That second episode sent him from chiropractors to doctors to specialists. Their conclusion had an impact that goes well beyond the playing field.

Omphroy has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and central nervous system and can have debilitating symptoms.

“I was shocked,” Omphroy recalls of the diagnosis, which came from a neurologist in February of last year following an MRI. “I was like: ‘I can’t believe I have a disease that has left people in wheelchairs.’

“Just the thought of that, of me having to be in a wheelchair sometime in my life, is scary. You hear about a friend of a friend who knows somebody who has it, but you never think it’s something that’s going to happen to you.”

Far from ending his dreams of playing professional soccer, Omphroy, a native of California’s San Francisco Bay area, firmly believes his disease has, in many ways, made him better.

His diet has improved dramatically, more greens and fish, no alcohol or caffeine. Each night, he injects Copaxone, a drug used to treat his form of the disease, and ensures that he gets enough sleep to train the next day.

More about TFC’s Demitrius Omphroy not letting multiple sclerosis slow him down – thestar.com

New criteria for diagnosing multiple sclerosis with a single MRI have a sensitivity of up to 86% and a specificity of up to 75%, researchers said here.

Their study is one of the first by an independent group to test the criteria developed by MAGNIMS (Magnetic Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis), a consortium of European academic researchers.

“The goal of the new criteria is to save time, to allow treatment to be started earlier,” Mayra Gomez-Moreno, MD, of the Infanta Leonor Hospital in Madrid, Spain, told attendees at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis meeting

But now a team of Israeli doctors and scientists have found “chemical markers” on blood that will lead to a test for the disease.

Professor Anat Achiron, of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine, has uncovered a way of detecting MS years before the illness hits sufferers.

“We are not yet able to treat people with MS to prevent the onset of the disease but knowledge is power,” said Professor Achiron.

“Every time we meet a new patient exhibiting symptoms of MS, we must ask ourselves how long this has been going on.

“We can diagnose MS by brain MRI scans, but we’ve never been able to know how ‘fresh’ the disease is.”

Her findings are published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease.