Causes, Including Autoimmune Diseases and Poisoning
Neuromuscular disease can be caused by circulatory problems (stroke, etc.), immunological and autoimmune disorders, the failure of the electrical insulation surrounding nerves myelin, genetic/hereditary disorders, such as Huntington's disease, certain rare tumors, the failure of the connections between the nerves and the muscle fibers, exposure to pernicious environmental chemicals, poisoning (including heavy metal poisoning), and importantly, unknown causes. The failure of the electrical insulation surrounding nerves, the myelin, is seen in certain deficiency diseases, such as the failure of the body's system for absorbing vitamin B-12, and also the failure of the myelin is seen in multiple sclerosis and some other neurological diseases, especially in autoimmune diseases that are thought to attack the myelin.
Some neuromuscular diseases are hypothesized to be caused either by viral infections or by attack by little-known pernicious proteins called prions.
Diseases of the motor end plate include myasthenia gravis, a form of muscle weakness due to antibodies to the acetylcholine receptor, and its related condition Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS). Tetanus and botulism are bacterial infections in which bacterial toxins cause increased or decreased muscle tone, respectively.
Myopathies are all diseases primarily resulting in muscular degeneration, rather than affecting the nerves themselves.
Muscular dystrophies, including Duchenne's and Becker's, are a large group of diseases, many of them hereditary or resulting from genetic mutations, where the muscle integrity is disrupted. They lead to progressive loss of strength and decreased life span.
Read more about this topic: Neuromuscular Disease
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