I’ve recently had a neurologist suggest I have Stiff Man’s disease (Moersch-Woltmann). I’m trying to find more information about the condition.

Can anyone tell me what muscles of the body are usually affected? Only the muscles of my right foot and lower leg are affected. I believe I really have dystonia, and my neurologist is trying to cover up the true diagnosis by now saying I have Stiff Man’s disease.

Never heard of this disease. Try for the National Library of Medicine. there you can look up the disease, find
out more than you ever want to know – and show your doctor on next visit.

About a year ago, I was a regular here on A.S.Thyroid. Since then, my health
has held up rather well, thank you.

My request is for some background material for someone whose wife ‘s :thyroid
is “dying out”. I suspect Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The man is my mailman and
his wife, soon to be ex-wife, is a old school chum of mine. What I desire is a
list of Internet pages that I can access for him. The poor man is in the
throes of a divorce he _doesnot want, his wife is turning away from him and
he is lost in the jungle of thyroid illnesses with no help other than library
books.

Given your friends’ situation, perhaps the best resource would be the book
“The Thyroid Solution” by Ridha Arem, M.D. Apart from its excellent
discussion of all aspects of thyroid disease, this book discusses at
length and in great detail the often-devastating effects of thyroid
disease upon relationships.

Here are some websites:

Thyroid Homepage: http://www.thyrolink.com [From Merck KgaA,
Darmstadt, Germany.]

EndocrineWeb.com: http://www.endocrineweb.com [The largest web site
for thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, and pancreas disorders, including
diabetes and osteoporosis. The information is intended for the education
of patients and their families. Pages are added at least twice a week.]

The MAGIC Foundation for Children’s Growth: Thyroid Division:
http://www.magicfoundation.org/thyrmainp.html

Mary Shomon – About.Com Guide to Thyroid Disease:
http://thyroid.about.com/health/diseases/thyroid [Please note that this
site also contains links to and information about alternative and
complementary diagnoses and treatments which are not considered
mainstream by conventional medical practitioners. This site and its
editor/webmaster, however, are not funded, supported by, or subsidised
in any way by companies who manufacture thyroid hormone, thyroid
treatment, or thyroid diagnostic drugs or testing.]

National Graves’ Disease Foundation: http://www.ngdf.org
ThyCa: The Thyroid Cancer Survivor’s Association: http://www.thyca.org
Thyroid Federation International: http://www.thyroid-fed.org/home.html
Thyroid Foundation of America: http://www.tsh.org and
http://www.tfaweb.org/pub/tfa

Thyroid Foundation of Canada:
http://home.ican.net/~thyroid/Canada.html

The Thyroid Society for Education and Research:
http://www.the-thyroid-society.org

Quackwatch: http://familyinternet.com/quackwatch/index.html [Guide to
health fraud, quackery, and intelligent decisions, operated by Stephen
Barrett, M.D.]

American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists: http://www.aace.com
American Thyroid Association: http://www.thyroid.org
The Endocrine Society: http://www.endo-society.org
The Endocrine Society of Australia:
http://www.med.monash.edu.au/affiliates/esa/ENDOC.HTM
International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders:
http://www.tulane.edu/~icec/icciddhome.htm

Thyroid Disease Manager: http://www.thyroidmanager.org [Contains the
revised version of the textbook “The Thyroid and its Diseases”, and
supplementary information. Directed at helping medical practitioners
care for their patients with thyroid problems. Developed by Leslie J. De
Groot, M.D., Georg Hennemann, M.D. and a group of thyroid experts.]

But what I really recommend is THE new book on thyroid disease:

* Ridha Arem: “The Thyroid Solution: A Mind-Body Program for Beating
Depression and Regaining Your Emotional and Physical Health” (Ballantine
Books, New York) 1999.

I struggled to get hold of it in Australia – I eventually had to order it
through Amazon.com. (Ridha Arem, M.D., is Associate Professor of
Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Baylor
College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is also Chief of Endocrinology
and Metabolism at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston. He is the author
and editor of “Clinical Thyroidology”, and contributes to “Thyroid USA”,
the official newsletter of the American Foundation of Thyroid Patients.)

Dr. Arem has a good chapter on the effect thyroid disease has on
relationships – he says things I have not read before, but which I have
felt, and heard anecdotally.

I have had graves disease for at least a year now. i have had a total
thyroidectomy and i went thru radiation last april. i can tell i still
have it when i get mad i can feel the pressure on my eyes. i gained a
lot of weight for taking prednisone for so long. i have started
walking again. i am up to almost two miles a day. my problems are my
legs. i am sure its from the graves disease. man does that hurt! but
i know i have to keep trying. do any of you with graves have a special
diet?

Try to get some bloodtests done (free t4 and freet3 and TSH) to see if you
are still hyper, it is possible even after radiation. Do you have any other
symptoms along with aching legs? I hope others comment on this symptom.
Also, if your eyes continue to be painful try to get a visit with an
experienced ophthalmologist.

Re diet, one thing which leaps to mind is asparagus, which has a high iodine
content, and made me feel very uncomfortable when I began Graves Eye
Disease.

LONDON (Reuters) – Lesbians are just as likely as heterosexual women
to get sexually transmitted diseases such as hepatitis and genital
herpes, Australian researchers said on Tuesday.

Since hepatitis is also an injected-dope disease, all that likely means is
that lesbians are as likely to use injected dope as are straight women.

Genital herpes? It spreads just fine mouth-to-genital or genital-to-mouth,
whether you are straight, gay, or lesbian. (Monica may have acquired the
First Boyfriend’s herpes that way – remember how he told her at times he
couldn’t have oral sex with her, because his herpes was acting up?)

“We demonstrated a higher prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (vaginal
disease), hepatitis C and HIV risk behaviors in women who have sex with
other women compared >with (other women),” Dr Katherine Fethers said in
a report in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Just what does this really mean?

Does it just mean the well-known (among lesbians) fact that a major HIV risk
factor – needle drug use – is more common among lesbians than among straight
women?

She and her colleagues said only 7% of the women who had female sex
partners said they had never had sex with a man.

Like gay men, lesbians often don’t accept themselves until after a
considerable period of straight dating – and, unfortunately often marriage.

It would thus be surprising if typical lesbians had “never” had sex with a
man – not even when in their early teens.

Posted this to ATC, and decided to also post it here at WH, because I find
this case to be quite thought-provoking. Imagine being told as a child of 6 or
7 or 8, that you had a fatal disease that would kill you before you even reach
your teens, and to have to live with this FATAL DIAGNOSIS for your entire life,
before finally learning that you had been totally mis-diagnosed, at age 58.
Pretty intense mental strain and trauma, IMO, both as a child, teen, and young
adult, AND at age 58, to finally learn the truth. Anyway, here’s the post I
made to ATC:

Here’s an interesting and thought-provoking case out of England. There’s a 75
year old man named Noel Smith, and he is demanding monetary compensation from
the British government. He is seeking this compensation based upon the premise
that society caused him to “waste his life”.

You see, when Noel was 6 years old, his mother took him to a doctor, who
diagnosed Noel as suffering from a FATAL heart defect known as rheumatic
valvular disease. His mother then took him to other doctors, all of whom
concurred with the original diagnoses, and told Noel’s mother that 6 year old
Noel WAS slowely dying, and would not live beyond age 12!

Noel’s mother, RIGHTLY, I think, TOLD Noel the truth. She told him that he
was very sick and would not live to adulthood. As a result of being told this,
Noal abandoned his dream of becoming an opera singer, he obviously was greatly
troubled and unhappy, throughout his childhood, as a result of this diagnosis
that he had a fatal heart disease and would die before reaching adulthood.

He also suffered in other ways, he was refused admission into the army, as a
result of his medical history. Personally, I would view that as a BENEFIT, but
I am not Noel. Noel’s entire life, especially his childhood and teen years,
were
utterly DESTROYED by the INCORRECT medical diagnosis that he was given, and
now, at age 75, Noel is JUSTIFIABLY seeking compensation, citing his “wasted
life”.

Yup, Noel has lived for 75 years, outliving all of his siblings, 3 brothers
and 2 sisters! The doctors who diagnosed and treated him as a child and teen
are all dead by now, so he cannot sue them, so he is looking to hire a lawyer,
and sue the British government. Declares Noel: “I am just asking for what I
feel I am entitled to. They took my life away and they should give me enough
money to ensure my wife and family are all right when I am gone.” Makes sense
to me.

It was not until 1981, at the age of 58, that Noel found out that he indeed
had been totally misdiagnosed as a child, and he never had any fatal or even
life-threatening heart problem. Ever since learning this fact, in 1981, Noel’s
entire demeanor has changed. He has become angry and bitter, as his wife tells
us. And JUSTIFIABLY so. Remember, he was TOLD that he would DIE by age 12. Noel
must have considered every year of life beyond age 12 as a LUCKY BREAK, a
blessing, maybe even a miracle. Then, at age 58, he finally finds out that he
NEVER had the disease that he was diagnosed with. Thus, all those years in
which he was “grateful” just to be alive, were LIES. Noel’s entire life up
until age 58 was based upon a FALSE premise, and so in an INSTANT, the years of
fear, followed by gratitude as he reached adulthood and continued to live, were
ERASED, and replaced by bitterness and anger over the PROFOUND INJUSTICE of
having had to ENDURE all those years of fear and worry over NOTHING!

Pretty interesting case, IMO. You just never know what weird curveballs life
will throw at you. I wonder whether Noel was HAPPY to learn, at age 58, that he
did not have this fatal heart disease? I mean, he was naturally angry and
bitter, but as the years passed, and he entered his 60’s and 70’s, did he come
to appreciate the knowledge that he acquirred at age 58? Certainly he would
have wanted to learn the truth at age 12, or 18, or even 30. At age 58, was it
too late for him to grateful to learn this shocking truth? Well, his wife, who
is only 52 years old, is certainly happy, in some ways, to know the truth. She
might well be happier that Noel, because she didn’t have to live through a
childhood and adolescence and young adulthood in which every day, Noel had to
face up to the IDEA that he was living on “borrowed time”.

I’m doing a little research to see if anyone else is having the same problem
with AETNA which I’m having. When offered the ” Golden Age” health plan in
December 1999 at a cost of 53.00 a month I immediately declined it and chose
“Base 10” which was only 15.00 per month. Despite repeated assurances from
AETNA reps that I would be taken off of the plan-the company kept me in the
Golden Age plan for three months against my will t and kept billing me for
it-now they are threatening to terminate all of my coverage if I don’t pay
those back premiums!
Have you or a friend had a similar experience?

My best friends had a big problem with Aetna, relative to Medigap coverage.
They are not happy campers, and are threatening to sue. (He’s the patient,
she’s an attorney)

How do they measure up on claims, benefits, etc. (as against Southern
Cross)? I just received a letter from SC informing me of a price increase in
my premium and am looking around for alternatives.

If you put the equivalent of the premiums in the bank each month…..you
always pay up and you have 100% coverage no exceptions. After 5 years,
you have a big pile of cash for almost anything that crops up….after
20 years,you can buy a house with your premiums,rent it out and have
both an income AND an asset to cover your helth needs.

Health insurance is a con.

Ah – the wisdom of hindsight perhaps. I am sure if I had a ‘second life’ I
would do just that, put a little away each pay day specifically for health
needs later. But it’s easier said than done for most folk. Any system which
generally encourages “your money or your life” has to be questioned on moral
grounds at least. Any system where we pay twice has to be suspect too.
And I am sure that any private health system has the priority of making
money secondary to making people better, and eventually like Monsanto’s
seeds – buy ours or starve. Such is the anti-social climate of greed and
monopoly.
It is almost certain too, that if most of the population saved enough for
private health cover then the costs would magically escalate to still leave
a large section of the community without. The object is to take your money,
bleed you of every cent possible, ‘not a lot to do with providing equitable
health care really.

If you can’t afford it you don’t get it, we’re brought up on that ‘sounds
fair eh, but it’s not quite that simple- pity about that.

Joseph Cary Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man,
probably suffered from an unusual disfiguring disease–but not
the one bearing his nickname. X-ray studies and
three-dimensional computed tomography scans of the
skeletal remains of Victorian England’s celebrity back a
theory that he suffered from an extremely rare disorder called
Proteus syndrome, scientists announced today in Chicago at
the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North
America.


For years, it was assumed that Merrick suffered from
neurofibromatosis, which is still commonly called Elephant
Man disease. People with mild forms of this genetic disorder,
which occurs in about one of 4000 births, sometimes have
brownish spots on their faces or bodies–which Merrick did
not have. However, he did have the disfigurement, caused by
nervous system tumors, seen in people with the severe form
of the disease.

Recently, however, some physicians have speculated that
Merrick suffered from the far more rare Proteus syndrome,
of which only 100 cases have been reported worldwide. The
noninherited disease, first identified just 20 years ago, is
triggered by proliferating cells that cause abnormal bone
growth in the skull and in some body tissues.

A group led by Amita Sharma of the Royal London
Hospital was given access to Merrick’s skeletal remains,
which have been kept at the hospital since his death in 1890.
“We saw a combination of symptoms mainly on the right side
of the body,” says Sharma, including increased bone density,
an enlarged skull, and multiple bony outgrowths. Sharma
acknowledges that her study won’t lay to rest the notion, still
held by some scientists, that Merrick suffered from
neurofibromatosis. However, she says, “our findings support
the theory of Proteus syndrome.”

Health officials are investigating a suspected case of lyme disease in
Hampton.

Larry Spruill lives and works in the Foxhill area of the city and was
diagnosed with the disease Thursday.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria – and individuals get it from infected
deer ticks.

Deer ticks are so small, many people may not even know they’ve been bitten –
which is the case with Spruill who began having symptoms three days ago.

“It’s horrible,” says Spruill. “I’ve had broken bones and I’m not in as much
pain as I’m in right now.”

The bull’s eye shaped rash on Spruill’s arm is usually a dead giveaway for
lyme disease.

It’s typically the first sign and can develop anywhere from three to 30 days
after being bitten by a deer tick.

Spruill also has many of the other symptoms.

“I was having pains in my joints and muscles,” says Spruill. “My lips are
numb, neck’s stiff. I’ve been sweating really bad.”

Doctors at Sentara Emergency Services diagnosed Spruill with a possible case
of lyme disease – but a blood test will be needed to verify.

Spruill doesn’t know where he may have been bitten – but he clears land for
a living and says the woods behind his house are full of deer.

And where there are deer, there are deer ticks – the tiny carriers of this
dreaded disease.

The good news is lyme disease can be cured if treated early.

If not treated, however, it can lead to joint, heart, and nervous system
problems.

The best way to prevent lyme disease is to protect yourself from head to
toe.

a If you’re out in a wooded or tick infested area, wear a hat, long
sleeves, pants and socks.
b Use a bug repellent with 30 percent DEET on any exposed skin.

For more information in keeping your family safe, click here.
[ http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/spotlight/ ]

The blood test for lyme disease usually takes several days – so Spruill
won’t know until next week if he definitely has the disease.

The Hampton health department says Lyme Disease is rare for this area of the
country.

For more information on lyme disease from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, click here.
[ http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/ ]

For information on tick bourne diseases from the Virginia Department of
Health, click here.
[ http://www.vdh.state.va.us/epi/tickpage.htm ]

The event that everyone has been waiting for with bated breath has arrived.
De Man is, hereby, announcing the official unveiling of the Natural Health
Perspective Longevity Program at:
http://home.naturalhealthperspective.com/longevity.html

While De Man’s Longevity Program wont extend the maximum life span of the
human species, it will add years to your life and life to your years.

And, as an extra bonus a refresher course on the “Grasshopper and the Ant”,
childhood fable, is included FREE!!!

The outstanding feature of De Man’s Longevity Program, is that it expresses
a rather complex and technical subject in simple English. Once again, De
Man communicates the essential requirements for a long life in terms that a
child could understand. 🙂

I would be interested in receiving intelligent comments, on same, either in
private or on these newsgroups..

Achieving good health is an Art, NOT a Science!

Introducing www.NaturalHealthPerspective.com — a simple health program that
really works!

I had a chance to look at this site for about a half hour tonight and was
quite impressed with the amount of information and links you have made
available. Although I’m not sure about the ‘2 cycle’ theory you have, I
like the way you have presented your material so that people understand that
this is a process that they go through, and not a fast fix.

Many of the links you provide, both within and outside your site are
informative and probably very usefull. Of course, this is only a quick look
through the site.

CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES IN MAN.

Mine is the fourteenth edition from 1985. I’m sure it’s been updated
several times by now. Lots of good technical info on how to prevent,
control and treat communicable diseases. Copyright 1985. ISBN
#0-87553-130-X. The American Public Health Association, 1015 Fifteenth St
NW, Washington DC 20005. I got my copy when I worked for a county health
dept years ago. Might be able to buy or order it at a medical book store
or write the group above.

I just did a search on Amazon.com and they say they have the book in stock.
It was last updated in 1995 (16 th edition) and is available in paperback,
and on CD rom. There’s even a Spanish language version available. There
is a hardcover version as well, but they’ve got it listed as “hard to get”.

If you look for it use the editor’s last name “Benenson” rather than the
book title to search with. The last edition out changed the title slightly
so a search on the title won’t turn up the latest version. I found it when
the last version I could find by doing a title search was from 1990. I
knew there had to be a more recent update so tried searching using the
editor’s name and turned it up.

Most definitely a worthwhile book if infectious disease is something you’re
concerned about.