“Bulbar” Polio
Original Post: For people who have not read the "The Polio Paradox," there are two very important facts to understand about this nasty virus:
POLIOVIRUSES affected our WHOLE body. You might have had one limb paralyzed – or no paralysis or muscle weakness at all -- but had damage throughout your whole spinal cord.
POLIOVIRUSES always affected the bulbar part of our brain, therefore we all had bulbar polio.
It took me awhile to understand this. But once I did I was able to grasp what is happening with PPS.
Dr. Bruno’s Response: The bulbar part of the brain stem controls many automatic functions (e.g., swallowing, intestinal movement, blood pressure, heart rate).
Polio survivors having abnormalities with these functions are showing poliovirus-damage to the “bulb” of the brain.