Abby, Anything that upsets the balance of the immune system is a potential "trigger" for an autoimmune disease, as you know. And if your "balance" is less than normal to begin with, you're more susceptible to whatever that is.

With things like the flu, if you have mounted antibodies against it through the years - depending upon what strain you come in contact with - you will have a better immunity against it, even with MG.

I've said this before but it bears repeating given what you guys are talking about. Extremes of heat and cold increase the amount of Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in your body. It's an enzyme whose job it is to "mop up" what's left of Acetylcholine (ACh) when it's done with it's job of making muscles strong.

Mestinon is a cholinesterase inhibitor. So are caffeine and nightshade foods (potato, tomato, peppers, eggplant, tobacco). So they all, to varying degrees, block AChE from doing it's job so that we can use what ACh we do have for a longer period of time.

Kathie, MG and MS are completely different autoimmune animals. Their nerve "condoms" - sheaths - become damaged, thereby causing pain. Cold will dull pain. Too much cold and you can have cold-induced injury though and any good neurologist is cognizant of that. Their weakness is caused by nerve damage and not by a lack of acetylcholine. Teething babies are given something cold to suck on to reduce the pain. Same principle.

Which makes me wonder, Abby, if you don't have some other "subtype" of MG that has more to do with channels or some other NMJ issue since you don't get worse in hot or cold weather.

The reason I talk about meditation so often is that stress is horrible for the body. It's just that we who have MG notice it more quickly. Someone without MG doesn't realize how talking stresses the body but MGers notice more quickly how it can tank a LOT of muscle groups at once. It can leave you open for more generalized weakness and not just certain muscle groups. For example, you can cut a lot of veggies for soup and then your arm/shoulder/hand can be weak right away or for days but your legs and other muscles might be okay. If your MG is not doing well overall, it might be too much of an activity and tank your MG in a more generalized way. Then you either need more rest or more treatments.

It's a tightrope walk between enough drugs and too much activity to keep MG balanced.

I suppose you can think of every little "stressor" or "trigger" as adding weight onto you, as if you're floating in MG water. The stronger the weight or the higher number of them and the worse you get; literally drowning in MG.

Your "sensitivity" to a trigger may not do a thing to someone else with MG. The most important thing is to know what triggers YOUR MG. And then to lessen those triggers as much as possible.

Annie