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Multiple Sclerosis for whatever reason is one of the few medical illnesses that are very well known by the public in abbreviation as “MS”! This is not because of its high prevalence or incidence, as it has a global prevalence of 30/100,000. But it is well known, perhaps due to its high prevalence in northern hemisphere, specially in Europe that has the rate of 80 per 100,000, compared to 8.3 and .5 per 100,000 in the Americas and Africa perspectively. It maybe perhaps also well known, due to its different presentations, from mild relapsing-remitting with almost normal life expectancy to the severe life-shortening progressive relapsing. Most importantly it is a mysterious disease with its varied clinical and symptoms presentation and more so, an enigma for the medical practitioners and scientist who still struggle to figure it out and treat it!

As it was discussed in “Autoimmune Disorders” here, MS is a very good and known example of such disorder, with systemic presentation like some others, e.g. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), but unique in having relapsing, remitting and progressive courses unlike others. From another perspective, the clinical manifestations and symptoms presentation of MS with its varied course is as such that its diagnosis could be quite evasive and easily not taken serious by the patients and the physicians. In fact MS before being labeled as such and being recognized as a neurological disorder by the founder of modern neurology, Jean Martin Charcot, it had been mistaken by predecessors as a hysterical reaction and a psychological disorder! The reason of such confusion is that MS can manifest with almost any neurological or even psychological signs and symptoms. These varied symptoms could cover autonomic, visual, motor and sensory nervous system and could include loss of sensitivity or changes in sensations, e.g. tingling, numbness, muscle weakness, spasms, difficulties in movements, coordination and balance, speech and swallowing problems, visual symptoms such as nystagmus, double vision, fatigue, chronic pain, electrical sensation feelings throughout the body, bladder and bowel difficulties, thoughts and emotional problems, depression and unstable mood among others.

Read the full text here:

https://medicinerevisited.com/neurology/multiple-sclerosis-ms/

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There are 4 main types of diabetes:

1.Type 1 or Juvenile Onset Diabetes (JOD) that starts mostly in early age and results from failure of pancreas to produce sufficient insulin to carry on the sugar to different body organs and parts. As discussed in the “Autoimmune Disorders” section, this type of diabetes is immune-mediated. Here a T-cell mediated autoimmune attack leads to the loss of beta cells of the islets of pancreas where the insulin is produced. This type of diabetes that is less than 10% of the whole diabetes, has been associated to Coxsackie B4 and most recently B1 Viruses that invade the pancreas and through “molecular mimicry”, trick the host immune system to recognize its own tissue as foreign, antigen or eiptope, and the occupying virus as the host, antibody or paratope. This deceives the immune system to produce HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen),e.g. types DR3 and DR4 by T-cells against the pancreas to fail the production of insulin!

Coxsackievirus that belongs to a family of single strand RNA enterovirused, that also includes poliovirus and echovirus. There is estimated that there are at lease 68 human enterovirus subtypes, affecting millions of people worldwide each year, some as epidemies. These viruses often found in the respiratory secretions (e.g., saliva, sputum, or nasal mucus) and stool of an infected person and are the causes  such common infections as nonspecific febrile illness, aseptic meningits and epidemic pleurodynia in children. In the United States, enteroviruses are responsible for 30 to 50 million infections in children per year and in 2007, an outbreak of coxsackievirus in China, cost the death of 22 children and affecting more than 800, leading to hospitalization of 200 children.

Read the full text here:

https://medicinerevisited.com/general-medicine/diabetes/diabetes-and-hypoglycemia/

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Allergies are simply reactions of our immune system to the foreign bodies for our protection. In other words, allergies appearing as rashes, runny nose and eyes, shortness of breath, etc, are alarm signals that a foreign body has invaded our body territory.  While such reactions and alarm signals could be after any invasion to our bodies including an infection or drug reaction, allergies are mostly denoted to reactions to our natural environments including food items.  Such common allergies are reaction to natural and simple items, such as grass, pollens and dust to food items such as sea foods and nuts.  While anyone would react to the real foreign insults such as infections by bacterias,  viruses and poisons, common allergies to nature and foods are peculiar reactions in some of us. Why?

Our immune system, comprised by antibodies specially Immunoglobulin E (IgE) secreted by special white blood cells called mast cells and basophils, react to even the natural and food items if they are recognized as not familiar but foreign, so to cause allergy reactions and symptoms.  This happens only in some of us, for either having a weak immune system, or not being exposed enough to the proper item(s) throughout the life and not early enough!  That is why the natural and perhaps most effective treatment for allergies are exposure to the offending agent(s), gradual or sudden, like the treatment of a fear or phobia!  The allergic shots or vaccines are based on such treatment approach.  

But the most common and over-the-counter treatment of allergies are only symptomatic treatments for alleviation of unbearable symptoms e.g. rashes, runny nose and eyes, congestions and shortness of breath. These common remedies while may alleviate the above annoying symptoms, are never the conclusive treatment, but will lengthen the condition for long and for ever and forcing the patients to avoid the allergic items and go against exposure that is the true and natural remedy.  Most of these common remedies are antihistamines , decongestants and steroids that basically suppress our immune system that secrets histamine other antibodies in our defence.  Therefore by taking these medications, we are suppressing and weakening our immune system.  

Lastly it is imperative to mention that instead of taking and prescribing anti-allergic medicines that suppress our immune system and linger on the allergy for ever and deprive the subjects, mostly our children from enjoying the nature and foods, we as clinicians need to encourage early on exposures.  Most humans of course do not need to get used to poison ivy and poison mushrooms, but it is hard for them to avoid nature altogether and not go for a walk to the woods, gardens or eat common and delicious food items such as sea foods and nuts. So it would be common sense to encourage parents to expose their children from early on to the nature and these food items in order not to develop such miserable allergic reactions and hence foster their immune system!            

Dr.Mostafa Showraki, MD, FRCPC                                                               Lecturer, University of Toronto,School of Medicine,Author: “ADHD:Revisited” Book “adhdrevisited.com”/”medicinerevisited.com”

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By “Preventive Medicine” here, we do not mean only discussion of the preventable diseases caused by preventable factors, e.g. sedentary life style, diet, etc. that causes obesity, high blood sugar, cholesterol and so on. But by Preventive Medicine, we mean that the whole field of Medicine should be principally preventive and not management and treatment that is now! By Preventive Medicine, we do not mean screening everybody blindfoldly to find out diseases. By Preventive Medicine, we mean to concentrate primarily on the etiology and more importantly the pathophysiology of disorders and identify the causes and the process of disease formation. For disorders with know causes and pathophysiology, the physicians and the public need to be trained and educated on identifying those causes and taking preventive measures, e.g. promoting healthy life styles and diet to prevent obesity, high blood sugar and cholesterol and hence cardiovascular disorders.

For disorders that preventive causes are not well defined and known, we need to shift the focus of research in medicine more on the preventive side than on the treatment! For example we need to validate the theory of trauma/insult as a main cause of cancer development as discussed in the section of oncology on this website by conducting the proper research on every tissues and organs cancer, then initiate the preventive measures. Along this line, we need to identify what other disorders have preventive causes and do the same with each disorder. In a better word we need to search for preventive causes in every single disease based on the null hypothesis that every disease has a preventable cause unless proven otherwise!

In fact this whole website could be called a “Preventive Medicine Site” as we believe that every single disease has preventable causes, but we need to identify them if not known yet! Therefore in each article, there will be an attempt to critic the current medicine research and practice in every single disorder for identification of such causes and factors and promote the shift of the current “treatment oriented medicine” to “prevention oriented medicine”!    

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