Myasthenia gravis facts for kids

Myasthenia gravis is a rare health condition. It makes your muscles weak and tired. This happens because your body's defense system, called the immune system, accidentally attacks parts of your nerves. These nerves usually tell your muscles what to do.

Things like stress, hot weather, or even just being active can make the muscle weakness worse.

What is Myasthenia Gravis?

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease. This means your own immune system, which normally fights off germs, makes a mistake. Instead of attacking bad things, it attacks healthy parts of your body.

In myasthenia gravis, the immune system attacks the connection between your nerves and muscles. This connection is called the neuromuscular junction. It's like a tiny switchboard where messages from your brain tell your muscles to move. When this switchboard is attacked, the messages don't get through clearly.

How Muscles Get Weak

Your nerves send signals to your muscles using a special chemical. This chemical is called acetylcholine. It helps your muscles contract, or tighten, so you can move.

With myasthenia gravis, your immune system blocks or destroys the places where acetylcholine connects to your muscles. These places are called receptors. When the receptors are damaged, your muscles don't get enough of the signal. This makes them weak and tired, especially after you use them a lot.

Symptoms of Myasthenia Gravis

The main symptom is muscle weakness that gets worse with activity and improves with rest. This weakness can affect different parts of your body.

Common Weakness Areas

• Eyes and eyelids: You might have droopy eyelids (called ptosis) or see double.
• Face and throat: It can be hard to smile, talk, chew, or swallow.
• Arms and legs: Your arms and legs might feel weak, making it hard to lift things or walk.
• Breathing: In serious cases, the muscles you use to breathe can become weak.

The symptoms can change from day to day. They might be worse in the evening or after you've been active.

Treatments for Myasthenia Gravis

There are different ways to treat myasthenia gravis. The goal is to help your muscles work better and reduce the immune system's attack.

Medicines to Help Muscles

One type of medicine helps the acetylcholine signal work better. These drugs stop the body from breaking down acetylcholine too quickly. This means more of the chemical is available to reach your muscles. It's like turning up the volume on the message to your muscles.

Medicines to Calm the Immune System

Another type of treatment uses medicines to slow down your immune system. These are called immunosuppressants. They stop your immune system from attacking your own body. Steroids are an example of this type of medicine.

Living with Myasthenia Gravis

People with myasthenia gravis can live full lives with proper treatment. It's important to work with doctors to find the best plan. Resting when muscles feel tired and avoiding things that make symptoms worse can also help.

Images for kids

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  This picture shows how a person's droopy eyelid (left) can improve after a special test (right).

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  This diagram shows how a nerve (1) connects to a muscle (2). Signals are sent using tiny packets (3) of chemicals.

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  This image shows how the thymus gland, which is part of the immune system, changes as people get older.

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  This is a picture of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, the part of the muscle that receives signals.

See also

In Spanish: Miastenia grave para niños