#disease and illnesses
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levysoft · 9 months ago
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Il compositore tedesco Ludwig van Beethoven iniziò a perdere l'udito quando aveva vent'anni, un fatto che lo sconvolse e lo imbarazzò profondamente. Nel corso degli anni, la sua perdita dell'udito peggiorò e quando morì, all'età di 56 anni nel 1827, il compositore era completamente sordo.
Ma la causa della sordità di Beethoven è sempre stata un mistero, insieme alla serie di altri problemi di salute di cui soffriva, tra cui diarrea e crampi addominali. Ora, quasi 200 anni dopo la sua morte, i ricercatori potrebbero finalmente avere una risposta.
Un'analisi dei capelli di Beethoven ha rivelato alti livelli di piombo, arsenico e mercurio, riferiscono i ricercatori questa settimana in una lettera all'editore della rivista Clinical Chemistry . Probabilmente i metalli pesanti da soli non sono bastati ad ucciderlo, ma offrono una possibile spiegazione ad alcuni dei suoi sintomi.
I ricercatori hanno testato due ciocche autenticate dei capelli di Beethoven. Uno conteneva 380 microgrammi di piombo per grammo di capelli, mentre l'altro ne conteneva 258 microgrammi. Per riferimento, un livello normale di piombo in un grammo di capelli è di circa 4 microgrammi o meno. I suoi capelli avevano anche un livello 13 volte superiore al normale di arsenico e quattro volte superiore al livello normale di mercurio.
L'elevata quantità di piombo, in particolare, probabilmente ha contribuito ai suoi problemi gastrointestinali e alla sordità, scrivono i ricercatori nell'articolo.
"Questi sono i valori più alti nei capelli che abbia mai visto", dice il coautore dello studio Paul Jannetto , un patologo della Mayo Clinic, a Gina Kolata del New York Times . "Riceviamo campioni da tutto il mondo e questi valori sono un ordine di grandezza più alti."
Ma perché il compositore aveva così tanto piombo nel suo sistema? I ricercatori hanno diverse teorie. Beethoven amava bere il vino, al punto che continuò a sorseggiarlo a cucchiaiate anche sul letto di morte. All'epoca, l'acetato di piombo, che ha un sapore dolce, veniva spesso aggiunto al vino economico per ridurre l'acidità ed eliminare la torbidità.
Il processo di produzione del vino aggiungeva anche piombo al prodotto finale: il vino veniva invecchiato in bollitori saldati a piombo e i tappi venivano immersi nel sale di piombo prima di essere inseriti nelle bottiglie, secondo il New York Times . Probabilmente anche Beethoven beveva da un bicchiere di piombo.
Il piombo era anche un additivo comune a vari unguenti e medicinali, che Beethoven usava per lenire e curare i suoi vari disturbi. Prese fino a 75 farmaci contemporaneamente e molti di essi probabilmente contenevano il metallo.
Inoltre, Beethoven mangiava molti pesci, molti dei quali probabilmente provenivano dal fiume Danubio, fortemente inquinato.
"Crediamo che questo sia un pezzo importante di un puzzle complesso e consentirà a storici, medici e scienziati di comprendere meglio la storia medica del grande compositore", scrivono i ricercatori nella lettera.
Uno dei limiti dello studio è se, e con quanta precisione, i livelli di piombo nei capelli corrispondono ai livelli di piombo nel sangue. Solo perché i capelli di Beethoven contenevano elevate quantità di piombo non significa necessariamente che soffrisse di avvelenamento da piombo.
"Abbiamo analizzato i capelli dei lavoratori delle fonderie di piombo e abbiamo scoperto che c'è troppa contaminazione, che non può essere rimossa dal lavaggio, per poter dedurre le concentrazioni di piombo nel sangue", afferma Ivan Kempson , un biofisico dell'Università dell'Australia Meridionale che non era coinvolto nella ricerca, a Leslie Katz di Forbes . "Ci sono anche diversi tratti personali che possono influenzare notevolmente l'assorbimento di piombo, ad esempio il colore dei capelli, che influenza la quantità di piombo che entra nei capelli dal sangue o da una contaminazione esterna."
I ricercatori hanno riconosciuto questa possibile limitazione, scrivendo che mentre bassi livelli di piombo nei capelli potrebbero non predire con precisione i livelli nel sangue, “è stato dimostrato che concentrazioni più elevate di piombo nei capelli, come quelle osservate in questo studio, sono correlate a malattie renali ed epatiche. " Notano inoltre di aver utilizzato le migliori pratiche per rimuovere possibili contaminanti esterni prima di testare i campioni.
Le nuove scoperte si basano su una ricerca pubblicata lo scorso anno che ha raccolto informazioni anche dalle ciocche dei capelli di Beethoven. Nel marzo 2023, un team di scienziati ha riferito sulla rivista Current Biology di aver analizzato il DNA estratto dai capelli del compositore.
Dopo aver ristretto i campioni a cinque ciocche che molto probabilmente appartenevano a Beethoven (e scartandone tre che erano false, riconducibili a un'altra persona o che non contenevano abbastanza DNA per essere studiate), il team è stato in grado di sequenziare circa due terzi dei capelli di Beethoven. genoma. I suoi geni rivelarono che era geneticamente predisposto alle malattie del fegato e aveva l'epatite B al momento della sua morte. Una variante genetica, in particolare, avrebbe triplicato il rischio di malattie del fegato.
L'analisi del DNA ha anche escluso alcune possibili spiegazioni per i suoi problemi gastrointestinali, tra cui l'intolleranza al lattosio, la celiachia e la sindrome dell'intestino irritabile. Ma le nuove scoperte focalizzate sui metalli pesanti aggiungono un altro livello a questo quadro e iniziano a individuare le cause dei disturbi del compositore, scrive il team nella lettera.
Lo stesso Beethoven era tormentato dal mistero della sua cattiva salute e, come è noto, nel 1802 chiese ai medici di studiare la causa delle sue malattie e della sordità dopo la sua morte.
Mentre resta da vedere quali altri segreti riveleranno i capelli di Beethoven, il fascino del pubblico per questo artista problematico e di talento continuerà senza dubbio a vivere, dice il coautore dello studio Nader Rifai , un patologo della Harvard Medical School, a Tom Whipple del London Times.
"Quest'uomo ha creato alcune delle musiche più belle che l'umanità sia stata in grado di produrre", aggiunge Rifai. "È stato così incredibilmente tragico che non potesse sentire questa musica maestosa che ha creato."
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sataniccapitalist · 2 years ago
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gh05tsposts · 2 years ago
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Need help writing an illness
I’m planning a fanfic right now where the main character develops a very severe illness.
I’ve written down a couple notes and I had a pretty good idea of how everything was going to work, but as I went into the more specific details to flesh things out and make it feel more believable, I’ve sort of run into a wall.
I know that I want this illness to be life threatening and greatly weaken the main character, coughing up blood is a must as well. The difficult thing that I’m running into is that the cause for the illness is a certain type of magic.
This means that I can’t fall onto real life illnesses and now I need to give this type of magic (canon in the source material) symptoms and think about how it would interact with the immune system (not canon in the source material). It’s very fun and a lot more interesting than just looking at real life symptoms on google, but it does make things more difficult.
In the fanfic, the main character travels to a world filled with magic from a non-magical world, this already gives me an idea that they’re immune system would act very differently than those of the people who live in this world. After being exposed to a certain type of magic multiple times through major incidents that happen in the story, they eventually develop a severe illness after being exposed to such an unfamiliar and hostile substance so many times.
Another thing to note is that the main character’s condition is very unstable, due to their illness being caused by something so foreign like magic, so things like traveling back to their world can be a tipping point towards the worse for their health. The magical world would also not have a cure to this illness, since it’s not a problem they ever had to look into.
When I started looking into real life illnesses I could use as a reference, severe pneumonia, fungal lung illness and tuberculosis felt like pretty close fits, but they didn’t fit exactly what I had in mind. Since they have cures in real life, they don’t have any incurable angst.
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Here’s an image of some notes I made about the illness, for now I’ve blocked the main characters name and the name of the magical world since it would kind of give away what this fanfic is for and what it’s about, which I’m not comfortable with sharing. Note that overblot is the name for the type of magic I was talked about before.
To summarise, I need some help figuring out symptoms for this fictional illness, how it affects his body and potential treatments that can help relieve the main character’s pain but not completely get rid of it.
Looking forward to responses and thank you in advance.
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wow-oldaf · 2 years ago
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lupusbaby · 6 months ago
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Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.
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i-say-stupid-things · 7 months ago
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what is it with able bodied people saying “get well soon” after you say that you’re chronically ill?? like? i am not gonna? and i once literally responded with “i’m not gonna, it’s chronic, as in permanent.” and they went like “oh well, hope you get better!” like bro 💀
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cakesexuality · 29 days ago
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I've been disabled for almost 29 years. Here's what I've learned.
Tablets sink and capsules float. Separate out your tablets and capsules when you go to take them. Tip your head down when taking capsules and up when taking tablets. Liquigels don't matter, they kinda stay in the middle of whatever liquid is in your mouth.
If your pill tastes bad, coat it with a bit of butter or margarine. I learned this from my mom, who learned it from a pharmacist.
Being in pain every day isn't normal. Average people experience pain during exceptional moments, like when they stub their toe or jam their finger in a door, not when they sit cross-legged.
Make a medical binder. Make multiple medical binders. I have a small one that comes with me to appointments and two big ones that stay at home, one with old stuff and one with more recent stuff.
Find your icons. Some of mine include Daya Betty (drag queen with diabetes), Stef Sanjati (influencer with Waardenburg syndrome and ADHD), and Hank Green (guy with ulcerative colitis who... does a bunch of stuff). They don't have to be disabled in the same way as you. They don't even have to be real people. Put their pictures up somewhere if you want; I've been meaning to decorate my medical binders with pictures of my icons.
Take a bin, box, bag, basket, whatever and fill it with items to cope with. This can be stuff for mentally coping like colouring books or play clay or stuff for physically coping like pain medicine or physio tape.
Decorate your shit! My cane for at home has a plushie backpack clip hanging from the end of the handle and my cane for going places is covered in stickers. All of my medical binders have fun scrapbooking paper on the outside. Sometimes, I put stickers and washi tape on my inhalers and pill bottles. I used my Cricut to decorate my coping bin with quotes from my icons, like "I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se" and "I need you to be angrier with that bell".
If a flare-up is making you unable to eat or keep food down, consider going to the ER. A pharmacist once told me that since my eye flares can make me so nauseous that I cannot eat, then I need to go to the hospital when that happens.
Cola works wonders for nausea. I have mini cans of Diet Pepsi in my coping bin.
Shortbread is one of the only things I can eat when nauseous. Giant Tiger sells individually-wrapped servings of shortbread around Christmas or the British import store sells them year-round. I also keep these in my coping bin.
Unless it violates a pain contract or something, don't be afraid to go behind your doctor's back to get something they are refusing you. I got my cardiologist referral by getting in with a different NP at my primary care clinic than who I usually saw. I switched from Seroquel to Abilify by visiting a walk-in.
If you have a condition affecting your abdomen in some way (GI issues, reproductive problems, y'know) then invest in track pants that are too big. I bought some for my laparoscopy over a year ago and they've been handy for pelvic pain days, too. I've also heard loose pants are good for after colonoscopies.
Do whatever works, even if it's weird. I've sat on the floor of the Eaton Centre to take my pills. I've shoved heating pads down my front waistband to reach my uterus.
High-top Converse are good for weak ankles. I almost exclusively wear them.
You can reuse your pill bottles for stuff. I use my jumbo ones to store makeup sponges and my long skinny ones to hold a travel-size amount of Q-Tips.
Just because your diagnostics come back with nothing, it doesn't mean nothing is wrong. Maybe you were checking the wrong thing, or the diagnostic tool wasn't sensitive enough. I have bradycardia episodes even though multiple cardiac tests caught nothing. I probably have endometriosis even though my gynecologist didn't see anything.
You can bring your comfort item to appointments, and it's generally a green flag when someone talks to you about it. I brought a Squishmallow turkey (named Ulana) to my laparoscopy and they had her wearing my mask when I woke up. I brought a Build-A-Bear cat (named Blinx) to another procedure and a nurse told me that everyone in the hall on the way to the procedure room saw him and were talking about how cute he was. Both of those ended up being positive experiences and every person who talked to me about my plushies was nice to me. If you don't feel comfortable having it visible to your provider during the appointment, you can hide it in your bag and just know it's there, or if you're in a video appointment, you can hold it below frame in your lap.
Get a small bucket, fill it with stuff, and stick it in your bed (if you have room for it). I filled a bucket with Ensure, juice boxes, oatmeal bars, lotion, my rescue inhaler, etc. in October 2023 in anticipation of my laparoscopy and I still have it in my bed as of January 2025.
If your disability impacts your impulse control (e.g. ADHD, bipolar disorder), you should consider setting limits around your spending -- no more than X dollars at a time, nothing online unless it's absolutely necessary, and so on. Or, run these purchases by someone you trust before committing to them; I use my BFF groupchat to help talk sense into myself when I buy stuff.
Feel free to add on what you've learned about disability!
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spooniestrong · 1 year ago
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allthecanadianpolitics · 3 months ago
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A disease often thought to only affect 18th century sailors is reemerging in Canada.
Earlier this week, doctors identified 27 cases of scurvy caused by prolonged and severe vitamin C deficiency in northern Saskatchewan. Experts say the confirmed diagnoses highlight a broader issue with poverty and food insecurity in rural and remote communities across the country.
Continue reading
Tagging: @newsfromstolenland
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thattripleabattery · 8 months ago
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This is a threat
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rhiandoesfandom · 5 months ago
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The mind numbing anger of chronic fatigue is getting irritable because you're so fucking tired but you really feel like you SHOULDNT BE.
You SHOULD be able to sit at a desk and do work. You SHOULD be able to just watch a freaking YouTube video. You SHOULD be able to just eat fucking lunch.
But you can't. Because your eyes are closing and it's like temporary death is taking you.
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desultory-suggestions · 7 months ago
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Sending love to everyone who has health issues or chronic pain in parts of your body that aren’t usually socially acceptable to talk about. It’s frustrating to feel like you can never explain your pain to someone because it’s TMI and to feel like you have to hide it. Your pain is nothing to be ashamed of. I see you, and I’m sending you support and strength.
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hellyeahsickaf · 1 year ago
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I found an extremely dope disability survival guide for those who are homebound, bedbound, in need of disability accommodations, or would otherwise like resources for how to manage your life as a disabled person. (Link is safe)
It has some great articles and resources and while written by people with ME/CFS, it keeps all disabilities in mind. A lot of it is specific to the USA but even if you're from somewhere else, there are many guides that can still help you. Some really good ones are:
How to live a great disabled life- A guide full of resources to make your life easier and probably the best place to start (including links to some of the below resources). Everything from applying for good quality affordable housing to getting free transportation, affordable medication, how to get enough food stamps, how to get a free phone that doesn't suck, how to find housemates and caregivers, how to be homebound, support groups and Facebook pages (including for specific illnesses), how to help with social change from home, and so many more.
Turning a "no" into a "yes"- A guide on what to say when denied for disability aid/accommodations of many types, particularly over the phone. "Never take no for an answer over the phone. If you have not been turned down in writing, you have not been turned down. Period."
How to be poor in America- A very expansive and helpful guide including things from a directory to find your nearest food bank to resources for getting free home modifications, how to get cheap or free eye and dental care, extremely cheap internet, and financial assistance with vet bills
How to be homebound- This is pretty helpful even if you're not homebound. It includes guides on how to save spoons, getting free and low cost transportation, disability resources in your area, home meals, how to have fun/keep busy while in bed, and a severe bedbound activity master list which includes a link to an audio version of the list on Soundcloud
Master List of Disability Accommodation Letters For Housing- Guides on how to request accommodations and housing as well as your rights, laws, and prewritten sample letters to help you get whatever you need. Includes information on how to request additional bedrooms, stop evictions, request meetings via phone, mail, and email if you can't in person, what you can do if a request is denied, and many other helpful guides
Special Laws to Help Domestic Violence Survivors (Vouchers & Low Income Housing)- Protections, laws, and housing rights for survivors of DV (any gender), and how to get support and protection under the VAWA laws to help you and/or loved ones receive housing and assistance
Dealing With Debt & Disability- Information to assist with debt including student loans, medical debt, how to deal with debt collectors as well as an article with a step by step guide that helped the author cut her overwhelming medical bills by 80%!
There are so many more articles, guides, and tools here that have helped a lot of people. And there are a lot of rights, resources, and protections that people don't know they have and guides that can help you manage your life as a disabled person regardless of income, energy levels, and other factors.
Please boost!
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tumble-tv · 1 year ago
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"kill them with kindness" WRONG run them over in your wheelchair 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽 👨‍🦼 👩‍🦼 🧑‍🦼 👨‍🦽 👩‍🦽 🧑‍🦽
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spoonfulofhannah · 3 months ago
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Fatigue feels like you have sandbags tied to your feet while trying to walk. It feels like you haven’t slept in weeks. It feels like gravity is pulling you down. It feels like cotton balls are in your head, clouding everything.
Fatigue is NOT the equivalent to being tired.
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lupusbaby · 3 months ago
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Say it with me! Wheelchairs aren’t sad! Mobility aids aren’t sad! Mobility aids are instruments of freedom!
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