How your wired

We just finished up learning about the neurological system and its disorders. It still amazes me how every system in the body is so individually complex, affected by so many things externally and internally and has disease to deal with, and yet by and large most of us never experience much more than hiccups in the machine.

The brain, the CNS and PNS control our autonomic and voluntary motions. Consequently various disorders of these systems leave people with out the ability to care for themselves but still cognitive, or partially in control or with intermittent control, which can be very frustrating.

Some, maybe many of you know or will know someone who suffers for one such disease, such as epilepsy, mysthenia graves, or multiple sclerosis. I will talk a little about those, but first I want to post some info I some signs of the most probable disorder that you may encounter that needs immediate treatment, stroke.
Symptoms of a stroke:
* Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
* Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
* Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
* Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
* Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

Not all of these warning signs occur in every stroke - depends on the site and type of stroke.

These are great signs to know and my be the most helpful to you or someone close in getting them proper treatment.

Head trauma can lead to many ill effects of inter cranial pressure. I think it is best said that if you suspect head trauma, even mild, have a physician check it out because many signs and symptoms depend on the area of pressure and are not easily observed.

They other disorder that interested me was myasthenia gravis. This disorder consists of degeneration of the receptors of your muscles that receive acetylcholine. This is released by the nervous system to allow voluntary muscles to depolarize and contract. This is an autoimmune disease, which means your own body binds to and blocks these receptors with antibodies and eventually it may cause complete destruction of these receptors. Although the effects of this disorder are similar to many other neurological disorders, it is reversible. I think this is why it interested me. If the condition is recognized and diagnoses patients can be treated with anticholinesterase drugs. this drug blocks the break down of acetylcholine and allows the neuromuscular joints to remain more responsive.

As always, hope you enjoyed and let me know of any questions you may have.

Renal Disease

Chances are you know someone who has had dialysis. It seems to be very common, this is because there are many disease which affect the kidney and the kidneys require a very delicate balance to sustain the filtration of the body's blood.

Quick overview, the filtration system is balanced by 3 hormones, Renin, which is secreted by the kidneys, Angiotension, which is secreted by the liver and aldosterone which is secreted by the adrenal gland. These 3 hormones create a looped feedback system that controls retention of electorlytes and water and also affects the bodies vasoconstriction and bp.

Now that may not seem like a lot but as you start assigning illness just base on those three things, here's how it breaks down.
Water:
Hypovolemia--> low bp
Hypervolemia--> edema and high bp with CVP
Electrolytes:
Hyponatremia-->CNS irritation
Hypernatremia-->Tachycardia
Hypokalemia-->respiratory arrest, confusion
Hyperpalemia-->paresthesias
Hypocalcemia-->osteoperosis
Hypercalcemia-->Kidney stones, dysrhythmias
8 complicating diseases all affecting the renal system all affecting bp all coming with there own list of goodies you don't what to deal with. Now i know, your saying i have no clue what those are, but we all now how to use google, and what good would it be if you didn't have to learn something today?

Now, after all those goodies, there are another 4-6 good ole disease, that treat your kidneys even worse. they all cause cell death in the kidneys and here some of the thimgs you can look forward to from that, also know as symptoms of Acute Tubular Necrosis.
Low urine output with a kicker of possible CHF
No urine output with acidosis
( if the problem gets fixed soon enough)
increased urine output but still with loss of vital things
then back to normal

If you don't get lucky and things don't get fixed, which i hope none of you ever have this happen, you are looking at Chronic renal failure which has a whole list of bad things, to name a few: restricted diet, loss of energy edema, etc. This is the point where you just try to keep the people comfortable.

Well, i think i have went on enough about that. Look some things up, as with most disease i am confident you can find something small that will be big to your health.

Gimmi questions if ya got them, i need practice on that too:)

Heart Health

So I am not sure why, but whenever talk leads to the heart I always get a little more conscious about what I am doing with my heart health. I mean, bacteria, viruses. Who cares, I don’t really worry about getting sick form them, and I think if I do, so what, I will get over them.

Gastrointestinal health only slightly concerns me in that if I get a disease there I might be force to change my diet and not be able to eat what I like.

I think the part about heart health that worries me is arteriosclerosis. To me it seems a bit like having the only life saving vaccine for trillions of people and driving down and curvy road while people are throwing milk shakes at your windshield. Its only a matter of time before you crash, but you cant stop cause you have that vaccine, so you have to keep going, even if you die, you don’t have a choice.

To me that is the heart, it can’t stop, take a break or really slow down too much. So stop drinking the milk shakes!!

diverticulosis Pics vs healthy colon

This is diverticulitis of the colon. see all the pockets, thats what it is, normal colon are relatively smooth. Added bonus, not only is this a movment of fecal matter issue, but a little gets left behind in the little fecal pouches, yeah! Plus this usually isnt diagnoses till and examination is done.

Eat your fiber, but not to much

So, i am sensitive to fiber issues, i don't get enough, mostly cause most fiber isn't flavorful enough for me. I mean i know its important but when you look at pictures of diverticulitis of the colon you can see, really see why. It good to know these things, i think if we had a billboard ad for all the disease that change like every month like they do with meth a person could make a killing in health foods industry.

I got asked the other day why i want to be a doctor based on the current political arena a me not being able to make any money. First i don't think theres anything wrong with a doctor making what some would call a measly 50-60 a year. Second the human body just fascinates me. I mean lets talk about fistulas, so where some group of cells says, "hey, this isn't working, were not happy, i know were suppose to stick to our own, but lets see whats going on over in that other body cavity, just for fun." and that's it, all the sudden you leaking in places you don't want to or foods going where it shouldn't. Its just that the body is so incredibly fluid, i think everyone underestimates the bodies ability to change constantly, perpetually. Then we underestimate how good and how bad that can be.

Take note, i bet there is something you could do today to be healthier. Then do it, your body wont put up with you forever.

Pathophys

i am really enjoy this class so far, the first weeks were filled with little things that i forgot that i should remember so it was nice to brush up on them.
I love all the little nuances we are getting about disease, i am totally a people watcher so observation and tale tale signs of diagnosis are right down my alley. I have noticed this before, but there's very little that dosent have the potential to make you sick! haha, this class would definitely turn a hypochondriac into a psychotic in a day. But that's why i like it. Besides food, on my other insatiable appetite is medical knowledge. I suppose that is why i have 22 credits from kinesiology courses that don't count for my major. ;(

so a little bit on knowledge:
if you take steroid creams for your psoriasis it may give you cancer, gotta love those catch 22's

If you live in the country growing up as a child you mostly likely 1-have a history of blistering sunburns, 2- worked 3 or more summers outside before your teen years, and 3-because of the first 2 have marked freckles on your upper back and shoulders. Congratulations! your 3 times more likely to have malignant melanoma. Plus side, hopefully you learned something from all that hard work and put it to practice so you can live the good life while you still can.

Why i started blogging

Ok, so this is mostly for extra credit in my pathosphysiology class. but i could end up being fun. who knows.