Hello! I have not been diagnosed with MS, and my doctor hasn’t even brought it up yet, but I have some concerns about some of my symptoms and am wondering if anyone here can help. I’ve been having ongoing problems over the past several months, mostly extreme tiredness and depression/anxiety, which was very unusual for me. Finally went to the doctor about a month ago, they did blood work and found that my vitamin D was low. So I’m now on a supplement for that, which seems to have helped with the tiredness. However, I’ve now started a constant shaking. at first it seemed to be just in my hands, but I sometimes feel it in my legs as well. Also, my teeth chatter almost all the time. Was at the doctor again a few days ago, and she said my heart rate was quite high and seems to think that is the cause of the shaking. She thinks I have SVT, but I’m not convinced. The shaking sometimes gets worse when I’m doing things, but I’ve also woke up with my whole bed shaking a couple of times, and sometimes my hands are so weak I can barely write.
I haven’t had any numbness or tingling, vision problems, or any of the other symptoms of MS. I am 27 years old and have always been healthy and active.
Can anyone give me their thoughts if I should be concerned about MS or not? Thank you! 
Hi,
MS is difficult to diagnose as symptoms are very varied.
To diagnose they usually send you to a neurologist then for an MRI scan.
Your Dr probably doesn’t think your symptoms are neurological.
Write your symptoms down with when they start and end. Easier to explain to a Dr then.
Jen
Just one thing that crosses my mind. Anxiety depletes magnesium, and low magnesium will make you feel anxious. Low magnesium levels and SVT can be connected. Tremors can by brought on by magnesium deficiency. And most of the population are magnesium deficient! Magnesium and vitamin D are essential to balance out calcium and get calcium properly stored in your body. Calcium causes your muscles to contract, magnesium is needed to relax them.
May be worth having a chat with your GP about that, (although many GPs are still pretty ignorant about magnesium, and they also are extremely unlikely to test for mag deficiency).
Worth watching this following video made by a York based cardiologists about magnesium.
He’s actually done a few videos on magnesium. The one I’ve linked to is probably the most general. Obviously because he’s a cardiologist he has a particular focus on the heart.
From wikipedia it is clear that magnesium deficiency can cause a raft of neurological symptoms:
Deficiency of magnesium can cause tiredness, generalized weakness, muscle cramps, abnormal heart rhythms, increased irritability of the nervous system with tremors, paresthesias, palpitations, low potassium levels in the blood, hypoparathyroidism which might result in low calcium levels in the blood, chondrocalcinosis, spasticity and tetany, migraines, epileptic seizures, basal ganglia calcifications and in extreme and prolonged cases coma, intellectual disability or death.[7]
Hello
As Jen said, MS is difficult to diagnose. And that’s when trained neurologists examine and test you.
This means it’s impossible for any of us to say, ‘hmm, that does sound like MS’ (whilst stroking an imaginary goatee!)
But, what we can say is (again repeating Jen!) write down your major issues, think back to the dates symptoms began causeand any that have improved or disappeared.
Talk to your GP and ask their advice. If they think there might be a neurological cause, they’ll refer you to a neurologist. If they think it could have a different root cause, they could refer you for tests. Perhaps magnesium as Ziola suggests.
Sue
Hi northwoodsflower
Welcome to the community (I’m also new here, but I don’t suppose anyone will mind me extending a welcome!)
I can’t offer a huge amount of help, and as the others have said, if it does turn out to be MS you’ll probably be on a fairly long journey to finding out as much. It’s not something that can be easily diagnosed, and the tests and referrals all seem to have pretty long waiting times. So I would just suggest getting comfy with that, and accepting that if they do decide to look at MS, you won’t know for a while, and that in the meantime trying to guess or analyse likely won’t get you anywhere. Which is kind of so-so advice, because it’s almost impossible to follow, but still, it’s the truth.
I was going to second Ziola in asking if they’d tested for other vitamin and mineral deficiencies. B-vit deficiency can also cause shaking and mood issues, although Ziola definitely knows what they’re taking about when it comes to magnesium! And for obvious reasons, the deficiencies can often go hand in hand; if you have one, you may well have another. Lifestyle can also affect them, so keep a note of what that’s like along with a symptom diary (for instance if you’re hitting the booze a bit more - as so many of us have been during lockdown - that can also contribute towards, and even cause, a B12 deficiency). Vitamin D also takes a while to stabilise to normal levels once you start on a supplement, so you might find that continues to improve with time too. Everything you’ve mentioned is also quite like what some people see after a bout with a nasty viral infection - tiredness, shaking, anxiety, being run down and having some signs of malnourishment.
I would suggest that you continue to monitor - and begin to keep a daily record of - your symptoms, along with any significant notes about diet, mood and lifestyle. Try to pay attention to and make note of when things are better, as well as when things are worse. It’s easy to wind up with pages and pages of a journal where the only thing it says is how rubbish you feel, even if in retrospect, for a lot of it you felt okay.
Also be open to the idea that you might have more than one issue going on here. Of course, it may turn out that all of your symptoms are caused by one thing, but it could also be that perhaps several things are going on at once. Anxiety and depression can cause serious fatigue, the kind that feels like it’s got to be something more purely physiological, as well as upping your heart rate. Anxiety and depression are serious in their own right; be sure not to let them ratchet up and spiral out of control whilst you wait to find an underlying cause for them. Consider them worthy of treatment here and now, as they can really mess up your life. There’s loads of advice online about how to best face these sorts of issues, and whilst some of it can feel a bit woo or like its fobbing you off (e.g. mindfulness, exercise, meditation, getting enough sleep, spending time with nature etc) it’s often still worth a shot. Consider looking at cognitive behavioural therapy and if you’ve nobody to talk to and you could use having a chance to get stuff off your chest quickly, you can always try the Samaritans or another helpline. You could also consider seeking out talk therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy with a real-world therapist or psychologist. In theory such things are available on the NHS, but the waiting times can leave a lot to be desired.
I really hope you find the root - and solution - to your current symptoms soon! Do keep going back to your GP if you feel the answer hasn’t been found, and be sure to let them know that you’re worrying about what’s causing these symptoms; sometimes they move a little faster if they understand that you’re being really emotionally stressed by symptoms and aren’t able to just wait and see what happens next. Try not to drive yourself too nuts; definitely stay away from Dr Google as much as is possible, as it really won’t help your anxiety! Right now, you’re absolutely right, your symptoms could potentially match some of those of MS… but they also fit with a lot of other things too. We’re (mostly) not medical professionals and nobody online is going to get able to tell you what the exact cause might be. I’ve also found, with myself and others, that if you look something up and start to think you’ve found the disease that’s causing all your issues, well, most of them have at least a few symptoms that are really vague and which are, to some extent, normal parts of life (headache, fatigue, aches and pains etc), and it’s so, so easy (and psychologically normal) to tell yourself that you have those too, so it must surely be such-and-such, and it can spiral so quickly. I’m not saying that that’s what’s happening in this instance, I’m simply saying to you, and me, and anyone else reading this that you should be mindful of that trap; it doesn’t necessarily get you any closer to an answer (and can even send you in totally the wrong direction) and you DEFINITELY don’t need the added stress!
Best of luck with everything
why not SVT?
I think its important that this is dealt with and your heart is helped to go back to a normal healthy rythm. I would concentrate on that if it was me and not on something else like MS for now.
Anxiety too can cause a lot of the symptoms. the more you worry about something the worse it gets. So for me, i would take SVT off the table and see how i felt after that was dealt with. Hope that makes sense, as MS is a process of elimination.
I dont know i think if i was told i had SVT i would be pooping my pants lol. xx
Thank you all for responding! I will definitely mention to my Dr. about magnesium. I’m pretty sure it was checked in my first round of bloodwork and came back good, but I understand that doesn’t necessarily give the full picture.
Unfortunately they want me to get all these heart tests before my next regular appointment. The reason I don’t feel like it’s SVT is that I read what the symptoms are with that and I’m not experiencing anything nearly that bad. My heart does beat faster than normal at times, but it’s not like an attack that makes me about pass out or anything! And the shaking continues even when my heart feels fine. I discovered yesterday that car rides make it a lot worse…I told a friend last night that I felt like a vibrating phone! Lol
But anyway, thank you all for your help. I’m honestly not that worried about it yet, mostly just puzzled, and MS was something in the back of my mind.