Sonny -
At the top of this page is a button to go to Jan's website. There is a link to info on diet for myotonia. Potassium definitely has an effect, as does caffeine, and sugar.
Please ask your wife to read the stories some of us have posted on the website, as well - it is a common thing for people to label us lazy, unmotivated, clumsy, etc. But knowing about myotonia congenita, and understanding its effects on us, a person should NOT be saying those things!
Also - when you have done strenuous exercises (running, biking, working out, even serious dancing...), your muscles can become very weak and poorly functioning, and sometimes can take a day or 2 to get back to normal. When I used to do serious gardening for hours, I'd really be into it until I stopped, and then I would be so weak I could barely move.
I've never taken meds for my MC (but wasn't diagnosed till I was 54). I hope the info you find here is useful for you! Lois
Type of Myotonia: Myotonia Congenita, Becker's type
Yes" I am a pistachio farmer,I planted my first trees back in 1985 along with my father , i am orignialy a fourth generation cotton farmer but the pesticides used for growing cotton nearly killed me,the pistachios take 7 years on the average until first production,My MC is autosomo resseive, my parents each have a diffenant faulty chromesone ,that completed the puzzle for me to aquire the MC.
It sounds like a CLCN1 mutation if it's recessive, and they actually did the testing. I have not heard of SCN4A mutations being recessive but I could be wrong.
You know some pestacides can cause myotonia in individuals without the disorder, from toxicity.
I've wondered for a while if we'd be more sensitive to this affect but it's not an experiment I care to embark on. :-)
I do know that my myotonia dropped off substantially after I moved away from an agricultural area but that might have just been coincidence.
Hi Leroy -
Very interesting.
Just thought you'd be interested to know that Jan has said many times that those of us with MC tend to be very sensitive to pesticides and other chemicals. So I guess the very best thing is for you to be an organic farmer!!
I also have Becker's type, or the recessive form of MC, and know of no-one else in my family who had it. (But I wasn't diagnosed until I was 54 and most of the people in my family were already deceased.)
Lois
Type of Myotonia: Myotonia Congenita, Becker's type