My first topic as a physician, Disease of the week #1 Wilson's disease

Hello all!

I hope everyone who reads this post has an amazing New Year and is well onto recovery from their hangovers. Lol. Just kidding, so I just wanted to introduce myself briefly. I have just finished medical school a month ago and would like to give back to the community. I will be doing a Disease of The Week (DoTW) every week to get everyone informed about certain conditions I believe are worth discussion. I graduated American University of the Carribbean (AUC) School of Medicine on the island of St. Maarten, and I am here to share some wonderful pieces of medical knowledge with you all. By no means should you read my posts and substitute it as medical advice, however, I am here to help clarify any questions or concerns you all might have. So here it goes. My resource that I will be picking is Step Up to Medicine, which is an excellent book that I used during medical school to learn the various pathophysiology of diseases.

Wilson's Disease

Wilson's disease is a genetic disease that interferes with the copper metabolism in your bodies. Copper is usually secreted by your liver, however, in patients who have Wilson's disease, there is a deficiency in a serum protein known as ceruloplasmin, which is required for adequate copper excretion. Since the body cannot get rid of this excess copper, it continuously builds up in your hepatocytes, which are your liver cells. Once these cells die, they leak into the blood and this copper goes to different organs in your body, such as your brain, your eyes, and kidneys.

Characteristics:

Symptoms are a result of the copper that accumulates in various organs. Copper has a tendency to deposit in the basal ganglia in the brain, which is a region that controls bodily movements. Patients are generally between the ages of 5 to 35 and develop different manifestations of symptoms, such as depression, psychiatric disturbances, tremors, drooling, and chorea (involuntary movements).

Diagnosis:

To make the diagnosis, we need two things, we check if there is any presence of liver disease by checking specific liver enzymes, known as AST and ALT. If they are elevated, it tells us if the liver is damaged. A liver biopsy is required to make the diagnosis, where we tap into the liver and send it to the lab.

Treatment:

Chelating agents, such as D-penicillamine, which binds to the copper and removes it entirely. Zinc has also been shown to be helpful as well in preventing dietary copper uptake. Eventually, if the liver is not salvageable, a liver transplant is ultimately life-saving.

Stay tuned for more!

a reply to: DoctorTruth

Well... it's a different kind of doom but... I can dig it.

It's nice to see a doctor on board. I don't know if we already have one in residence on ATS but I'm glad you're here.

a reply to: DoctorTruth

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I find medicine and health to be fascinating. I really enjoyed reading all about Wilson's Disease.

Yes please, do share more!

Happy New Years!!!!

Thanks for posting with you knowledge of this. Looking forward to your future posts!

a reply to: DoctorTruth

While I have the chance, what is your stand on conventional vs. homeopathic medicine?

Welcome aboard! In some ways you may be our scariest doom porner in residence. I know I'll be reading your disease of the week looking for symptoms I share lol. So far I think I'm good, hopefully next week I'll live....

Thanks for posting! I will subscribe to your treads, but fear I will self diagnose myself into each ailment very quickly!

Well this is refreshing, and yet as someone else put it, Doom!!

But I have subscribed to your thread and hope to get some informative information.

I am interested in "Geriatric Psychology" .

I am just starting to get interested in this. It has to do with people in my life. I am wanting to understand where they are coming from. I am alot younger than these people are, and I want to understand why they think and do certains things.

And I want to learn how to be involved in their lives, without coming across as a jerk.

I understand, that with age comes wisdom. And I also understand that we are Homo Sapiens and survival is in our genes.

Been doing some research online, and am interested in who to actually believe. I don't believe in everything that Jung has to say. Based on my own life.

a reply to: DoctorTruth

Hi doc....have you heard of black salve? also known as natures scalpel or cansema ....

if so......do you believe it works,have you seen it work ? and how effective is it for treating cancers ?

originally posted by: DoctorTruth
Wilson's Disease ...

I'm surprised you didn't include a link to the distinctive iris symptom of Wilson's disease ... wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayser%E2%80%93Fleischer_ring

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: DoctorTruth
....have you heard of black salve? also known as natures scalpel or cansema ....
if so......do you believe it works,have you seen it work ? and how effective is it for treating cancers ?

cansema is great if you want a nose-ectomy ... quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/eschar.html

[ customers are incorrectly told cansema only destroys cancerous cells , but it's not true : it destroys everything ].

Welcome aboard...always looking for unvarnished truth here!

a reply to: Takifugu

you personally know someone who has had adverse affects from black salve or have you just read it on the web......black salve is just herbs how do you suppose it eats a nose away ?...with all the garbage i have read about MJ i wouldn't invest too much faith in a site like quack watch...it stinks of fear mongering and bias

I live in an Old California Copper mining district. Our local history shows that the valley under Shasta Lake was riddled with copper mines. The Vegetation had all died due to poisoning, so they built a dam and put a lake on top of it. So, our water supply and a good deal of California's water supply is sitting on top of old copper mines. Then it goes into the Sacramento River and passes by Iron Mountain Mine and adds its water to the Sac. Its a "Super Fund Site" with the most acidic water on earth. up.en.wikipedia.org... Shasta Lake is about 20 miles up stream from me, and Iron Mountian mine is 10 miles up stream. I live on the Sacramento River. And I have a well.

So, my question is this:

I know you said that Wilsons disease is genetic, but can this type of exposure make our children and grandchildren more inclined to develop this genetic disorder?

a reply to: DoctorTruth

That's a VERY cool idea for a thread series.

Thank you for taking the time to share with ATS. I can't wait to read your other entries!

~Tenth

a reply to: DoctorTruth

Happy New Year to you too! (And to everyone on ATS as well) Congratulations on completing your formal medical basics. It's no small achievement, and your wanting to give back to the community is wonderful and greatly appreciated.

Your post made me conscious of zinc in our diet and therefore had me looking up food sources of zinc. I found a list here for instance, as well as how phosphorus impedes its absorption. Just putting it out there for those poor people who like me tend to use food as medicine.

Speaking of food, can you comment sometime on the positive effects of licorice in regulating cardiac rhythm? (I don't want to derail this thread, but would appreciate a comment on this down the road.) Thanks.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Takifugu

you personally know someone who has had adverse affects from black salve or have you just read it on the web......black salve is just herbs how do you suppose it eats a nose away ?...with all the garbage i have read about MJ i wouldn't invest too much faith in a site like quack watch...it stinks of fear mongering and bias

My wife is an Oncology R.N., been at it for 20 years and you would not believe the horror stories about folks who try the herbal or natural "cures". After they've tried everything their herbalist tells them and they're still dying, they show up at the hospital, expecting the Doctors and nurses to save them. When they're told it's too late, that they've waited far too long, they blame modern medicine and claim it's all a scam. Yeah, modern medicine is expensive and all that. But when my life is on the line, I trust my Dr a hell of a lot more than some stranger selling a "miracle cure' on the internet. Some of this crap is outlawed for a damn good reason.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Takifugu
......black salve is just herbs how do you suppose it eats a nose away ?...

cansema contains bloodroot , aka Sanguinaria canadensis, see ... wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanguinaria#Toxicity [Toxicity to animal cells].

The idea that "herbs" can do no harm is nonsense, see ... whatstheharm.net/herbalremedies.html

BTW Do want to see what can happen if you apply cansema to your schnoz , see ... rationalwiki.org/wiki/File:Cansema_nose_crater.jpg

a reply to: Takifugu

ok that is just disturbing...please can you provide me a link a little more credible than wiki ?

a reply to: DAVID64

thx for the reply...i have little doubt that folks have avoided western medicine to their detriment...i also believe western medicine at this point does not have all the answers....

a lot of the problem with the ancient medicines is they could have been altered from the original healing state....in fact i would not put it past big pharma to taint said product if it were to take away profit from their "product"....

the mind boggles

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Takifugu
ok that is just disturbing...please can you provide me a link a little more credible than wiki ?

Wikipedia is a more balanced source of information than the people trying to sell you the stuff.

Do you value the opinion of the AMA ? , e.g. ... archderm.jamanetwork.com...
which includes this before-after image ...
*

Do you value the opinion of the American Cancer society ?

or are they ( and wikipedia, which can be edited by anyone ) all part of the conspiracy that cansema-seller told you about , to suppress their cheap cure for skin cancer.

[ * apparently posting gratuitous images of severed limbs in this forum is accepted by moderators , so the relevant gory image above should be OK ] .