Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Many doctors fail to detect the initial stage of GBS (Guillain-Barre Syndrome) that effects an estimated one of 3 in every 100,000 persons annually in the USA. It can strike any race, any age, but its incidence rate increases with age. GBS may occur within days or weeks after a viral infection such as influenza (flu) diarrhoea. It may be triggered by pregnancy or a medical procedure, such as a vaccination or minor surgery. Since the cause of GBS is unknown, there's no way to prevent the disease from coming in its most severe form. GBS is a medical emergency and may require hospitalisation. Severe GBS may result in total paralysis - potentially dangerous fluctuation in heart rates and blood pressure and inability to breathe with respiratory assistances.
The muscle you use for eye movement, speaking, chewing and swallowing may become weak or paralysed. People with severe GBS often need long-term rehabilitation to regain normal independence and as many as 15% of the cases experience lasting physical impairment. In some cases GBS can be fatal. Most people recover from even the most severe cases of GBS. Available treatment if started soon after signs and symptoms appear may lessen the severity of GBS and reduce the recovery time. Signs and symptoms of GBS usually appear rapidly over a single day.
These include weakness, tingling or loss of sensation that often begins in your feet and legs and runs to your upper body and arms, moderate pain through your body, difficulty in breathing, paralysis of your legs, arms, respiratory muscles and face, difficulty with eye movement, facial, speaking, chewing or swallowing, very slow heart rates or low blood pressure, difficult with bladder control or intestinal factions and so on.
GBS progresses quickly, with most people experiencing the most significant weakness in legs, arms, chest and other parts within 3 weeks of the start of this disorder. In some cases the signs and symptoms of GBS may progress very rapidly with complete paralysis of whole body. If GBS is mild , the signs and symptoms may extend beyond a feeling of general weakness. GBS may improve on its own within a few weeks and some people initially may think the signs and symptoms are due to simply common virus.
The signs and symptoms of GBS may last days or weeks or months before muscle sensation begins to return. Regaining your pre-illness strength and functioning is slow , sometimes require months or years . However, most people with GBS return to normal life within month.
Doctors and scientist don't know what causes GBS. However, they believe that GBS is a disorder of the immune system. Research indicates that the immune system may destroy the protective covering of the peripheral nerves ( myelin sheath ) which disables the nerves from transmitting signal to the muscle when this happens. The muscle becomes unable to respond to nerve commands. Weakness, numbness or paralysis may occur. The brain also receives fewer sensory signals, resulting in the inability to feel, heat cold, pain and other sensation.
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