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Can muscle be rebuilt in a polio affected area/limb?

Posted , 27 users are following.

charles025
charles025

My mother suffered polio at around the age of 3 and has in recent years been increasingly affected by post polio syndrome. Thankfully she was relatively unharmed by the virus but it left her with a severely underdeveloped left leg. I think I understand that polio attacks the nervous system and this follows onto the lack of "normal" muscle development or atrophy.

My main concern is that as my mother gets older the affects of the polio/pps become more pronounced and it pains me to see her in pain and without the ability to walk for a sustained period without become extremely sore and tired.

Anyway my question is as above, does the damage to the nervous system prevent active muscle building? My thoughts are that using weights/resistance bands will build muscle therefore counteracting the various issues previously mentioned.

Any help would be much appreciated.

3 likes, 19 replies

19 Replies

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  • fanny75524
    fanny75524 charles025

    Posted

    My wife is a polio patient since birth in Ghana.Both legs were affected,but,she was lucky that her parents could afford the medicals in Britain.The left leg was healed and the right should follow,but,due financials,it could not be done.Now,she is 33 years old and i want to ask if this could be cured now at this age?. Am in Germany and willing to pay the expenses for the surgery if only she can be made whole. Any advice out there?.Thank You all.
  • fred80536
    fred80536 charles025

    Posted

    Weights should be avoided they likely will make matters worse. Light exercise as in water are the best. The problem with pps is that the motor neurons were damaged by the virus and as we age motor neuron loss is normal, having fewer to start with people with pps are more severely affected. Over exercising will damage them even quicker.
  • gerard61107
    gerard61107 charles025

    Posted

    Hi

    I contracted polio in 1959 in my right leg from the knee down, had my calf muscle replaced with a muscle from the front part of my leg to pull my foot down. My toes were touching my shin, I think this what they called a club foot?

    Any way, now my left leg is having pain and tightness, my Dr. thinks it's LCL ( lateral collateral ligament) damage.

    Could this by chance be PPS even though it's affecting the left leg and not my right leg that had polio degeneration ?

    • marion02844
      marion02844 gerard61107

      Posted

      Hello Gerard,

      Sadly I think it can be - I had polio in my left leg yet my right leg is slowly giving up.  The Dr. I saw at St. Thomas's in London did tell me all parts of the body may be affected in later life....

      Sorry to tell you bad news.

      Marion x

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