Why Climate Change Is an Urgent Concern for People with MS

Heat sensitivity worsens symptoms, and it’s happening more often.

People living with multiple sclerosis (MS) can never predict what any given day will be like. While many of us do have certain symptoms that are a constant issue, we often develop new or additional symptoms when we least expect them.

This unpredictability is one of the things that make living with MS so very difficult, as it leaves us never knowing when we might suddenly feel ill.

Temperature fluctuations can trigger new symptoms for many people with MS. After living with MS for several decades and dealing with the profound effect that weather can have on my well-being, I now pay close attention to the day’s temperature forecast.

As a result, I have become incredibly concerned about the climate change our planet is undergoing.

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Mixed signals

To understand why climate change is extra-important to someone with MS, you first have to understand a little about the disease.

When someone has MS, their immune system is overly responsive and turns against their own brain and spinal cord. Specifically, it attacks the nerves, which you can think of as wires that the brain uses to communicate to the rest of the body. Much like any wire connecting two pieces of electronics, nerves have a layer of insulation around them; this insulation, known as myelin, not only protects the nerves but also helps transmit signals from the nerves to the muscles. It’s also what gets damaged during an MS exacerbation.

When that insulation layer around our nerves is damaged, it can have some pretty profound effects. Numbness, tingling, fatigue, memory problems, pain, and paralysis are just a few.

The attack on myelin basically inhibits the ability of the brain to communicate with the rest of the body.

One of my favorite ways to describe MS is to think of trying to charge a mobile phone using a nicked power cord. The underlying wire itself isn’t usually damaged, but the layer surrounding it is. If you position the cord just right, your phone will still charge, but if you bump into it or change its position, it will stop charging.

Temperature and MS

Just as that power cord has to be in just the right position to charge a phone, our nerves also work best under ideal conditions.

One of the most important such conditions for someone with MS is temperature, which can affect the ability of a damaged nerve to conduct the electrical signals sent from the brain.

Generally, when a person’s body temperature is elevated, it becomes more difficult for a damaged nerve to conduct electrical signals sent from the brain. As a result, people with MS often experience a worsening of their symptoms when the ambient temperature rises. This issue is so common that there was a time when doctors would use a “hot bath test” to diagnose MS.

The change in temperature does not even have to be considerable. Even one-quarter to one-half a degree rise in core body temperature is enough to start causing problems.

For me, the slightest increase in temperature often makes my vision start to go blurry. I then begin slurring my words, and my arms and legs become numb, often leading to falls. I also become confused and experience cognitive issues, such as short-term memory problems and difficulty following conversations or even something I’m watching on TV.

While heat is a nightmare for me, others experience similar issues when the temperature drops. Again, this is because it affects the conductivity of the damaged nerves. Anecdotally, many people with MS say they also experience issues when other weather-related changes occur, such as a drop in barometric pressure.

When these kinds of weather changes happen repeatedly over a long period of time, they represent a change to our overall climate. So climate is massively important to those of us who live with MS.

Feeling the heat

We obviously can’t always have an ideal climate, but being able, at least, to predict what the weather will be like can still help us to best live our lives.

I struggle through warm and humid weather, so I pretty much hibernate in my air-conditioned house during the summer and look forward to the fall and winter. I’ve always been able to deal with this arrangement in the past — it’s part of my illness, and I make up for it in the cooler months.

For the past several years, though, those warmer months seem to be even hotter than they’ve ever been, and they seem to stretch into months that would normally be tempered with a nice, cool breeze.

Even if I had never read any of the science about climate change, my body could still tell you that something is different with our climate. Something is wrong.

Climate change is here

Our climate is changing. The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2°F since the late 19th century.

Two degrees may not seem like much, but it takes a massive amount of heat to raise the global temperature by that much. And while that is the global average temperature over the entire surface of the planet, local areas can experience much higher increases.

Multiple independent organizations, including NASA, NOAA, and the U.K.’s Met Office Hadley Centre, have been tracking global temperatures since about 1880, and all have come to the same conclusion: Climate change is occurring.

Not only is climate change happening, but we are causing it.

The planet is warming because humans are emitting large amounts of heat-trapping gases, sometimes called greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere. Burning fossil-based fuels releases a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide (as well as other gases) into the atmosphere.

We’ve also cut down large amounts of forest since the late 19th century. As you probably know from grade school science, plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so less plant material means we have even fewer ways to offset increases in carbon dioxide.

A staggering 97 percent of scientists are said to agree that humans are causing climate change.

Climate change affects all of us

Climate change has the ability to massively impact our world and our lives. As we roast the planet with human-emitted greenhouse gases, we are seeing more frequent droughts (impacting food production), as well as rising sea levels, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.

These changes to weather patterns mean that insects like mosquitoes and ticks expand their range, carrying diseases to more regions. The impacts of climate change are numerous and deadly.

People with MS and other chronic conditions may feel the effects of climate change sooner.

A 2021 study found that emergency room visits escalated during “anomalously warm weather” — anything more than 1.5°C warmer than the long-term average. The researchers concluded, “As global temperatures rise, individuals with MS may represent a particularly susceptible subpopulation.”

In recent years, I have had more days where I’m struggling to function and require the help of others. More days where I have to cancel plans with people because I don’t feel well. More days where I feel like I am fighting to survive.

The threat of climate change is a threat to my very existence.

If our world doesn’t work together to protect our environment, everyone is in for some rough times. Those of us with MS will reach those tough times even sooner.