Holistic
Myasthenia
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Severe muscle weakness becomes increasingly more common in recent times. The classical disease with severe muscle weakness is myasthenia gravis or M.G. It is most common in young women, although it may develop at any age and in both sexes. Males are more affected in their later decades of life.
A droopy eyelid sign of Myasthenia.
Certain muscles become chronically weak and easily fatigued. Most affected are the muscles of the head and neck, later progressively also the muscles of the chest and limbs. The first sign of myasthenia gravis is usually a drooping eyelid (ptosis).
Frequently double vision (diplopia) develops as the disease progresses, also difficulty chewing or swallowing or even breathing. The speech may be slurred and the vision blurred. Usually the condition becomes worse as the day progresses.
In medical treatment a group of drugs, called anticholinesterases, is used, such as neostigmine or pyridostigmine. These delay the normal inactivation of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which results in a temporary improvement in muscle functions. Frequently the thymus gland is greatly enlarged and may be surgically removed. This can result in some medium-term improvement in one-third of cases.
There are frequent side effects from drug therapy, such as abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, excessive mucus formation, bronchial spasms, twitching of face muscles, spasms and freezing of muscles, tremors, incoordination and paralysis. It is easy to overdose with a resulting 'cholinergic' crisis often resulting in death.
Removal of the thymus results in disturbances of the calcium and manganese metabolism, it greatly weakens the immune system and perpetuates the muscle weakness which then does not respond any more to biological therapy.
Treatment for celiac disease requires elimination of the storage proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley. The inclusion of oats and wheat starch is controversial. Research supports that oats may be acceptable for patients with celiac disease and can improve the nutritional quality of the diet. However, use of oats is not widely recommended in the United States because of concerns of potential contamination of commercial oats. Studies assessing the contamination of commercial oats are limited. Research indicates no differences in patients choosing a strict wheat starch-containing, gluten-free diet vs. a naturally gluten-free diet. Factors other than trace gluten may be the cause of continued villous atrophy in some patients.
CAUSES OF MYASTHENIA GRAVIS
Myasthenia gravis has been shown to be an autoimmune disease. This means that the immune system attacks some of its own body proteins. Specifically, the transmission of signals from the nerve endings to the muscle receptors is partly blocked by antibodies. The messenger chemical or neurotransmitter released as signal from nerve endings to muscles is acetylcholine. Acetylcholine molecules travel the short distance in the gap between nerve ending and muscle to find a receptor on the motor end plate. When a sufficient number of acetylcholine molecules are attached to muscle receptors, there is an electric discharge of the normal membrane potential and the muscle fibre can contract.
In myasthenia gravis many or most of the receptors are already occupied by antibodies, therefore, not enough acetylcholine molecules find receptors to trigger this discharge and subsequent muscle contraction. Normally, the acetylcholine is split by an enzyme and, with this, removed from the receptor in a fraction of a second. Using drugs, which hinder this enzyme, acetylcholine molecules have more time to find receptors with an increased chance to lead to a discharge.
However, if too much of this enzyme antagonist is present, the cells remain discharged for too long and the muscles become more or less paralysed. This is a 'cholinergic crisis' in which heart and breathing may stop. A modern complication is the additional antagonistic action of fluoride on this enzyme. Fluoridated water may trigger a crisis or contribute to the long-term deterioration. This also applies to commercial liquids, such as soft drinks, soymilk or reconstitutet 100% fruit juices in countries where water fluoridation is practised.
It has been stated that myasthenia gravis has manifested after exposure to crop sprays with chemicals which have an antagonistic effect on acetylcholinesterase.
To test the theory that antibodies clog up muscle receptors serum from a myasthenia gravis patient was injected into mice, which promptly developed M .G. symptoms. The same electrical symptoms as in myasthenia gravis could also be produced in healthy human muscle when exposed to the serum of a myasthenia gravis patient.
This is as far as the conventional medical understanding of myasthenia gravis goes. The cause of the main event, the blocking of the muscle receptors by antibodies, is not known. There is also at present no attempt to overcome this disorder with nutritional therapy.
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