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What is CIDP Disease?
A neurological disorder, CIDP disease causes weakness and decreased sensations in your limbs.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is a disorder where your body's immune system attacks your peripheral nerves. Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is the chronic form of GBS. To understand typical CIDP, you need to first learn about your Myelin sheath’s role in your body. Myelin is an insulating layer of proteins and fat. This layer forms around your nerve fibers, including the ones in your spinal cord and brain. Myelin protects your nerves and their ability to transmit body signals quickly.
When something damages your myelin, your nerves lose their protection. This can damage your peripheral nervous system and disrupt the signals between your nerves and brain. Disruption of these signals leads to sensory loss, numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, or paralysis in the limbs, resulting in difficulty walking. CIDP is an autoimmune disease that causes your body's immune system to attack your myelin sheath. A foreign infection can trigger this immune response. Unfortunately, the flu shot and other common vaccines in the United States act as foreign infections that can cause this rare disease, CIDP.
CIDP Symptoms
Damage of your nerves from CIDP disease disrupts the signals between your limbs and brain.
This disruption can lead to sensory symptoms and other CIDP symptoms such as:
- Tingling or numbness (beginning in the toes and fingers)
- Weakness of the arms and legs
- Loss of deep tendon reflexes (areflexia)
- Fatigue
- Abnormal sensations
- Respiratory difficulty
- Loss of muscle strength
- Vision complications
- Loss of sensory function
Usually, CIDP symptoms start in the legs and progress up the body to the head and the arms. But CIDP disease is different from a shoulder-related vaccine injury (SIRVA). CIDP disease and symptoms are most common in young adults, specifically males. If you started experiencing CIDP symptoms shortly after receiving a vaccine, these events could be linked.
