Living with Charcot Marie Tooth

Rare Neurological Disease - Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT)

Ever wonder what one of the worlds’ most common inherited Neurological Disease is? Well I know the answer, it’s Charcot Marie Tooth. Type 1a is the most common sub type of the Disease. It is thought to affect approx 1 in 2500 people or about 2.7 million people in the world. Does not sound like a rare Disease anymore, does it?

What is Charcot Marie Tooth? There are many subtypes of the Disease and for the purpose of this article we will be describing Type 1a since it’s the most common. I have been doing my own poll at http://www.livingwithcmt.com to get my own percentage per sub type of the Disease. At the writing of this article 100% of respondents have type 1.

Charcot Marie Tooth in general falls into the Muscular Dystrophy family of diseases. The muscles begin to atrophy once the nerves begin to slow down their signals. In general terms, nerves in your body work like wires passing electricity. As time goes on some wires have greater resistance and as that resistance builds the wires do not work as well. Likewise, with CMT, as the resistance becomes more and more the muscles are not stimulated like before. They do not work as well. As time goes on the muscles in your body become weaker. It starts with the peripheral limbs like hands and feet. There are many things unknown about this disease and I believe it impacts your whole body the same; the hands and feet are the first visible signs of the Disease. There are many symptoms and they impact people very differently - comparing two people could find one in a wheel chair at age 10 and the other running marathons by age 10.

Symptoms of Charcot Marie Tooth

The most obvious symptom is high arches in the feet. The weak muscles in the feet and ankles cause not only high arches but also balance issues. Patients with CMT trip a lot as a kid and could have pain in the feet and legs that is mistaken by parents as growing pains. Many people with CMT don’t realize there is anything wrong with them until later in life unless it’s already diagnosed in the family. I myself was 33 when I found out. It was actually nice to know, it explained a lot about my past; tripping on nothing, unable to write, high arches, hammer toes, restless leg syndrome. There are other symptoms that developed later in life like pain in the arches of the feet, calf pain, burning in the hands, feet, arms and legs. All in all in can ber very painful some days.