Feet

Our feet can really affect how well we feel, whether they are too hot, too cold, swollen, aching or sensitive. Richard Bruno’s article on how to deal with cold feet is reproduced below, or you can download the document using the link. There are also articles on aching feet, what problems can be associated with polio and what our feet are telling us about our health. Heel and foot pain is not restricted to those with a history of polio, but they are particularly bothersome.

Polio Feet

There’s a reason you have cold feet –
but you can keep warm and stay cool

Richard Bruno, Ph.D.

New Mobility, March 1996

The process that cause “Polio Feet” to turn blue and cold and become difficult to move when it’s only cool is the same process that caused paralysis after the original polio.

The Polio virus got into the spinal chord and either destroyed or damaged the anterior horn cell motor neurons that transmit the message to move from the brain to a muscle. When those neurons were damaged, or especially when they died, they disintergrated and the muscle fibers that used to be turned on by those cells no longer were.

There is another kind of motor neuron that was affected by the virus – the motor nerve that controls the muscle around your blood vessels. When these muscles died, there were no motor nerves to tell the blood vessel to contract; if the blood vessel cannot contract, blood ‘pools,’ especially in the veins. When the blood pools in the veins, it is going to be blue, because venous blood is not oxygenated.

Polio feet are caused by warm blood that should be in the center of your body, flowing out into the hands, arms, and especially the legs (since gravity is pulling the blood down). The warm blood pools in the surface of your skin, and because the blood vessels cannot contract, the result is “polio feet.” The venous pooling causes your blood to radiate heat into the environment. People who had polio keep the world warm, unfortunately at their own expense. The price of this is a thorough cooling of the limbs and all tissues of the limbs.

When heat leaves the veins, the motor nerves that lie near the surface of the skin start to cool. The muscles that lies just a bit below the surface starts to cool. The connective tissue that connects muscle to muscle, and muscle to bone starts to cool and stops being elastic so it is harder for it to move.

When the motor nerves aren’t functioning well, the muscles aren’t going to function well; if the muscles don’t function well, there is going to be muscle weakness. We think that muscle weakness and the loss of body heat are causing fatigue; and we think that people who lose all their body heat into the environment are burning calories to maintain their body temperature, so there are fewer calories to keep moving.

People who had polio should dress as if it is 20 degrees colder than it actually is, but you should dress in layers so you can control your body temperature and not pass out from a rapid flow of blood away from your head as your arteries warm.

The bottom line is to keep warm, stay cool and:

  1. Use polypropylene socks and underwear by Gortex Thinsulate. 
  2. Dress in layers. 

Depression

Depression is characterised by extreme tiredness, bouts of despair and negative thinking. It ranges from feeling low or sad to a debilitating illness. It is important to recognise the early symptoms because the illness quickly escalates into a loss of insight and control and feelings of guilt and lack of self-worth.

Click to access glutamine-glucosamine-gelatine.pdf

Anaesthetics and Polio

This paper was presented by Selma Harrison Calmes, M.D at the International Polio Network’s Eighth International Post-Polio and Independent Living Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, June 8-10, 2000.

Dr. Calmes’ other article on this website (from 2009) “Summary Of Anesthesia Issues For Post-polio Patients” was primarily intended for physicians: Anaesthetic Papers for Polio

Anaesthesia Concerns for the Polio survivor

Here are some specific concerns about pain relief:

#1 Deadly Pain Med:  Cox-2 Inhibitors (Celebrex, celecoxib)
Those taking 400mg doses have 250% greater risk of dying from heart attack or stroke … and those taking the 800mg doses have 340% times the risk!

#2 Deadly Pain Med:  Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs or NSAIDs (Advil, Aleve, ibuprofen, naproxen)
The odds of dying from taking an NSAID after just two months is around 1 in 1,200.  NSAIDs cause gastrointestinal ulcers and severe bleeding, so short courses (three days) are advised.

#3 Deadly Pain Med:  Opiate-Based Pain Meds (Vicodin, Lorcet, Norco, Percocet, Percodan, hydrocodone, oxycodone) 
Most of the deaths in the U.S. from drug overdoses were caused by opiates. Use the smallest amount you need.

#4 Deadly Pain Med:  Paracetamol / Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Every year, more than 56,000 people visit the emergency rooms due to acetaminophen overdoses.  It’s the leading cause of acute liver failure—causing nearly half of all cases! However, taken in the correct dosages, it is one of our safest drugs.

#5 Deadly Pain Med:  Salicylates (Aspirin, acetylsalicylate) 
Higher doses or prolonged use at the lower dose—even in buffered or coated form—can double your likelihood of perforated ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Ensure you use the correct dose.

Alert: Deadly Pain Medications

March 2021 Newsletter

Click to access polio-clinic-wa-newsletter-march-2021.pdf

  • Margaret Peel on Polio:
  • Late effects of polio – the basics:
  • Should I have the COVID vaccine?
  • Vitamin supplements needed for coronavirus:
  • “Every Second Child” by Archie Kalokerinos – on Vit C need when having vaccines:
  • Vit C – why we need:
  • Sore feet? – try peppermint oil!
  • Keratin – what is it?
  • Poor sleep raises cholesterol:
  • Atrial Fibrillation – try Vit C & magnesium

Carnitine – how it really works

I was asked to the recent International Polio Conference to speak about our carnitine research here in WA. I have been meaning to simplify for the newsletter, what we have learnt since we started looking at blood levels of carnitine back in 1996 – so here’s 12-years worth of our carnitine journey. We couldn’t have done it without all of you – our members who have gone and had those blood tests done! There is also a 2016 update available.

Carnitine is an amino acid ie part of protein, and is found in our diet primarily in red meat. Avocado is the only reasonable plant source. The redder the meat the better – pork has only half and chicken only one tenth of the carnitine in red meat! We should get 75% of our needs from our diet and our bodies can make 25% – but only if the other nutrients needed are present in the body and you have muscles to store it!

How it really works. Carnitine transports protein fats into the cell so they can be broken down to produce energy to run the body. More energy is produced this way than using carbohydrate foods. Insulin is needed for energy from blood glucose – carbohydrate foods (yield is 36 ATP) but carnitine is needed to get energy from protein fat (energy yield this way is 129 ATP ie longer energy).

Two types of muscles

We have 2 types of muscles – Type 1 muscles use protein fats as fuel and Type 2 muscles use glucose. There are corresponding nerve types that make these muscles work. Swedish polio research by Borg & Grimby in Post Polio Syndrome by Halsteadi & Grimby Mosby USA 1995 showed that in muscle biopsies on polio muscle there were more Type 1 muscles and that some were abnormal Type 1 that were not as efficient.

This correlates with research documented in Human Physiology by D Moffett Mosby USA 1993 where switching of nerve type changes muscle type and fuel needed. This is in line with the accepted theory of ”sprouting” of remaining nerve endings to enable recovery of muscles affected by polio at the time of acute polio. The rest of this article can be seen here.

carnitine

How do you work out the best dose? You can get it in your diet.

Having enough is particularly good for your heart. And nerve function.

Polio survivors tend to be low in carnitine and Children of polios may also be low in Carnitine.