I hope the link below works. It's an article in the Annals of Medicine written by a physcian who suffered from fasciculations. Anyway, it gave me some comfort regarding my constant twitching.
I don't know about you guys but, sometimes, when my body is twitching all-over my mind starts to wonder if it's indicative of "something worse to come."
Anyway, the article points out that: 1) A simple clinical rule is that fasciculations in relaxed muscle are NEVER (my italics) indicative of motor system disease unless there is an associated weakness, atrophy or reflex change.
2) most fasciculations don't PRECEDE weakness....
Hope this gives some of you twitching some comfort.....
Fasciculations may not be a big problem for some people, some of the time. There can be many causes, some of which are benign or addressed simply by lightening the sensory or toxin load.
However, for those with lyme and other tick-borne diseases, motor system involvement is certainly - and always - a consideration if there is twitching.
Any lyme/ TBD patient who has fasciculations should always be sure to discuss this with their LLMD. Common in lyme patients, low magnesium levels are often connected and, often, adequate supplementation with magnesium and calcium will bring some relief.
Addressing infection can also resolve fasciculations.
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Posted by IckyTicky (Member # 21466) on :
That does make me feel better (even though I have very hyper reflexes...and I have fasciculations in my tongue off and on also *sigh*) But I've had these muscle twitches for over a year now without any significant muscle weakness. And the weakness I get, always gets better... so that SHOULD rule out ALS in my mind. But it's always back there... even though I had a normal EMG on my right arm.
I wonder if the doctor has a TBI?
Posted by IckyTicky (Member # 21466) on :
*bump* for anyone else. This one got buried.
Posted by Just Julie (Member # 1119) on :
My usual reply to a twitching thread: I've had muscle twitcing for 9 YEARS. First day: May 5, 2000. I searched online, found ALS and MS. My nurse's brain scrambled. I was shocked, and upset. Also found a few hits on Lyme disease.
I thought, thru the years of abx treatment, that somehow, the twitching would stop. I passed the hallmark 5 year marker for ALS death, and felt relieved. yet puzzled. I still twitched.
Taking all the various forms of oral magnesium did not take them away, in fact, some of the mag preps made them worse. So, I stopped trying that.
My son's, also lyme disease ridden, now have muscle twitching. We all notice that stress makes them either start, or worsen.
That's the only correlation that I have been able to tie to having them. Stress/adrenaline.
I liked reading this article, even though it's from 1996, I think it's still relevant.