Thursday, July 19, 2007

Not in my head

I am glad that some of the health problems that I am 'blessed' with are now getting some recognition. There is an article in the recent Time about Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). Check it out if you get a chance...

Some short parts:

Often disregarded as a fake illness, RLS gained new ground in the scientific community this week after researchers at Emory University in Atlanta and the Iceland-based company DeCODE Genetics identified a gene variant that increases risk for the condition. The team reported their findings in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Those findings, along with a separate study published simultaneously in Nature Genetics, which found variants in three genes linked with RLS, suggest that RLS is a both a genuine syndrome and one that can be treated more effectively.

To make matters worse, RLS is not discussed in most medical schools, so the condition is commonly overlooked or mistreated; many doctors question the condition's seriousness. Often, says Jones, RLS patients develop their own coping devices, including alcohol abuse and social isolation. Four years ago, Jones started a support group for other RLS sufferers in her hometown of Champaign, Ill., realizing that you can't understand RLS unless you suffer from it yourself.

"Everyone thought I was not quite right," Jones says of the reaction she got when describing her symptoms. "It's not something visible like a wound."




Article here.

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