Some people are certainly more prone to accidents than others, but this is not a symptom of any particular disease. People who are emotionally upset and preoccupied and, as a result, less watchful than normal, have an increased tendency to mishaps. The same is true of aggressive men who behave in a way as to cause accidents to themselves and others. Some people are just plain careless.
Common baldness is hereditary and affects males in early adult life. The medical term is alopecia. In toxic alopecia, which sometimes affects children, the hair loss occurs some weeks after a severe feverish illness such as scarlet fever. Baldness may also be caused by disease, anti-cancer chemotherapy or radiation and treatment with thallium compounds, vitamin A or the related group of chemical substances known as retinoids. Scarring alopecia may follow burns, skin atrophy, ulceration, fungus infection of the scalp (kerion) or skin tumours.
Alopecia areata is a form of patchy baldness, of unknown cause, often affecting only one or two small circular areas of the scalp, but sometimes affecting all the hair of the body. The drug minoxidil, sold under the trade names of Rogaine and Regaine, was first brought out as a treatment for high blood pressure. It can cause regrowth of fine fuzzy hair in many cases, but you have to keep using it and this gets expensive.
As the term implies, this is a shaking-up of the brain. Concussion occurs when a force is applied violently to the head causing an immediate brief period of unconsciousness, lasting for seconds to hours. Concussion is caused by head injury, usually without skull fracture, from sudden forcible acceleration or deceleration forces. The living brain is soft and jelly-like and these forces cause it to swing forwards or backwards so that it can be squashed against the inside of the skull. Alternatively, it may twist on its stem and suffer compression against protrusions on the skull. The injury is probably always associated with some bleeding inside the brain and it is known that in many cases nerve tissues are destroyed.
Happily, the supply of nerve tissue is liberal and a single episode of concussion is unlikely to have observable permanent effects. Repeated episodes of concussion, however, such as those sustained by boxers, will inevitably cause major, widespread and irremediable brain damage (the "punch-drunk" syndrome).
Anyone who has suffered concussion and who has lost consciousness, after a head injury, even for a few seconds, should be seen by a doctor. In many cases is is the safest to admit the victim to hospital for 24 hours' observation. So the next time you watch a film in which the hero is constantly being knocked out only to get up and proceed with the action, remember that this is not what should or probably would happen in real life.
The medical term for a persistent droop of an upper eyelid is blepharoptosis, usually shortened to ptosis. This may be present from birth (congenital) or it may occur later in life. In the latter case, the droop may occur either for no obvious reason or may be the result of injury or disease, such as myatherenia gravis. Ptosis is usually due to a weakness of the thin muscle that pulls up the upper lid or to interference with the nerve supply to the muscle. Severe congenital ptosis, in which the drooping lid covers the pupil, must be corrected as a matter of urgency so as to allow normal vision to develop. An uncorrected ptosis that covers half the pupil or more will result in life-long partial blindness of the eye concerned. This failure of visual development is called amblyopia. Acquired ptosis without obvious cause may be a sign of neurological disease, such as a brain tumour or a cerebral aneurysm, and should be immediately investigated by a doctor.
This panic syndrome is known as agoraphobia. It is an abnormal fear of entering public places where other people are present. Agoraphobia causes panic attacks and sufferers spend most, if not all, of their time at home. There are effective treatments for agoraphobia and panic. Behaviour therapy is often the best approach.
These occur simply because the skin around the hair-follicle openings retracts slightly when the tiny muscles that cause the hairs to stand up and tighten. These muscles, the arrector pili muscles, tighten under the influence of adrenaline or the sympathetic nervous system. The same thing happens in very cold conditions or when people try to kick the heroin habit. With the latter, however, the goose pimples are associated with sweating. This is known in the trade as "cold turkey".
The appearance caused by a badly repaired cleft lip. With advantages in understanding of the principles of plastic surgery and a recognition that these principles, and the appropriate skills, should always be available when congenital cleft lip is to be repaired, the condition has become quite rare.
Known medically as akathisia, this is usually a side-effect of antipsychotic drugs or a complication of Parkinson's disease.
Total loss of movement in a joint because the bearing surfaces have healed together is known as ankylosis. This can happen following joint disease or injury or may be done deliberately as a surgical measure to relieve persistent pain.
Known medically as fasciculation, these are brief, involuntary contractions of a small group of muscle fibres, causing a visible or palpable twitch under the skin. Fasciculation is very common. Occasional and intermittent fasciculation of the flat muscle around the eye is almost always harmless. Persistent servere fasciculation, however, may imply nervous disease and you should report this to your doctor.
Intensely vivid and unpleasant dreams are suffered more by children than by adults. Nightmares are often connected with some prior event of a highly traumatic nature such as an assault, a serious accident or injury, severe frights or fears. They may be caused by the withdrawal of sleeping pills. Nightmares are anxiety dreams and occur during the periods of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. They are distinguished from night terrors which occur in the early part of the night during the period of deep, non-REM sleep.
Ordinary headache often involves the temples. However, there is a particular condition in which the pain is associated with exquisite tenderness on pressure and with visible red streaks. These features indicate a disease of small arteries causing inflammation, with swelling tenderness and possible blockage. This is called temporal arteritis orgiant cell arteritis and it involves arteries in the scalp and brain. The immediate concern is that the condition, once established, may affect the main artery to the eye, causing blindness. There is no time to be wasted. Urgent treatment with corticosteriods is required if the sight is to be saved.
This is a condition, associated with insomnia, in which the legs ache and are constantly moved about in an attempt to achieve comfort. The cause is obscure but the condition is not dangerous and relief can be obtained by the use of the alpha blocker drug tolazoline.
A Baker's cyst is a firm, fluid filled, slightly squashy lump at the back of the knee caused by ballooning backwards of the lining of the joint. Baker's cysts are commonest in joint disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. Most of them are painless and it is fairly common for them to disappear after some months. A Baker's cyst may rupture, causing pain and swelling in the calf as the fluid contents pass downwards. If you get a Baker's cyst you should report it to your doctor.
Tongue tie is a rare defect in which the soft partition under the tongue (the frenulum) extends too far forward and is too tight, thereby limiting tongue movement. This may affect speech, but is easily corrected by surgery in which the frenulum is snipped.
You should be able to feel the two, but if you can only feel one testicle in your little boy's scrotum the other one is either in the abdomen - where they both originate - or part way down the canal. Often, an undescended testicle will come down of its own accord within the first few months of life, but don't count on it. A permanently undescended testicle doesn't produce any sperm and is significantly more likely to develop cancer, later in life, than a testicle in the right place. If both are undescended, your boy will be sterile. See you doctor and take his advice sometime before your child is one. The operation to bring down and retain the testicle - orchidopexy - is usually successful. Don't confuse this condition with retractile testicles - testicles that pop up in the cold or if touched. These are common in little boys and the undue mobility ceases at puberty.
These are more common than you probably realise. They are called Braxton Hicks' contractions and, although they actually involve brief and almost painless tightening of the womb, need not worry you. You are unlikely to appreciate them in the early stages of pregnancy, but an examining doctor may feel them. Later they are more obvious and can even be seen sometimes through the tense wall of the abdomen. Braxton Hicks' contractions don't cause the cervix to widen and are much less uncomfortable than labour pains. They are part of a normal pregnancy and do not indicate that labour is beginning.
Progressive yellowing of the skin and of the whites of the eyes must never be neglected. This is called jaundice and it results from deposition of a natural colouring substance, bilirubin. This pigment is released from the haemoglobin in red blood cells at the end of their working lives. In health, bilirubin is taken up by the liver and passed into the intestine in the bile. But if the liver is diseased, as by hepatitis, so that it cannot secrete the bilirubin, or if the bile ducts are blocked so the the bilirubin cannot get out, it gradually accumulates in the blood ans stains the tissues. Jaundice can also be caused if the red blood cells are broken down more rapidly than normal (haemolytic disease) so that more bilirubin is produced than the liver can cope with. Some of the increased bilirubin in the blood is excreted in the urine, causing it to become very dark. Because the bile is not getting into the intestine, the stools will be much paler than normal and will look like clay. This combination of yellow skin, dark urine and light-coloured faeces is an unmistakable indication of a serious liver or bile-duct problem. If you have it you need immediate medical attention.