Has your Chronic Symptoms been Mis-Diagnosed?
Depressing, isnt it? You feel fatigued, and ache all over. These symptoms are difficult to diagnose with any form of measurement, and can be blamed on depression. Is it all in your head, or is there some other cause for your issues?
It is difficult to diagnose many chronic conditions. The symptoms cannot be measured, and tests do not exist that show the specific cause. Many tests will point in the right direction, showing a rise in the natural infection fighting response, but cannot tell us why.
It seems logical that when properly diagnosed that an appropriate course of treatment will be given. In this perfect world scenario we also would find these disabling conditions magically cured. Welcome to the real world.
There are many conditions with similar symptoms, and with some of these conditions, such as MS, or multiple sclerosis, the cause is not clear. How can you effectively treat a condition when you cannot identify its cause?
Other autoimmune diseases present themselves with similar symptoms and are often diagnosed through the elimination of other possible conditions rather than proof of the final diagnosis. These ailments include fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, lupus, and other autoimmune or neurodegenerative diseases. Even rheumatoid arthritis falls in this classification.
Another player has joined the chronic illness field. Lyme disease may seem to be remote, but is quickly spreading. This condition is traced back to the transmittal of borrelia bacteria through a tick bite. Many do not believe that they can contract Lyme disease. Diagnosis is difficult when this autoimmune disease is not even considered in the diagnosis process.
Now we know the challenges that are faced in diagnosing chronic autoimmune disorders. Once the diagnosis is decided the treatment may not be clear. Our traditional treatment using antibiotics has been widely overused, and now we face resistant pathogens.