Muscles

The debate is perhaps less important than treating many more patients with curative intent than is currently done.  

Most people will have back pain at some time in their lives. These exercises will show how to stretch out some of the common pain causing muscles.  

A new series of definitions of sepsis1 along with simple guidance for early diagnosis has recently been published, and a NICE guideline is due shortly.2 Sepsis is an extreme manifestation of the body responding to a severe infection—in part adaptive and protective, but potentially maladaptive and life threatening. Naturally, perhaps, the focus has been on early diagnosis and management. This is not always performed well, as highlighted by a 2015 report from the UK National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death.3 In a linked paper, Prescott and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.i2375) report that patients who survive an episode of sepsis have a significant excess risk of mortality for a prolonged period of time.4 In the past, staff working in intensive care units discharged patients to the rest of the hospital with a feeling of a job well done; somehow that part of the patient’s journey had come to an end and recovery was about to begin. Since then numerous publications have challenged this optimistic assumption. For substantial numbers of patients, leaving the intensive care unit does not represent the end of something, rather it represents the start of something else, often not anticipated by them or understood by others. Many studies have described the difficulties sustained by patients and of course their families. Such difficulties include loss of muscle mass and strength,5 cognitive dysfunction, anxiety and depression,6 and post-traumatic stress.7 Along with this come challenges, both medical and financial, for those who become informal caregivers.8 9 In the UK this has been addressed, at least in ambition, with the publication of NICE guidelines for rehabilitation after critical illness.10  

Tabulated muscle names. Click on preview to view if not visible.  

Myasthenia gravis is a disease of the central nervous system characterized by sporadic Muscular fatigue and weakness. It occurs chiefly in the muscles of swa...  

Muscle strength -- as distinct from muscle mass -- declines with age, shows a study in men over age 40, with a knock-on effect on bone outcomes and fracture risk. Differences were seen between ethnic groups.  

Patients with RA gained lean muscle mass but not strength or improved physical function in trial of creatine supplementation, showing creatine is not a substitute for resistance training.