Defense: What causes paralysis, muscle paralysis? (Temporary, permanent)

Paralysis is a condition where a person has difficulty with mobility. It can be mobility of only part of the body or the whole body. The most severe forms of paralysis are called paralysis. It occurs when a person is unable to move part or all of the body at all.

Paresis is a partial loss of mobility, a weakening or incomplete paralysis.
Plegia refers to a complete loss of mobility, i.e. paralysis.

Some palsies are only temporary and, through rehabilitation, the person can regain mobility. Worse, however, are those in which mobility is irreversibly impaired and the sufferer is no longer independent.

Polio and paralysis are diseases of the nervous system. They are technically defined as limitations in a person's mobility, movement and motor skills. If there is only partial paralysis, it is paresis.

For example, if a person can move the affected limb to a limited extent.

Plegia is a complete loss of mobility in the affected part of the body. The person cannot control it independently. Sometimes paralysis and palsy involve larger parts of the body and muscles, other times it is just specific nerves.

Such paralysis, when there is an isolated loss or impairment of the mobility of specific nerves, is manifested, for example, in mumps, Lyme disease, shingles.

A common cause is trauma. Car accident, fall from height, summer jump into a swimming pool, high-energy injuries. In the trauma mechanism, the brain, spinal cord, nerves are damaged, resulting in impaired function.

Due to the oppression, the functionality of the nerve in question is impaired. Nerve oppression can also cause cancer. If the tumour is located in the skull, even the benign form is malignant due to the oppression of the surrounding tissue.

Infectious diseases

Polio can be caused by various viruses and infections of the brain and nervous tissue. Even several infectious diseases can cause polio in different forms and to different extents.

Tick-borne encephalitis is an example. This is actually an infectious viral disease. It affects the brain and meninges. It is mainly transmitted by ticks, mosquitoes or by ingesting infected milk.

Similarly, toxoplasmosis, which is a parasitic infection. In some cases, it can cause muscle weakness, muscle pain and sometimes paralysis or even paralysis. Some people are asymptomatic.

Botulism is a poisoning by botulinum toxin (sausage poison). Intoxication causes muscle paralysis. The severity depends on the dose of poison ingested. In the worst cases, it can cause death.

Poisoning of individual nerves

There are also palsies of individual nerves. There are palsies of the cranial nerves, palsies of the nerves of the upper limb and palsies of the lower limb. They result in impaired function in the innervation of the nerve in question.

A good example is facial nerve palsy, which can also be found under the name facial nerve palsy (technically, paresis nervus facialis). This term includes several subunits.

One of them is Bell's palsy. It is more common and occurs, for example, with colds, draughts, driving a car with an open window. It is also referred to as primary or essential.

Secondary peripheral paresis arises from a variety of causes. For example, leukemia, lymphoma, herpes zoster oticus. And as a manifestation of irritation, spontaneous contraction of the mimic muscles.

The picture of nerve palsy of the upper and lower limbs is limited mobility, weakness of some parts of the limb or loss of sensitivity. It depends on the site of damage, the disease.

An example is paralysis of the nervus radialis (radial nerve), where the affected person is unable to clench his or her hand into a fist. Paralysis of the nervus femoralis (femoral nerve) results in the affected person being unable, for example, to step or walk up stairs.

Cerebral palsy/polio

Cerebral palsy is a disease called cerebral palsy. It is most often caused by damage to brain tissue.

The disease is characterised by a disorder of central motor control. The brain is affected. The causes vary from damage to the brain during pregnancy, when cerebral palsy is also called congenital.

This form includes damage due to maternal infection, as in toxoplasmosis, for example. Maternal stress or Rh incompatibility or metabolic disorders also have a negative effect.

The acquired forms also have several causes. These include infection of the child, neonatal jaundice. The causative agent of polio is the RNA virus, poliovirus, and most commonly affects the anterior horns of the spinal cord.

It is also known as poliomyelitis anterior acuta, which is acute transmissible poliomyelitis or Heine-Medina disease/polio. It is also known as poliomyelitis.

This acute childhood infectious viral disease causes paralysis of the muscles of the body, but most often of the lower limbs. Vaccination can effectively protect against this disease.

Cerebral palsy and polio are two different diseases.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ALS

Dangerous are polio diseases that gradually spread throughout the body. There is also the risk of paralysis of the respiratory muscles. This is already a life-threatening condition. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS, is one such disease.

It causes damage to the central nervous system and the peripheral motoneurons that control muscle movement.

Sclerosis multiplex

Another example is multiple sclerosis, known professionally as sclerosis multiplex. It is also a chronic disease of the nervous tissue.

This autoimmune disease causes T-lymphocytes to attack the body's own nerve fibres. Namely, the myelin sheaths of nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord. One of the symptoms is varying degrees of paralysis.

In 1996 the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (American National Multiple Sclerosis Society) standardized four forms:

• Relapsing-remitting
• Secondary-progressive, chronic-progressive
• Primary-progressive
• Relapsing-progressive

Stroke

Polio also occurs in stroke, which is an acute type of stroke. It is a disease in which brain cells are damaged due to lack of oxygenation to the brain or bleeding into the brain.

Sleep paralysis

Occurs during sleep and is classified as a sleep disorder. It is also called sleep paralysis. It is associated with an unpleasant experience where the person perceives themselves and their surroundings but lacks the ability to control their limbs.

It is not a serious sleep disorder. However, in addition to paralysis of the body, there may be symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, emotional states, hallucinations. In some cases, permanent paralysis.

However, temporary or permanent paralysis can also occur in cases of other diseases affecting the nervous system, muscles or brain. If there is any suspicion of impaired mobility of the limbs or other parts of the body, a doctor should be seen immediately.