No cognitive effect from GBS at time or residual

´Cognitive improvement during fluctuating diseases´
 

Although I had some word finding difficulties, I remember a long stretch of progressive myasthenic weakness in a classical pattern over a two year perod. Like some of you, by 4.30 p.m. I may have been falling into my dinner plate with weakened trunk muscles, could not chew my food or keep my voice in from becoming dysarthic. Yet nevertheless, I could, at the exact same time, speed read my neurobiology books equally well - no matter what time of day it was and regardless of the diurnal fluctuations the other muscles were having. That discrepancy was always there. Like any myasthenic, when you are constantly negotiating fluctuations in muscle strength and using strategizing techniques on a daily basis to impact task function - it might end up working both ways. But for me at that particular time, the effects were positive. So whilst other muscles may not be listening, your brain might just be getting the work out of a lifetime you otherwise never would have had.

Anacrusis

I just had a live brain scan!
 

My brain was the brain used for the live brain scan I mentioned earlier in this post (reason: little bit of luck and a lot of will power) :yahoo:

It was exciting to be part of a research project that by default also gave me some interesting insights.

With one neuroscientist, a researcher, a technician and a number of observers present -
I can safely say that during the act of thinking I have a brain that is far from myasthenic (In fact - quite the contrary!!!)

After starting out with 2 years of severe M.E. cognitive brain fog dysfunction some years ago these are interesting results!
And wonderful, I get to keep a recording of the live scan itself :)

Life is not boring......

Anacrusis

Wow that's cool.

Isn't it?!!!

32 pictures of brain every 32 seconds - I may have enough for an album!!!

Seeing your brain appear before you in 3D is really quite the experience :wink:

I have brain impairment too. and there is one study that was done on brain impairment and Prostigmine. Prostigmine crosses the blood brain barrier. Patients were tested before and after taking Prostigmine and the majority showed marked improvment.

I started taking Prostigmine after reading that study and had real improvement in mental functioning. Too bad it fell victim to the Safe and Effective law. You can order it from Canadian pharmacies, but it's illegal in the US.

As always talk to your doctor to see if it's okay for you before you try a new drug.

But I think that study proves we are having cognitive problems. Can't remember the exact journal issue. I suppose I can go dig it up should anyone care to read it.

I am interested in any studies that show a relationship between cognitive function and MG.

Anacrusis
How fascinating this subject is I went three years before my MG fog started I call it that as that's what I think it is and how horrid it was it kind of destroyed my confidence the Dr did a basic memory test so stupid it was I still got the wrong day thou mine was always after pushing myself I would become confused didn't know simple things what hurt was would cook the total wrong food not able to do the most simple thing thinking I was seriously becoming crazy seems a lot of us also have had the symptoms
Alan

As a previous M.E. sufferer I am interested in this:

´There are two types of brain scan – a straight MRI scan which looks at the structure of the brain and functional SPECT scans which look at where there is activity in the brain. What was so fascinating about the many SPECT scans of M.E. patients’ brains that Dr Hyde showed us is that these scans appear to have great holes in them. That is to say, at any one moment there may be a large area of the brain that is completely non-functioning. Similar brain scans have been found in farmers with organophosphate poisoning and also with veterans of the Gulf War´

And this:

´So I’m suggesting that these large non-functioning areas of the brain may be caused by local mitochondrial failure, meaning there is simply no energy supply for those areas of the brain to function. They shut down and do the bare minimum, but no more. This begs the question as to why mitochondria shut down, and we now know there are lots of reasons for this. For instance, it can occur as a protective reflex against overwhelming viral stress, or in response to high insulin levels (secondary to high carbohydrate diets); it may be in response to damage from free radicals and cytokines, (the chemicals in the body which help fight infections), and certainly mitochondria can be directly poisoned by heavy metals, pesticides, carbon monoxide exposure and so on´

Taken from here:

http://www.actionforme.org.uk/get-in...d-by-brain-fog

One article read in M.E you forget where you put your keys but in Alzheimers you forget how to use your keys. Well all the more reason for me to celebrate that those particular Alzheimer-like symptoms I had have been reversed!


I did find one fmri imaging test for Myasthenia Gravis and this reference originating from 1916 was ´intriguing´ - at least to me!!!:....´Associations between MG and psychosis and epilepsy have been noted for over 90 years´

Taken from here:

http://ww4.aievolution.com/hbm1201/i...ewAbs&abs=4770

With my own experiences of general fatigue and later specific myasthenic muscle fatigue cognitive dysfunction played almost a 100% role in M.E but only approximately 5% in M.G so have more connections with the former. I would still be very interested to see live brain scanning showing what parts of the brain are temporarily affected during various fatigable muscle weakness tasks in MG in comparison to a group of healthy subjects.



PS Alan - As someone with suspected MG I always find other people´s experiences interesting as well...

http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Myast...y-brain/page-3