Hello,I am registered for very long time so I hope my first post will bring some good news. Im sorry if this is alredy mentioned - I havent found it.Im on holiday in my homeland (living in Germany now) so I visited neurology here, just because I wanted to hear their oppinion. I had said I have fascics and in one hour they did EMG. Two doctors were present and found nothing.I have mentioned /just between the speaking/ that I was very stressed when the twitches began. The faces of both doctors were much happier during one second. So:They explained to me, that with stress your body releases magnesium (thats we know here, I think) out of muscles and if its too much, it can damage nerves (they said something like "if the releasing is too fast"), causing exactly fasciculations. Restoration of nerves is long-distance run and they told me, for stress caused fascics taking magnesium with B vitamins wont help much.They also told me during 25 years they had seen just one woman whose fasciculations were before weakness and wrong results.So, this all is over me, I am not affraid of ALS anymore!
EMG Results: Nothing Found
- Thread starter Savanturn
- Start date
AllGoodHere
Well-known member
Yes, it is a relief when you find that you are simply malfunctioning rather than in a steep decline - I'm glad for you that you know this now and can move on and not be fearful. My neurologist also said much the same thing - BFS/CFS is seen in patients that have undergone stress (physical, emotional, viral, etc.) which causes damage at the nerve-muscle interface. Also there is agreement in that the syndrome is a long haul rather than a short one: it may get better, may not, or may come and go. Nothing about magnesium release being responsible for the damage - would like to know if that is true just out of curiousity. Rather, some research shows that some patients with BCFS have VGKC antibodies that block the channels that switch our muscles off and these are thought to keep the syndrome from reversing. Thanks for sharing - it is good to hear from people who accept their diagnosis and want to carry on with their life - hope to see you in symptom management! We need to share ways of coping: exercise techniques, foods that help and don't, dealing with clueless people. Oh! this sounds exactly like any other forum - how refreshing!
Hey Savanturn, so glad you got a good report. I am interested in what they told you about the magnesium being released during stressful times. This makes sense to me. But, if taking magnesium and B vitamins doesn't restore the magensium and stop the twitching, what does? Did they have any answer for that?Linda
LindaJ: They told me that taking Mg +B complex vitamins wont help much, because the damage is done by their fast releasing and the restoration of nerves is complicated and takes a long time - so its not caused by lack of them (which can be cause too).They told me just to dont worry about ALS, because more stress-more consumption of Mg = more twitches, worsening, its blind cyrcle. So their advice was relaxing and undergo some antistress therapy, I am person who is really easily stressed and often I have anxiety without serious reasons.
BartOne: Well I will answer but the others please accept he wanted to know, dont tell me Im bringing bad stuff!They only told me, that the woman has localized constant shoulder (deltoid) twitches with normal exam results - they did not tell me about EMG. She returned in a two months with body-spread sporadic twitches and weak shoulder. So its again the old theory - body-spread twitches that comes with ALS are present in later stages, when large amount of motoneurons start to die. They told me twitching comes with weakness, it is its result, but its noticeable later, also it is possible to have twitches before weakness, if you do not notice the weakness itself - but they reassure me that if it precedes, then it is in weeks and EMG would show it. That is all they said to me that day.I repeat, they told me it was one case during 25 years and weakness followed in 2 months. So I believe them, I like EMG done in hour after I said "Hello" 
PS: This woman could have BFS or non-ALS related twitching, that would explain it, too.
PS: This woman could have BFS or non-ALS related twitching, that would explain it, too.Hi SavanturnThank you for your answer. I find this a very good answer! Probably no EMG done and 2 months after twitching. This is one of the 6% cases. So I can conclude : when twitches come before weakness, weakness follows very quickly and that' s a good answer for us. So if we have an EMG done, we are certainly fineIf we have been twitching - and even widespread more than 2 months (like 98% here) we are fine. I'm glad you said this, gives me back hopeTwitching for 8 months now!
Ok, glad it helps!After 8 months I think you have 99,99999% chance that you are fine.PS: They also told me that twitches can be result of infection of chlamydia pneumoniae - this was one it is not transmissible by sexual contact! Many people think chlamydia = sex. transmission, this one is spreading through air!
BartOne: Then move to better doctor? The truth is, that some chlamydia infections are more or almost always present in women, but not this!Simple proof (if you do not believe me) // book about study, in the abstract you can even see there were more men.Or interesting experiences from people with C.pneumoniae and fatique and many more symptoms (including twitching):Or just use Google.
Quickrider
Active member
Thank you SavanturnI also went through a very stressful time before twitching started. Bart, as you can see there are many causes for twitching. *** is one of the rarest causes. Our twitching is caused by something much more common, stress or an infection.Sandra
onesMJonesy
Active member
I'm going to chime in on this one. I've stayed away from this site for many months because just the mere mention of BFS would make my anxiety go throught the roof. I'm not meaning to put this website down but for some unknown reason I feel extra stress. Anyway to get to my point my twitching all began after a prolonged period of stress. I developed GAD (generalised anxiety disorder) and if you google symptoms of GAD twitching is one of them. From my own circumstances I didn't buy into the fact that some autoimmune response kicked. I knew what preceded my twitching and that was anxiety. I was desperate for some help and I found that help in a posting on this site from kevintwister. He too was a twitcher and is now fully cured due to the good people at anxietycentre.com. I now get counselling from these people and they have given me my life back. I can't say I'm completely cured as I'm only 3 months into my recovery program but what I do see is some results. The buzzing has disappeared and my twitching has substantially reduced. I don't get many thumpers anymore and when I do twitch it is a lot softer. I've been told it may take me 1 to 2 years to recover and that's fine with me as I know my progress to date has been excellent. If it takes two years then so be it. The twitching no longer frightens me and I'm confident I'll be twitch free over time.If any of you think anxiety has caused your symptoms I urge you to act on your anxiety. The anxietycentre.com have a comprehensive book on their site that discusses how anxiety manifests itself in various ways. It also gives you all the strategies you need to work on your anxiety. It is not a quick fix, there is no such thing. Anxiety is behavioural and it is our behaviour that needs to be addressed. It costs $20 to join and it's the best $20 I've spent. If this post helps just one person then it's been worth writing. That's it from me. I'm signing off permanently. I wish you all the best.Maria