Betty Fendel, age 13, of Laconia, N.H., for her question:
WHAT CAUSAES PARALYSIS?
Paralysis is a complete or partial loss of the ability to move and to feel. It is a loss of muscle function that is caused by injuries or diseases affecting the nervous system.
Paralysis may be caused by chemicals such as lead and alcohol; a cut or pinched nerve; poliomyelitis and multiple sclerosis; and injuries to the central nervous system (the spinal cord and the brain), such as spinal cord injuries or tumors, cerebral palsy or stroke.
Hysteria, or a psychoneurotic a disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, can also produce paralysis.
Muscular motion is produced by the stimulation of certain nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. When certain areas of the nervous system are not working properly, muscular movement is not normal. The seat of disorder may be in the cells of the brain or the spinal cord, in their connecting pathways or in the nerves leading to the muscles.
A disorder located in the right side of the brain causes paralysis on the left side of the body, and vice versa.
There are two types of paralysis: spastic paralysis and flaccid paralysis.
In spastic paralysis, the muscles are weak, but tense and rigid. In this case it is the nerve cells in the brain which are disturbed.
Flaccid paralysis produces weak and flabby muscles. Here, the disease is in those nerves which connect directly with the muscle. Polio is of this type.
Paralysis may also be caused by skull injuries affecting the brain, or by brain abscesses, tumors and blood vessel disturbances. If the spinal cord is injured, the nerves below the point of injury can no longer move the muscles they control.
There are also certain diseases of the spinal cord which cause loss of muscular movement. Spinal meningitis is one of these.
Occasionally, a muscle may not move because it, and not the nervous system, is defective. Another type of paralysis, called paraplegia, paralyzes the legs and the lower part of the body.
Paraplegia can be caused by disease or injury of the spinal cord. It may result from' inflammations or infections.
Emotional excitement may also bring on muscular weakness, the so called 11hysteriai paralysis."
Treatment of paralysis depends upon the disease or injury which causes it. Exercise, massages, electrical treatments and the use of splints or other apparatus are some of the treatments used by doctors.
Poliomyelitis, or polio, is sometimes called infantile paralysis because scientists once thought that only children got it, and that it always caused paralysis. Doctors now know that it may affect persons of any age. Fortunately, a vaccine developed by an American research scientist named Jonas Salk in 1955 has helped to control this paralyzing disease.