Tag: Jaundice

How Do You Become Deaf

How do you become deaf? That is a silly question to ask but there are some people who are born with it while others develop it later on in life. Here are some of the causes why some people have deafness problems.

In the case of people in the music industry, studies have shown that deafness problems are caused by loud music. Rock stars like Eric Clapton and Peter Townshend believe that playing in concerts with the speakers at high volumes causes this especially when these are close to you on stage. Permanent damage can only happen if repeated and this business, if you are on tour, this is bound to happen.

If you were an actor or actress, you could develop deafness problems as a result of an accident. William Shatner and former President Ronald Reagan developed this from a loud explosion and gun shot that was fired too close to where they were. The ringing sound did permanent damage to their ears which is why the former president had to wear hearing aid later on in his political career.

A sickness is another cause of deafness problems. Some athletes and celebrities developed a disease at a young age and never recovered fully from it. Two good examples are Miss America 1995 Heather Whitestone and athlete Jeff Float. Although this presented a handicap, this did not stop these two individuals reaching for the stars.

There are also those who are born deaf and in most cases, this is genetic. This is caused by illnesses such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), toxoplasmosis and herpes. Medicines that are used to treat these problems may also cause damage to the hearing system especially ototoxic drugs.

If the infant is born prematurely, he or she is also at risk of being deaf or becoming deaf in the future. This is because they may be born with severe jaundice or experience a lack of oxygen.

It is also possible that the child may lose their sense of hearing as a result of an accident.

Another possibility why you may soon suffer from deafness problems is aging. Studies have shown that as we age, a combination of loud noise, stress, certain illnesses and medicine may make this happen.

You can also suffer from deafness problems if you work in a construction site or airport especially if you do not have any protection.

Can deafness be prevented? In some cases yes while in others no. Since we have no control as to what happens when the female is pregnant, it is hard to prevent that from happening but once the baby is out, there are steps we can take.

First, as parents we should not bring our kids to places that have loud sounds. Since they are young, their ears have not yet fully developed and are very sensitive.

As they grow older, you should teach them about proper safety techniques like wearing ear protectors especially if they have to some home improvement work or when they decide to pursue this later on as a profession.

We should also watch their health because they could suffer from a disease that could give them this problem. If the doctor is about to prescribe a medicine, make sure that one of its side effects is not deafness.

How Does One Know If He Or She Has Gilbert’s

How Does One Know If He Or She Has Gilbert’s Disease?

Gilberts disease is a condition that has closely related symptoms as jaundice, in fact there had been several studies that say that some cases of jaundice is caused by Gilberts disease. A very thin line separates the two conditions and without professional help one may not be able to understand and determine which condition they are afflicted with.

Its difficult to understand why it is important to know the right condition you have if two conditions barely have a difference. The importance of knowing the right conditions that you are afflicted with is that knowing what condition you have can lead to easier treatment. Treating certain conditions requires knowing exactly the type of condition that you are experiencing. You cant really treat a flu with cough medicine right? It goes the same with every kind of condition that people experience.

Unfortunately though some conditions may not have a treatment or a cure. One of those conditions is Gilberts disease. This condition is not really damaging or harmful to the patient but it still causes a lot of discomfort. Gilberts disease causes fatigue and jaundice to a person.

Even if some conditions have no known cure or treatments it is still important to have it diagnosed properly to learn more about the condition and find a cure in the future. Going back to Gilberts disease if it has no known cure or treatment why do people still to have it diagnosed. For experts to be able to find more about the condition and to be able to find out more about how to treat it.

How do you find out if you are suffering from Gilberts disease? Is there a proven way to pinpoint the condition if Gilberts disease shares the same symptoms with jaundice? There is and you can consider following it if you have the time to examine yourself. Here is a short list of the ways and the steps to go through to systematically to find out if you have Gilberts disease.

Step number 1: If you have an inkling that you have Gilberts disease and you also found out that your family has a history of having it too, you should immediately look for the signs and symptoms of the diseases. One of the symptoms you have to look for is the symptom of jaundice. Those signs are yellowish skin and yellowish eyeballs, it may also be accompanied by swollen mucus membranes and running nose. Another symptom is fatigue due to physical stress (exercise, general stress, and illness). Other symptoms to look for include nausea, general sleepiness or tiredness, pain in the body.

Step number 2: Visit your family doctor and tell him about the symptoms and the signs that you are experiencing. You should also tell your doctor about your suspicion and your family history. This may narrow down the search for the condition you are experiencing. Telling your doctor your suspicions may help out a lot.

Step number 3: Besides testing the physical symptoms, your doctor will let you go through an indirect bilirubin blood test that will say whether the disease is at hand.

Step number 4: Once diagnosed, though there isnt a treatment for the condition your doctor can still treat the jaundice and the help relieve the pain or discomfort associated with the abdominal symptoms of Gilberts disease that can be present.

Gilbert’s Disease And Its Signs

Many people ask about Gilberts disease and how it affects a person, a lot of people are concerned about having it because there is a little knowledge that can be found about it and there only been a handful of people that are aware that they have it.

How can Gilberts disease go on unnoticed?

One of the main characteristics of Gilberts disease is that it is asymptomatic or it carries no symptoms in most patients. This makes detection and diagnosis really difficult for the doctors and for medical experts. Being asymptomatic in nature makes Gilberts disease one of the few conditions that little are known about. Clinical studies and experimentation is always important in the curing and early detection because the baseline for the condition can be set, the proper dosage for the medication and the duration of the treatment can be directed.

Another factor for the stealth of Gilberts disease is that it has no long term or short term damaging effects to people. This means that patients can live healthy and normal lives and even live to a ripe old age with no hindrances from the condition. The only clear indication that a person has Gilberts disease is if they have experienced jaundice. With only minor stomach pains and yellowish skin and eyes, Gilberts disease causes no great concern to some people.

Other symptoms connected to the condition is uncommon

The person suffering jaundice because of Gilberts disease does not usually cause any major problems, Jaundice is the condition where a person suffers from yellowish skin and eyes and a little stomach pain. However, a number of people with Gilberts disease account other symptoms, the majority of these symptoms are: tiredness, mild weakness, mild abdominal pains and mild nausea. It is not apparent whether these symptoms are in fact connected to Gilberts disease. It is likely that they will build up from time to time due to unsupported nervousness concerning the condition. There does not appear to be any association amid these symptoms and the level of bilirubin in the blood. That is, these symptoms may develop irrelevant to whether or not the level of bilirubin is high or normal.

If the height of bilirubin goes higher than a definite level you turn out to be jaundiced. This is because bilirubin is an orangey-yellow color. A few people with Gilberts disease grow to be a little jaundiced now and then. This might appear to be upsetting, but is of little alarm if the cause is Gilberts disease. It is quite common to be jaundiced if you are a patient of Gilberts disease.

More on the process of breaking down the bilirubin

Jaundicea condition brought about by high levels of bilirubin in the blood stream. For people suffering from Gilberts disease it is caused by the inability of the liver to produce an enzyme that breaks down the bilirubin in the blood and to transfer it to the gut in the form of bilecan be caused by a lot of different diseases of the liver and blood. As a result, if you contract jaundice you are expected to call for tests to make clear the reason and to discard the chance of a serious disease. A blood test can more often than not confirms the diagnosis of Gilberts disease as it demonstrates a mildly raised level of bilirubin and confirms the non-existence of a serious disease.

The Relationship Of Gilbert’s Disease And Jaundice

Unpopular diseases such as Gilberts disease can be alarming once you are diagnosed with it because you will never know what will happen to you. Upon hearing that you are or you might be suffering from it, it can be hard to accept it because you dont know what to do.

To ease the burden that people with Gilberts disease, doctors try to explain everything about the condition in laymans terms. And one of the easiest ways to understand it is if it is compared to more common diseases that have similarities in it like jaundice.

What Gilberts disease is all about

Gilberts disease was first described by a French gastroenterologist names Augustin Nicolas Gilbert in 1901. Gilberts disease is an asymptomatic (no external symptoms) condition affecting the liver. The condition affect an enzyme in the body called urodine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase or UGT (abbreviation). UGT aids the liver in breaking down bilirubin which is found also in the blood stream.

Bilirubin is the waste product of the hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin is found in the red blood cells that carry oxygen to other cells in the body to complete the cycle of respiration. After the red blood cells successfully brought the oxygen to the other parts of the body, the blood produces bilirubin. The liver cells then collect all the bilirubin produced by the blood, transfer it to the liver to be broken down into the gut, and turned to bile.

This is where UGT or urodine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase comes in, it helps the liver cells process the bilirubin in to bile. Gilberts disease affects the production of UGT, this is because it fluctuates the production of UGT in the body. The fluctuating levels of UGT greatly affect the levels of bilirubin retained in the blood. Bilirubin is orangey- yellow in color, which in turn causes a patient to have jaundiced skin.

What is jaundice?

Jaundice is the condition of the blood that has external manifestations. The two most common manifestation of Jaundice is the yellowing of the skin and in the white of the eyes. Jaundice if one of the most common symptoms or manifestations of different liver diseases and sometimes it may be the cause of some discomfort among patients. The heightened bilirubin stores in the body and in the bloodstream causes jaundice but it usually has no serious effects and it can occur in people more than once in their entire lifetime. Mild jaundice is not always caused by diseases of the liver there are times when it may happen under conditions of over exertion, long term stress, intense fasting, and other bodily infections, but the condition is otherwise shows no external manifestations.

It happens when there is a flaw in the liver that averts from removing bilirubin from the blood, to be converted to glucuronic acid (conjugated) or excreted in bile in this case if the person has Gilberts disease.

Lastly, when there is obstruction of the bile ducts that reduces the stream of bile and bilirubin from the liver into the guts. The decreased conjugation, emission, or gush of bile that can result in jaundice refers to cholestasis: however, cholestasis does not always effect in jaundice.

Jaundice or cholestasis, by themselves, causes just a few problems (excluding the conditions of newborns, and jaundice in this case in newborns is different from most other types of jaundice.) Jaundice can make the skin and the whites of the eyes look sclera yellow. As well, stool can turn out to be light in color, even clay-colored because of the lack of bilirubin that usually gives stool its brown color. The urine may become dark or brownish in color. This takes place when the bilirubin that is building up in the blood starts to be excreted from the body in the urine.

Other than those scenarios there is not much to worry about if you have Gilberts disease, you may experience a jaundiced appearance but you can still enjoy a healthy life.