Diseases that cause muscle weakness are common, yet we often neglect to notice their presence in our bodies until it’s too late. The following list will explain 18 of the most common diseases that cause muscle weakness and how they can be treated effectively.
18 Must-Known Diseases That Cause Muscle Weakness
1) Bell’s palsy
A condition that causes facial paralysis (paralysis of the facial muscles).
2) Carpal tunnel syndrome
A condition that causes pain, numbness, and tingling in the hand and fingers. Read the article below to learn more about the reasons of muscle weakness in your hands:
7 Vital Reasons for Muscle Weakness in Hands
3) Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT)
Also known as hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type 2A; CMT is caused by mutations in the GJB2 gene. The mutation leads to an abnormal form of lipoprotein receptor superfamily member 2.
4) Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
A type of motor neuron disease that can affect the spinal cord.
5) Dystonia
A movement disorder is characterized by involuntary muscle contractions affecting one or more parts of the body.
6) Myotonic dystrophy
This is a type of muscle disease that affects young people, causing weakness and loss of strength, especially in the upper and lower limbs.
7) Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy can affect body movement and motor skills. Cerebral palsy is caused by abnormalities in the developing brain, or nervous system, that affect the normal development of motor skills.
8) Duchenne muscular dystrophy
A rare genetic muscle disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding dystrophin. This can be one of the main causes of muscle weakness.
9) Congenital myopathies
Since this is a group of disorders (myopathy), it means that it does not develop during adulthood like other diseases do; rather it develops from birth (congenital), so it has to be present at birth for you to have congenital myopathy.
10) Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and affects approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with PD each year. More than 10 million people worldwide are living with PD. It’s a chronic disorder of a loss of nerve cells in the part of the brain called the substantia nigra. A major symptom is muscle tremor or involuntary shaking. It usually begins with one hand and then spreads to both hands and arms as it worsens over time.
11) Cervical spondylosis
Cervical spondylosis, or cervical arthritis, is a condition in which your neck bones fuse together due to inflammation. It can lead to muscle weakness in your arms.
12) Muscular dystrophy
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a genetic disorder that weakens muscle fibers and causes progressive muscle weakness. Symptoms usually start in childhood, when they may be mistaken for signs of aging or laziness. Sometimes MD progresses slowly over many years, while other forms progress quickly to severely debilitating levels.
13) Guillain-Barré syndrome
Guillain-Barré syndrome, or GBS, is a rare disease in which your immune system attacks parts of your peripheral nervous system. Because of what happens when your immune system misfires, you develop rapid muscle weakness that progresses to varying degrees of paralysis. The disorder is most commonly triggered by an infection (such as Campylobacter jejuni). However, if not treated quickly and correctly, however, Guillain-Barré syndrome can become fatal.
14) Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)
SMA can cause muscle weakness, a loss of muscle tone, and problems with movement. The severity of symptoms varies widely, but typically children lose motor skills like sitting, crawling, and walking by age 2 or 3. The condition is fatal—most children don’t live beyond their teenage years.
15) Myasthenia gravis
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disorder that causes weakness in both voluntary and involuntary muscles. In MG, antibodies attack acetylcholine receptors on skeletal muscle fibers and block communication between nerves and muscles. These electrical signals are vital for maintaining muscle movement, so when they aren’t working properly—or aren’t getting through at all—muscles begin to weaken.
16) Fibromyalgia
This is a chronic disorder in which patients experience pain all over their body, along with fatigue and difficulty sleeping. There’s no known cause of fibromyalgia, but symptoms tend to flare up when a patient experiences a stressful life event. This disease is characterized by widespread muscle weakness that’s painful.
17) Graves’ disease
A disease in which your immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy thyroid tissue, often causing an overactive thyroid. Graves’ disease is estimated to affect 2%-3% of the general population. (1) Graves’ disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. The disorder most commonly strikes people ages 20 to 60 but can occur at any age. Women are much more likely to develop Graves’ disease than are men, at a ratio of 7:1 (2)
18) Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome
This neuromuscular disorder is characterized by the slow transmission of messages from nerves to muscles, resulting in severe muscle weakness. Patients with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome often have an impaired immune system and can experience a rapid deterioration of muscle strength over time. Patients also may exhibit abnormal eye movements, including increased effort required to turn their eyes side to side or up and down.
Summary
Muscles often ache after a workout, but they shouldn’t ever feel completely weak. If you are experiencing muscle weakness and pain, there may be a medical issue at hand. You may have a disease or condition that is causing your muscles to weaken and experience pain. Now you know the diseases that cause muscle weakness and look at what you can do to treat them.
Read the article below to learn what you can do against muscle weakness:
6 Ways to Get Rid Of Muscle Weakness and Fatigue
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