Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 249

Haemochromatosis

Named the ‘celtic curse’ due to a higher prevalence of this hereditary disease in the Irish, Welsh and Scottish.

Haemochromatosis causes diabetes in 65% of sufferers via iron deposition resulting in subsequent failure of the pancreas.

Bronzing or metallic or slate grey skin coloration results from a combination of iron deposition and melanin in the dermis.
Pigmentation is usually diffused and generalized, but may be more prominent on the face, neck, lower forearms, lower legs and genital regions. [Reference]

Necrobiosis lipoidica

It is a rare granulomatous skin disorder which is more common in those patients taking insulin. It can occur in those without diabetes. The cause is unknown.

One or more tender yellow brown patches develop over months and can persist for years. The centre patch can become pale, develop telangiectasia or ulcerate if damaged.

Sometimes steroids are effective. [Reference]

To establish the life cycle of the pork tapeworm and prove God had not made an error.

Danish zoologist Johann Streenstrup in the 1830s did some work on ‘bladder worms’. It was postulated that these worms ended up in muscles of sheep and pigs due to a malfunction in their life cycle. Küchenmeister a very religious man refused to believe God would make such an error and set out to prove the entire lifecycle of these worms. 

Küchenmeister havested ‘bladder worms’ from various animals, feeding the proglottids to the next animal and when it died he discovered adults worms in the new host as well as in the brain.

At the time there was a bit of uproar due to the fact Dr Küchenmeister was only a physician and not a researcher. He caused more controversy by feeding the tapeworms to prisoners sentenced to death (no consent obtained). His first prisoner liked his cooled noodle soup so much they asked for seconds. Three days later the prisoner was executed and Dr Küchenmister found adult Taenia in the intestines. 

Although barbaric, these experiments proved that some parasites could be transmitted from host to host by being eaten and did not need to be in the environment. [Reference] 

The pork tapeworm can migrate to many organs including the muscle and the brain causing a disease known as Cysticercosis. In some countries it is one of the leading cause of seizures when the cysticerci migrate to the brain.

A rare combination of ‘sound and light’ purported to indicate the presence of pyloric stenosis.

Daniels described a case in the BMJ in 1973:

“The patient concerned had had a vagotomy and pyloroplasty a year previously and complained of increasing vomiting. On examination there was obvious splashing in the stomach, suggesting a diagnosis if pyloric stenosis.“

He was asked if he experienced foul eructations and replied that he certainly did. Then, rather diffidently, he said, “On one occasion I was lighting a cigarette when I belched and the explosion burnt my nose and hair.“

Other names proposed for this sign include: eluctation (eructation-to belch; lux-light) belch flambe, bangina oris, alight wind, pyloropyrotechnics, and the eructant dragon syndrome. [PMC1587500]

Treatment of disease by exposure to the sun.

In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the Sun, the charioteer who drove the Sun across the sky each day. Hippocrates was a great advocate of the Sun’s healing properties. Although heliotherapy traditionally refers to treatments that use natural sunlight, the term is also applied to artificial sources of ultraviolet, visible or infrared light radiation.

The Finsen lamp, invented by Faeroese physician Niels Ryberg Finsen, is perhaps the best-known example. An ultraviolet lamp, it allowed flexible treatment in all seasons and its rays could be concentrated onto the most affected parts of a patient’s body. Its greatest success was in the treatment of lupus – tuberculosis of the skin – for which Finsen was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1903.