The way I understand this disease is that it originates in the anterior horn of the spinal column, not in peripheral muscles. Our sensory impulses arrive at the posterior horn of the spinal column, then these translated sensory messages go up to the brain , and/or to the anterior horn (motor nerve junctions) to activate motor nerves with action-potentials to the muscles.
The anterior horn activates a great number of nerves coming out of different locations in the spinal column, however if you have lesions in the anterior horn or spinal nerves (a high percentage of demylinated axons) then whole groups of muscles can be affected to some degree or they will fail completely (my knee buckles, etc). This is also/usually felt at weakness. If the posterior horn is affected by CIDP, then other sensory problem can occur... balance,lack of hot or cold sensation, etc..
Since most movements are a combination of skeletal muscles, and any part of the movement that is not coordinated with other muscles, or if only partly coordinated, then dysfunction may results and this causes pain and inflammation at the dysfunctional site.
However, I don't think the inflammation at the muscle site is caused directly by CIDP. The inflammation of CIDP ( I may be wrong about this) takes place only at the spinal area (in the anterior horn, which is a column of grey matter running the entire length of the column) and the large nerve fibers coming directly out of the horn/spinal column.
From what I've read, the wider areas of the spinal column are affected by CIDP the most; these being the cervical and lumbar sacral areas. When/if the thoracic spinal area is affected by CIDP then breathing, heart function, diaphragm and other organs may be affected.
I'm of the opinion that exercise can't do harm. I exercise constantly (might even say extreme), so when my phrenic nerve fails to receive the proper action-potentials from my thoracic spinal area, when I am in relapse, I have compensated with stronger muscles, Having built-up stronger diaphragm strength I am then better able to work my way through phrenic nerve dysfunction, However, if too many axons are demylinated, then obtaining a full and deep breath fails, no matter what state of strength I possess. This is also called shortness of breath. The point being is that the dysfunction is not in the phrenic nerve itself, but at nerve root (anterior horn) of the thoracic spinal column.
Please correct me if any part of this is incorrect. My thinking is that if/when nerves are turned off at the source (spine), only then do the nerves, muscles and movement deteriorate. From this one might extrapolate and come to realize the possible reasons for so many and varied problems of CIDP.
E