Myasthenia gravis
Myasthenia gravis is a condition that causes your muscles to get weak and tired very easily because of a communication breakdown in your body.
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Find NeurologistsClinical Overview
Think of your body like a house with a complex electrical system. In a healthy body, your nerves send 'on' signals to your muscles using a chemical messenger called acetylcholine. In myasthenia gravis, your immune system—the body's natural defense force—accidentally attacks the docking stations where these signals arrive.
Because these signals cannot plug into the muscles properly, the muscles don't get the message to move. This primarily affects the muscles you control voluntarily, such as those that move your eyes, help you swallow, or keep you standing, causing them to tire out quickly after use.
Common Symptoms
- Drooping of one or both eyelids.
- Double vision, which may improve when you close one eye.
- Difficulty swallowing or a tendency to choke easily.
- Slurred speech.
- Weakness in the arms or legs that gets worse as you use them.
- Weakness in the muscles used for facial expressions, like smiling.