A person’s neuromuscular system involves the synergistic working of their nerves and muscles to facilitate movement. Neuromuscular diseases directly or indirectly affect the nerves or the neuromuscular junction (the meeting zone of muscle fiber and motor nerve ends) to impair an individual’s muscle movement. Multiple factors can trigger these disorders, including metabolic issues, hormonal imbalances, viral infections, and others, many of which are still unknown. Here are some vital details about the various neuromuscular disorders:

Symptoms of neuromuscular diseases
Neuromuscular disease symptoms can range from mild to life-threatening. Some of the symptoms are:

Muscle wasting
It is common for individuals with neuromuscular diseases to experience shrinking, weakening, and loss of muscles, indicators that are collectively known as muscle wasting. This symptom reduces a person’s ability to heal muscular injuries.

Movement issues
As stated earlier, an individual’s neuromuscular system regulates and facilitates their movement. Neuromuscular diseases make any kind of movement painful and difficult for patients. Apart from movement, these diseases (in their advanced stages) also affect an individual’s balance, making it difficult for them to stand on their feet.

Skeletal deformity
In its advanced stages, neuromuscular diseases cause severe muscle spasticity, or stiffness, in individuals. This causes extreme difficulty in bending joints for performing day-to-day functions. As a result, neuromuscular diseases result in eventual skeletal deformities in patients.

Swallowing difficulty
An individual’s tongue and lips are instrumental in how they chew and ingest their food. The muscular movement of the language and lips is adversely affected in people with neuromuscular diseases, making simple actions like swallowing food much more challenging.

Muscular cramps
The weakening of muscles caused by neuromuscular diseases results in frequent twitching, aches, pains, and cramps in patients.

Weakness and fatigue
Muscular weakness in people with neuromuscular diseases makes it harder to perform the simplest of tasks, such as climbing stairs or cycling, without feeling out of breath and exhausted quickly.

Types of neuromuscular diseases
The umbrella term “neuromuscular diseases” has several classifications. Some of its types are:

Myasthenia gravis
Myasthenia gravis is defined as a long-term neuromuscular junction disorder and a chronic autoimmune condition that causes acute weakness in a person’s skeletal muscles. This weakness worsens rapidly if the person is executing any physical activity. Therefore, people with this condition need to rest frequently to feel better and stronger.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
ALS is a progressive condition in which an individual gradually loses total control of their muscles, causing paralysis. In this condition, the brain and spinal cord nerve cells are irreversibly affected. ALS is also called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the renowned baseball player’s diagnosis.

Cramp-fasciculation syndrome (CFS)
This condition is characterized by chronic muscle spasms, twitches, contractions, or cramps. Such symptoms emerge due to the acceleration of nerve activity in the patient’s body. CFS generally affects patients’ legs. Other symptoms of this condition include numbness, tingling, or prickling in the CFS-affected body part.

Lambert-Eaton syndrome (LEMS)
Lambert-Eaton syndrome also involves the immune system. In this condition, a patient’s immune system attacks the neuromuscular junction and other connections between their muscles and nerves. This condition is generally found in people with cancer, but non-cancer individuals may also develop it.

Muscular dystrophy
Muscular dystrophy is a collective term used to denote a group of diseases that cause progressive muscle mass loss, weakness, and nerve tissue breakdown in patients.

Remedies for neuromuscular diseases
Healthcare researchers are still working on finding treatment options for neuromuscular disorders. Therefore, the only remedies are strategies such as slowing down the disease progression, treating controllable symptoms, and boosting patients’ overall quality of life. Physical therapy, surgery (if needed), and occupational therapy are vital to treating these disorders. Here are some key details regarding the various remedies:

Education
In the education phase, patients and their family members learn about neuromuscular diseases and their diagnoses from healthcare professionals or other online or offline resources. These learnings help patients deal with their symptoms and life, in general, while undergoing therapy. Education is often the most critical stage for most patients, as several people in the country are still unaware of the seriousness of these diseases.

Counseling
Neurological diseases, like any critical health condition, can seriously affect the mental health of patients and their loved ones. Therefore, counseling for patients and their friends and family through social workers and psychologists helps everyone deal with the stress and trauma involved in such situations.

Neuromuscular therapy
Therapy can be divided into two classifications: occupational and physical. In occupational therapy, patients are assigned an occupational therapist to help them with certain activities and make their life convenient despite their health condition.
Some of the activities or tasks that an occupational therapist helps patients with are self-care activities (functions related to eating, grooming, dressing, and similar other tasks), home activities (homely functions such as cooking, budgeting, and cleaning), leisure activities (functions that help retain a patient’s recreational and social interests), and occupational activities (functions needed in the patient’s workplace). Now, the therapist may not necessarily perform the functions themselves, but they will certainly help the patient get the work done.
In physical therapy, patients are made to do resistance training, gait training, balance training, stretching, mobility training, aerobic endurance, and transfer training to promote their muscular strength and abilities.

Surgery
Usually, the last resort for healthcare professionals is surgeries to treat neuromuscular diseases. This involves surgeons using precision tools to address the symptoms of a given patient’s condition. An example of this is the use of spinal fusion surgery to stabilize the curve and stop the progression of neuromuscular scoliosis in patients.