What is Living with Myasthenia Gravis?
Living with Myasthenia Gravis is a dedicated patient-to-patient support community for families affected by Myasthenia Gravis. Myasthenia Gravis Patients Support Community is powered by BensFriends.org, a network of patient support communities for rare diseases, and is run by volunteer moderators who have been affected with Myasthenia Gravis disease.
Who can join Living with Myasthenia Gravis?
If your family has been affected by Myasthenia Gravis , consider Living with Myasthenia Gravis your second home. Living with Myasthenia Gravis , as well as the rest of BensFriends.org’s patient communities, is free for members to join.
What is Myasthenia Gravis?
Myasthenia gravis (pronounced my-us-THEE-nee-uh GRAY-vis) comes from the Greek and Latin words meaning “grave muscular weakness.” The most common form of Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by fluctuating weakness of the voluntary muscle groups.
Myasthenia gravis causes weakness in the skeletal muscles (the muscles that connect to your bones and contract to allow body movement in the arms and legs, and allow for breathing).
The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that worsens after periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Certain muscles are often (but not always) involved in the disorder such as those that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expressions, chewing, talking and swallowing.
There’s no cure for myasthenia gravis, but treatment can help relieve signs and symptoms, such as weakness of arm or leg muscles, double vision, drooping eyelids, and difficulties with speech, chewing, swallowing and breathing.
What is BensFriends.org?
In 2007, Ben Muñoz suffered a rare form of stroke caused by an AVM. He was unable to find the support he needed during the most difficult time, so he created an online support community AVMSurvivors.org to connect with others like him. AVMSurvivors.org led to the founding of BensFriends.org, driven to provide patient-to-patient support communities for people living with rare diseases.
BensFriends.org is a network of patient communities for people living with rare diseases. Launched in November 2007, BensFriends.org provides valuable patient support by creating and running compassionate, responsive communities. BensFriends.org maintains dozens of patient communities and has changed thousands of lives.
You can learn more about BensFriends.org at http://www.bensfriends.org or watch one of our videos at http://www.youtube.com/BensFriendsVideos.