can i have als?

[obolters]

hi guys.

i'm a 29 year old male, ive been suffering from extreme stress and anxiety for a while now but particularly in the last year where it got so bad i stopped being able to sleep and eat.

during a really bad weekend of feeling ill and stressed last october i was laying on my couch and noticed a rippling underneath the skin in my calf muscle, i checked the other one and it was doing the same, i phoned a woman i know that worked as a carer to the elderly and she said its probably due to my stress and not to sorry about it so i forgot about them, i cant ever feel them and it didnt bother me, i checked the other day and they are still there and ripling constantly

i googled "twitching calves" at the weekend and was horrified to find that it cold be the start of als.

when im standing my legs are fine and dont cramp even when i tense the calf muscle really hard but when i tense it really hard laying down they both cramp immediatly although i remember this happening for several years now, at least 8-9 years.

i dont have these twitches anywhere else, i dont have any weakness or numbness and walk a couple of mles at least once every couple of days.

i decided to take myself off to the docs yesterday and he said als was so rare and that because of my stress and anxiety problems ive got(ive developed white coat syndrome where i freak out and my heart sky rockets when i even get near a hospital because of all the tests ive had done about my insomnia and anxiety) he said he'd be quite sure that because i dont eat well and the extreme stress and anxiety disorder ive got meant that he didnt feel it beneficial making me wait a couple of months for loads of neurology tests and that he was sure it was probably just down to diet and stress.

what do you guys think, i first noticed them in october last year but couldve had them for years before ive just never looked before and like i said i cant feel them so i really dont know how long before that i couldve had them for, im 6"1 and naturaly weigh 12 stone but in january of this year i started to work out and eat a lot to try and occupy my mind from the stress and anxiety i was feeling and during the two months i worked out i got up to 13.9 stone so didnt have any trouble building up muscle and apart from the constant rippling under my calves i dont have any other symptoms though having read on the internet about it the only way to know for sure is for a neurologist to do an emg.

do you think i should just accept my gp's diagnosis and forget about or go to another gp and go through all the stress and hassle of hospitals and tests, would i have noticed atrophy by now and would it have spread?

ahould i be having other symptoms? is it a good or bad thing that for the past 6-7 months i cant feel them and theyre only in my calves?

any advice and extra info would be really helpfull guys im really in a quandry as to what to do next.

thanks.

 

[trfogey]

obolters,

If your symptoms have been going on for 8-9 years and you are still alive, much less capable of all normal activity, then your symptoms aren't caused by ALS.

Take your doctor's advice and relax. Also, stop looking up medical stuff on the Internet unless your doctor's told you that you have it. As you have discovered from this misadventure, there's a lot of misleading information out there on the ’Net.

Good luck to you.

 

[Zaphoon]

I'm no doc but stress and anxiety can bring on the muscle twitching you've been experiencing. I agree with trfogey. If you've been symptomatic for 8 or so years and can still function with a high degree of normality, you do not have ALS.

I would suggest a hobby (bird watching, dog walking, model airplane building, etc...) as an avenue to help you unwind and relax, thereby alleviating stress levels (and thereby reducing or even eliminating those nasty muscle twitches).

 

[kmendsley]

Stress can do many things to the body...including twitching. Also poor diet can cause vitamin definiciencies and potassium problems which also cause twitching of muscles. Make sure vitamins and potassium are ok by blood test and then find a nice quiet hobby to keep that active mind calm. You do not have ALS by the symptoms you have described.

 

[notme]

The fact that yiour exercise and healthy eating are making your muscles grow points away from ALS. Anxiety can do a lot--yes. It's normal to have your legs cramp as you described when you weren't eating very healthy.

My legs cramped like that years and years ago (when I was very young) and it was from working them too much and too hard. Nothing sinister there, so don't worry.

Listen to the new doc and do as he suggests. See if they can treat the anxiety and I'd bet you'll feel a lot better. As the others have said--with years of symptoms you'd have had significant loss of use somewhere by this time--and that's if you were still alive. Having no weakness also means no ALS.

You're going to be just fine--try to get ALS out of your head. It's almost Friday night. Go out with your friends tonight and have some fun!

 

[Alyoop]

Sounds like a case of benign fasciculations with secondary anxiety syndrome called googilitis. It's pandemic at the moment. The best cure is a sudden power outage or you could turn the cause of it off. It really should come with a health warning like a box of cigarettes.

 

[obolters]

hi guys, thanks for all your responses, they've been really reassuring.

can i clarify a couple of things i may not have made clear, the cramping of my calves ive had as long as i can remember, every time i tense them hard when laying down they instantly cramp and i have to stop tensing but as i said ive had that for years and years and before i noticed the fasciculations it never bothered me.

just to be clear i only noticed the twitching/fasciculations under both of my calves around october of last year so probably around 8 months ago but like i say i cant feel them and if i hadnt been lay'ed up on the sofa feeling sick from my anxiey i would never have noticed them so i could have had them for so much longer i dont really know.

i was reading some of the points on the sticky thread and was wondering a couple of things, 8 months after first seeing these twitches would i have noticed anything else by now?

i did the foot drop strength test and can stand on either foot for as long as i like and jump up the stairs with both feet how the test described o.k

the thing im worried about is that ive read loads of sites and the information seems to be a bit conflicting, i havnt had any twitches anywhere else in my body since i noticed the fasciculations 8 months ago and some sites have said that als spreads throughout the body so i thought this was a good sign that i only have had them for 8 months stay in my calves but then other sites have sid that if they strt and stay in one part of the body(particularly the calves) this is symptomatic of als, can anyone clarify which one of these is true?

the other thing that is freaking me out is the als twitching calf muscle videos on youtube which mine look exactly like.

sorry to keep going on and bombarding you with questions and asking for opinions just seems like a lot of contradictory info out there on the web about it.

thanks again

mark

 

[Alyoop]

Mark. As you know ALS is extremely rare, and most AL's starts in fingers, toes and sometimes proximal ie shoulders. I have not heard of anyone with ALS starting in the calfskin. The calfs are a common spot for benign fasciculations. I know because I have had them constantly for 4 years now. If in 8 months you have not developed any atrophy or weakness in the fasciculation muscle, then I really would not bother worrying about it.

I was serious about the damage and anxiety caused by the Internet. It's really been ridiculous how many people get extremely stressed and experience worsening of symptoms once they have read that fasciculations are connected with ALS. Try reading information about bfs. It will put your mind at rest.

After 8 months you would notice other symptoms of ALS and remember, a number of suffered would already be in wheelchairs and some even would have died. Hard to say, but THAT is how devastating this illness is.

Wherever did you read that AL's fasciculations are symptomatic " particularly" in the calfs. I have never read that anywhere!

Just relax. You have common benign fasciculations that most people will experience at some time or another, including all neurologists that I have seen.

 

[obolters]

hi alyoop & everyone else

thanks for that response, it really is reasuring.

i looked on a load of sites so i cant specificaly remember where individual things i read were refrenced.

when i first stopped sleeping and was having severe anxiety outside which was causing me to be a bit paranoid whilst out they thought it may be some sort of psychosis and refered to a entre that deals with thet, they subsequently ruled that out and said i just had severe anxiety disorder and was addicted to feeling tense and anxious but because of the sleeping and initial concerns of psychosis they sent me for an mri on my brain, i was terrified what they might find.

ive just finally had the result back and the woman said they were fine and showed no cranial abnormalities which untill sunday when i started to research als i would have been over the moon to hear but i had full blod tests done 3 months ago when i had an infection and they came back absoloutly normal, they were a thyroid test, blood count, liver function etc and showed nothing abnormal.

so the problem i'm having now is that this should have been a hapy week getting the brain scan results come back clear and with the blood tests being o.k i should be relieved but reading about als if i had bfs wouldnt something have shown up in the blod tests to be causing it and the same with the mri on my brain, if it was bfs would the brain scan have shown that?

i'm worried that with the tests ive had for other thigs coming back normal doesnt this more likely point towards als because the blood tests or brain scan wouldve shown something causing bfs?

if someone could help clarify this for me because through investigating on the internet(i know alyoop it is counter productive i cant seem to help it) one of these tests should have shown up something causing the bfs and dont they diagnose als through doing all these tests by way of process of elimination? like i said i should be over the moon thinking my insomnia was caused by a tumour and the results coming back fine and thinking i was ill but all the blood tests coming back fine but dont these normal result dicount bfs and point towrds als?

sorry again guys to keep brow beating you with this stuff my mind is going 100mph with this stuff

thanks

mark

 

[notme]

Bfs is benign fasciculation syndrome. No, it would not show anything abnormal on the tests you have had. Benign is GOOD, not bad.

No ALS, really.

 

[Alyoop]

Mark please excuse my spelling mistakes. My iPad flicks predictive changes up too quickly and I miss them.
Aly

 

[obolters]

Mark please excuse my spelling mistakes. My iPad flicks predictive changes up too quickly and I miss them.
Aly

sorry alyoop i dont know what you mean?


thanks for the reply notme, reading a lot on the internet hasnt helped me i think im misunderstanding some of the stuff ive read, i can have bfs but have a normal mri and blood tests though?

 

[obolters]

sorry guys, reading my posts back they do seem a tad manic and incoherent, i dont mean for them to be its just indicitive of how anxious i am.

ive definently been reassured by the posts on this thread and want to thank the people that have contributed.

its just the last point i'd apprieciate peoples imput on that having had full bloods and an MRI on my brain done if it was only bfs wouldnt that have shown something and doesnt the fact that they all came back fine mean that if there is no obvious reason for bfs that als is more likely through process of elimination?

thanks again

mark

 

[Alyoop]

All tests would be normal if your fasciculation's are benign. In the absence of UMN and LMN dysfunction, it cannot be ALS or any other MND

 

[obolters]

All tests would be normal if your fasciculation's are benign. In the absence of UMN and LMN dysfunction, it cannot be ALS or any other MND

hi thanks, ive read a bit about UMN and LMN dysfunction and am still slightly unsure as to what exactly this is?

i googled it just now and came upon this site: Diagnosing ALS

it says in part b: The absence of:


(B:1) electrophysiological and pathological evidence of other disease processes that might explain the signs of LMN and/or UMN degeneration, and


(B:2) neuroimaging evidence of other disease processes that might explain the observed clinical and electrophysiological signs.

ive had blood tests and a brain scan that would rule out umn and lmn havnt i or am i misunderstanding what UMN and LMN dysfunction exctly is?

thanks

mark