house bound world:
My old boss had it.
My nephew’s friend has got it.
My mum has a neighbough who has got it.
My wife’s friend mum has got it.
My wife boss’ sister has got it.
My Brother-in law’s sister has got it.
Two ex- work colleagues mums have it.
What is the population of Britain? 59 million. Do you believe it is only 100,000 or is it double that? A million maybe?
Ahhh, these very early morning thoughts. Always interesting!
I think the UK population is currently 62 million and counting! I agree with you , I know several people with MS plus think of all those new diagnoses posting every day on this forum and all those in limbo who will be diagnosed in the near future( I am one of those). It seems far more common than I ever realised! Tree65 xx
I think it’s like a lot of illnesses - people don’t go to the doctors until they start having noticable problems. I think a lot of people don’t get help at an early stage because they think it will just go away Men are particularly bad at getting help.
I read somewhere that a lot of men don’t get diagnosed with Alzheimers because women feel it is their duty to take on the role of a carer and just get on with it, so I suspect it’s the same with other illnesses. Given that MS is linked to environmental factors, eg. diet, lack of sunlight, stress, it’s hard to believe that the true figure isn’t much higher.
I know and meet at least 20 with MS that go to physio or yoga that I attend and I’m just from a wee part of Northern Ireland thats only counting those who live within 20 miles from me I know and have been talking with friends from others parts of N.Ireland with MS and they Know or have friends or family members with it.
Higher incidence of MS in Northern Hemisphere, so let’s go with 1:800
Now Scotland & NI have a higher incidence than elsewhere (genetics thing, not just the weather), so for those countries let’s go with 1:500 maybe? (I’m assuming the population of Scotland is 5 million & Northern Ireland 2 million.)
That gives us:
(57.3m / 800) + (7m / 500) = 85,625
Possibly more interesting is that it’s well known by psychologists that we notice things more when we are interested in them. People who are scared of spiders notice spiders way more than people who aren’t etc. Same goes when you become pregnant - you suddenly notice all the pregnant woman about. So, get MS and…
The basic fact is, if we didn’t have MS, we wouldn’t be having conversations about who has it or even noticing conversations about who has it.
There certainly seem to be plenty in this part of Kent. I have heard of quite a few people here over the years, when I didn’t know I had it.
Strangely (or not) it had always been a disease that terrified me. Knowing that I could have MS for all those years and not know (cause it came and went and was fairly mild). I’d say there probably are a lot more than 100,000.