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Top 10 Diseases doctors miss most
Diseases and disorders sometimes develop stealthily, presenting no obvious
warning signals. Or they may exhibit symptoms so vague that doctors are left
scratching their heads as test after test fail to detect anything amiss.
 Hepatitis C
 This disease is caused by the hepatitis C virus, which is spread by contact with
infected blood, and other body fluids leading to inflammation and scarring of
the liver.
Who's at risk: Anyone who has had blood transfusions. Also health care workers
who may have been jabbed with a needle or splashed with blood. At highest risk
are users of illegal drugs, people getting tattoos and long-term haemodialysis
patients.
Symptoms: In its early stages, the only symptom is fatigue. People with
hepatitis C can have it for decades without knowing it. It kills silently. Late
stage symptoms include cirrhosis, a serious liver disease, and its
complications, muscle and joint pain, kidney disease, and autoimmune problems.
Diagnosis: A simple blood test can detect the virus.
Treatment: A combination of anti-viral drugs can slow or stop the disease, but
the course depends upon the duration of the disease, specifics of the virus, and
treatment can last 24 to 48 weeks.
 Lupus
 Lupus is an autoimmune disease, which means that the body's natural defense
system (immune system) attacks its own tissues instead of attacking foreign
substances like bacteria and viruses. This causes inflammation. Inflammation
causes swelling, pain, and tissue damage throughout the body. If you develop
severe lupus, you may have problems with your
kidneys,
heart, lungs, nervous
system, or blood cells. Lupus is the common name for systemic lupus erythematosus, also called SLE.
Who's at risk: Lupus has a genetic basis and 90 percent of patients are female,
but it can attack men too.
Symptoms: Lupus can damage any organ of the body. One person may have swelling
in the feet and pain while breathing. The next person may have sores in the
mouth, or pinkish red butterfly rashes on the face or elsewhere on the body. The
common symptoms are arthritis,
hairfall, and
skin getting
tanned easily.
Diagnosis: Doctors consider a patient's medical history and immune function.
Treatment: A variety of drugs are used, depending upon how lupus manifests
itself.
 Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and
interferes with absorption of
nutrients from food. People who have celiac
disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is
found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as
medicines, vitamins, and lip balms.
When patients eat food
containing gluten, the hairlike projections in her small intestine called villi-
absorb nutrients from food- shrink or disappear, leaving her unable to digest
properly. Celiac disease can lead to
osteoporosis, iron deficiency-
anaemia and
serious vitamin deficiencies.
 Who's at risk: In genetically susceptible people, the disease can be triggered
by pregnancy, severe
stress, surgery or viral infection.
Symptoms: Typically, they include abdominal cramping and
bloating, gas, diarrhea
or constipation, unexplained anaemia and mysterious
weight loss. Sufferers may
also feel joint pains, fatigue or
depression, and some develop a large rash.
Diagnosis: Doctors look at the symptoms and rely on blood tests to detect the
sensitivity, followed by a small bowel biopsy.
Treatment: Avoidance: Eliminate wheat products from your
diet, in order to lead a normal life. With proper medications and constantly being in
touch with your doctor, you can occasionally eat wheat products.
 Colorectal Cancer
Cancer
of the colon or rectum is also called colorectal
cancer. A Fifty-year-old woman had suffered intermittent stomach cramps
for over a year. The first doctor she consulted said she had an ulcer. But the
medicine he gave did not help. The next two doctor she went to diagnosed intestinal TB
but their remedies brought only temporary relief.
One day the cramps were so painful that she had to be hospitalized. After
doctors removed a part of her intestine, a biopsy revealed her true
problem-colorectal cancer
Symptoms: of cancer in the colon and other internal organs, usually manifest
themselves only when the disease reaches and advanced stage.
Who's at risk: People with a family history of colorectal cancer or colonic
polyps-tissue outgrowths in the large intestine.
Symptoms: Altered bowel habits, severe stomach cramps, bleeding, pain or
obstruction, vomiting.
Diagnosis: An easy way to suspect colorectal cancer is to test for faecal blood
and also get a rectal examination done with your annual medical checkup. If
there's any suspicion after these two tests, get a colonoscopy done. This
enables the doctor to look inside the colon for suspicious growths. A biopsy
determines whether the growth is cancerous. Using colonoscopy doctors can also
remove pre-cancerous growths and polyps.
Treatment: If caught early, colon cancer can be treated effectively with surgery
and chemotherapy.
 Aneurysm
 An aneurysm is an abnormal weakening and consequent dilation of the wall of a
blood vessel, usually an artery. Experts have likened aneurysms to time bombs
for good reason: You can be symptom less until the faulty blood vessel bursts.
The major arteries in the chest and the head are the most notorious-and
fatal-places to have an aneurysm; mortality rate, even for patients who reach a
hospital alive, is about 50%.
Who's at risk: The condition is relatively rare. But your risk increases if you
smoke, have artery disease,
high blood pressure, and close relatives who have
had aneurysms.
Symptoms: If a brain aneurysm bursts, it triggers an instantaneous and unusually
severe headache. Other symptoms include nausea and vomiting,
blurred vision, stiff neck and loss of consciousness. Aortic aneurysms announce
their presence with a crushing chest or abdominal pain.
Diagnosis: Anyone who suspects a burst
aneurysm should get to a neurosurgeon fast. Second, if you are at doctor to do
either a CT or MRI angiogram of brain.
Treatment: Quick surgery can save a person's life.
 Fluorosis
 The concept that fluoride is good for your teeth has misled everybody, and
fluorosis remained uncared for until recent years. Excessive fluoride can cause
fluorosis, a painful, crippling and sometimes fatal disease. One of the most
common reasons for contracting the disease is drinking
water with too much
fluoride init. Other sources of fluoride include black tea, tinned foods that
use fluoride as a preservative, masala powders and snacks that contain black or
red rock salt; some antibiotics, and certain drugs that combat
high-cholesterol
and depression.
Who's at risk: People who drink a lot of black tea (if milk were added, calcium
in the milk binds with any fluorine and forms calcium fluoride which is not
absorbed by the body, but excreted, so no damage is done.)
Symptoms: Fluorosis occurs in three forms. Dental fluorosis affects the teeth of
children but not of adults. Teeth become discoloured or streaked: yellow, brown,
or black. Skeletal fluorosis affects the bones of both children and adults.
Patients suffer from pain in the major joints. Nonskeletal fluorosis causes
destruction to soft tissues. Symptoms include nausea, stomach pain,
constipation followed by diarrhoea, excessive thirst, tendency to urinate very frequently,
muscle weakness, and fatigue.
Pregnant women with fluorosis tend to have spontaneous abortions, stillbirths
and premature deliveries.
Diagnosis: A test ascertains the fluoride levels in a patient's drinking water,
blood and urine. An X-ray of the forearm and haemoglobin content needs to be
determined. In children, in addition to the fluoride levels in body fluids,
thyroid hormone levels and iodine levels in the urine need to be determined.
Treatment: Treatment in all cases involves identifying the source of fluoride
poisoning and removing it from the patient's diet. Fluorosis patients should
take adequate quantities of fruits, vegetables and dairy products.
 Hypothyroidism
 The
thyroid is a small, butterfly shaped gland found just below the Adam's
Apple. When it fails to make enough thyroid hormone to maintain
metabolism, the
body starts slowing down. Sufferers gain weight, feel tired, have memory
lapses-the symptoms are myriad and confusing.
Who's at risk: Women are five times more likely to develop hypothyroidism than
men. Your risk increases with pregnancy and age.
Symptoms: Intolerance to cold, fatigue,
weight gain, heavy periods, hoarse
voice, dry skin and hair, memory lapses, loss of energy, depression, sleep
difficulties and hair loss.
Diagnosis: A simple blood test can reveal an under active thyroid.
Treatment: Patients get a daily dose of hormone replacement drugs.
 Benign Positional Vertigo
 Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the consequence of an imbalance of fluid, or the collection of debris,
in the semi-circular canals of the inner ear. BPPV patients have difficulty
maintaining their balance.
Who's at risk: Those under stress, especially aggressive type-A personalities
who push themselves hard. People who have injured an ear or suffered from a
severe infection are also susceptible.
Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, blurring of vision and light-headedness that lasts
from several seconds to a minute. Sufferers feel that their surroundings are
spinning. Some may feel that they, too, are whirling.
Diagnosis: Specialists rely on balance testing, a procedure that uses a laser to
detect the jerky movements of the eye caused by vertigo.
Treatment: Stress-busting drugs, yoga,
meditation and exercise that stimulate
blood circulation.
Vertigo patients, need to learn to manage the condition- for there's no definite cure-that
can
lead to a full and active life.
 Chlamydia
 Chlamydia (kluh-MID-ee-uh) is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Chlamydia
is an STI caused by bacteria called chlamydia trachomatis.
Chlamydia is the most
commonly reported STI in the United States. Women, especially young women, are
hit hardest by chlamydia.
Untreated, chlamydia in women can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, scarring of
the Fallopian tube, ectopic pregnancy and, in some cases, infertility, also a
problem for men.
Who's at risk: Technically, any sexually active woman.
Symptoms: Initially, they consist of discharge or itching that is so mild that
most people don't see a doctor. Over time, women can experience lower abdominal
or back pain, pain during intercourse, bleeding between periods, or nausea and
fever.
Diagnosis: It can be diagnosed by a culture test as well as other methods.
Consult your doctor if you have the above symptoms. The bacteria is detected by
an ELISA test, serology or by chlamydia antigen in the cervical swab or in the
urine.
Treatment: chlamydia is treated with a single dose of antibiotics.
 Sleep Apnea
 Snoring may indicate sleep apnea, which can lead to high
blood pressure, heart disease
and stroke. A collapsing airway triggers the snoring and it can interrupt
breathing for as long as a minute. Sufferers wake up-usually without realizing
it-to restart their breathing. An apnea is a period of time during which
breathing stops or is markedly reduced. In simplified terms, an apnea occurs
when a person stops breathing for 10 seconds or more. If you stop breathing
completely or take less than 25% of a normal breath for a period that lasts 10
seconds or more, this is an apnea. This definition includes complete stoppage of
airflow.
Who's at risk: Risk increases with age, but even children can get it. It is twice as common in men as it is in women and is associated with
being overweight and having a thick neck.
Symptoms: You guessed it: Snoring. Also, daytime sleepiness.
Diagnosis: Unexplained daytime sleepiness is the key sign of sleep
apnea or
other sleep disorders. When doctors suspect sleep apnea, they may recommend
spending a night at a sleep clinic to monitor brain activity and blood oxygen
levels.
Treatment: Patients find relief by using a machine that forces air through the
nasal passageway during sleep.
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