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I (most likely) found out what shiro’s unnamed disease is through the sheer power of autism and free will

(A fuckass medical analysis on Shiro VLD)

Yeah you read the title right. Buckle up kids because I genuinely don't know what prompted me to figure this out, but you’re all about to be hit with a doozy of medical information and it might make your brain hurt. I even included his cybernetic arm in this as an extra little challenge.

I wanted to make a disclaimer first off: I am not a medical professional in ANY way shape or form. I just have a huge special interest in neurology and psychology (as well as vld) and I am disabled myself (my brain sucks), however please don’t trust this as an actual medical source, there’s a very large chance my research could be completely inaccurate. This is a tumblr post, not the DSM-5. I did look through sources to steer my research on the right track, however I didn’t go to medical school for this, I'm just insane. 

Shiro was mentioned to have a disease Season 7 Episode 1 and it was literally never brought up again or explained ever. I decided to try and do some detective work to figure out what it could most likely be. 

So let's dig into this whole analysis. If you didn’t watch the show or don't remember well, I gotchu. At this point in time we are at Season 7 Episode 1, and while Shiro is comatose in a healing pod, we see flashbacks showing him and Keith meeting.  After a hoverbike race in one of these flashbacks, Shiro suddenly panics as a device on his wrist we did not see prior starts rapidly beeping.

Its my apple watch dawg i forgot to take my steps today trust

Keith proceeds to ask what this device is, to which Shiro responds that they’re “some electrostimulators to keep my muscles loose”. He clearly hides information from Keith, jokingly claiming that “this is just what happens when you get to be an old timer”.

Later on, Keith overhears a conversation between Admiral Sanda, Shiro, and Sam Holt regarding sending Shiro on the Kerberos mission. During this conversation, Sam brings up that Shiro has “cleared all his physicals”. Sanda responds that “I don’t care what the doctor says, this man is sick, and shouldn’t be sent away on a mission as far as Kerberos.”

Keith then later confronts Shiro about this, to which he says the sentence, “I have a disease, and it’s getting worse. I’ll only be able to maintain peak physical condition for a few years, after that…”

Shiro trails off at the end, and after explaining that basically everyone and their dog doesn’t want him going on the mission (save for Sam, as shown) that he’s going on the mission anyway.

ALRIGHT CAMPERS, let's unpack.

Misconceptions and Assumptions

Right off the bat we don’t exactly know what “keeping his muscles loose” means. We do immediately understand that this is a disease that affects his muscular function. The immediate assumption from that, however, is that it’s DIRECTLY related to his muscle strength, and therefore degenerative in some way. As in, it's only related to his muscles

From what I've seen with fanon assumptions as well as headcanons, one of the most common names people make for Shiro’s disease is muscular dystrophy, specifically Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy, or BMD. 

Source: Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA.org)

Here’s a few doubts I had in regards to this, however.

It was one in the morning on a nice night last December when I suddenly was hit with the panic inducing thought: Wait a minute. Takashi Shiro Shirogane never said his disease was terminal. 

BMD, according to Cleveland Clinic, is said to cause a shortened lifespan of around 40 to 50 years. Shiro’s exact age is kind of a funky thing, however we know that unofficially through the books he’s 25, despite the fact that at the beginning of the show the Paladins are all referred to as teenagers in the description of the episode/season (but that kind of got ambiguously thrown out the window). Shiro in this case *has* to be 18 to around 23 once he meets Keith and once we get mention of his disease. (Around the time of the flashbacks, once the plot presents him as a mid 20’s adult during the events of Voltron, we can assume that Shiro is around 20-23, somewhere along those lines. If we go the older route, assuming Keith talked with him a few months before the mission, a year away in space, plus the “months” to get to Kerberos as confirmed by Pidge, would make him around 25 semi-canonically for the chronological timeline of the series when he gets back to Earth.)

I don’t exactly know what the Garrison’s standards are medically, if they would outright kick out Shiro for being diagnosed with a disease progressively affecting his motor function, or if they held onto him since he’s “their best pilot”, said by Admiral Sanda. So that’s also a bit muddy. That however, adds to our timeline, which we’ll talk more about later.

However, the main thing is that Shiro doesn’t actually say he’s going to inherently succumb to his disease. This is implied when he talks to Keith and trails off after he only has “a few more years of peak physical function”, however there ARE many diseases that can disable you to the point of not being able to keep up with physical activity, exertion etc, but that won’t inherently cause one’s death.

For example, Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that causes breakdown of the protective covering of nerves which can cause numbness, weakness, trouble walking, vision changes and other symptoms (Mayoclinic.org). However, isn’t inherently defined as a terminal illness despite minimal decrease in average lifespan (Multiple Sclerosis Trust, mstrust.org.uk).

From the conversation, there is a chance that Shiro’s disease is terminal. However, he could also just be implying that he wouldn’t be able to work for the Garrison anymore, or go on missions, something VERY dear to him considering he broke multiple international records, has a disease and still wants to ricochet himself to the moons of Pluto despite it.

That’s very up in the air in general. Seeing as Shiro does say to Keith season 2 that if anything does happen to him, he wants  him to pilot the black lion. To be fair, however, we don’t exactly know if Shiro’s disease was an officialized plot point from the writers at this time.

Additionally, we seem to understand that his first symptom is something relating to his hand/arm. BMD wouldn’t specifically target that area, from what I understand from the sources, it would more be located in his upper arm muscles. Which brings us into our first major element:

The Device (And Shiro’s Cybernetic Arm)

First element to note: the electrostimulator device. We get a very vague description about this device: keeping Shiro’s muscles loose. 

If we (logically) assume that the muscle electrostimulator would only work locally (not sure how advanced medical technology is at this point in time but I'll go from technology we have now), the main issue is regarding his wrist/hand/some of his forearm. 

From what we can assume, this is reminiscent of a TENS device, or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation unit. It's a device that delivers small electrical impulses through electrodes on a person's skin. Research hasn't proven that it works, however it is used to relieve pain (Medical News Today).

Shiro’s disease could be, at first, affecting his right arm muscle. We don’t really see anything inherently happen regarding his hand, however it doesn’t seem to be weak in any shape or form, nothing like a continuous rigidity or paralysis of his hand (especially at rest). Instead, it could very well be that his hand issue is more paroxysmal, rather than constant, meaning it's something that comes and goes, maybe subtly and even only for a few seconds at a time, at least at this point. Whatever issue is happening, it could very well be that it causes him pain. Earth’s technology is more advanced in Voltron but still relatively “primitive”, so I don’t think this would be directly reaching his brain, just his hand muscles.

This is when I noted that there’s a very high chance Shiro is experiencing dystonia in his right hand. 

"Dystonia is a movement disorder that causes muscles to contract. This can cause twisting motions or other movements that happen repeatedly and that aren't under the person's control" (Mayo Clinic)

Shiro would be experiencing what’s known as focal dystonia, aka dystonia that affects a singular region (for example his hand/wrist) (Mayo Clinic).

There are studies out there that claim something like a TENS device emitting an electrical current to affected muscles has been showing to supposedly help patients with their symptoms. Take a read if you want (Source: Neurology.org (linked))

I don’t think the device works as a scheduled dosing mechanism, rather, it could be used anytime Shiro needs it. One major component of dystonia is that it can sometimes only really be triggered through physical action, similar to certain types of tremor:

"Some types of dystonia occur only while doing an activity over and over, such as writing or playing a musical instrument...Symptoms don't usually happen when the arm is at rest." (Source: Mayo Clinic)

When did we see Shiro’s device go off? 

Well, after riding a motorbike, which we see is a physical activity, which involves the use of a twisting motion of one hand one of the controls on the handlebar. Hmm. Peculiar. 

This is obviously going to make him being on the mission a larger concern. Going past Pluto isn’t really a walk in the park, and you gotta be at your best. If you have a disease putting not only you and the mission but also your crewmembers at risk, it’s going to be making the Garrison a bit more agreeable in this scenario.

Fun throwback: The official cause of failure for the Kerberos mission was pilot error. Obviously Shiro didn’t do it, but that’s a pretty low blow (if his disease was canon at the time) by the Garrison to basically blame it on Shiro’s insistence to be on the mission despite a condition he has. Ouchie.

Anyway, note the positioning of the device again: It’s on his right arm. Many people also did note that this is the same arm as his cybernetic prosthetic is on.

 The Guy ™. That arm could probably snap bedrock in half

A lot of people have made the assumption that whatever disease Shiro has, it was cured by replacing his arm. I’ve always had a lot of beef with this take because this isn’t inherently how neuroscience works. If a human has a disease affecting your neurological function (and in this case, a muscle) it's not really like a skin infection– it's stemming from your brain, or just a whole body thing (since many diseases we don’t know the inherent cause for them or why they happen) which controls ALL your nerves/muscles, which is one huge system that isn’t just “cut off” like skin or bone if it's within the nervous system itself (I hope this makes sense). Meaning, depending on what you have it could just spread to other muscle groups over time. Especially for something like a muscle wasting disease progressively stemming from your brain, those diseases can’t be stopped by amputating an affected portion of your extremities (seeing as its assumed he had BMD), since it's your brain/entire system being affected basically. However, there’s also something significant related to dystonia (would like to clarify, not a muscle wasting disease) with the information on dystonia above: 

"Although [focal dystonia] tends to remain in the single area, it may spread to a neighboring area of the body." (Source: Mayo Clinic)

Haha. You fools.

That’s also something we have to take into account: Shiro had his arm amputated and replaced with a cybernetic, for whatever reason, which is implied to be to make him a stronger Gladiator during his time in the arena as a Galra prisoner. This was before he crash lands back on Earth around a bit more than a year after the Kerberos mission launch.

What I assume is that, if we’re looking at this from the idea that Shiro’s disease was always a thing (whether intentionally canon by the writers or not), they amputated the arm that was an issue to Shiro being able to be a strong gladiator in the arena. His hand would probably get in the way of fighting, since you know, it's a disability rendering it more difficult to use his right hand, and not very helpful for fighting monsters like 30x the size of you.

Focal dystonia isn’t really a “progressive” singular condition in itself (more of a descriptor for a dystonic symptom/location), however if its localized to a singular limb, I assume that getting rid of that limb (or a portion of it) and replacing it with a sort of cybernetic Voltron technology could inherently “fix” whatever’s happening in Shiro’s case for the time being. I don't think the Galra who took Shiro’s arm and forced him to fight in a gladiator arena inherently wanted to understand how the human brain works, or better yet what muscular diseases/disorders we can have. So, maybe the Galra arm was their, albeit brutal, way of “curing” him or getting rid of his issue to make him a stronger fighter. I don’t think the cybernetic arm would contract in the way his human muscles would (maybe it like. Is programmed not to do that, or maybe it can filter out those brain signals, idk I dont work with Galra tech)

Prognosis and Progression 

One strange thing is that we see Shiro fighting before he receives a cybernetic arm. This means that his progressive condition is still relatively mild at the time of first fighting, even if he doesn’t have the electrostimulators on his arm as treatment, seen pictured below. 

 Man. Couldn’t keep the Apple watch 

He was in space for a year as a prisoner, meaning that any disease that he supposedly has would probably have progressed in that time, and he wouldn’t have been as strong as he could be to survive being chucked in an arena with monsters. Even if he did make it past that by what can only be theoretically explained by sheer fucking spite and an Unkillable Homosexual trope, he probably wouldn’t have lasted long as a member of Voltron once he got there. He literally said (at this point) around 2 or so years ago that he has only a few years left of peak physical condition.

Here’s the thing: a progressive muscle wasting disease wouldn’t really give him that time if you think about it. If he had something that was progressive in that manner, Shiro would basically continue getting worse from the point of diagnosis and not have any real windows of “peak physical condition”. If it's a terminal disease directly affecting his muscles, it's going to keep affecting them more and more.

The timeline of his disease progression points less to something that’s inherently terminal and more towards a condition that isn't inherently just something that targets his muscles. Shiro in all honesty wouldn’t be able to be sent on Kerberos if that was the case. He could have been completely fine at the point of launch, but who knows how he would be by the time he gets to it?

Additionally, this opens up the idea of him probably having more symptoms than just ones affecting his motor function, making Sanda’s want for him to stay off the mission even more valid. If we look away from the idea that this is supposedly specifically a muscular wasting disease based on our evidence, there’s many conditions that affect motor skills that also have cognitive counterparts that match with Shiro’s timeline better. I think what I’m trying to say is that Shiro doesn’t have a muscular wasting disease, per se. The Garrison probably wanted him off the mission despite him “passing all his physicals” (most likely checking his muscle strength and neurological function, and I would assume his cognitive function as well)  because of concerns for his cognitive capability: If you can’t be a quick thinker or remember information as much as you’re supposed to, especially in deep space, you’re as fried as radioactive bacon. 

Shut the fuck up nova. What does he have

Okay, wrapping up the info we have: 

Shiro’s first symptom is what we can assume to be a paroxysmal symptom like dystonia that comes and goes in his hand. 

He doesn’t have any cognitive decline at this point.

He has a window where he’s pretty much fine physically before inevitably declining.

His hand is his only apparent symptom.

He has a device to help muscles in that area be looser, which leads us to assume this is about spasticity/rigidity.

I already went over why I don’t think Shiro has BMD. Ruling out some other progressive neurological conditions:

Huntington’s Disease A condition that causes nerve cells to decay in the brain over time. (Source: Mayo Clinic) Early symptoms include difficulties concentratimg and planning on tasks, memory issues, mental health issues (depression, anxiety etc) changes in behavior (impulsivity/mood, etc), small twitching or jerking movements (chorea) and clumsiness (Source: NHS uk)

A disease like Huntingtons has a relatively slower progression, however the symptoms would be *there* and continue to worsen. Alongside this he’d have cognitive decline and just get worse. There’s just no way anyone would agree with him going on the mission.

Shiro only presents with one symptom early on, and we don’t see any cognitive decline.

Shiro passed all his physicals. He would most likely not be doing so, and would continue to decline from there. He would probably have to resign from the Garrison.

ALS:

"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a-my-o-TROE-fik LAT-ur-ul skluh-ROE-sis), known as ALS, is a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS causes loss of muscle control. The disease gets worse over time."

Source: Mayo Clinic

More associated with muscle weakness and wasting

Not associated with dystonia. Despite being associated with muscle spasticity, this isn’t a constant thing Shiro is experiencing. It would spread to other parts of his body probably by the time he’s in space.

Too short of a timeframe for him to “be at peak physical condition for a few years” (see below)

"On average, the life expectancy after an ALS diagnosis is three to five years. An estimated 30% of people live five years or more and 10% to 20% live at least 10 years. Your life expectancy can vary from these statistics, so talk to your healthcare provider to learn more about your situation."

Source: Cleveland Clinic 

Stiff Person Syndrome

"Stiff person syndrome is a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that most commonly causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms that come and go and can worsen over time. However, some people experience other symptoms such as an unsteady gait, double vision or slurred speech. SPS symptoms are thought to be related to which type of SPS a person has.

Stiff person syndrome most often causes painful muscle contractions and spasms that often begin in the legs and back. Spasms can also affect the abdomen, and less often the upper trunk, arms, neck and face."

Source: Hopkins Medicine

"In most cases of stiff person syndrome, the first symptom you’ll experience is muscle stiffness in your trunk (abdomen, chest and back muscles). The rigidity causes pain and an aching discomfort. These symptoms can fluctuate (swing) in severity without a clear reason or trigger. They can also affect your arms and legs. As stiffness increases, some people develop an abnormal posture that can make it difficult to walk or move."

Source: Cleveland Clinic

(Supposed) muscle spasticity is specific to his arm at first, already not the common start to the condition’s symptoms

Although this condition also has triggers for symptoms, there isn’t really anything related to specific movement. SPS usually has triggers relating to sudden loud noise, physical touch, changes in temperature, and stressful events (Cleveland Clinic)

I admittedly couldn't find much on the prognosis/timeline for this condition. However, I assume it would definitely start affecting his other muscles by the time he’s part of Voltron, and not really be feasible. Cutting off his arm, once again, wouldn’t fix something like this, even if his arm was affected.

I was going to throw out that there’s a chance Shiro has Multiple Sclerosis (fun fact, this is a condition that’s on the radar for my own issues). I’m honestly too lazy to type this but basically its more of a condition that comes and goes (depending on how you have it individually), at least at the beginning for most people. His symptoms also don’t line up, because major things related to it are nerve issues (sensation, feeling etc) and fatigue (Mymsaa.org)

***DISCLAIMER***: Everyone is different and experiences things different related to medicine and different conditions. Please do not use this for medical advice. Seek a professional or ask people who really experience these things if you’re concerned. Again, this is a tumblr post.

So what does he have?

I found an answer by sheer coincidence from looking around. This is my best guess and could very well be wrong, however:

Shiro likely has Young-Onset Parkinson’s Disease.

"Parkinson's disease (PD)

A neurodegenerative disorder that affects predominately the dopamine-producing (“dopaminergic”) neurons in a specific area of the brain called substantia nigra."

Source: Parkinson’s Foundation

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disease causing many different motor (and cognitive) symptoms. However, the disease often has an average age of onset of 70 years old (Mayo Clinic). When it’s diagnosed younger than 50, its considered Young-Onset, and has a slightly different presentation of symptoms and other factors than the traditional onset.

"What’s Different About Young-Onset Parkinson’s

The age of diagnosis matters for a variety of reasons, from probable causes of early cases to symptoms and treatment:

Genetics. As with any case of Parkinson’s disease, the exact cause is usually unknown. That said, young-onset cases of Parkinson’s disease are, on average, slightly more likely to be familial or genetic.

Symptoms. In many patients with YOPD, dystonia (stiffness or cramping in a muscle or limb) is an early symptom. People with YOPD also report more dyskinesia (involuntary body movements). They also tend to exhibit cognitive problems, such as dementia and memory issues, less frequently.

Progression. Patients with young-onset Parkinson’s appear to have a slower progression of the disease over time. They tend to have a milder course, staying functional and cognitively intact for much longer."

Source: Hopkins Medicine

Remember how I mentioned Shiro might be experiencing dystonia in his hand? If he was starting to develop synonyms of (young-onset) Parkinson’s, this would make a lot of sense. 

"Dystonia:

Dystonia can be a symptom of Parkinson's and some other diseases and is a movement disorder on its own. Painful, prolonged muscle contractions cause abnormal movements and postures, such as a foot turning inward or the head tilting sideways. The symptoms usually begin in one body region — neck, face, vocal cords, arm or leg — and, in some cases, may spread to other parts of the body. The severity varies from person to person."

Source: Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

"How is young-onset PD different?

People diagnosed with YOPD have a more frequent family history of Parkinson’s disease and a longer survival. People living with young-onset PD may experience:

Slower progression of PD symptoms over time, staying functional and cognitively intact for longer duration

Less frequent cognitive problems such as dementia

More side effects from dopaminergic medications, such as more frequent dyskinesias (involuntary body movements)

Earlier and more frequent dystonias (cramping and abnormal postures) such as arching of the foot"

Source: Parkinson’s Foundation

Dystonia is a symptom/condition in itself, and wouldn’t mean that he experiences this issue constantly.

Also noting that he would have a slower progression of symptoms, giving him more time to work from the Garrison and go on missions, as well as less cognitive issues, at least right off the bat.

Note that Shiro doesn’t appear to have any sort of resting tremor (that at least we can see) meaning that this is likely not a symptom he experiences. Not everyone with Parkinson’s experiences tremors, and some don’t experience it as their first symptom (Hopkins Medicine).

The whole thing with Kuron (groaning from crowd)

I’m tired so I'll just say this: Shiro’s disease could potentially have spread. His dystonia symptoms could have spread to other parts of his body, or maybe his Parkinson’s started to cause a decline in his health. Maybe they fixed his condition within his brain when cloning him (whether with genes, chemical imbalances, etc) so that he wouldn’t be affected with the new body. Idk. 

Whoa okay so like that kind of makes sense maybe. Wouldn’t it be cool if we saw this in the show more??

As noted, this mention of any disease disappears chronologically or from the episode on out. Personally as a disabled person, I think it would have been kinda cool to explore how this impacts Shiro’s ability to lead Voltron, and what choices he makes related to it. (I have doodled stuff related to this hehe)

I also think it would have been cool to see TV representation of an interabled couple, if we got to explore things related to Adam more. Adam seemed like kind of a jackass in the whole *ahem* scene with him, focusing less on the idea that Shiro could die out in space and more on the idea that Shiro was leaving him (though don't get me started on what can be considered a flaw on Shiro’s part regarding that whole episode. Put the pitchforks down, I’m just throwing out ideas).

Anyway, in conclusion, 

Just like my other content, I have no idea how or why I cooked this. I'm assuming they did not have a neurologist on board for this show, and this is why you should fear a girl with a special interest

Also, suffer at the sight of my tab bar

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