CEREBRAL PALSY HERBS
WHAT CAUSES CEREBRAL PALSY?
We do not know the cause of most cases of cerebral palsy, but many have been to 'Black or Red palaces" means
celebrations or funeral according to all the data's of the parents between 75%.There are a lot of data that show that during pregnancy the mother has had some form of bad or horrified experience or have had been to some kind of ceremony of the unpresent once 60%.
Still we are unable to identify, we are unable to determine what caused cerebral palsy in most children who
have congenital CP. We do know that the child who is at highest risk for developing CP is the premature, very small baby who does not cry in the first five minutes after delivery, who needs to be on a ventilator for over four weeks, and who has bleeding in his brain. Babies who have congenital malformations in systems such as the heart, kidneys, or spine
are also more likely to develop CP, probably because they also have malformations in the brain.
Seizures in a newborn also increase the risk of CP. There is no
combination of factors which always results in an abnormally functioning
individual. Even the small premature infant has a better than 90 percent
chance of not having cerebral palsy. There are a surprising number of
babies who have very stormy courses in the newborn period and go on to do
very well. In contrast, some infants who have rather benign beginnings are
eventually found to have severe mental retardation or learning
disabilities.
CEREBRAL PALSY IN THE NEWBORN
Children with cerebral palsy have a congenital
malformation of the brain, meaning that the malformation existed at birth
and was not caused by factors occurring during the birthing process. Not
all of these malformations can be seen by the physician, even with today's
most sophisticated scans, but when CP is recognized in a newborn, a
congenital malformation is suspected.
When a diagnosis of CP is made, the mother and
father often feel guilty and wonder what they did to cause their child to
have this disorder. While it is certainly true that good prenatal care is
an essential part of preventing congenital problems, it must be stated
that congenital problems, or "birth defects," often occur even
when the mother has strictly followed her physician's advice in caring for
herself and the developing infant.
Though the causes of "birth defects" are usually unknown, we do
know that the developing brain can be affected by several factors.
When the fetus is exposed to certain chemicals or infections through the
expectant mother, for example. The developing brain can be injured if the
expectant mother suffers severe physical trauma, the fetal brain can be
injured, too, but this is rare.
Finally, prematurely and a low birth weight have
been shown to be related to an increased incidence of specific disorders.
Many chemicals are known to adversely affect the developing brain, alcohol
being the most commonly used. The term Fetal Alcohol Syndrome describes
the long-term, multi-system effect of alcohol on a child whose mother
abused alcohol during the pregnancy. When a fetus is exposed to large
amounts of alcohol, several body systems, including the neurological
system will almost certainly suffer damage.
Cigarette smoking by the mother has been shown to
decrease birth weight, and low birth weight is associated with several
disorders, including cerebral palsy. Severe malnutrition in the mother can
adversely affect brain growth in the fetus, and it, too, can result in a
low birth weight.
The use of cocaine or crack by the expectant mother is associated with
blood vessel complications, and these complications affect many organs as
well as the central nervous system. Cocaine use is increasing and thus
becoming more prevalent as cause of brain damage in infants. Most infants
whose mothers used cocaine during pregnancy develop mental retardation
rather than cerebral palsy, however. Infections such as rubella (German
measles), toxoplasmosis, and cytomegalovirus (CMV), ( if a woman has them
during pregnancy), also may injure the brain of the fetus. Rubella can be
prevented by immunization, prior to becoming pregnant, and the chances of
becoming infected with toxoplasmosis can be minimized by not handling the
feces of cats and by avoiding raw or uncooked meat.
Congenital infection with human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV, the virus that causes AIDS) also causes brain damage in
children, though it usually causes mental retardation rather than CP.
It is likely that many other infections in the expectant mother injure the
developing fetus, but they are not recognized as causative factors because
the woman who has the infection either does not recognize the symptoms of
infection or is symptom-free. Premature infants are at a much higher risk
for developing cerebral palsy than full-term babies, and the risk
increases as the birth weight decreases. Between 5 and 8 percent of
infants weighing less than 1500 grams (3 pounds) at birth develop cerebral
palsy, and infants weighing less than 1500 grams are 25 times more likely
to develop cerebral palsy than infants who are born at full term weighing
more than 2500 grams.
Any premature infants suffer bleeding within the brain, called
intraventricular hemorrhages, intracranial hemorrhages. Again, the highest
frequency of hemorrhages is found in the babies with the lowest weight:
the problem is rare in babies who weigh more than 2000 grams (4 pounds).
This bleeding may damage the part of the brain
that controls motor function and thereby lead to cerebral palsy. If the
hemorrhage results in destruction of normal brain tissue (a condition
called periventricular leukomalacia) and small cysts around the ventricles
and in the motor region of the brain, then that infant is more likely to
have CP than an infant with hemorrhages alone.
CEREBRAL PALSY AT BIRTH
There are no specific events that, if they occur
during pregnancy, delivery, or infancy, will always occurring at birth or
right after birth). This is apparently why the incidence of CP in
undeveloped and poverty stricken areas of the world, where infant
mortality is very high, is the same as in northern Europe, where infant
mortality is the lowest. It also explains why modern obstetrical care,
including monitoring and a high rate of Cesarian section, has lowered
infant mortality rates but not the incidence of cerebral palsy. One large
study, for example, has shown that more than 60 percent of all pregnancies
have at least one complication, and that most of these complications cause
no problems. For instance, 25 percent of all newborns have the umbilical
cord wrapped around their neck, and 16 percent passed meconium (had the
first bowel movement) at the time of birth.
These "birth events" and the
development of CP have only a small correlation. In other words, the
chances of a child developing CP were nearly the same whether the child
was born with a cord wrapped around her neck or not. On the other hand,
newborns in this study who had very low Apgar scores (less than 3 at 20
minutes) had a risk 250 times greater than infants with normal Apgar
scores of developing cerebral palsy. An Apgar score at this level
suggests that the infant suffered severe asphyxia (lack of sufficient
oxygen to the brain) during birth. Half of the infants who suffered severe
asphyxia during birth did not develop cerebral palsy, however. When CP is
diagnosed in childhood, it is often discovered that the child suffered
asphyxia at birth, but the asphyxia is usually considered the symptom of
an otherwise sick baby with a neurological problem, and not the primary
cause of CP.
CEREBRAL PALSY BEGINS
In the beginning of live, the child is completely
dependent on others for his or her safety and protection. Protecting the
child from injury is one of the most important responsibilities of the
child's parents. One such injury is asphyxia, which can damage the
brain in a variety of ways, and is the number one cause of CP in this age
group. The three most common causes of asphyxia in the young child are:
choking on foreign objects such as toys and pieces of food (including
peanuts, popcorn, and hot dogs); poisoning; and near drowning. The brain
may also be damaged when it is physically traumatized as a result of a
blow to the head. A child who falls or is involved in a motor vehicle
accident or is the victim of physical abuse may suffer irreparable injury
to the brain.
One form of child abuse is the shaken baby
syndrome, in which the caretaker is trying to quiet the baby by shaking
too vigorously, causing the brain to strike repeatedly against the skull
under high pressure. Severe infections, especially meningitis or
encephalitis, can also lead to brain damage in this age group. Meningitis
is inflammation of the meninges ( the covering of the brain and the spinal
cord), usually caused by a bacterial infection, and encephalitis is brain
inflammation which may be caused by bacterial or viral
infections. Either of these infections can cause disabilities ranging
from hearing loss to CP to severe retardation.
RESEMBLE CEREBRAL PALSY BUT IS NOT IT
Special kids have many problems in common,
especially problems involving interactions with family members and society
at large. The physical and medical problems of children with disabilities
vary widely, however. Some of the problems caused by various disorders
resemble those affecting children with cerebral palsy, but on closer
inspection the medical issues turn out to be quite distinct.
Children with spinal cord dysfunction, for
example, face medical problems such as insensate skin and bowel and
bladder dysfunction, which differ markedly from the medical problems faced
by children with cerebral palsy. Spinal cord dysfunction may be a result
of spinal cord injury, spina bifida (meningomyelocele), or a congenital
spinal cord malformation.
Another large group of children who at time may look similar to those with
cerebral palsy are children with temporary motor problems resulting from
closed head injuries, seizures, drug overdoses, or some brain tumors.
The medical issues for this group of children are also different from the
medical issues for children with cerebral palsy, because these injuries
can occur at any age and the severity of the problems caused by these
injuries changes over time. We can also say that disorders that are
primarily of muscle, nerve, and bone are not cerebral palsy by definition.
Such conditions include muscular dystrophy, peripheral neuropathies such
as Charcot-Marie- Tooth disease, and osteogenesis imperfecta.
All of these conditions are associated with specific medical problems.
Children with progressive neurologic disorders (including Rett's syndrome,
leukodystrophy, and Tay-Sach's disease) also have medical needs which are
different from those of children with cerebral palsy.
Some children with chromosomal anomalies (for example, trisomy 13 and 18)
or congenital disorders (hereditary spastic paraplegia, for example) may
appear similar to children with cerebral palsy; others, such as children
with Down's syndrome, appear very different from children with cerebral
palsy. Children with these disorders have some problems in common with
children who have cerebral palsy; they also have problems that are unique
for children with that specific disorder.
DIAGNOSIS OF CEREBRAL PALSY.
Most normal kids should recognise toys at 3-4
months, sitting at 6-7 months, walk at 10-14 months, are based on motor
function. A physician may suspect cerebral palsy in a child whose
development of these skills is delayed. In making a diagnosis of cerebral
palsy, the physician takes into account the delay in developmental
milestones as well as physical findings that might include abnormal muscle
tone, abnormal movements, abnormal reflexes and persistent infantile
reflexes.
Making a definite diagnosis of cerebral palsy is not always easy,
especially before the child's first birthday. In fact, diagnosing cerebral
palsy usually involves a period of waiting for the definite and permanent
appearance of specific motor problems.
Most children with cerebral palsy can be diagnosed by the age of 18
months, but eighteen months is a long time for parents to wait for a
diagnosis, and this is understandably a difficult period for them. Making
a diagnosis of cerebral palsy is also difficult when, for example, a
two-year- old has suffered a head injury. The child may immediately appear
to be severely injured, and three months after the injury he may have
symptoms that are typical of a child with cerebral palsy. But one year
after the injury such a child may be completely normal. This child does
not have cerebral palsy. Although he has a scar on his brain, the scar is
not permanently impairing his motor activities. After injury, waiting and
observing are necessary before the diagnosis can be made.
Diagnosis of cerebral palsy,examination is the physical evidence of
abnormal motor function. A diagnosis of cerebral palsy cannot be made on
the basis of blood test, though the physician may order such tests to
exclude other neurologic diseases (such as those mentioned above).
Blood tests and chromosome analysis are helpful in diagnosing hereditary
conditions that may influence the parents' future child-bearing decisions.
When the tests indicate that a child's condition is something other than
cerebral palsy and that the condition is inherited, family members will
benefit from genetic counselling. Cerebral palsy is not a hereditary
condition, however, and these tests will neither establish nor rule out a
diagnosis of CP.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) scans are
often ordered when the physician suspects that the child has cerebral
palsy. These tests may provide evidence of hydrocephalus (an abnormal
accumulation of fluid in the cerebral ventricles), and they may be used to
exclude other causes of motor problems.
These scans do not prove whether a child has a cerebral palsy; nor do they
predict how a specific child will function as she grows. Thus, children
with normal scans may have severe cerebral palsy, and children with
clearly abnormal scans occasionally appear totally normal or have only
mild physical evidence of cerebral palsy. As a group, though, children
with cerebral palsy do have brain scars, cysts, and other changes which
show up on scans more frequently than in normal children. Therefore, when
a scar is seen on a CT scan of the brain of a child whose physical
examination suggests he may have cerebral palsy, the scar is one more
piece of evidence indicating that the child is likely to have motor
problems in the future.
Cerebral palsy may be classified by the type of movement problem (such as
spastic or athetoid cerebral palsy) or by the body parts involved (hemiplegia,
diplegia, and quadriplegia). Spasticity refers to the inability of a
muscle to relax, while athetosis refers to an inability to control the
movement of a muscle.
Infants who at first are hypotonic wherein they are very floppy may later
develop spasticity. Hemiplegia is cerebral palsy that involves one arm and
one leg on the same side of the body, whereas with diplegia the primary
involvement is both legs. Quadriplegia refers to a pattern involving all
four extremities as well as trunk and neck muscles. Another frequently
used classification is ataxia, which refers to balance and coordination
problems.
The motor disability of a child with CP varies greatly from one child to
another; thus generalizations about children with cerebral palsy can only
have meaning within the context of the subgroups described above. For this
reason, subgroups will be used in this book whenever treatment and outcome
expectations are discussed. Most professionals who care for children with
cerebral palsy understand these diagnoses and use them to communicate
about a child's condition.
A useful method for making subdivisions is determined by which parts of
the body are involved. Although almost all children with cerebral palsy
can be classified as having hemiplegia, diplegia, or quadriplegia, there
are significant overlaps which have led to the use of additional terms,
some of which are very confusing.
To avoid confusion, most of the discussion in his book will be limited to
the use of these three terms. Occasionally such terms as paraplegia,
double hemiplegia, triplegia, and pentaplegia may occasionally be
encountered by the reader; these classifications are also based on the
parts of the body involved. The dominant type of movement or muscle
coordination problem is the other method by which children are subdivided
and classified to assist in communicating about the problems of cerebral
palsy.
The component which seems to be causing the most problem is often used as
the categorizing term. For example, the child with spastic diplegia has
mostly spastic muscle problems, and most of the involvement is in the
legs, but the child may also have a smaller component of athetosis and
balance problems. The child with athetoid quadriplegia, on the other hand,
would have involvement of both arms and legs, primarily with athetoid
muscle problems, but such a child often has some ataxia and spasticity as
well. Generally a child with quadriplegia is a child who is not walking
independently.
The reader may be familiar with other terms used to define specific
problems of movement or muscle function terms such as: dystonia, tremor,
ballismus, and rigidity.
The words severe, moderate, and mild are also often used in combination
with both anatomic and motor function classification terms (severe spastic
diplegia, for example), but these qualifying words do not have any
specific meaning.
WHAT IS WHAT
Usually asked by parents after they are told their
child has cerebral palsy are "What will my child be like?" and
"Will he walk?" Predicting what a young child with cerebral
palsy will be like or what he will or will not do (called the prognosis)
is very difficult. Any predictions for an infant under six months of age
are little better than guesses, and even for children younger than one
year it is often very difficult to predict the pattern of involvement. By
the time the child is two years old, however, the physician can determine
whether the child has hemiplegia, diplegia, or quadriplegia.
Based on this involvement pattern, some predictions can be made. It is
worth saying again that children with cerebral palsy do not stop doing
activities once they have begun to do them. Such a loss of skills, called
regression, is not characteristic of cerebral palsy. If regression occurs,
it is necessary to look for a different cause of the child's problems. In
order for a child to be able to walk, some major events in motor control
have to occur. A child must be able to hold up his head before he can sit
up on his own, and he must be able to sit independently before he can walk
on his own. It is generally assumed that if a child is not sitting up by
himself by age 4 or walking by age 8, he will never be an independent
walker. But a child who starts to walk at age 3 will certainly continue to
walk and will be walking when he is 13 years old unless he has a disorder
other than CP.
Difficulty to make early predictions of speaking ability or mental ability
than it is to predict motor function. Here evaluation is much more
reliable after age 2, although a motor disability can make the evaluation
of intellectual function quite difficult.
Sometimes "motor-free" tests which can assess intellectual
ability without, the person being tested, needing to use his hands are
administered by psychologists who have expertise in their use. Overall,
the intellectual ability of the person, far more than their physical
disability, will determine the person's prognosis. In other words, mental
retardation is far more likely than cerebral palsy to impair a child's
ability to function.
EARLY STAGE
Parents are naturally concerned when
their newborn child has problems, and physicians need to evaluate the
child's condition and prognosis as well as they can. For example, evidence
of a bleed in the child's brain should be discussed with parents, although
the outcome of such a bleed cannot be predicted.
The diagnosis of cerebral palsy cannot be made at
birth and, most assuredly, the extent and severity of involvement that an
individual child might eventually have is impossible to assess at birth.
Many neonatologists, aware of the interaction that generally occurs
between the newborn and parents, avoid discussing the child's problems in
detail because they want to permit this interaction to take place. The
presumption of a bleak future for a child sometimes causes parents to
withdraw from the child and this can have a significant negative effect on
the child. Physicians usually communicate their concerns in terms of the
child's symptoms, such as muscle problems, and prepare parents for the
possibility of neurologic damage. Clearly, it is part of the physician's
role to inform parents, but the variability of outcome makes it virtually
impossible for the physician to predict the future, and so the physician
must weigh the need to inform (and the imprecision of information) against
the need for the parents to have hope for, and to become close to their
child.
ARTHRITIS HERBS CEREBRAL PALSY TREATMENT
Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term for a group of disorders affecting body
movement, balance, and posture. Loosely translated, cerebral palsy means “brain
paralysis.”
CEREBRAL PALSY TREATMENT
Cerebral palsy is caused by abnormal development or damage in one or more
parts of the brain that control muscle tone and motor activity (movement). The resulting
impairments first appear early in life, usually in infancy or early childhood.
CEREBRAL PALSY HERBAL CURE
Cerebral palsy may involve muscle stiffness (spasticity), poor muscle tone,
uncontrolled movements, and problems with posture, balance, coordination, walking,
speech, swallowing, and many other functions.
HERBS CEREBRAL PALSY
Many individuals with cerebral palsy have normal or above average intelligence. Their
ability to express their intelligence may be limited by difficulties in communicating.
CEREBRAL PALSY HERBAL ACUPUNCTURE
All children with cerebral palsy, regardless of intelligence level, are able to improve
their abilities substantially with appropriate interventions. Most children with
cerebral palsy require significant medical and physical care, including physical,
occupational, and speech/swallowing therapy.