Originally Posted by
RLR
Okay, the prospect of motor neuron disease or amytrophic lateral sclerosis would not be consistent with your symptoms. People who first present to the doctor's office rarely report weakness, but rather a recent history of trip and fall accidents, dropping things constantly from their grip and similar experiences. The type of "twitches" observed in these diseases are actually fasciculations and they arise due to a gradual but persistent loss of communication between the nerve and the muscle tissues which they innervate. They can sometimes be observed spontaneously, but more often are elicited through percussion, meaning that striking the skin surface in a certain manner with a reflex hammer will produce a rapid and undulating sequence of the nerves being stimulated but the connectivity with the tissues is incomplete.
There are also two variants of these diseases, one which is termed limb onset and is evidenced by muscle wasting and weakness. The second is bulbar onset, wherein difficulty speaking, swallowing and communicating becomes difficult, followed by muscular signs. If both appear rather simultaneously, it would argue against such a diagnosis. Changes in personality are also common and frequently reported by family members. The main factor to remember with these two diseases is that progression toward a worsening state is universal. There is no period of remission whatsoever.
Multiple Sclerosis also produces very characteristic onset features, some of which you make no mention at all but that do appear among the list of those with the actual disease.
Simply because you have reimbursement in the area of chiropractic does not mean that it constitutes the best avenue to pursue. As a strictly allopathic practitioner, chiropractics remains largely shunned by the general medical community. You will often have to undergo a spinal series of standard x-ray films, wherein they inform you that your spine is out of alignment or that your neck is too straight, or a host of other mechanical abnormalities all of which they can resolve through chiropractic manipulation. You need to be aware that pressing on the joints and causing the release of free carbon dioxide in the joint space, which produces a popping sensation that produces a pleasant sensation, actually does nothing whatsoever to properly "align" your spinal process. There are claims that spinal alignment can treat or cure all types of ailments, but clinical research trials tell an entirely different story. It's analogous to running out of money to have your mechanic look at your car, but having money available for a plumber to examine it instead. A chiropractor is not a physician and they are not trained in allopathic medicine. I can more than speculate, however, that once you've been evaluated by one, they will universally tell you precisely what is wrong and set forth a treatment plan for you.
Stress and anxiety can produce physical manifestations in the absence of actual underlying disease and we term these manifestations somatoform. The entirety of your symptoms can be well explained by the presence of stress or anxiety.
I see nothing among your description at this point that would cause me to consider any of the neurodegenerative diseases you've listed, or alternatively those I know to be within the spectrum with a similar procession.
Best regards,
Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)
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