How Charcot-Marie Tooth Affects Your Balance

Charcot-Marie Tooth disease is a genetic problem that affects the nerves and muscles in the peripheral nervous system. It often leads to muscle weakness and nerve dysfunction, affecting the legs, feet, and ankles.

CMT can cause balance issues, leading to falls and injuries like ankle sprains or fractures. Receiving treatment early on in symptom development can prevent major issues and injuries.

At Phoenix Foot and Ankle Institute, Dr. Jefferey E. McAlister and his team provide foot and ankle treatments for conditions like CMT. Dr. McAlister is an esteemed foot and ankle surgeon who offers CMT treatments like ankle bracing, regenerative medicine, and surgery.

Understanding Charcot-Marie Tooth disease

Charcot-Marie Tooth disease is a group of inherited neuropathy conditions that affects the nerves connecting the central nervous system to the rest of the body. According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, it's a genetic problem that affects 19 out of every 100,000 people.

Three doctors, Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Marie, and Howard Henry Tooth, discovered the condition in 1886. It falls within the realm of inherited motor sensory neuropathy.

CMT causes symptoms in the arms, legs, hands, and feet and affects the sensory and motor nerves. The result are symptoms that affect how you move your extremities and the sensations you feel.

Muscle weakness and sensory problems are the primary symptoms of CMT. Other signs of CMT include the following:

• Muscle cramps
• Nerve pain
• Foot deformities
• Hammertoes and high arches
• Frequent trips and falls
• Difficulty feeling heat or cold
• Contractures around the joints
• Curvature of the spine

The severity of CMT symptoms varies from person to person and often comes on slowly over time. Although there's no cure for CMT, we successfully manage it with various treatments and therapies.

CMT and balance

One of the significant issues with CMT is how it affects your balance. Because it affects the muscles and nerves of the legs and feet, it affects how you walk and move. Other ways CMT affects your balance are:

Muscle weakness

CMT causes muscle weakness in the feet and ankles, especially the dorsiflexors that lift each foot. The intense muscle weakness makes it difficult to maintain balance, especially as the condition progresses.

Abnormal gait

An abnormal gait usually develops in people with CMT due to foot drop and muscle weakness. These issues change how people walk, sometimes overcompensating, which affects overall balance.

Loss of proprioception

Proprioception is the awareness of the body position due to sensory feedback from the feet. Because CMT affects the nerves, the loss of proprioception affects balance when the brain can't sense stability feedback from the feet.

Foot drop

Foot drop occurs due to the paralysis or weakening of the leg and foot muscles. It makes lifting the feet difficult and negatively affects balance and gait.

High arches

CMT also leads to foot deformities, especially extremely high arches. These arches affect how you walk and negatively impact balance and stability.

If you have CMT and balance issues, Dr. McAlister offers treatments like bracing, casting, or surgical intervention. These help restore foot structure and balance and prevent injuries like fractures and falls.

Call Phoenix Foot and Ankle Institute today to schedule an appointment for Charcot-Marie Tooth disease treatment, or request a consultation on our website.