Dad had it. He also suffered from exposure to Agent Orange, if that helps.
My grandmother had a pretty hard case. Plasmapherisis once a month kept her in good shape. She lived into her 90’s. She was diagnosed around the age of 75.
Mostly severe and sudden muscle weakness and lack of coordination.
Just an anecdotal report I heard once that it can be a side effect of statins.
My mother has it.
My mother has it. Her mother had it.
My mother was diagnosed when she was 70. She is now 80 and doing great. Her first symptom was one eyelid was drooping. She takes an infusion for it and it works pretty well.
My mother had it in 2007. One doctor at a big Rochester (NY) hospital told her she was just getting old and sent her home (to die).
For weeks she degraded. My sister diagnosed it via Internet research when no doctor could l was able to.
The day food and water came out of her nose when she tried to swallow, my sister called the department head at the hospital who told her to get her there ASAP, so my brother took her.
Sister flew in to Rochester from FL. I flew in from CA. She was so emaciated I didn’t recognize her.
She was weak. Couldn’t lift her arms or really move. Lost a ton of weight because she couldn’t swallow food. She was like a rag doll. Had double vision. Thought it might be her eyes; it wasn’t. We even considered botulism. I don’t recall ALL the symptoms.
After 24 hours of IVIG she recovered. I think the doc told my sister that she had maybe hours to live. She was on a drug, cellcept, until she died last April 15 at 99 y.o., but recovered beautifully.
Who? Was he related to Latka Gravis?
Losing ability to taste would be horrible for anyone, but for a 300 pounder it has to be particularly awful however it didn't affect his weight.
Iron is toxic in humans. Hemoglobin carries iron in the blood. Hemoglobin binds iron so that it is no longer toxic. The spleen places iron into hemoglobin.
When the blood has too much free iron it causes the liver to produce hepcidin. Hepcidin breaks down ferroportin, the iron membrane transporter. Ferroportin works to transport iron from hemoglobin into cells. Ferroportin also transports ingested iron across the intestinal lining into the blood.
So hepcidin attenuates iron entering the blood, but it also attenuates cellular iron uptake.