Are white matter lesions normal?
Depends a bit on your age. All lesions show that damage has happened. The cause of the damage can be from a large number of things, from migraines, high blood-pressure, diabetes, Lymes disease, viral infections, MS, coeliacs disease, smoking, food allergies etc etc. As we get older our bodies will have come across more things that cause lesions, so people over the age of 60 are likely to have some. They are not normal in a perfectly healthy person. But very few people are perfectly healthy, particularly as they get older.
I do wish neurologists, radiologists, doctors would not dismiss them out of hand though, by often calling them ‘normal’. It is a bit like saying that high-blood pressure or osteoarthritis is normal as so many people develop them, so we won’t do anything about them! There are lifestyle choices that can reduce the risk of developing lesions, depending on the causes. Things like being pre-diabetic or borderline hypertensive can be addressed through lifestyle changes.
Thank you so much I know exactly what you mean. I had none in previous scan and then told I have some but radiologists did not even pick them up in my report it all came back clear. So to hear I had some was a worry and I went into panic mode what this all meant .
I seem to remember being told that it is normal for most people to show about one lesion for every decade of their life. I’ve no idea if that is true.
Ben