Twitching Muscles? ALS Panic? Tests for Finger Muscle Strength

Twitching muscles can have some people fearing they have ALS, that incurable fatal disease that causes muscles to waste away. A classic symptom of ALS is muscle weakness. People with twitching muscles who think they have ALS are prone to relentlessly performing muscle strength tests. People with muscle twitching are often never satisfied, however, if they "pass" one of their invented strength tests.

Though twitching muscles is a very common phenomenon, a certain percentage of people invariably google those key words, twitching muscles, which then brings them to ALS links. Muscle twitching is a symptom of ALS. The person may then start panicking he or she has ALS. However, ALS muscle twitching comes after muscle weakness, not before. So the person then starts imagining he or she has muscle weakness.

This phenomenon is called "perceived muscle weakness." In ALS, the muscle weakness is called "clinical muscle weakness." The panic does not subside and the person embarks on a daily mission of muscle strength testing. This strength testing can become obsessive, and unknown to those closest to the person. I have to believe that one reason the panic never subsides in some individuals is because their strength tests aren't very efficient.

So I have come up with strength tests that, if you pass, there's no way you can have the clinical weakness of ALS.

Muscle strength tests for fingers:

Piano and guitar playing, if you already play these instruments. There is absolutely NO way Jose that a neurologically damaged finger from ALS can manipulate guitar strings or piano keys as well as you've always played them. So if you can get through your most difficult songs without a hitch, you can rule out ALS. Though this requires no strength per se, it still requires a degree of neurological skills that would be absent in ALS.

For the thumb and/or index finger strength: