Nervous System: Facts, Function & Diseases

Patients with nerve disorders experience functional difficulties, which result in conditions such as:

• Epilepsy, in which abnormal electrical discharges from brain cells cause seizures
• Parkinson's disease, which is a progressive nerve disease that affects movement
• Multiple sclerosis (MS), in which the protective lining of the nerves is attacked by the body's immune system
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a motor neuron disease which weakens the muscles and progressively hampers physical function
• Huntington's disease, which is an inherited condition that cause the nerve cells in the brain to degenerate
• Alzheimer's disease, which covers a wide range of disorders that impacts mental functions, particularly memory.

Of all the diseases of the nervous system, the most common difficulty that people have is pain, and much of that is nerve-related.

• Stroke, which occurs when there is bleeding on the brain or the blow flow to the brain is obstructed;
• Transient ischemic attack (TIA), which are mini-type strokes that last a shorter period of time but mimic stroke symptoms; and
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is specifically bleeding in the space between your brain and the surrounding membrane that can be the result of a trauma or rupturing of a weak blood vessel;

Infections such as meningitis, encephalitis, polio, and epidural abscess can also affect the nervous system, the NIH noted.