Friday, January 23, 2009

Has your Chronic Symptoms been Mis-Diagnosed?

By Lydia Peru

You know something is wrong. You are tired far too often, and the pain you feel is constant. Your body temperature is off kilter as well. Is it the result of depression, or is the depression another symptom of some physical problem?

Diagnosing conditions and finding the proper treatment is not always easy. Many ailments have similar symptoms. Tests may show a rise in the body response to an infection, but cannot pinpoint the exact cause.

It seems logical that when properly diagnosed that an appropriate course of treatment will be given. In this perfect world scenario we also would find these disabling conditions magically cured. Welcome to the real world.

We dont always know the cause of our health issues. Many immune disorders present with similar symptoms. MS, for example, can be diagnosed by ruling out other conditions and seeing the progression of the disease. The cause of MS is still unknown. Treatment is still in the management and not the cure of this autoimmune condition.

Other autoimmune diseases present themselves with similar symptoms and are often diagnosed through the elimination of other possible conditions rather than proof of the final diagnosis. These ailments include fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, lupus, and other autoimmune or neurodegenerative diseases. Even rheumatoid arthritis falls in this classification.

Lyme disease is another of those multi-symptom diseases that shares symptoms with other autoimmune disorders. Lyme is known to be caused by borrelia bacteria, which is commonly transmitted by ticks, and may be more common than we think.

Diagnosing disease and its actual cause is a difficult job. Many are given the typical and over-prescribed course of antibiotics, but this treatment does not appear to be effective enough to reliably eradicate these debilitating diseases. Many turn to less conventional treatments in hopes of finding a cure.

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