Muscular weakness, or myasthenia gravis, can develop as an independent disease, or be a symptom of more serious pathologies. The essence of the disease is that the muscles do not cope with their functions and, as a result, quickly get tired. The consequence of this is the inability to move normally. It should be noted that myasthenia occurs relatively rarely, the main cause is often banal overwork. The strongest load falls on the legs, so it is the lower limbs that are exposed to pathology in most cases. To reduce the likelihood of serious consequences, it is necessary to be examined by a neurologist and a therapist.
Concept
In medicine, myasthenia is called a decrease in the contractility of one or more muscles. Pathology can occur in any part of the body, but the most common muscle weakness in the legs, arms and face. The disease appears as a result of a malfunction of the immune system, causing damage to muscle cells with nerve endings.
There is an opinion that myasthenia can be inherited. Experts say that this is possible, but this fact has not been scientifically proven. Oftenmuscle weakness manifests itself in the form of attacks, after sleep, usually no symptoms of pathology occur. During the day, the symptoms are more pronounced, and by the evening the situation worsens. The disease has periods when it subsides and does not give itself away. A long-term remission is detected during pregnancy, but after a while the disease again makes itself felt.
Forms of pathology
Specialists distinguish three main forms of myasthenia gravis. Consider each of them in more detail:
- Innate. This form is considered the most rare. This is the case when the defects in muscle tissue are manifested from birth, a genetic disease. The child has a violation of the conduction of synapses, due to which weakness is expressed.
- Purchased. Unlike the first option, this is the most common case. It is difficult to name the exact causes of the onset of the disease, because the pathology can develop both from the presence of infections in the body and from a tumor of the thymus. We will talk more about the reasons below.
- Neonatal. The most complex form of the disease. It occurs in infants if the mother already has a pathology. The process of infection is as follows: antibodies pass from mother to baby through the placenta, and the child assigns the disease.
Why is there a problem?
There can be many reasons for muscle weakness, especially if the pathology manifests itself in the body and limbs. Quite often there is increased fatigue in diseases such as hepatitis, anemia, depression and chronicfatigue.
Grounds for disease occurrence:
- Stroke, spinal cord compression, neuropathy, sclerosis.
- Muscle atrophy, this situation is often found in seriously ill and bedridden people, and myasthenia gravis can develop throughout the body.
- Bad habits like smoking and drinking. Such sensitivity appears with the acquired form of myasthenia gravis.
- Prolonged use of medication, especially in bedridden people, leads to muscle weakness.
- If the focus of the disease is the legs, then the cause is most likely hidden in varicose veins, flat feet or problems with the joints.
- Weakness often occurs throughout the body with low blood pressure, so this indicator must be carefully monitored.
- Vitamin deficiency is also pretty bad for muscle performance.
It is problematic to list all the reasons for the occurrence of pathology, the doctor determines the exact cause based on the symptoms. In any case, the sooner you see a specialist, the higher the chance of a successful recovery in a short time.
Diabetes
One of the diseases that lead to weakening of muscle tissue is diabetes mellitus. If the body does not produce enough of the hormone insulin, carbohydrate metabolism is disturbed, resulting in an increase in blood sugar. Diabetes can be of two types:
- In the first case, insulin production is completely absent due to the negative impactcells of the immune system on the pancreas. Patients should monitor their sugar levels every day to avoid negative consequences.
- General muscle weakness can also occur against the background of insulin deficiency. Diabetes is provoked by diseases such as obesity, low physical activity, pancreatitis, etc. If the pathology is ignored and not treated, the patient develops the first type of diabetes mellitus. It is worth noting that the disease is not treated, a person controls the level of sugar for the rest of his life.
Sports pathology
Everyone knows the feeling when you really want to go in for sports. In most cases, excessive enthusiasm ends in banal overtraining. The desire to train disappears, and apathy appears. As a result, efficiency decreases, endurance is lost, weakness appears, including in striated muscles.
Sports sickness symptoms include:
- sluggishness,
- decrease in appetite,
- common depression,
- insomnia,
- disgust for training, etc.
If you find yourself with several of these signs, you need to take a break from training for at least a few weeks. Calm swimming in the pool will help to cope with muscle weakness in the arms and other parts of the body. To avoid a similar situation, you need to be attentive to your he alth and not give the body an extra load.
Symptoms
Signs of pathology and causes in this caseare interconnected. Myasthenia gravis is characterized primarily by weakness in the muscles of the face. Often the eyelids suffer, the patient has a split image. If the pathology is found throughout the body, the muscles of the shoulder, lips and neck first suffer. As a result, it turns out that the victim cannot speak and swallow normally.
In the case when muscle weakness in the legs is manifested, the patient is tormented by pain, a venous network occurs and a change in skin color around the affected area. If a person likes to “take a bite of the bottle”, edema develops along with weakness, because alcohol-containing drinks provoke its manifestation.
When the cause of the pathology lies in low blood pressure, severe headaches, dizziness are detected, the patient complains of memory lapses. With a stroke, not only weakness appears in the whole body, but also the gait changes, speech is disturbed, it becomes difficult to speak and swallow.
The diagnosis of muscle weakness can only be established by a doctor after conducting the necessary studies. An examination is necessary, because in some cases the reason lies in the negative impact of several pathologies at once.
Myasthenia gravis in children
As already noted, the disease of muscle weakness is a congenital type. In a child, such a pathology is quickly detected, because you can immediately observe a violation of muscle tone, an asymmetrical body, the affected limb becomes unbearable. In addition, the physical development of the baby in this case leaves much to be desired. In children, as in adults,There are many reasons for the occurrence of the disease. Among the most common are Down syndrome, blood poisoning, jaundice, muscle wasting, rickets and hypothyroidism.
It must be said that a violation of tone is not always associated with a congenital form of muscle weakness. This kind of pathology is found in babies who have experienced hypoxia in the womb. This problem can be solved by regular massage, physiotherapy and gymnastics. Within a year, the child fully recovers, in rare cases, drug therapy is needed.
Parents should carefully monitor the he alth of the baby. Lethargy and drowsiness at any age is not normal, so you should start worrying. If, in addition to everything, there is insomnia, poor appetite and unwillingness to move, you need to make an appointment with a neurologist as soon as possible. The diagnosis of myasthenia gravis is not always confirmed, but it is better to be safe.
Diagnosis
If you are suffering from the above symptoms, then it's time to see a specialist. The neuropathologist and the therapist deal with this issue. To begin with, it is best to visit a doctor with a general specialization, and he, in turn, will refer the patient to a specialist of a narrower profile. The main purpose of the diagnosis is to determine the nature of the victim's anxiety: weakness or muscle fatigue.
As in most cases, the diagnostic process begins with an anamnesis, that is, the collection of information from the patient's words. The doctor needs to know how oftenthe pathology is concerned, in which parts of the body it is localized, etc. The doctor also needs to assess the patient's memory, whether he can take care of himself, how long ago the symptoms appeared and a lot of other information.
External inspection is the next step. Much can clarify the weight of the victim, the condition of the skin and reflexes. Past illnesses play a very important role. A qualified specialist will definitely ask for a patient card and extracts from hospitals, if available. After that, the doctor already has suspicions about the disease that torments the person.
Depending on the doctor's assumptions, the following tests are scheduled:
- tests with edrophonium, which allows you to check the immune response;
- genetic laboratory testing is carried out only if a hereditary disease is suspected;
- muscle biopsy analysis;
- in some cases, the specialist recommends undergoing computed tomography, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging;
- if there is a suspicion of infection, a general and biochemical analysis of blood and urine is prescribed;
- if a tumor is detected, a puncture is used.
Progressive muscle weakness requires timely treatment. If the doctor, after anamnesis and assessment of appearance, understands that the matter is in myasthenia gravis, he immediately prescribes therapy.
Traditional treatment
The prescribed therapy is based on the results of the diagnosis. After all the studies, the doctor decides how the recovery of weak muscles will take place. If the cause of myasthenia gravisIf there is a disease, then first of all it is necessary to deal with its elimination. In most cases, it is enough to cope with the symptoms for the disease to recede, but not with muscle weakness.
To completely get rid of the pathology, long-term physiological and drug treatment is prescribed. The essence of therapy is reduced to the restoration of the immune system, as well as to the normalization of muscle tone. If the situation is severe, the doctor may prescribe surgery or radiation therapy. The goal in this case is to remove the thymus gland. This is necessary when traditional treatment or tumor detection is ineffective.
Typically, experts recommend using the following drugs as a treatment for muscle weakness:
- Anticholinesterase. Drugs of this type provoke muscle contraction, the dosage is selected individually for each patient.
- Hormonal. These drugs are used only in case of severe pathology.
- Immunoglobulins.
Complex therapy is considered the most effective, because all methods of treatment complement each other. Physiotherapy will be very useful, because it helps to normalize muscle function. Doctors recommend using manual massage, aerophytotherapy, electrophoresis, chromotherapy. When the period of remission begins, the patient can go to a sanatorium for treatment. Otherwise, with an exacerbation of myasthenia, the patient is contraindicated in excessive physical activity and certain medications.
Traditional medicine
Almost all doctors have a rather negative attitude towards non-traditional treatment. The fact is that not all folk methods help recovery, some of them only aggravate the situation. Before using them, you need to identify the cause of the pathology. If you start treatment without knowing the exact reasons, you can provoke serious complications, especially with muscle weakness.
As already noted, myasthenia gravis is best treated with a complex method. As for folk recipes, their use is possible only after consultation with your doctor. Self-medication is not recommended, because there have been many cases of deterioration of the patient's condition after ignoring the advice of specialists.
If, nevertheless, the doctor allowed the use of folk methods, only the most effective ones should be used. Among them are:
- Eating dried fruits. The entire period of myasthenia gravis, regardless of whether it is remission or exacerbation, it is recommended to consume prunes, raisins, dried apricots. Dried fruits can be prepared in different ways: add to salads, cook compotes, make infusions. In the latter case, additionally put wild rose and dried berries.
- Remedy of garlic, lemon, honey and linseed oil. The ingredients must be crushed and mixed thoroughly, the infusion is recommended to be taken daily in a teaspoon half an hour before meals.
Prevention
Prognosis is influenced by the type of disease that was found in the patient. It should be noted that myasthenia gravisis an incurable chronic disease. However, modern medicine offers a lot of tools that can significantly improve the quality of life of the patient. In some, especially successful cases, the pathology has almost no effect on human life.
The development of pathology is often quite difficult, so you need to take seriously the treatment and prevention of muscle weakness. The patient is advised to eat right, to exclude fatty foods from the diet. In addition, at first it is better not to physically load the body, you can only do simple exercises as prescribed by your doctor.
In general, with myasthenia gravis, it is better to listen to the advice of a specialist. All prescribed medications should be taken, especially funds to strengthen the immune system. If necessary, attend physical therapy classes and undergo treatment during periods of remission. Therapy is recommended to be carried out under the supervision of a doctor so that the patient takes only the necessary medications. When the cause of the pathology is an infection, you must first eliminate it.
The main thing is not to self-medicate and listen to your doctors. Then you will reduce the risk of complications and improve the quality of life.
