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IS PPS JUST A MATTER OF AGING?

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When you purchase the product below, the Ann Post Memorial Fund will receive a percentage of the sales.  These funds aid in helping to get polio survivors to Branson for our annual reunion.

 
 

Studying Polio Survival
Among the Mayo Clinic's findings:

Researchers randomly selected 50 polio survivors from the general population of Olmsted County, Minn., home of Mayo Clinic, and followed them for 15 years. The average age of participants at the study's start was 53. The researchers measured initial strength and loss of neurons, then again five and 15 years later with electrophysiological testing, strength testing and timed tests of basic functions.

Each patient also completed questionnaires The study found modest declines in strength. Though the majority complained they felt progressive weakness, these symptoms did not correspond with their measured magnitudes of decline over time.

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that most survivors of childhood polio experience only modest increases in weakness as they grow older, which may be commensurate with normal aging.

"Other researchers have suggested that polio is a more aggressive condition later in life, but we've actually found it to be relatively benign," said Eric Sorenson, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and lead study researcher.

"This tells us that the cause for the decline in muscle strength in polio survivors may be aging alone."
   
Polio is a contagious, viral illness that peaked in the United States in 1952, when 3,000 people died of the disease. Mass immunizations in the mid-1950s began to slow the spread of the disease, and the last case of polio not caused by a vaccine occurred in the U.S. in 1979.
   
The effects of polio run the gamut from a complete return to normal function to paralysis of limbs to acute death.
   
D. Corydon Hammond, a psychologist and a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said the study was valuable.
   
"The findings of this study are logical - post-polio patients had greater muscle weakness to begin with, and when we add to that the normal loss of strength associated with aging, we can expect there is more weakness as they grow older," Hammond said. "But, what is reassuring is the confirmation that the further decline in strength with aging does not appear to be greater in individuals with post polio syndrome [PPS]."
   
One shortcoming of the study, he said, was that it did not evaluate other PPS symptoms, such as diffuse pain, nonrestorative sleep and problems with concentration and memory.
   
Lou Muzingo, who ran the Southern Utah polio support group for eight years, also found fault with the study.
   
"Both my husband and I are polio survivors," she said. "I can tell you from firsthand observation of the people in the support group and ourselves that we experience rapid periods of decline, followed by a leveling off period, then rapid levels of decline. Too many members of the group started out walking unaided, then have ended up with braces, canes and wheelchairs. I think you could talk to almost any survivor and they will disagree with these findings."
   
 

- Carey Hamilton, Salt Lake Tribune

  
Responses from Medical Advisory Committee Members
As posted on the PHI Network