ALS of Nevada

[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]

One symptom everyone on the face of the planet has happen to them is “twitching.” You know that odd little spasm you just cannot explain. Stress and anxiety alone can bring this twitching on; and it can also be an indicator of ALS.

However, we’ve located an outstanding article (full reference below), with 12 things to consider…

Is it or isn’t it ALS?

Here are the key points:

1)  ALS is a disease of muscle weakness, not twitching.

2)  In almost all cases (doctors don’t like to use the word “always” or “never”) of ALS, the twitching comes AFTER the muscle weakness. Many people who send questions to the medhelp site actually ask how long it takes, in ALS, for the weakness to start kicking in, once the twitching starts. The neurologists can’t answer this, because this is just not how ALS operates. Muscle weakness and sometimes with it wasting, comes FIRST.

3)  ALS typically starts in one isolated body part. BFS often starts up in many places at once, though it can start in one body part, but it quickly “spreads.”

4)  In BFS, the twitching can often be stopped dead in its tracks (but not always) by moving around. So if your legs are getting hammered by twitching while you are seated, take note if this happens only when your legs are perfectly immobile. Rock your legs to and fro a little and see what happens.

5)  The “perceived muscle weakness” in BFS seems to disappear the minute the person begins exercising. Twitching in the absence of muscle weakness is NOT consistent with ALS.

6)  One neurologist said that, if after three months of twitching, there is still no muscle weakness, there’s really little chance it could be ALS.

7)  ALS is often characterized by the entire tongue twitching, and difficulty swallowing.

8)  Tingling is not a symptom of ALS.

9)  The hallmark symptom of ALS is muscle weakness characterized by dropping things, difficulty turning keys or typing, stumbling, tripping, a foot dragging, difficulty climbing stairs, exercise intolerance (though some people with BFS report exercise intolerance – this is fear-based). The weakness is not intermittent. Once it’s there, it’s there, and it gets worse.

10)  In BFS, the twitching is aggravated by stress or fear, diminished by distraction towards an unrelated topic, and there is no true accompanying muscle weakness (only the “perceived” weakness).

11)  In BFS, the EMG test comes out negative.

12)  The tip of the tongue can twitch in BFS. In BFS, twitching can occur anywhere: toes, fingers, arches of feet, anywhere on the legs and upper body, by the lip, on the neck, even in the head.

========================================

Reference material obtained from: Twitching Muscle Series: Part 6 – Information that Will Reassure You You’ll Be Just Fine Is your life ruined because you think that your twitching muscles means ALS? Here is the information you absolutely need to know. For the complete article please refer to:

http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/317264/twitching_muscle_series_part_6_information.html

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gene linked to some cases of Lou Gehrig’s disease found (cnn.com)
• Lou Gehrig’s disease in humans genetically linked to dog disease (scienceblog.com)