Diseases of the nervous system
Syphilis was once referred to as the “Great Imitator”. Because of the variety of ways in which syphilis can manifest itself, individuals who are infected with this sexually transmitted disease often do not realize the full extent of their diagnosis until several weeks or months after infection.
As an individual who may have been exposed to any number of sexually transmitted diseases, it is important to seek medical attention early and as soon as you suspect you may have a health complication. Understanding the various signs and symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases, such as syphilis, is important to your health and the health of your sexual partner.
Syphilis, in its early stages, presents as a chancre sore that is painless. Often, because the sore is asymptomatic, most individuals infected with syphilis are not even aware of the complication.
As the STD progresses, the symptoms may become slightly more evident, although commonly misdiagnosed as, in many cases, the genitalia are not affected. Progression often results in swelling and poor function of the lymph nodes, rash that is intermittent and sporadic through the body and some evidence of fever. Still, even with these symptoms, many patients believe they are simply suffering from a flu type complication and assume self treatment which, in many cases, resolves the symptoms.
Self treatment is not a cure for syphilis. Without proper diagnosis, and several months after infection, lesions begin to develop but, again, there are no symptoms. One with blood work can a physician accurately diagnose your complication as associated with syphilis.
Many years after your syphilis infection, you will begin to notice the most substantial impact this STD will have upon your life. In fact, in some cases, the nervous system and cardiovascular system are involved, often resulting in heart damage and even early death.
Unlike other STDs, syphilis may not always present as a complication around the genitalia. For this reason, it is important to use protection when engaging in sexual activity. If you believe you have been exposed to an STD, such as syphilis, consult a healthcare professional for the appropriate testing and treatment. Often, with the use of penicillin or doxycycline, orally and intramuscularly, your syphilis complications can be resolved. For many patients, it is not the fear of diagnosis or treatment that delays medical attention but, instead, the simple ignorance of infection at all.
Like HIV or AIDs, syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can be confused with other health complications or completely misdiagnosed altogether. When engaging in unprotected sexually activity, be certain to see out the advice of a medical provider and obtain the necessary testing into any potential STD, especially syphilis, as the complications may be long term and life threatening when the STD is untreated.
“Reasearch just published in the journal “Behavioral Neuroscience” provides evidence that adequate omega-3 fatty acids are needed for healthy nervous systems. That could explain why low levels of omega-3s are associated with the information processing difficulties experienced by people with bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; schizophrenia; Huntington's disease and other illnesses affecting the nervous system. What's more, this research suggests that increasing dietary omega-3s may be a natural way to prevent and treat those conditions.
Scientists at the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism studied two forms of omega-3 essential fatty acids found in certain foods including fatty fish and some algae: docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The human body can only acquire these key nutrients by metabolizing their precursor, linolenic acid (LNA), or from foods or dietary supplements with DHA and EPA in a readily usable form.
EPA has been shown in numerous previous studies to have anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular protective effects. DHA, although less studied, is also crucial to the body. In fact, it makes up more than 90 percent of the omega-3s in the brain, retina and the nervous system.
For their study, the research team fed four groups of pregnant mice and their offspring four different diets with no or varying types and amounts of omega-3s. Then, after the newborn mice grew into mature animals, the scientists recorded how they responded when exposed to a sudden loud noise. This classic test of nervous-system function normally makes healthy animals flinch. However, if animals with a normal nervous system are exposed first to a softer tone before the loud one, they flinch much less. Scientists believe that's due to an adaptive process known as sensorimotor gating which causes an initial stimulus to prepare the body for future stimuli. The results of the tests showed that only the mice raised on DHA and EPA, but not their precursor of LNA, demonstrated normal, adaptive sensorimotor gating. These healthy animals responded in a significantly calmer way to loud noises if they had first heard softer tones. The mice in all other groups, however, were startled almost as much by the initial soft sound as by the loud noise that followed.
The reason? The scientists concluded that when DHA was deficient the nervous system was in an abnormal state that left the animals almost constantly startled and easily overwhelmed by sensory stimuli. “It only takes a small decrement in brain DHA to produce losses in brain function,” lead researcher Norman Salem Jr., PhD. said in a statement to the media.
The researchers think this important information may be very significant for humans — because weak sensorimotor gating is a hallmark of many nervous-system problems including Huntington's disease, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. And they've suggested that omega-3s could have therapeutic potential for these and other diseases marked by nervous system problems. Moreover, the research underlines the dangers of the typical American diet of processed foods and lots of meat – making it far higher in omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3s. That imbalance reduces the body's ability to incorporate omega-3s and, as a result, “we have the double whammy of low omega-3 intake and high omega-6 intake,” stated Dr. Salem. “It is an uphill battle now to reverse the message that 'fats are bad' and to increase omega-3 fats in our diet.”
For years, prions have been known only as a serious danger to animal and human health. These misfolded brain proteins have been linked to fatal diseases–like mad cow disease in cattle and the deadly variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. But apart from causing these diseases, scientists puzzled for years about the exact function of a properly folded prion protein.
A new study in Nature Neuroscience may have some answers. After 20 years of research, an international team of neuroscientists reports that, in mammals, the mysterious proteins help to maintain the myelin sheath that protects the body’s nerves [Nature News]. A healthy sheath is necessary for nerve cells to transmit impulses rapidly.
The study, conducted by Adriano Aguzzi and his team at University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, observed mice that were bred lacking prion proteins altogether. They found that these mice developed a condition where their peripheral nerves, which connect the limbs to the central nervous system, lost much of their myelin coating [Nature News]. By the age of two months, the mice’s nerves had lost their protective coating and the mice had become more sensitive to pain. Scientists say this shows that prion proteins (in their properly folded form) play some role in keeping nerve cells healthy, and add that the findings could lead to new research on human diseases that involve the nerves. For example, it could offer a new way of looking at multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease caused by demyelination of nerves in the brain and spinal cord [Nature News].
But there have been other hints that prions play a beneficial role in human health. A few years ago, scientists found that prions could be safeguarding our brains by preventing neurons from overworking themselves to death [New Scientist]. Another team discovered evidence that prion proteins could play a role in protecting our brains against the neural plaques associated with Alzheimer’s, noting that the more prion protein human brain cells made, the less plaque-forming protein they made, and vice-versa [New Scientist].
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Image: Steve Gschmeissner/ SPL
Gregory Parker