Myositis Essay
Essay Topic:
The physical and emotional consequences of myositis and the possible ways to treat the myositis disease.
Essay Questions:
What are the emotional consequences of myositis?
In what way does change the carrier of a man with myositis?
How is it possible to cure muscle inflammation?
Thesis Statement:
Myositis may include such illnesses as: polymyositis, dermatomyositis and inclusion body myositis.
Myositis Essay
Introduction: Myositis, like every other disease brings not only negative emotional sufferings but also significantly undermine the health of its carrier. This disease is not widespread. What happens to the organism is that the immune system chronically inflames the muscle tissue of the body. The inflammation does not only touch the muscles fibers but also the skin of the sick person. Myositis may include such illnesses as: polymyositis, dermatomyositis and inclusion body myositis.
Polymyositis is the stage of muscle inflammation and the stage when myositis starts attacking the skin is called dermatomyositis. The major problem concerning myositis is the difficulty to determine the irritant triggering such behavior and harmful reaction of the immune system in each individual situation. If the inflammation happens over and over the muscles of the body lose their tonus. They become weak, making it very hard to move the parts of the body. It is not a disease that appears suddenly. The development of the disease is rather slow and that it why the symptoms do not start to disturb on early phases. Myositis is suffered by the age categories starting from childhood, between the ages of 5 and 15 and strikes adults between the ages of 30 and 60. There are also no gender peculiarities, as it touches both men and women.
The cause of myositis and its symptoms.
Generally speaking myositis is the result of abnormal immune responses on healthy body tissues, which is exactly what a normal body does in order to fight an illness. The cause of the disease cannot be determined yet. As myositis attacks muscle fibers the first symptom of this disease is muscular weakness. This muscular weakness and sometimes pain usually have places of concentration: shoulders and hips. The early period of myositis with these places of pain concentration is characterized by troubles to rise from a chair, to lift and arm and even going upstairs. The organism stands walking a lot by a narrow margin, because it makes the muscle pain very strong. The patient may experience breath troubles due to the possibility of myositis to spread to the muscles in the front of the neck and throat and of lungs and chest. A person with myositis is usually unable to stand for a long time. Muscle swelling is also a symptom of the disease. The process of the disease progression is usually accompanied by fever. The progress of the weakness and pain later spreads from the hips and shoulders and attacks the whole body and the patients may even need a wheel-chair in order to be able to move around.
Diagnosing myositis.
As it has been mention the cause of myositis is very hard to determine. Hypothyroidism, toxin exposure, drug reactions and genetic disorders are among the possible reasons of the abnormal reaction of the immune system. The diagnosis of myositis includes the analysis of the medical history with all the symptoms the patients has every experienced. There are some tests that came it easier to determine myositis. They are: creatine kinase, various blood tests and taking an electromyogram. Along with the blood test, the measurement of muscle patters muscle biopsy is usually also required to pass. Muscle biopsy analyzes in what way exactly the fibers are destroyed through a little piece of a muscle taken from the body. The exact area of the muscular inflammation is calculated with the help of magnetic resonance imaging.
Possible treatment of myositis.
Unfortunately, there is no way to cure myositis. The only way to help a person suffering from myositis is to weaken the inflammation attacks on the bodys muscles. Nevertheless part or almost complete remission may be achieved. Various drugs usually suppress the disease, though these drugs sometimes have side effects. These drugs are called immunosuppresants. The most common medicament treatments in association with myositis are corticosteroids. They are used to maintain the immune system on the same level not letting it damage its own organism. There are also some medicaments as aspirin or ibuprofen, which are used for snap action relief.Both of them belong to the group of medicaments called NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Aside from the medical treatment another important part of the myositis treatment is physical exercising along with massaging the weal areas with warming them up. Physiotherapy is often used as a possibility to keep the patients of feet, constantly moving and able to live a full-fledged life. The last but no the least component of myositis treatment is rest. A person with myositis must not overload himself with any kind of activity and take enough time to keep the body vigorous.
Conclusion. Life with myositis is a constant fight for the ability to move. It is a struggle that takes away a lot of forces, but still the result may be rather close to a normal life of a healthy person if the right medical treatment is obtained.
Bibliography:
1. Kilpatrick, James R. Coping with a Myositis Disease /Kilpatrick Publishing Company /2000.
2. Icon Health Publications Myositis: A Medical Dictionary,
3. Bibliography/ Icon Health Publications / 2004. Myositis