Imagine... Suddenly... A piece of your face frozen...
You are unable to control the movements of your face, to smile or blink your eyes.
Facial paralysis. Something that affects thousands of brazilians, and also surprised one of our reporters.
The human face is a communication mechanism.
It is with our face that we express our emotions.
There is no need to speak, just a look or a smile is enough
It is 32 muscles working together, like a ballet.
Imagine, suddenly, to lose this capacity. Your face just freezes.
This is me some time ago. I used to bring stories and news on TV, each week.
(some scenes of Gabriela working)
But this news report, 3 years ago, was the last one.
After this day I didn't feel well. With a strong pain in my ear and really dizzy.
Until I woke up, with half of my face frozen.
In my case, it was an inflammation in the nerve responsible for sending impulses from the brain to the
muscles. This nerve starts near the ear and runs to each corner of the face.
An inflammation like this can be caused by common virus such as Herpes or by the "Herpes Zoster".
The chickenpox virus, lodged in the bone marrow.
Low immunity can reactivate that virus which will look for a nerve to attack.
Then a person loses basic movements such as closing their eyes, to sleep.
It is estimated that facial paralysis affects 80 thousand people per year in Brazil.
Most of them recover fast.
But 30% might suffer the long-term effects
without a big chance for improvements.
Even the famous idol, Ayrton Senna, had this problem.
In the 80's there was not a lot of information about this paralysis.
Nowadays Érica still faces the lack of information.
And she heard from the doctor that her son, Felipe, was born without a facial nerve.
The diagnose that we got was that there was no recovery, the paralysis would get worse
or even atrophy. We were a little lost, not knowing what to do.
Physiotherapy won't solve it, there is no other option, there is no cure.
Felipe is smiling in his pictures as a baby.
Not believing, the parents took the little boy to more exams
and also physiotherapy, but both didn't help.
Reporter: Do you think that there is a lack of information in this area? Erica: A lot
Reporter: Is there a lack of researches? Erica: A lot
Fabio: We know that the world today is really cruel, so sometimes a physical detail...
some people are evil... and they will end up hurting him somehow.
For the future we do have a lot of questions
and a lot of fear.
But a medical team in Holland
believe that the rehabilitation
is possible, even after long time paralysis,
and even for the more serious cases. In this new treatment,
instead of stimulating the rational side of the brain with exhausting repetition
of facial exercises, the key is to activate the emotional side.
Doctor Alex: The face is expressing the combination of 2 kinds of signals.
One of the emotional side of the brain and the other from the rational side.
What we do is to work with the emotional side in order to strengthen it.
The research was presented in the last neurorehabilitation congress, in United States.
According to the research, there is a need to stop with the most common exercise
used by physiotherapists all around the world: the mimicry.
And massage the muscles on both sides of the face with the help of the fingertips.
The doctor of the team explains that it is really important to realize how the face is
without looking in the mirror, using a visualisation technique. All really ludic.
The patient imagines drawing a line from the mouth to the ear.
After being able to control the corner of the mouth, it's time to think about something good.
Breathe deeply and let this good sensation come naturally, in a soft smile, without forcing it.
Little by little, the tension in the face eases away.
The differences are really small, but after some months,
the pictures and also the exam that measures the activity in the nerve, show the results.
Rotterdam
I myself lived for 3 years with the effects of facial paralysis
decided to try this treatment as well.
This trip to Holland was the last of 5 during the last year.
I am being discharged.
The treatment is almost finished and I feel that I am much better.
I am here again in front of the camera, talking about my life, doing my job,
doing what I like to do and I am feeling really confident to do it.
I am so happy, really really happy!
Patricia knows what caused the paralysis,
she remembers that she was going through serious problems on her marriage.
Her husband's alcoholism, the daily arguments, it was a period with a lot of emotional stress,
her facial movements were back after 5 months.
But they were not symmetrical
and during 5 years, she also felt a lot of pain in her face.
I used to give classes and I felt a lot of pain,
I couldn't read for my daughters at night because of the pain that I felt. The emotional pain.
Mariane lived for 10 years with the effects of the paralysis.
Limitations that changed her life.
It was difficult for her to walk on the street, because of her labyrinthitis.
She used to hear all the sounds really loud,
and felt a lot of pain.
Waking up and thinking "oh no, another day with this pain?"
because it was indeed a pain that didn't stop with any medicine.
I was always with that pain, always, everywhere.
Teeth, eyes, head; and all of this inside your head.
It is horrible, you can't live with this pain all the time, it is impossible.
With the daily relaxing exercises, Patricia's pain
and Mariane's decreased.
Both recovered much more than just the facial movements.
I started to notice that I was getting better. I could feel this in myself.
Not just related to the harmony of my face. But also, the harmony in my heart, my mind.
All was becoming better.
It is something that you do for yourself and doesn't matter if you will have to repeat
these exercises for all your life because now you love your face.
Jennifer went through all of this during 3 years
The Belgian lady used to hide the affected side of her face with her hair.
As a teenager, she used to avoid contact with people that she didn't know.
But now, with a big smile, she is a project manager,
and takes charge of more than 30 people at her work.
And remember that old history about not willing to make new friends?
Well, now she has a new boyfriend.
I got a better smile, that is why I like to smile, this changed my life a lot.
I feel more confident and it is easy to be happy.
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