Cerebral palsy is the term for a group of neurological disorders that affects one s muscle movement and motor skills.

In most cases, the condition is caused due to a brain impairment that develops while the baby is still in the womb. Cerebral palsy may also occur shortly after or during birth.

Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy:

The signs and symptoms of the condition vary from one individual to another, ranging from mild to severe. The commonly observed ones in children are-

  Difficulty walking
  Difficulty holding on to objects
  Delay in developing motor skills- sitting up straight, rolling over, crawling
  Variation in the muscle tone- too stiff or too floppy
  Delay in development of speech
  Spasticity
  Lack of coordination of the muscles
  Difficulty swallowing and excessive drooling
  Functioning of only one side of the body
  Neurological ailments such as intellectual disabilities, seizures, and others

Types of Cerebral Palsy:

Cerebral palsy can occur in the following forms-

  Spastic cerebral palsy - Causes exaggerated reflexes and muscle stiffness. This is the most common type of cerebral palsy, affecting nearly 80% of the population.
  Dyskinetic cerebral palsy - Causes abnormal, involuntary movement of the legs, arms, and hands. It may also affect the movement of the tongue and face, thereby making it difficult to talk or swallow.
  Hypotonic cerebral palsy - Causes overly relaxed muscles and reduces muscle tone. The legs and arms are easily moveable and appear saggy.
  Ataxic cerebral palsy - This is the least common type. People living with this form of the condition have problems with coordination and balance.

Diagnosis and treatment of cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy can be diagnosed with the help of the following-

  CT scan
  MRI
  Ultrasound
  Electroencephalogram

Treatment of the condition depends on its severity. Long-term treatment includes physiotherapy, medications and surgery.

  Physiotherapy and occupational therapy helps restore muscle strength and improves muscle tone. You can try stretching exercises to improve flexibility.
  Usually, the doctor prescribes medications in the form of muscle relaxants and sedatives. Muscle relaxants reduce muscle tension, helps relieve discomfort and muscle pain.
  You may need to undergo an orthopaedic surgery in case medications and therapy does not yield positive results. The surgery will aim to release tight muscles and repair bone abnormalities caused due to spasticity.

The specialist as a last resort may recommend SDR or Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy to reduce spasticity and chronic pain. This involves operating the nerves at the base of your spinal column.

There is no permanent cure for cerebral palsy. However, the condition is manageable with the help of drugs, therapy and surgery. The kind of treatment required depends on your overall condition. While some may be able to live with the condition without much assistance, others may require immediate medical intervention. Therefore, it is best to consult an orthopaedic and get help if the symptoms deteriorate over time.

Cerebral Palsy - Symptoms, Types & Treatment Of It!

Whether it's a child or a grown-up, difficulty in concentrating is often experienced by many people. While, people tend to brush off this particular problem to be nothing worth being concerned about, but sometimes, there may be a more serious underlying issue for which concentration problem is only a mere symptom. Yes, difficulty in concentrating can be a sign of a neurological disorder. Keep on reading to know more about neurological disorder, its symptoms, and treatment.

Reasons behind difficulty in concentrating
Inability to focus properly is a periodic and normal occurrence for many. While sometimes it is the emotional stress or physical tiredness that is responsible for it, at times it is the outcome of hormonal changes in the body, such as during pregnancy or menopause that causes it. However, when experienced in severe degrees, it may be a characteristic of a serious psychological condition called neurological disorder. Affecting both adults and the children, the neurological disorder can be a serious threat if not treated at the right time.

Neurological disorder
Neurological disorder refers to any condition that happens due to the dysfunction of the nervous system or the parts of the brain. Depending on the location of the damage to the nerve or in the spinal column or the brain, different areas controlling the vision, movement, thinking or hearing can be severely affected. The decreased ability to focus on something or loss of concentration power being one of the many symptoms of neurological disorders among the various complications it causes.

Causes behind neurological disorder
Many reasons lead to neurological disorder or its associated symptoms like difficulty in focusing. From lifestyle-related issues to nutrition related causes, physical injuries to some infections, complications during childbirth, and genetics to environmental influences, numerous factors can be responsible for such disorder. Depending on the type of neurological disorder, the symptoms can vary from to another, while for some difficulty concentrating can be a symptom, for some, the symptoms can be more of physical difficulties such as problems in walking or difficulty speaking or seeing, etc.

Dealing with difficulty concentrating
Once the cause of the neurological disorder is determined, there are various treatment options, offered by the doctors. To deal with the neurological disorder as the cause of difficulty concentrating one may need medications and treatment provided by the medical professionals. However, there are a few tips that one can keep in mind, such as minimizing multitasking and focusing on one single thing or thought at one time or dividing tasks into small steps, etc.

Difficulty in concentrating means the ability to focus on thoughts or action decreasing. In case one experience this issue on a long term basis or excessively, visiting the neurologist as soon as possible should be the best thing to do.

Problem In Concentrating Could Be A Sign Of Neurological Disorder!

Neurological disorders may creep in due to many reasons. It may be due to degenerative diseases, accidents, other health conditions, birth defects or genetics. The most common form of disorder occurs due to non-functional brain cells in some parts, and loss of myelin sheath in neurons, which protects the nerve signals in their complete transfer from origin to destination. These losses are irreparable, but further degeneration can be avoided with Ayurveda. Panchakarma, the branch of Ayurveda, which deals with detoxification of the body and mind, specially helps. Over a period of time, it can bring back the lost sensation in nerves. Yoga, pranayama and Ayurvedic treatments lead to recovery and relief to a huge extent.

Important facts about Panchakarma
There are 3 important steps in Panchakarma, which are followed one after another to get the result. The main objective of Panchakarma is to detoxify the body. Virechanam, vamanam, sneha vasti, nasyam and kashaya vasti are the 5 folds in Panchakarma.

Poorvakarma or preparing the body, followed by Abhyangam or massage, followed by Elakizhi or herbal paste massage, and finally podikizhi, or steam bathing makes the body ready for receiving further treatments.
Njavara Kizhi is the special treatment done in Panchakarma where the body is given a rice bolus massage to improve the joint and neuro functions.
What is Njavara Kizhi?
Njavara is a variety of rice, which is specially used for Ayurvedic treatment and massages. In this treatment the rice is made into a pudding by boiling it with milk. This pudding is then made into boluses. The boluses are filled in muslin cloth, and then using these muslin bolus dabs, the whole body of the patient is massaged. This full-body massage has excellent effects on neurological and joint functions. The deep tissues within the body are rejuvenated. The treatment is carried on for 45 minutes to 60 minutes by therapists or experts. Another form of the treatment requires the rice to be made into a paste, and then the paste is applied all over the body. But this is more preferred for beautification.

Other effective therapies
Siro Vasti, Kati Vasti, Ela Kizhi and Nasyam are all different forms of Panchakarma treatment, which detoxify the body and mind and rejuvenate the body and nerve functions. But these treatments cannot be conducted on the body on your own. You need a masseur who must be a specialist in Ayurveda to do this for you. Hence contacting Ayurvedic clinics, doctors or experts would be the best to start the treatment.

Neurological Disorder - How Panchkarma Therapies Can Help?

Your mother has often yelled at you for playing video games for long hours, but obviously you haven t paid heed to it. Such is the obsession with video games that they don t let you rest unless you have championed all the levels in the virtual interface. Here is the source of all problems. Studies have revealed that video games have a direct relation to neuropsychiatric problems. As a result, many health experts across the world consider video game as a kind of health abuse.

People who play action-oriented video games are at higher risks. The more you indulge in these kinds of games, the more they are going to affect the hippocampus section of your brain. It is that part of the brain which is considered to be the centre of your nervous system, memory and emotion. Reduced hippocampus volume may make person vulnerable to multiple neuropsychiatric complications. Let us see some of the signs, which may indicate the onset of certain complications arising from an over indulgence in these games.

1. You spend hours on the computer or related gaming devices and devote lesser hours for your family and friends

2. You get agitated when someone stops you midway through the game

3. You become socially isolated and show signs of occasional mood swings

4. You are unable to keep a track of time once you start playing

5. You repeatedly neglect your studies, resulting in a dip in performance at school

Why does this happen?

All of the above signs indicate that sooner or later you might develop neurological problems. When you spend an excessive number of hours on playing and navigating through the games, the  hippocampus  portion of your brain shows signs of decreased gray matter. As a result, the volume of the hippocampus shrinks, causing severe nerve related disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer s disease, dementia, depression, and overall general stress.

One of the biggest reasons behind this is a lack of self-control. Most of the video games will encourage you to steal cars, run away after a theft and kill your enemies. Moreover, if you succeed, you are rewarded. This naturally unleashes a blatant urge for the gratification of all these awkward desires in your real life too. Hence, once you are encountered with the reality, you tend to show violent behavior.

Can Playing Video Games Cause Neurological Problems?

The neurones in the brain are constantly reorganising their connections both functionally and physically according to the environment, your thinking and behaviour. This ability is known as neuroplasticity. Through neuroplasticity the nerve cells of brain can compensate for injury to some parts of the brain and enable a person to recover from stroke, birth abnormalities. It is also beneficial in treating autism, ADD, learning disabilities and helps manage obsessive compulsive disorders.

Here are seven things you should know about neuroplasticity.

Change depends on the attentiveness of the brain: Neuroplasticity changes can only happen if the brain is alert and active. When the brain is active it releases neurochemicals that are necessary for the neurone connections to change. If a person is distracted to inattentive, these changes cannot happen.
The more the effort; the bigger the change: Neuroplasticity changes depend on how motivated the person is to change or learn new tasks. For this reason, when it comes to using neuroplasticity for physiotherapy, it is essential to first deal with any depression or anxiety issues the patient might be having before attempting to rehabilitate them.
It helps strengthen neural connections: Repetition of actions is one of the key elements of neuroplasticity in physiotherapy. Through this, the strength of neurone connections is strengthened to include sensory information, movement and cognitive patterns.
It improves cell to cell connections: This is crucial to a patient s rehabilitation as it increases reliability and makes a person more independent. In turn, this makes behaviour patterns more reliable.
It helps predict actions: A task can usually be broken down into a series of smaller tasks. For example, feeding oneself can be broken down into steps that begin with lifting a spoon and filling it with food to finally putting the spoon into your mouth. Hence, along with completing an action, the brain must also know what to do next. Neuroplasticity helps improve this associative flow and allows the brain to predict the next step.
Changes can be temporary or permanent: Initial changes due to neuroplasticity are temporary ad only if the brain determines the experience to be desired is this change made permanent. This is why when treating mobility issues, patients are not always able to repeat tasks in the same way.
Memory guides the learning: When making new neural connections through neuroplasticity, the brain is taught to discard unsuccessful attempts and only remember the experience of the successful attempts. From here, adjustments are made to improve the connection.

Neuroplasticity - 7 Things You Must Know About it!

Surgery to remove abnormal growths of the brain, peripheral nervous system or the spine or any disorder can be tricky because the brain and the skull that shields it are complex areas. In the old days, open surgery was the only way to access the brain or spinal cord. But, with the invention of laparoscopy, keyhole surgery to treat neurological issues is gaining ground.

What is Neuroendoscopy? 
Neuroendoscopy is a surgical procedure that is favoured by doctors and patients alike because it is minimally invasive.
Before the surgery, you will be administered general anaesthesia so that you will be unconscious during the entire duration. During the surgery, the surgeon will drill a minute hole into your skull just above the eyebrows. You skull also has two natural openings. That is why the surgeon may make use of the nose or the mouth to access the region that needs to be operated upon.

Neuroendoscopy is useful because -

  It lets the surgeon reach regions that are not accessible with open surgery
  The tumour can be removed without any damage being done to surrounding tissues

An endoscope is a delicate device with a high-resolution camera mounted on it. There is an eyepiece on the other end. The device is also fitted with a light. When it is inserted into the brain, it lights up the passage and the eyepiece allows the surgeon to take a look inside. The camera sends a live feed of the path it is traversing and this guides the surgeon. When the tumour is reached, it is gently removed with other surgical instruments that too were inserted through the cavities or the drilled hole.

Benefits of Neuroscopy -
There are several advantages of relying on laparoscopy -

  The patient endures less pain
  Fewer chances of infection
  Faster recovery
  Very little scarring of tissues

Which Disorders call for Neuroendoscopy?
Any of the following disorders can be put to rights with a neuroendoscopic surgery -

  Pituitary tumours
  Rathke s cleft cysts
  Pineal area tumours
  Ventricular tumours
  Skull base tumours
  Brain inflammation triggered by an infection
  Chordomas
  Cerebrospinal fluid fistulas
  Trigeminal neuralgia
  Cerebral aneurysm

After Surgery-
Once you undergo the neuroendoscopic surgery, you will have to be rehabilitated so that your condition can be monitored round the clock. Neuroendoscopy is a state of the art clean and efficient surgery that is beneficial to both surgeons as well as the patients.

Know More About Neuroendoscopy And Its Uses!

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