We often come across cases or stories where the victim of a dreadful disease has been struggling to live a healthy life for ages without knowing the cause of his situation. How many times have you heard about a relative or a friend or someone you know, being diagnosed with a fatal condition that should have shown symptoms years ago? Though trained in the profession of medicine, it often happens that even the best doctors of the world to miss out on detecting symptoms in such unlucky cases. Diseases and disorders sometimes develop slyly, presenting no evident warning signals. Or they may exhibit symptoms so unclear that doctors are left scratching their heads as test after test fail to identify anything amiss.
Here are four such diseases that have a habit of dodging the expert eyes of the doctors and creeping up on you when you least expect it: –
1. Hepatitis C
Caused by the Hepatitis C virus, this disease spreads when your blood comes in contact with infected blood or other bodily fluids. This leads to inflammation and scarring of the liver.
Who’s at risk: Any person who has had a blood transfusion is at risk of suffering from this disease. Also at risk are the health care workers who may accidentally get jabbed with a used needle or splashed at with infected blood. People who get tattoos are prone to drug addictions and patients on haemodialysis are also prone to getting infected with Hepatitis C.
Symptoms: People with Hepatitis C can suffer from it for decades without showing any signs of illness. In early stages, the person may suffer from constant fatigue, which is usually chalked up by the doctors as signs of overwork. Hepatitis C is known to kill the patient slowly. The later stages of Hepatitis C include serious liver damage, cirrhosis, muscle and joint pain, autoimmune problems and kidney disease.
Diagnosis: This disease can be detected by a simple blood test.
Treatment: A full-blown treatment of Hepatitis C can take from 24 to 48 weeks and can be treated with a combination of anti-viral drugs.
2. Lupus
If you are plagued with common health problems like fatigue, fever, joint pains, laboured breathing and rashes, then you could be suffering from Lupus disease. Lupus is an autoimmune disease where the body’s defences can attack its own tissues and organs, which can result in kidney and liver damage over time.
Who’s at risk: Lupus has been known to affect 90% of the females though it can affect men as well? It has a genetic basis which means that if you have had a history of lupus in your family, you may be at a larger risk.
Symptoms: Annoyingly tough to determine, Lupus can damage any organ in the human body. While one person may have swelling in the feet, the other person may experience pain while breathing. People are also known to have sores in their mouths or pinkish-red rashes on their body and face. The most common symptoms of Lupus are falling of hair, getting tanned easily and arthritis.
Diagnosis: After considering a patient’s immune function and medical history, a doctor may take the necessary treatments. Since each patient is different due to the symptoms experienced, it is difficult to pinpoint a single treatment for this disease.
Treatment: The treatment of this disease depends upon the way it manifests in the human body. A variety of drugs is used to control and stop the symptoms from affecting the patient’s health.
3. Aneurysm
An aneurysm is an abnormal weakening and resultant dilation of the blood vessel walls, usually an artery. Experts have compared aneurysms to time-bombs as it does not show signs of any symptoms until the artery or blood vessel bursts. The most dangerous arteries to fall prey to this condition are the major arteries in the chest and heart. Since the blood vessel bursts inside the body, it is difficult to control the internal bleeding in time and by the time the patient reaches the hospital the situation becomes critical. The mortality rate of an aneurysm affected patient is as high as 50%.
Who’s at risk: Although extremely rare, aneurysms have been known to affect patients? If you are a smoker, have high blood pressure or have an artery disease, then you are at a higher risk of getting an aneurysm.
Symptoms: Brain aneurysms trigger an instant severe headache. Other symptoms include vomiting, nausea, stiff neck, blurred vision and loss of consciousness. If you suffer from an abdominal aortic aneurysm, you may experience a sharp chest pain or a crushing abdominal pain.
Diagnosis: If you suspect a bust aneurysm you should get to a neurosurgeon fast. If you suspect having an aneurysm, then it’s best to ask your doctor to perform a CT or MRI angiogram of the brain done.
Treatment: The only way to save the life of a patient after experiencing a burst aneurysm is to perform a quick surgery to control the internal bleeding.
4. Fluorosis
We have all heard how good fluoride is for our teeth but did you know that excessive fluoride can lead to fluorosis, an excruciating, crippling and sometimes terminal disease? One of the most common ways of getting this disease is to drink water that has too much fluoride in it. Other sources of fluoride are black tea, masala powders, canned food that contains fluoride as preservatives and snacks that contain red or black salt. Even some antibiotics and certain medications that control high cholesterol and depression contain high levels of fluoride.
Symptoms: Fluorosis can affect you in three ways – dental, non-skeletal and skeletal fluorosis. Dental fluorosis affects children and not adults. If you see discoloration in teeth with yellow, black or brown streaks then you may have dental fluorosis. Non-skeletal fluorosis destroys soft tissue. Its symptoms are nausea, stomach pain, excessive thirst, constipation followed by diarrhoea, frequent urination, fatigue and muscle weakness. Skeletal fluorosis affects the bones of the patient where they may feel acute joint pains.
Diagnosis: in adults, a simple test can ascertain the levels of fluoride ingested by the patient whereas in children apart from this, one also needs to ascertain body fluids, iodine levels in the urine and thyroid hormone levels.
Treatment: By identifying the source of fluoride ingestion and removing it from the patient’s diet, the situation can be controlled. Adequate quantities of vegetables, dairy and fruit should be taken.
By paying close attention to the various symptoms your body goes through during times of fatigue, fever or pains, you can equip yourself against these four fatal diseases that even the best of the doctors can miss until it’s too late.
How very true. One of my family members was suffering from Hepatitis C for about 27yrs, before it became evident but till that time it was too late to take any action.