Stress/physiology
 

I know that I have discussed this and received tons of input from this forum on this subject. There are also several discussions going on about this, but I don't want to hijack those threads.

I just have one thing that I can't wrap my brain around.

1. Stress depresses the immune system.

2. MG is a disease caused by an incorrect immune response. It responds to and is improved by immunosuppressants.

3. Then how exactly does stress make MG symptoms worse? My logic tells me it should make it better. Think how much more fun it would be to be able to abuse our bodies with "stressful" things (maybe drugs, alcohol, all night parties, etc) all to get a cure.

So what is the physiology behind stress making MG worse?

Am just jumping in here with a couple of things from my own experience:

• Emotionally stressful situations could make some symptoms intensify slightly

• Physiologically (?) stressful situations (I mean like good adrenalin) actually relieved symptoms temporarily, a little like the effect of coffee.

• Stress in the bigger picture did not appear to direct the overall long term course of my own myasthenic weakness. In other words myasthenia appeared to have a life and direction all of its own

Stress for me is a short term thing. Usually if I can get rid of the stress I'm better in 24 hours. Sorta like heat outside.
Mike

I am not thinking that stress has any real long term effect on me. It is more of a short term, ruin my day type effect.

I feel better after sleeping. Last night I could not swallow. The only new factor added into the mix was getting upset.

On a happy note, my daughter just got a job. That should help her life situation tremendously.

And yours!!!!!!!!!!!

This is just my own idea, but when I am feeling stressed or anxious, I tend to clench my muscles slightly without realizing it--muscles all over my body. I think stress makes me weak for that reason: I'm using my muscles a lot more than usual, but without quite realizing it.

If this is what's going on, the solution is obvious: deliberate relaxation of the muscles throughout the day.

Abby

My symptoms also seem to temporarily worsen when upset/stressed.. but recover as soon as I have a rest period. Like anacrusis said, when I have adrenaline going it helps temporarily, but I do crash..

Abby- i find myself doing just that.. very tense and I don't even realize it..especially with my jaw!!! Then I can't keep my mouth shut for a while - i'm sure I look lovely with my mouth wide open :) My jaw will kind of vibrate with weakness if i try to keep it shut

That may be the problem. I may be tensing up all over when I am upset. I'll try to pay more attention.

http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/44175_2.pdf

Just look up stress response theory. ;) There are actual biochemical responses that take place in the body, to varying degrees, that can make MG worse. Or anyone's state of health really.

What's ironic about MG is that muscles can cramp up and even more so at night when we're weaker. The more they do, the weaker you get! That hardly seems fair.

Annie

I agree. I think stress causes muscle tension followed by muscle fatigue.

kathie

I am in a philosophical mood today, so feel free not to ready this post if you are not into a long answer.

I think that in order to answer this question we have to first define "stress".

So, I went and looked it up in the dictionary:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stress

So, like many other words we use regularly, this is a very ill defined term.

It can be positive (such as the physical stress we use to create a beautiful sculpture or even the stress we use to write on the computer).

In fact one of our problems is that we can't create enough physical stress with our muscles to do those things, because we are limited in our ability to exert such force.

If stress alters an existing equilibrium it can be beneficial if this equilibrium was not ideal or deleterious if it was.

We tend to think that something is stressful if it leads to unwanted change and not stressful if it is the change that we want. But, in reality, both are stressful. Both require a physical or chemical change, both require efforts and both create strains.

We decide if something is stressful by the end result and not by the process itself. That is why we attribute negative consequence to "stress".

Even diseases (which are unwanted changes) can be see as an adaptive response to external forces of chemical changes.
For instance: cigarette smoking puts enormous strain on the cells lining the respiratory system. Their way to respond to this and not die is by changing their structure. They stop putting their energy into creating those small hair like structures and this way they can survive the ongoing environmental stress. The cells of the delicate epithelial lining also undergo changes that make it possible for them to survive this insult. They become more resilient to environmental cues. Those initially positive changes that enable the cells to survive (and the person to continue smoking because he can't notice any discernible harm) eventually lead to inability to clear secretions, fight infections and many times also a malignant transformation of cells which have become resilient to numerous ongoing insults.

What we call a stress response is the physiological way in which our body responds in situations that require fast action.
Our body is adapted to this kind of response and it overall has a beneficial effect. We need this kind of stress. We need a good surge of adrenaline every now and then.

This kind of stress is short and always followed by relaxation and recuperation. For instance: After we run, our body rebuilds our muscles that suffered some damage from such extensive use.

But, there is also a different kind of stress which is caused by the constant exposure of our organism to what is not physiological or natural.
Cigarette smoking is one example, but there are many others.

This kind of stress is caused by fighting our nature, by suppressing our normal emotions, by ignoring our basic needs, by exposing our body to chemicals it is not accustomed to. It forces our body to constantly adapt, to constantly change, to constantly lose its equilibrium, without having time for recuperation.

It is this chronic non-physiological chemical, emotional and physical stress which is harmful.