Multiple Sclerosis By: Angel Romero
Jack Osbourne is a 31 year old media personality born in London, England and son of famous rock star Ozzy Osbourne. He was first introduced on TV by the MTV show The Osbournes.
While shooting a scene from Haunted Highway in 2012, he started to get a strong headache. The next morning his eyesight was blurry and it got progressively worst. His doctor referred him to a neurologist where he was diagnosed with RRMS at only 26 years of age. According to his interview with PEOPLE, RRMS affected 80% percent of his right eye. He also realized that about 18 months prior to his diagnosis, his legs had gone numb.
RRMS usually starts when a person is 20 to 30 years old. Some of the symptoms are problems with eye vision, numbness, stiff muscles, pain and weakness. Jack experienced the first two indicating that he has the disease.
In order to diagnose RRMS, an MRI, spinal taps and blood work were done to Osbourne once he arrived at the ER.
RRMS is a common form of multiple sclerosis that causes inflammation of myelin which surround nerves within the central nervous system. During relapsing periods, the disease advances. A remitting stage comes after to recover. During this stage, the symptoms can disappear and the disease doesn’t progress.
RRMS is not curable but it has different types of treatment to reduce the relapses. Many medications are injectables but oral medications are available. Medications like Avonex, Betaseron and Copaxone are injectables. Aubagio and Gilenya are oral. Physical therapy is recommended as well as maintaining a healthy life style.
He states that he now eats more healthy and exercises. Also, maintaining stress level to a minimum is beneficial. According to CNN, Jack takes medication injections three times a week. Jack also has a website called You Don't Know Jack About MS in which he talks about his experience and informs people about MS.