Myasthenia Gravis Support Group
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disease leading to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that increases during periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Although myasthenia gravis may affect any voluntary muscle, muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, and...
I live in a big, old apartment tower, on a floor that sits above the crawlspace where all the plumbing goes. As a result, in the fall, some bugs that were living in the crawlspace try to find a new place to live when it gets cold and I see them wander through my apartment. I'm hoping they don't stay there, but if they do, I was considering telling the landlord to have the exterminator spray. But...of course I hear this is bad for my MG as it can aggravate my immune system. So far (over 2 years), I've only had ocular symptoms, and I don't seem to have a problem when I smell bug spray elsewhere, but I was wondering if anyone else had any advice about this. When I look around, I see some study about someone having a really bad attack when facing a large occupational exposure to organophosphates, but then I hear that Mestinon is somehow related to pesticides and I get pretty confused. Has anyone received specific advice in this area from someone knowledgable? Years before I had (or noticed) MG I used to just pull out a can of Raid and spray the baseboards where I'd seen ants and was fine, I'd even use it on my desk (!) and on the perimeter of my bedroom (!) and I was usually pretty fine, even from a normal breathing standpoint. I don't have kids or pets and was maybe a little less fearful than most people about chemicals, but that was before all this.
Remember...and immune response would lead to symptoms.
There are poisons in the same category. Most are only partly reversible, and some are irreversible. They have the ability in someone already getting a medication in the same category to cause some magnified and therefore dangerous side effects. So it would be easier for us to get overdosed by being exposed to organophosphates.
I would avoid sprays. There may be another way to treat these bugs or keep them out depending on their types that would not expose you to risk like a spray might. I know that I have treated ants by putting a trap they crawl into without any ill effect to me. I never had to touch or breathe the insecticide used. Also maybe there is a way to improve the barrier at the doorway to keep them out.
Hope something works for you! Marie
Tamara
good luck
Judith
http://www.naturallivingideas.com/22-natural-ways-to-repel-insects/
It sucks that this is the case. Bromide is the back half of mestinon and Bromine can be used in the same fashion.
Therapeutic uses of organophosphates
"Several organophosphate agents are being tried therapeutically. Cholinesterase inhibition, which in large doses makes these agents effective pesticides, also may be useful in other doses for treating dementia. Metrifonate has been used to treat schistosomiasis and is undergoing trials for the treatment of primary degenerative dementia.
The organophosphates pyridostigmine and physostigmine are carbamate anticholinesterases that have been used for many years for the treatment of myasthenia gravis. Although the short-duration anticholinesterases are generally safe, reports of their abuse are associated with a picture similar to pesticide intoxication.
One of the author's patients had been diagnosed erroneously as a myasthenic. Long-term "therapeutic" doses of physostigmine chemically altered her neuromuscular junctions to the point where she had to be slowly weaned from the drug. "
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1175139-overview