Talk:Bell's palsy

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Contents

[edit] Probation list of Famous persons with Bell's palsy

[edit] BLP Issues

This article as major recurrent BLP problems. Any "so-and-so has Bell's palsy" claims must have a citation. --Selket Talk 15:34, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree, I just added fact tags to any uncited entries, and after a couple weeks or whatever, any still-unreferenced entries should be removed. -Agyle 17:41, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
This is a recurring problem, and I suggest that dubious entries are moved here for a probation period. Vandalism-like entries (e.g. people adding their own names) should not enter this list, they should just be deleted. Power.corrupts (talk) 08:25, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Drew Barrymore

Isn't Drew Barrymore afflicted with Ball's Palsy? Sugreev2001 13:31, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

please provide a reference. Power.corrupts (talk) 08:28, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fiction - Popeye the Sailor Man

Would it be fair to mention Popeye the Sailor Man as possibly being afflicted with BP? knoodelhed 09:15, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes, NBC)

I came here to see if Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes, NBC) had Bell's Palsy events. I noticed Sly Stallone is on the list when his own entry says "His trademark sneer and slurred speech are the result of paralysis in the left side of his face caused by birth complications." and is cited from http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/273:820/1/Sylvester_Stallone.htm. Is there any fact checking on this list, or can anyone add anyone for any reason? I'd like to add Tina Fey. And the Mona Lisa.

[edit] Gordon Lightfoot

The wiki for Gordon Lightfoot states that he has been affected by Bell's Palsy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.190.182.209 (talk) 12:31, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

True, added Gordon Lightfoot to the main list (presuming he is famous). Power.corrupts (talk) 08:55, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Milo Ventimiglia and Roseanne Barr - references needed

Anon IPs have added these two notabilities to the Famous persons with Bell's palsy section. For both, no other reference than their wiki page is provided but unfortunately these pages are silent on any palsy.

Superficial Google searching lends only weak credibility to the claim that the two notabilities should have had Bell's palsy. Some blogs [[1]] claim that Milo Ventimiglia has an "asymmetrical mouth" resulting from Bell's palsy - a known Bell's complication. However, also stating that he may have been born with a "dead nerve ending" - then it's NOT Bell's Palsy. A Roseanne web-biography[[2]] only states that she had the condition "at age 3". Another source [[3]] states that the disease lead her into "Mormon lifestyle" - few children have the capacity to make such decisions at age 3.

Both entries are fact-marked and will be removed after some time if no reliable references are provided, or if their wiki pages are not updated with that information Power.corrupts (talk) 22:07, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Took Roseanne Barr off the list - no reference provided

Request posted on Roseanne Barr's Wiki discussion page - any references? Power.corrupts (talk) 18:28, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Took Milo Ventimiglia off the list - no reference provided

Request posted on Milo Ventimiglia's Wiki discussion page - any references? Power.corrupts (talk) 18:29, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ayrton Senna

Request posted on Ayrton Senna's Wiki discussion page - any references? Power.corrupts (talk) 08:43, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
Preliminary reply positive, put him back on listPower.corrupts (talk) 18:16, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Scott Barkman - hoax and vandalism

Scott Barkman has been verified to have Bell's Palsy. However, his listing was incorrect. He is not American, and he is not a journalist. I have corrected this, and you may move him up and down the list as you wish. 71.210.118.54 23:33, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

I took Scott Barkman off the list because his wiki link was dead. Digging a little deeper reveals that this entry borders vandalism. Quoting from a thread "Scott doesn't have Bell's Palsy, and if he did, he's not famous enough to justify being added to the wikipedia page for it" (http://boards.thewiire.com/lofiversion/index.php?t24779.html), i.e. a thread on the very organization that Scott supposedly is part of. On 5 October 2007 wiki user [Agyle] in revision history said: "Removed Scott Barkman, for 6th or so time. He's not famous, and no reliable source corroborates he has the disease." Let's keep it that way.
Wondering if the "Famous persons with Bell's palsy" section should go away all together as it is such a frequent target for vandalism. Power.corrupts (talk) 11:43, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
A new IP address is having fun adding Scott Barkman from the Wiire to the famous people section. Let me quote more extensively from the thread on the Wiire website mentioned above.
(1) First the petition: "Fellow Wiire fans, we must join together to keep Scott Barkman on the Bell's Palsy page of Wikipedia! Agyle, a member of Wikipedia, has been removing Scott's name despite the fact that fans have been putting it back on again and again. We must all work together to keep his name on Wikipedia." .. etc.
The first response: "This is lame and childish man. Don't bug Wikipedia with this nonsense .. " etc.
The second and last response, apparently from a forum moderator, who then closes the thread: "... if you want to have fun like this, use Uncyclopedia. To my knowledge, Scott doesn't have Bell's Palsy, and if he did, he's not famous enough to justify being added to the wikipedia page for it - even Matt Cassamassina isn't famous enough to get on a list of that nature. " ... etc.
- Conclusion: This is a lame joke. Adding Scott Barkman to the list is not in good faith and borders vandalism. Power.corrupts (talk) 13:53, 9 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Methylcobolamin

It has been reported that mega doses of methylcobolamin will cure 80-90% of patients. The North American medical community seems to dispute this however I could not find any data or studies to support the idea that B12 does not work. Micheal Jalaludin published a study in 1995 that showed excellent success with Methylcobolamin. Ref: reference

I think this information should be added to the artical.

  • I don't. The link referenced shows one study, that as near as I can tell was not peer reviewed, from 10 years ago with no corroborating studies. Also, slightly above that there is the claim, in a paper with no authors that the same substance will help with (and I quote):
Bell's palsy, cancer, diabetic neuropathy, eye function, heart rate variability, HIV, homocysteinemia, male impotence, and sleep disorders.
I think these claims have little credibility. Wikibofh 22:05, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
I highly disagree with your position. B12 does have positive benefits in all of the areas claimed. If you do your research you will find considerable support. Furthermore, the North American Medical community has not done any studies that I can find to dispute the finding published in KL. B12 theapy is inexpensive and perfectly safe. If you for instance were to become afflicted with Bell's Palsy would you for instance choose to hide your head in the sand and pursue an ineffective treatment which Steroids clearly are because of politics in the medical community? Have you any idea at all what it is like to have 1/2 of your face paralyised? Would you not want to know about reported effective treatments because the study happens to have been done in Malaysia?
I happen to know for a fact that B12 makes a difference. What I would like to see is a North American study and to conduct one is not expensive. Since no-one at this point is comming forth with any studies that dispute the work done in Malaysia I have to assume the reasons are primarily political. There are actually quite a number of areas where Asian medicine is ahead of Western medicine. One of the HUGE areas is the anti cancer properties of many edible mushrooms. In this area slowly the active ingrediants are being identified and registered as pharmacuticals. Yet the Asians have known this for centuries.
This artical should reflect more than just a North American centric viewpoint!
  • All I'm asking for is peer reviewed citations. I don't see those. As it turns out I think that "traditional" medicine probably does miss some things that "folk" medicine knows. One prime example would be accupuncture. I'm not convinced that this is a similar case, and without better documentation, I think it should be left out. Claiming something helps with "cancer, HIV, diabetes" is so wide ranging as virtually eliminate its credibility. Wikibofh 14:01, August 24, 2005 (UTC)
  • ...as do statements such as "I happen to know for a fact that ..."
However I see nothing wrong with adding Vit B-12 to the discussion of treatments that may help. Sfahey 02:03, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
  • I think we should work out any wording here first. I don't have a problem with something like "claims" but something like "proven" would be problematic. Go ahead and draft up a section and we can hammer it out and put it in. Wikibofh 02:41, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Contagious

Is Bell's Palsy contagious? (-unsigned)

There are many causes of Bell's palsy. Some are infectious, but it's not contagious in the sense that contact with someone with Bell's palsy is going to expose you to a risk of "catching" it. - Nunh-huh 00:04, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Is there no evidence that Bell's palsy is caused or worsened by exposure to a draught?

[edit] Clarification

It says that people will be left with deficits, I've had Bells Palsy for 8 Months now, and it isn't getting any better, was wondering, is it possible my mouth will never move right again? Or my eye will never stop watering on a regular basis? I can live with the other things, those are just the most annoying... Myzou 17:48, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synkinesis complication

I have added a short decription of a complication known as synkinesis. I have personal experience with the complication and I'm intrigued by the mechanism of imperfect regrowth. --Frank.hedlund 22:47, 15 May 2007 (UTC)


[edit] References

The three non-footnote references are too vague right now:

  • "The Merck Manual"
  • New England Journal of Medicine, Sept. 2004
  • eMedicine, "Bell's Palsy"

Books, journal articles, and websites need various different information, like publishers, publication dates, edition information, article titles, authors, dates accessed, precise URLs (not main page), and so on. I added a refimprove tag to this article. -Agyle 17:47, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Question: Where is the reference section gone? Were they removed by one of the vandalism edits? 194.46.171.161 (talk) 11:35, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Well spotted, thanks! I have replaced it. --Slashme (talk) 12:11, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wording/style

This article has a "how-to" tone and style to it, especially when it continually urges its readers to "seek a doctor's consultation" and so-forth. I think it'd be best to rewrite parts of it to keep in line with other standard encyclopedia articles.

--Giacosilontana (talk) 03:57, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lifetime risk

One contributor has written that Bell's palsy affects approximately 1 person in 65 during a lifetime. I consider this to be correct. But at the http://www.bellspalsy.ws site, which is otherwise quite good, I came across a completely different number 1:5,000. Due to this discrepancy I have added a "citation needed".

Details: Personally, I would compute the lifetime risk like this. If p is the annual incidence rate, (1-p) is the annual "rate" of *not* having BP. If y is the average life span, (1-p)^y is the chance of not having it over a lifetime, the lifetime risk is therefore 1-(1-p)^y. It is only valid to multiply probabilities in this manner, if the individual probs are independent. They are not, because of familial, age-related, pregnancy (gender) related, recurrence etc, etc, but these effects are quite small compared to the overall uncertainty on the incidence rate of 15-50. For a first estimate, the above method would be reasonable. For p=20/100,000, y=75, the result is 0,0149, which is one person in 67. Fairly close to 1 in 65. I approached the website about a possible error there (http://forum.bellspalsy.ws/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=12&topic_id=270) but sadly received no useful answer. I have searched for books on epidemiology for methods on lifetime risk calculation, mostly in vain, but they do at times apply complex actuarial methods.

For the sake of precision I would appreciate if someone more knowledgeable in epidemiology than I confirm the estimate, or provide a citation. -- Frank.hedlund (talk) 23:40, 14 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Possible alternative treatment

I don't know if there are any available citations for this, but I've seen two anecdotal cases of my father and an older friend who ate canned peaches, of all things, and then their palsy rapidly went in to remission. I doubt there is much scientific evidence for this, but anecdotely, it has been very helpful. --71.76.39.125 (talk) 18:12, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Interesting, but it definitely falls under the heading of "original research". --Slashme (talk) 08:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reccurence of Bells Palsy?

I would like to see something about the likelihood of reccurence of BP. Do you have any information about this please?Amwlmc (talk) 14:53, 19 March 2008 (UTC)