Muscle Twitching

[markshand]

My twitching started about 20 month ago after a brief illness (viral maybe). The onset of twitching occurred during my illness, which started in my left tricep and rapidly spread over my whole body within days. The twitching comes and goes in severity and position but seems to be primarily located in my lower calve muscles. I also experience some very mild cramp like sensations in the feet, right hand and left tricep - the sensation feels like the muscle is going to cramp but never does.  I've had a cervical MRI (shows some disc degeneration but no nerve impingement), blood work, one EMG and 3 neuro  exams. Nothing out of the ordinary has been detected apart from the fasciculations. I have no objective loss of strength and have not been limited in my activities by this problem. My neurologist doesn't see the need for another EMG without me experiencing loss of strength or muscle wasting. Is this a reasonable course of action? His preliminary diagnosis is that he thinks I am suffering from Benign Fasciculation Syndrome, but does not rule out ALS - he said its unlikely but not impossible. Anyhow, after my last visit to my Neurologist he said it's not ALS - yet!! Hardly words of encouragement and this has made it difficult for me to accept the BFS diagnosis. Should I seek another opinion? What are the odds of me developing ALS after 2 years of twitching with no other ALS symptoms? Do the symptoms I'm experiencing sound like early ALS, or MS?

Thanks for your help.

[Abhijeet Ghosh]

Dear friend,
No doctor can 100% rule out ALS. but i can still console you by saying that, if we leave the probability factor aside, you don't look to be suffering from the same, or even MS.
To diagnose MS/ALS, the doctor needs to correctly co-relate the signs/symptoms along with the scan findings......
Lets think this condition as per the initial diagnosis only ie benign fasciculation syndrome and plan accordingly.
1) increase magnesium in the diet, by increasing peanuts/honey/wheat/soya in diet.
2) stay away from unwanted stress as in sub-conscious level stress can cause these symptoms.
3) give relaxation to the muscles, which is another reason for the unwanted fasciculations.
If after taking these measures fasciculations continues, then we need to re-plan, else forget the other conditions.
Regards....
Feel free to discuss more..

[lee412]

Did you tafe a quionolone antibiotic prior to these symtoms such as ciprofloxacin, levaquin, avolox or others?