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30 Doctors Reveal The Most Baffling Things About The Human Body They Have No Answers For
In his wonderfully rich book Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages, Dr. Jack Hartnell shows that the era wasn't as ignorant or stagnant as we often assume but acknowledges that, at times it was pretty wild. Feeling sad? Come get your blood drawn.
However, a few hundred years later, we still don't have all the answers. Far from it. When Reddit user Immediate_Hair_3393 asked all health professionals on the platform to share the questions that are still puzzling us, they were flooded with responses!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
How basically any of medical science works in relation to women and their bodies - almost all the data is based on men, and a lot of it almost exclusively.
Alexandra 9 months ago
There is now a special medical centre that focuses on the effect of medication on women.
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Peeka_Mimi 9 months ago
That's why they're always diagnosing us as fat and/or crazy. I literally needed surgery and instead spent 30 minutes getting shamed for my weight. Now that I've lost 60lbs I let them have it. I'm only 22lbs overweight and working on it.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 9 months ago
I've had a lifelong hip problem/pain that has been intermittent since I was a child. I never got it diagnosed since it was just a day of pain while walking, maybe once or twice a month; the pain was always gone by the next day. It recently became constant/chronic/nonstop agony (not exaggerating that it's the worst pain I've experienced in my life.) I went to see an orthopedist. He diagnosed me as "having a potential labrum tear" and "having a BMI of 26" - he literally put my BMI in the "diagnosis" section of the report. I'm 5'5" and 155 lbs. I've been this weight for years. I've had this hip issue all my life. It did NOT happen because I'm fat or crazy. I've had plenty of doctors tell me I need to lose weight over the years, but this one infuriated me XD I didn't notice he'd listed my BMI on the "diagnosis" section until after I'd left, or I'd have torn into him!
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Mason Kronol 9 months ago
My GP and GYN are about the same age but give conflicting info on menapause as I approach that age.(they are both post) Ironically my gyno reccomended my GP when mine retired during the pandemic. But I do like my GP so i just use both of their advices.
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Robert Benson 9 months ago
While efforts are being made to correct this, it is still the case that mostly men provide data, because men are easier. The scientists don't need to account for hormonal variation throughout the month or pregnancy or ... probably other stuff that I can't think of right now. But they are trying to be more inclusive. What is often not talked about is that it's not just men that have been the primary focus, but white men. Studying people of a singular ethnic group is not conducive to creating generalized health recommendations.
David 9 months ago
That is pre-1995, and especially in the past 15 years there is a plethora of data for women. And even pre-1995, its not lack of data for women, but lack of data for women pre-menopause because most global testing regulations at the time (In the US, Europe, etc) had rules about not testing women who could become pregnant or were pregnant, as a safety issue, and any testing involving them required a waver per person, which was expensive. So the studies were mostly men or older women. But that has changed and this claim is out of date
Laura Binns 9 months ago
Younger women weren't excluded due to the pregnancy risk. They were excluded because d**g impacts vary with hormone levels, and they couldn't be bothered/didn't have big enough samples to factor that in.
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brookeannsimmer 9 months ago
Fun fact, lactose intolerance in women often manifests as extreme exhaustion
Peter Bear 9 months ago
Fortunately, in many parts of the world, this is improving at an excellent rate. Unfortunately, in the US, it's going backwards.
We asked Iris Gorfinkel, M.D. who is a general practitioner, medical researcher, and the founder of PrimeHealth Family Practice and Clinical Research, to share her thoughts on the topic, and she told Bored Panda, "If I had one wish, it would be that the world unifies to fight the globe's biggest issues."
"This takes a lot of cooperation and it is a big wish to fight climate change, the loss of ecosystems, to begin understanding that the animal world is not separate from the human one. All of our health—the humans', animals', and plants'—is actually interlinked."
RELATED:
#2
One of the frustrating, but not so secret things in medicine is that racial differences exist and they can't be discussed in today's climate.
There are differences in d**g efficacy, growth, disease susceptibility or immunity just about everything.
It's preventing personalized treatments. AI can now pretty accurately guess someone's race and s*x from a single view chest xray so things may change.
People always think of this as a negative but in reality it should be approached like family history being super relevant for cancer or heart disease surveillance.
Nadine Debard 9 months ago
In MS and related disorders we study the geographic origin, which can be different from ethnicity, but it's a reliable data. Studies have shown different disease patterns in different populations. It's a very interesting insight to have on healthcare in general and specific diseases in particular.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
Also ALS has geographical clusters. My uncle died from it and he lived in one of those areas. (Kentucky in the US)
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Anonymouse 9 months ago
When you realize that something as simple as having red hair can be indicative of a difference in pain tolerance/anesthesia needs - how can this not be a thing?
JB 9 months ago
Speaking as a natural RH it’s weird. I’ve “woken up” during dental surgery and, apparently, bit the dentist. Don’t remember doing that but I do remember the feeling that someone was trying to rip my head apart using my jaws. I’ve learned to tell anesthesiologists to use more d***s than usual for my size.
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Serial pacifist 9 months ago
That is perfectly sound, just like the differences in people’s physiology and biology based on geography and climate. What is not sound is believing that because you are paler (or whatever the skin tone is) than someone else makes you mentally superior in any way. In fact, believing it proves that you are mentally inferior.
Alex Mosby 9 months ago
You absolutely can discuss racial differences in medical issues. I absolutely would not want the person who wrote this treating me. Racist=black people don't feel pain. Not racist= Tay Sachs effects Eastern European Jews almost exclusively. Racist= Latino woman are just dramatic are exaggerating their symptoms. Not racist= Asian American weight threshold should lower when testing for type 2 diabetes.
Forrest Hobbs 9 months ago
As it happens, the OP is misinformed. Ethnicity is a factor that is being researched with respect to medical treatment - specifically in the field of pharmacogenetics. E.g., "Pharmacogenetics: Implications of Race and Ethnicity on Defining Genetic Profiles for Personalized Medicine" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3933289/
London Paris 9 months ago
D**g efficacy? Dong? Dong . . .dung . . . . Ohhhhhhhh . . . .D**G efficacy. . . . Wait . . .why was D**G censored? And s*x . . . . . S*x sexsexdrug s*x d**g d**g s*x s**y d***s d***s D***S s*x S**y d**g d**g s*x s**y . . .
London Paris 9 months ago
Seriously bored panda: we are censoring the real world science biology term S E X now . . . . . What's next bored panda, we gonna start censoring out all the words that trumps today's are censoring too? Why are you censoring words bored panda? We gonna start burning books to bored panda? Are YOU the type of site we need to be careful off now . . . .are you the problem now BP?
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Šimon Špaček 9 months ago
I think that treating people based on their race and s*x is way less racist and sexist than treating everyone as a white male.
Amy S 9 months ago (edited)
I don't know where OP is from that this can't be discussed? It's widely known and openly discussed by doctors where I'm from. A friend was recently diagnosed with a condition that is more common in people from central Asia, the doctor told her that and she told her family so that they can be vigilant for the symptoms.
XenoMurph 9 months ago
I think it depends on the country and culture. Where I am, it's not a problem
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I’m an anesthesiologist. We still don’t really know why inhaled volatile anesthetics like sevoflurane, the principle anesthetic agent used to maintain general anesthesia, work. We kind of have an idea of maybe how it happens, but really we don’t know
It’s commonly said in my field that whoever figures this out will win the next Nobel prize in medicine
RedMarbles 9 months ago
"We kind of have an idea of maybe how it happens, but we really don't know" can be applied to a lot of medicine. That's not to suggest that medical professionals don't have far better knowledge than non-medical professionals, but I for one would appreciate frank honesty when they don't know rather than the overconfident patronizing demeanor some display.
Kabuki Kitsune 9 months ago (edited)
Happens with my field too. In Environmental Engineering/Science, there's a number of situations where we know what various chemical reactions take place to create, or remove pollutants, but ironically enough we don't really know why, or even how those reactions happen, when the conditions are well outside the needed parameters for the reaction to normally happen. Such as a reaction that requires substantial heating of the components to produce decomposition of an element into polluting ions, which happens at 'room temperature' in nature. IE: It ain't hot enough to cause that reaction... yet we keep seeing it, so WTF is going on here? (Note, I'm talking about reactions that happen at temperatures above 200c, happening at 22c (70f). There are some working theories about this, but yeah, there are situations where we really don't know why it's happening.
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BeKind&Rewind 9 months ago
DO NOT ALLOW SENIORS TO GO UNDER GENERAL ANESTHESIA, if at all possible, request a nerve block, spinal block etc. They will still get "twilight sedation", but the older you get, the harder it is for your body to metabolize certain anesthetics. General anesthesia has ruined many former patients I had as well as my grandmother and 2 neighbors. Little known thing, but BIG consequences!
WonderWoman 9 months ago
I think anesthesiologist know this and don't want a giant malpractice lawsuit on their hands
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kitteh floof lover 9 months ago
can you explain why redheads require more anesthesia than others? just curious, as i am a redhead.
Kelli Wilson 9 months ago
You can Google for a more precise explanation but it's got to do with the way you metabolize the d***s. The genes that make you red headed also make you get rid of the medicine more quickly
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SomeFaustkateer 9 months ago
If you’re a redhead, you often require more anesthesia than a blonde, brown or black haired person.
According to Gorfinkel, "If we're to prevent the next pandemic or if we're to successfully fight antibiotic resistance and make sure the world has food and that food is safe, it cannot be done without cooperation."
"This integrated approach is not something new; it's under the World Health Organization's One Health plan," she said.
#4
The Gut Microbiome: While it's well-known that the gut plays a huge role in digestion, researchers are discovering just how much our gut bacteria affect other parts of our health, like mood, immunity, and even brain function.
Tamra 9 months ago
Lots of information coming out about serotonin production in the gut - yes, the gut - and the effects on depression. Very interesting stuff.
Dilly Millandry 9 months ago
95% of the body's serotonin is produced in the intestine.
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Just Another Karen 9 months ago
5 or 6 years ago, I had tonsillitis every single month. I lived on antibiotics, but they killed both the bad and good bacteria. My body was breaking down more and more each day. Nothing seemed capable of stopping the infections, and they were severe. Doctors told me I needed to have my tonsils removed, but I didn’t understand why, especially since they weren’t sure if the problem was actually my tonsils. Then, I went to a gastroenterologist, who said I had several issues with my digestive system. He treated those problems. It’s been 5 years since I last took an antibiotic pill. <3
Jill Woodhead 9 months ago
I'm in the same boat but with bladder problems and realise that all of those bouts of cystitis which I had to have treated with antibiotics has pretty much wiped out all the good bacteria..trying to reverse it with probiotics and probiotic food...I pray it will help!
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Serial pacifist 9 months ago
There is a great documentary on Netflix about it - Hack Your Health: The Secrets of your Gut
Dawn Marie 9 months ago
They took out all my lymph nodes when they did my right hemi colectomy. It has definitely affected my clinical depression and enhanced my anxiety ten fold.
K_Tx 9 months ago (edited)
I had my large intestine and r3ctum removed and my anxiety flew thru the roof. It's been 25 years and we are now getting my meds right (for now). Depression as well but it has been more manageable.
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Vivian “Jinxed It” R. 9 months ago
In human medicine we seem to lack so far behind here. Like in horses people who know theirs well can tell you if anything in the stomach of gut region is off and how much it is effecting the whole system AND behaviors! Not only if pain is already there, but also when for examples stables were changed and the whole hay and other diet and the microbiome needs to adjust to it - horses can act very differently during this shift or even afterwards, depending on how the food is to the digestive tract and how it shifts their biome in one or another direction (especially if people feed haylage - so many times we see horses be a lot calmer and happier when they got normal hay again - even if the quality was great and nothing else changed in their surroundings - but their bacteria etc. needed to adapt for different situations.)
Tom De Paul 9 months ago
Unless you are NOT squeamish, don't Google "fecal transplants." And yes, it's what it sounds like.
#5
One of the few ABSOLUTES in medical science is that nobody born blind has ever developed schizophrenia.
David 9 months ago (edited)
This is a false claim based on one single and since debunked study from 2003 (the famous Sanders et al. Study) . It is a much lower rate (and very rare), but it does exist. And it isnt just in more modern studies like the 2013 Silverstein et al. and 2013 Landgraf and Osterheider studies, there was even one in 1980 that proved it. What scienstist are studying is why it is so low compared to others even when all the genetic factors are there, as a way to understand the role of visuals in schizophrenia
RedMarbles 9 months ago
Thanks for the info. I was skeptical as soon as I saw "absolutes" in all caps.
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Nitka Tsar 9 months ago
Maybe they just present their symptoms differently? Like ADHD women for example. I‘ve read that back in the day doctors thought that only boys can have adhd because girls would mask it better and were never „seen“
Amy S 9 months ago (edited)
Not sure if you meant to post this on the above comment but similar happened with autism and dyslexia because the clinical focus was on how they present in boys and teachers/doctors were less aware of how they present in girls. I wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until I was an adult even though I had classic symptoms as a girl.
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and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 9 months ago
This may just be a numbers game. Both groups are a pretty small % of the population, and so there just might not be overlap.
DrBronxx 9 months ago
This is an impossibility. Really, someone compiled a list of every single person who was born blind, living and dead, and determined, with finality, that LITERALLY NONE OF THEM have or had schizophrenia? Aside from taking into account that diagnoses have become more accurate since its formal classification a century ago, meaning that many many people will have gone un- or misdiagnosed, it is impossible to know that, throughout history, there have been no schizophrenic people who were born blind. OP would have more chance of being believed if they had said that *there have been no reported cases* of schizophrenia in people who had been born blind.
Cammy Mack 9 months ago
But has someone with schizophrenia developed blindness? Ho hoooooo, got you there.
While health, food, water, energy, and environment are all wide topics with sector-specific concerns, the WHO highlights that our collaboration across sectors and disciplines does contribute to addressing health challenges such as the emergence of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and food safety and promote the health and integrity of our ecosystems.
#6
It’s not cancer. It’s cancer(S) and every specialized and stem cell (undifferentiated pluripotent cell) is at risk of mutating into something that doesn’t stop multiplying.
The cancer of a specialized gland cell is called adenocarcinoma.
The cancer of a skin cell is called squamous cell carcinoma.
The cancer of a melanocyte is melanoma and so on.
So anytime someone says, “they’re hiding the cure for cancer” they are being magnificently ignorant.
-Pathologist.
Kira Okah 9 months ago
Cancer is a catch-all for a group of diseases with similar effects (abnormal cell growth that can spread to other parts of the body) but not causes. So there won't be a singular "cure for cancer" because they are not the same thing. At least that is how my lecturer explained it.
Kenneth Barns 9 months ago
Exactly. Just like won't be a single "cure for infection” or single ”treatment of injury".
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Ace 9 months ago (edited)
It's also often overlooked that we have indeed found the cure for some cancers. I was privileged to play a small but possibly crucial role in one of the earliest treatments where we were able to say, yes, you know what? if we find this type of cancer, and the patient has this set of genes, this drüg will cure it. 5 million women's lived saved so far (last time I looked).
Laura Lawson 9 months ago
THIS!!! This says it perfectly how the term cancer is like the term virus or bacteria, it's just a way of categorising something.
Molly A. Block 9 months ago
THANK YOU! Finally, somebody not touting some b.s.!! You guys just can't read and believe everything you see online. Do your research, folks! But in this case, this Pathologist is correct. I concur!!
Zaach 9 months ago
For a while they thought that there was a common marker for cancer - turns out the HeLa cells are very vigorous and anyone working with them ha to be very careful of cross contamination
Julia Mckinney 9 months ago
Those darn He-La cells end up tangled up with everything, don't they?
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#7
I had a lecturer at medical school say "half of medicine is made up, we just don't know which half".
Wayne Gossman 9 months ago
Seems unlikely someone said this in seriousness. But I did hear someone say half of what we learn is wrong. Not the same thing though. We are learning so much more all the time and often when we learn something we find out what we thought before was wrong.
Lyone Fein 9 months ago
Medical science knows so little, yet so many doctors are so arrogant when they interact with patients. It’s really frustrating.
Mary Peace 9 months ago
I'm glad it isn't just me that thought that -- I thought there was an enormous safety pin! (bobby pin?)
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keyboardtek 9 months ago
I would think that was a joke as it is all science based. Maybe the early science was not so solid, and maybe alternative medicine is made up, but mainstream med is really the only medicine worth risking our lives with.
Cathy Carey 9 months ago
This just serves to underscore how complex the human body is. I'm still in awe of it after taking some biology and anatomy & physiology classes. How are any of us "normal" or even alive. Gosh, throw our ph off even a little and it's lights out - We Are So Fragile.
Molly A. Block 9 months ago
That just sounds so ignorant. I mean, COME ON, WE DO know what works, and what does not. It's not really even a funny joke.
#8
OBGYN here: we still don’t know exactly what makes labor start. We know all about the mechanics and physiology, but we don’t know what makes the average uterus say it’s “go time.”.
LooseSeal's $10 Banana 9 months ago
Much like a bus, the baby pulls on the cord when it's ready to get out.
Scott Rackley 9 months ago
duh na na na, duh na na na na Thanks for the earworm /s
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Blue Bunny of Happiness 9 months ago
But what triggers the production/release of them?
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Child of the Stars 9 months ago
A quote from my favorite science fantasy series: my lady, we can tootle around the galaxy faster than light, but babies still come when they're d.amn good and ready!
Julia Mckinney 9 months ago
My labor with my first kid started on my due date, which was revised after my ultrasound. The OB said it was Apr. 10, the radiologist said it should be 3 weeks earlier so they split the difference and decided on Apr. 1. I can truthfully say that my first kid was an April fool's baby, the doc. took her by C-section at 1:16am on Apr. 2nd.
Moon Puppy 9 months ago
My niece started tugging on the cord 36 hours before she decided to get out.
Cathy Carey 9 months ago
Isn't it pitosin? I guess the question is when and how does our body know when.
By linking humans, animals and the environment, the One Health program aims to address the full spectrum of disease control – from prevention to detection, preparedness, response and management – and contribute to global health security.
The approach can be applied at the community, subnational, national, regional, and global levels and relies on shared and effective governance, communication, collaboration and coordination. One Health makes it easier for people to better understand the co-benefits, risks, trade-offs, and opportunities to advance equitable and holistic solutions, so if there's a way to answer the questions we see on this list, it's this.
#9
One I didn't see mentioned: we apparently don't know precisely *how* our bodies can distinguish gas from poop. We have some ideas, we know there are a ton of nerve endings in the area, but the precise mechanism of our bodies telling our brains "this is a fart, let loose" isn't really understood.
What blows my mind is, it's distinct enough that we even pass gas while asleep. That difference must be wired DEEP!
DaisyBee 9 months ago (edited)
Hey, the docs who are trying to figure out how anaesthesia works should just ask you!
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White Sauce Hot Sauce 9 months ago
It's not a perfect system, as I had unfortunately experienced a few weeks ago.
Scott Rackley 9 months ago
My dad once told me, "Never trust a fart after 50"
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TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago (edited)
Our bowels move constanly, maybe a combination of density and pressure sensors working together. Higher pressure but no resistance during movement? Must be gas - or in more unfortunate cases diarrhea (Would be my theory)
Motivated sloth 9 months ago
I have never and would never have considered this in my entire lifetime. Who came to this realization?
BrunoVI 9 months ago
This seems wrong. Gas is well, a gas. It forms bubbles which fill the shape of the space they have. Solid poop doesn't. When is it hard to tell the difference? When the poop is soft or liquid, and therefore acts more like gas.
Becky Samuel 9 months ago
That doesn't answer the question of how your butt knows the difference.
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tater.gonna.tot 9 months ago
Anyone else think they have to poop and just ended up farting on the toilet? Obviously better than the reverse but time wasted for sho!
trixiefly11 9 months ago
how many times do we fart and it isn't a fart though. We thought it would be and is ended up being more substantial. lol
#10
Not a doctor, but the amount of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I got from doctors when I asked questions during my treatment for breast cancer was astounding. That's not to imply they were useless or didn't know what they were doing, I just asked a lot of questions lol.
Me: Why do I need to take Claritin before chemo?
Nurse: It helps with bone pain.
Me: Oh, that's interesting, why is that?
Nurse: Nobody knows!
Me: What's the cording I'm experiencing in my arm following my mastectomy?
Physical Therapist: Nobody actually knows what it's made of or where it comes from!
Me: Why am I suddenly unable to eat gluten following my cancer treatment?
Gastro Doc: Trauma, probably?
Having cancer really made it clear to me that so much of the human body is still a mystery!
kzys59pcrp 9 months ago
That bone pain was no joke, it felt like my bones had spikes and were trying to come out Of my skin. Side note: the pain comes not from the chemo but from the shot they give you after to help keep your white blood cells up.
Deth Invictus 9 months ago
Bone marrow is where your white blood cells are made. If you are being dosed with a d**g that enhances this I can see why your bones would hurt. Forced white blood cell production would cause stress in that area.
Load More Replies... Peter Bear 9 months ago
Sometimes, it's best to start by knowing that something works, even if we don't know why. Plenty of time for the 'why' later, as long as we *know* it works. That, at least in my opinion, is the important part.
Phred 9 months ago
Bumper sticker format: If it works, it works. Maybe someday we'll figure out why.
Load More Replies... Child of the Stars 9 months ago
This is true throughout medical practice. We don't really know how this works, we don't really know why it works. We just know it works. Also, here's some bad stuff that might happen if you don't take the medication/treatment, and here's some bad stuff that might happen if you do.
Meowlanie Meowpants 9 months ago
Omg cording is no joke I'm cellular mutant at 34 had to do double mastectomy the cording sent me to the moon
Shely Hanson 9 months ago
This was pretty much my experience with breast cancer too. My body was short circuiting everywhere and they gave me the *shrug* "it is the chemo."
Kabuki Kitsune 9 months ago
I think the "nobody knows" part isn't so accurate, as more it's a case of "testing has shown this, and there's a really technical chemical explanation for why this happens, but it'd take a lot longer to explain to the patient, and odds are only 1 in 100 patient would understand what they're being told, while the remainder would just be even more confused, and likely scared about their prognosis. So it's better to err on the side of ignorance and not give the patient something else to worry about ".
Marguerite Barnett 9 months ago
No, that kind of patient is in the minority in my experience; most are like me, i find comfort in facts. Otherwise my mind is going crazy with worst case scenarios. i personally find i have a lack of time to discuss little details with my patients. Insurance company payments for my most common oncologic surgery have not increased since the late 70s when i started practice whereas my expenses certainly have. i am hoping AI may help with these repetitive but important nuggets.
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Charity Angel 9 months ago
There's so much that comes from anecdotal data that someone like me says "ooh, that's interesting", and does a study on. Doesn't mean we find the mechanism for WHY a medication does something, but we can do a trial and confirm that "yeah, actually, that does seem to work". In this case, it's *probably* that claritin (and other antihistamines) suppress part of the immune system and, as kzys58prcp says, the pain actually comes from immune boosters being given. If it's the mast cells specifically that cause the pain, then it would make sense that antihistamines could help. But finding out exactly what the mechanism is will be hard until biobeds are invented and we can see exactly what's going on internally. It would be invasive at the moment, and really hard on people already going through taxing treatments.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
There's a really fascinating area of study at the moment for autoimmune conditions. We already know they tend to affect female folks more than male. But the REALLY cool thing is that trans-masc people are finding that their autoimmune issues settle down when they start taking T. So what is it about testosterone that suppresses the immune system? Can we replicate it without the masculising effects? And if it does suppress the immune system, does that mean that males really are more badly affected by illness than females? Is man flu real? (I'm cis female, just for clarity. And I sort of hate the fact that I even have a theory that might validate man flu)
Load More Replies... clairebear 9 months ago
You can't eat anything that will irritate the bowel. Chemo attacks the cells lining bowel wall. Low residue low fibre is the only way to stop the pain.
Marguerite Barnett 9 months ago
i think the claritin suppresses the histamine response. Histamine release is associated with all kinds of noxious stimuli so it makes sense that an antihistamine would help.
Cathy Carey 9 months ago
"Me: Why am I suddenly unable to eat gluten following my cancer treatment? Gastro Doc: Trauma, probably?" Probably because the chemo killed off the bacteria responsible for dealing with gluten.
#11
Allergies, spefically food allergies . And why do adults develop them after never reacting to them before?
DaisyBee 9 months ago
THIS! Please explain to me how as a child I could snort pollen like I was in a club bathroom and be fine but now, if I so much as SEE grass or flowers, everything’s itchy and congested. I turned 18, and boom, antihistamines became my new best friends
Papa 9 months ago
I never had allergy symptoms until I was well into my 40's, and now 20 years later I have them year round.
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john doe 9 months ago
Leading theory is because people don't get worms anymore, basically all the effects that anaphylaxis has is a mild version of what your body does to eliminate a parasitic worm, if your body is constantly battling worm parasites these hyper responses from your immune system are constantly being used. Now we have excellent health compared to our not too distant ancestors and not having to battle parasites constantly leaves this immune system bomb unused, it's thought that an allergic reaction could be your immune system deciding that the compound you are allergic to is indeed a parasite and let's all the stops off of the immune responses. That could explain the anaphylaxis response from allergies, however more research needs to be conducted, but it's a promising hypothesis.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
This is definitely the thing. We knew this when I was studying immunology 15 years ago. It's why you hear stories about people (temporarily) curing allergies or asthma by giving themselves tapeworms. Weirdly, though, the worms end up being more of an issue - can't imagine why... I always like explaining allergies as the immune system being bored.
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howdylee 9 months ago
I grew up in Ohio, never had allergies. Lived in Florida between ages of 16-20, then moved to Indiana. That first spring in Indy I thought I was dying, campus clinic told me it was allergies, despite never having them before. I would have thought the pollen in OH and IN would have been similar enough but apparently not. Now I live in Ohio again and each year my allergies are getting less and less problematic. So stay away from Indiana :)
Charity Angel 9 months ago
My dad found something similar when he moved from UK to Switzerland for a year. He ended up on steroid inhalers because he was so badly allergic to the tree pollen there. It's not that far away - you wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference. Not to the plants, at least.
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Pferdchen 9 months ago
Huh. I had bad pollen allergies as a child, to the extent that I received "allergy shots." I recall a road trip through Iowa cornfields when my mother had forgotten my allergy medicine. My symptoms were so bad that a pharmacist dispensed my prescribed medicine without a prescription. But anyway, I have absolutely no idea what the shots or medicine were. Whether is was the treatment or growing out of it, I'm just grateful that I only have very occasional, very mild symptoms and never need to take antihistamines.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
Allergy shots expose you to tiny amounts of the substances you're allergic to so that you body will no longer react to them.
Load More Replies... Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
Oh yes, I love shellfish - lobster, crab, shrimp. In my 20s I became allergic. Now I won't even eat in a restaurant that serves shellfish due to fear of cross-contamination.
Bobby 9 months ago
Developed sesame allergy at 35. I really miss Chinese take out
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Huddo's sister 9 months ago
There seems to be a link to autoimmune system. From what I understand, people with autoimmune conditions are more likely to develop new allergies. There is a lot of research being done at the moment.
Sue User 9 months ago
And here I sit with autoimmune and have no known allergies. I dont even get hayfever and barely react to mosquito bites.
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Sam Lombardo 9 months ago
I had them for over 10 years. They appeared within a few weeks and almost destroyed my life through current pain after eating anything. 99% of the doctors told me tthat they will never disapear and i have to live with them. I sometimes thought about s*****e when the pain was too much and I felt into depression. But I never stopped fighting and writing this to give people strength. Today I have far less problem even though some are still there. But do not believe doctors who tell you, you could not get healthy. I am the living proof, it could get far better and a normal live is possible. Have to mention I fought against multiple food intolerances, not allergies - they are something different and often mixed up. Stay well.
Melinda Flick 9 months ago
At 55 I developed level 2 anaphylactic reaction to kiwi. I’d eaten it for years. Why THEN?
Noname 9 months ago
I developed an allergy to crustaceans as a young adult. Only recently (30 years on) I have developed an allergy to certain small oceanic fish (fresh anchovies, smelts), but my allergic reactions are different. With crustaceans I have intestinal distress, with the fish, it's hives and vomiting. I really miss eating crustaceans.
#12
What causes endometriosis and how do you treat it effectively. The leading theory is “retrograde menstruation,” which occurs in 80-90% of women. Ok….. so why do 80-90% of women not have endometriosis? There’s clearly something else going on that we don’t know.
Also, the only way to remove or get rid of endometriosis is through surgery. But there is a high rate of recurrence after surgery. Some women undergo multiple surgeries for it.
Tamra 9 months ago
This is definitely an illness that warrants more research. Endometriosis is an incredibly painful, often debilitating situation. I had it long ago, but was fortunate enough to not have a recurrence of adhesions after the initial procedure.
Lila Allen 9 months ago
Right..it's insane to me that this horribly debilitating and potentially lethal disease is just ignored. Like " oh well " Really? If it were guys with lesions and severe pain you can bet we'd have teams upon teams of researchers moving mountains to try and solve it
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Lena Flising 9 months ago
There’s probably so little research done, because they can’t find any afflicted men to do the study on. (Refering to the fact that almost all medical studies are done on men.)
Charity Angel 9 months ago
There actually *are* men with endometriosis, which is REALLY fascinating. Because we don't know why. (I imagine it's an intersex condition of some flavour, that gives them the tissue, but that's just speculation.)
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Upstaged75 9 months ago
I've had multiple surgeries for it. After about 10 years of doctors telling me I was just being dramatic. Currently I've been on a med for a few years that keeps it at bay. Changed my life! Before that point I was in the ER at least once a month and no pain med could touch it.
RedMarbles 9 months ago
This angers me on your behalf. I can't for the life of me understand why so many intelligent, educated people think it's more likely that a patient is getting some sort of kick out of frequent doctor visits (at which they get repeatedly dismissed) than it is that there is an issue that isn't apparent with the usual tests. If I understand endo correctly, it is both really common and cannot even be diagnosed without surgery. Maddening to hear so many of these stories about prolonged unnecessary suffering. Glad to hear you have a good med now to keep in under control.
Load More Replies... DaisyBee 9 months ago (edited)
Stage 3 Endo here! Can anyone explain to me why the “gold standard treatment” aka laparoscopic surgery treatment made things WORSE for me? I was told I’d feel like a brand new woman - and I did, a brand new woman with more scars, more pain and more health issues in general. Recurrence happened within 3 months for me despite total removal of adhesions and cysts 🙈
Bored Trash Panda 9 months ago
I felt better for about 4 months after my surgery. Then I started to hurt again, and now I get debilitating pain around my period and general pain and am bloated the rest of the time. It sucks. I had my surgery 4 years ago.
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Ineke Pronk 9 months ago
My friend went to 7 different doctors over the years with the complains of massive pain. Just to be told time and time again by male AND female doctors that her pain was not debilitating, not that bad and just normal. Only doc 8 decided it might be something, most likely not, but lets do endoscopic surgery to show there was nothing. Thats when they found out she has endometriosis and did not manage to remove everything in a single surgery.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
It's the women that get me - they're so conditioned by a century+ of medical teaching that women exaggerate, and they just... believe that. I know I'm lucky that my periods aren't that bad, but I also know that my experience isn't the same as other women. I can't understand the mentality of just believing someone because their experience isn't the same as yours. Especially when it comes to something like this - bodies are all different. Weirdly, I've found male doctors to be generally more sympathetic to gyne issues. I suppose that could be because they accept they can't possibly understand - which is exactly what you want in a doctor.
Load More Replies... My O My 9 months ago
I went down the rabbit hole. Scientists suppose that women who experience period pain also have endometriosis. And in 50% of them it goes undiagnosed because it isn't too bad. They also suspect that about 50% of women with endometriosis don't have any pain at all
DaisyBee 9 months ago
In my case, I didn’t think it was so bad because I had no knowledge as to what it CAN look like for women without endo. My mother had it, and when media portrays it as something that’s supposed to hurt so badly, you kinda assume it is what it is. I didn’t realize feeling contractions, bleeding through heavy pads (3/4 at a time, stacked up), being in so much pain it felt like being stabbed and crushed with a mallet at the same time, suffering burns from heating pads because it was the only effective pain relief and severe iron deficiency was ABNORMAL. I was basically taught “this is a woman’s life, get used to it.” 🙈 My doctor said that not only do medical professionals downplay it, but the sufferers themselves do too. Either because we’ve been “conditioned” to think complaining about our period is annoying/whiny/weak or because we genuinely don’t know what’s normal/what’s not. Then, as you said, there’s the women who experience what’s considered “normal” and STILL have endo.
Load More Replies... Cathy Carey 9 months ago
I knew someone who had horrible menstruation flow. She had to stay home it was so bad. She finally had surgery but we had lost touch, I hope it helped her.
#13
Had a pathologist tell me that the interesting part of his job wasn't finding out how someone died, it was seeing everything that can be wrong with someone, so many life threatening or life altering, horrible things that a person can have going on and still be alive.
Good friend died of pneumonia (he was too busy at work, couldn't afford to take time off), he kept using OTC meds for the symptoms.
He died unattended, so the coroner had to get involved, they did an autopsy. His body had cancer in three different places, he never stopped.
Dude was old-time tough.
LNB87 9 months ago
I have ALWAYS wondered how often people pass away from non-cancer related things and have it be found during autopsy that they were actually riddled with cancer
Lila Allen 9 months ago
A surprising number of cancers are asymptomatic until they reach end stage
Load More Replies... clairebear 9 months ago
I have cancer. No idea for years. It reaches tipping point and then there are symptoms. It is the chemotherapy that makes me feel ill, not the cancer.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
Usually the way - it's a horrific treatment. It's literally poison, and we're just hoping it kills the cancer before it kills the patient. I entirely understand why people decide they don't want to undergo chemo, especially if they're terminal.
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Maggie Fulton 9 months ago
When my grandad died, his doctor told my mother he had cancer of everything.
Weaponized Beef 9 months ago
Dude worked himself to death. I don't know if we should call this a good thing.
EJN 9 months ago
Some cancers are very slow-growing so people do not know until it is really spread around or pokes something very important to life function. We probably all have some cancers that are kept in check by the immune system too. Since most people do not have autopsies done, it is impossible to know how many people have problems that are not too bad, but there nevertheless.
lluf eman 9 months ago
Yes it is true cancer can hide for a very long time and the worst cases are those in which someone is ill with something and these symptoms of illness mask the cancer. I know of at least two cases one is a friend of mine who had hidden brain cancer died very quickly. He had strange symptoms for 2 weeks in behavior so he decided to examine himself more thoroughly than usual and after this examination it came out that he had brain cancer. Another person had hidden lung cancer, but also suffered from severe multiple sclerosis and the cancer was discovered in the 3rd stage and passed away after a year.
Charles Kormos 9 months ago
Before his diagnosis, Lance Armstrong was winning stages of the Tour de France with cancer and without doping.
Bob Brooce 9 months ago
Not even close to being right. He reportedly told his doctor(s) less than month after the cancer diagnosis that he had been doping. He won his first tour almost 3 years after the diagnosis.
Load More Replies... #14
Doctor here. Off the top of my head, here's a few deceptively big ones:
1) We still aren't exactly sure how anesthesia works. We just know it causes certain effects, and they are useful so we use it.
2) psychiatry is still shockingly infantile in our understanding of human disorders. It's constantly in a state of flux, we don't understand a lot about the meds we currently use, and the diagnostic criteria for disorders still changes as we realize "hey maybe all these behaviors aren't the same source disorder". It's incredibly hard to diagnose when the criteria is largely based on self report and subjective observations.
3) To a lesser degree than #2, neurology is still learning a lot. It's further because you can observe more objective findings in neuro than psych, but we still struggle a lot with how brains function.
4) Immunology. Don't even ask me, because no one knows really.
5) yawns. Still guessing on why that happens too. There's some theories, but that's the best we got.
DaisyBee 9 months ago
Not me clenching my jaw to try stop yawning 🤣🤣 I failed, biggest yawn of my life
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Tams21 9 months ago
A psychiatrist once told me that our level of understanding in his field is comparable to the understanding of surgery in medieval times.
Becky Samuel 9 months ago
So much of psychiatry is based on the study of people who are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). Many psychiatric 'illnesses' in Western countries have no recognisable counterparts in the East, and vice versa.
Load More Replies... Charity Angel 9 months ago
Immunology is very, very cool, and there are people who know. Well, scratched the surface at least, and it's getting better all the time. I live in hope that we'll reach a point that we can retrain immune systems to ignore everything it's supposed to ignore - believe it or not, autoimmune conditions aren't actually supposed to exist. Cancers are also a technical failure of the immune system, and figuring that out is probably key to starting to cure them. And, one of the human body's weirdest things - if we can figure out why someone who has a traumatic injury to an eye can go blind in the other (also autoimmune), we can stop that from being a thing.
The Darkest Timeline 9 months ago
Autoimmune disorders are proof (among many, many examples) that intelligent design is complete and utter bullshït. What sort of idiot would design an organism whose immune system attacks the body?
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Dogcat vet (retired) 9 months ago
As a vet, anxious dogs will yawn during an exam frequently (esp small dogs). I always ask them if they are bored or something. I figure its just a big burst of oxygen for them.
RamiRudolph 9 months ago (edited)
As a partner of someone with deep emotional trauma from her childhood, I find it really sad how psychiatry and psychotherapy is not only not that much explored as it could be, it's also pretty neglected in our modern world. Every illness that is physical and/or visible is given so much attention, but the invisible illnesses are all but ignored, as if they just don't matter as much. And yet they are often much more severe. It honestly sucks.
ScootyPuffJr 9 months ago
This explains why I'm on my 5th (useless) neurologist in under 2 years.
MCathenaE 9 months ago
Love your username! "Just remember,Scooty Puff Jr Sucks!!!"
Load More Replies... Cathy Carey 9 months ago
It must be so hard to Want to heal people and be unable to do anything except throw pills at them to treat only symptoms. So many times I've been out and seen people so sick and just Suffering so badly and being able to do Absolutely Nothing to help them makes me feel physically ill sometimes. I guess too much empathy doesn't help.
#15
Not MD but PhD, right now we are working on the connection between our intestinal microbiome and neuropsychiatric disease and brain aging. For instance, people with inflammatory bowel disease are more likely to develop dementia and experience co-morbid anxiety and depression, but we dont know why.
Serial pacifist 9 months ago
That sounds so random, I wonder how scientists came to investigate the connection and then reach this realisation.
Nadine Debard 9 months ago
When you study a condition you search comorbidities too. If some comorbidities are over represented, then you may have a link between both conditions. Gut diseases leading to dementia, the first thing you're looking for is gut microbioma and genetics.
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Pferdchen 9 months ago
Now add in things like dietary preferences and maybe even personality traits. I recall an early case study of fecal matter transplants where the subject developed a sweet tooth. Getting exposed to toxoplasmosis can repress fear response. Get bit by a tick and develop a meat allergy. Take a d**g for restless leg syndrome and develop an overwhelming urge for s*x. I've really begun to question the concept of free will and begun to contemplate the possibility that our conscious minds are just along for the ride, trying to make sense of things.
Feathered Dinosaur 9 months ago
Not only these, but there's also link to schizophrenia. They argue an low chronic inflammation in the body, like the gut, leads to chronic inflammation of the brain also - which is reasonable. This inflammation of brain tissue causes symptoms - depression, hallucinations etc.
🇺🇦 TribbleThinking 9 months ago
It does seem like a random connection, but it may be as basic a reason as if you don't get all the necessary nutrition and assorted trace minerals, you simply don't function as well, brain included.
UnicornSnotRules 9 months ago
Oh swell. I have severe Crohn's disease, and it has tried to k**l me several times already. I hope it succeeds before it gives me dementia.
Dawn Marie 9 months ago
I would so much like to be a part of your study group. I have had IBSD for as long as I can remember, I am 60 now, and I suffer from depression and anxiety. I am not sure of my memory, some days are better than others.
Camilla Koutsos 9 months ago
Most ADHDers and autistics have gut issues. Our brains are funky.
#16
The placenta is the only human organ grown for a specific purpose then discarded when it is no longer needed.
Serial pacifist 9 months ago
And brain is the human organ grown for a purpose but often discarded by voters.
Nikki138 9 months ago
Wasted votes on 🍊 (I know our comments were off topic) I fixed your down vote
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My O My 9 months ago
Fun fact: you can only donate your placenta to science and they are not allowed to give you money in exchange as organ dealing is forbidden in most countries
🇺🇦 TribbleThinking 9 months ago
What about vouchers? Not being facetious - I've noticed a strange bias towards vouchers as inducement for various things, even though they seem so unwieldy.
Load More Replies... Cathy Carey 9 months ago
This shocked me during A&P. Our, women's, bodies grow not only a human but the organ it needs to grow.
Ellinor 9 months ago
Or it can be for spirituals purposes. Many believe that burying your placenta is giving back to nature when you created, to allow plants to grow again as a circle of life and giving.
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Benoît Rainville 7 months ago
Because it's a parasitic form essential to feed our babies with our own blood.
Kabuki Kitsune 9 months ago
Fun fact: The placenta is primarily composed of DNA supplied by the male. This video goes into some about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ralOXVpkJrE
Bookworm 9 months ago
Discarded, not disregarded. And yes, most people do discard them. I'm pretty sure the placenta-eating community is not the majority, although as far as I'm concerned one person eating placentas is too many.
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#17
Why our brain doesn't use its stem cells it has to heal itself.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago
I've recently read that brain cells barely go through regulary apoptosis unlike other cells - maybe it's coded into our DNA that these cells simply don't need replacement based on that?
Broccoli 9 months ago
Yeah…most brain cells you get at birth will be with you throughout your entire life…otherwise you’d be constantly losing skills and memories…and it makes it kind of hard for patients that have had brain damage to recover…
Load More Replies... Zaach 9 months ago
And we can reprogram out brains to take over for missing parts. A person with severe grand mal seizures had his entire left hemisphere remove but was able to retrain his remaining hemisphere to take over those tasks. Brain plasticity is amazing
tameson 9 months ago
Plasticity is much greater in infants and children than in adults. Which is why hemispherectomies are almost exclusively performed on children. But, the extent to which their brains can adjust is just amazing!
Load More Replies... Cathy Carey 9 months ago
It simply wasn't programed to do that. Maybe that's how those salamanders regrow limbs?
#18
"Unexplained Infertility"
...is the actual name, of an actual diagnosis, given to my wife and I, because according to every test, based on what modern medical science knows about fertility, we're fine. We *should* be able to conceive. "All the numbers are right." We probably even would be able to conceive, either of us, with different partners. But no one knows why the two of us can't, *together*. And it happens to far more couples than anyone talks about. But the only diagnosis we all get, is "unexplained infertility".
Nitka Tsar 9 months ago
Interesting. Sounds like the 2 of them are not compatible, biologically speaking. I wonder how deep that goes. Like…. Are the fertilized eggs of them being discarded instantly or can his s***m not even enter the egg or maybe her… uterus is toxic to his s***m or something like that. This is fascinationg. My next thought would be why. Is it something like a defense mechanism? It can‘t be because their bodys know that they are too closely related or something like that or the Eiropean monarchs wouldn‘t have had health problems. Although maybe we developed this trick just recently? Oh so many questions
Judes 9 months ago
My husband and I were diagnosed with unexplained infertility (no, we're not related, we have different ethnic background). But we ended up being successful with our first round of IVF and later had a second child in the natural way, so it's not a diagnosis that means you have zero chance of ever having a kid together.
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DaisyBee 9 months ago (edited)
A doctor told me my fertility was fine, showed me the egg sacs in my ovaries and said “look those are all your future babies!”. Diagnosed with stage 3 endo & PCOS, which actually means those future babies might never be due to various reasons impacting my fertility. But sure, it’s “fine”. How doctors handle the issue of fertility, be it fine or impaired, needs to be addressed honestly.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
There are a lot of BS "diagnoses" like this. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME is one. IBS is another. It just means that the reason hasn't been found, either because it's beyond current medical science, or because doctors are too lazy to do so. It's deemed better to slap a meaningless label on something. At least "unexplained infertility" is upfront about being what it is - a total non-diagnosis.
Paige Merlin 9 months ago
Non-fertility wise I keep getting “medically unexplained symptoms” and that’s the actual diagnosis too, it’s a legit dead end with minimal testing
Moana Manana 9 months ago
My friend was told the same thing. They could get kids with differenet partners but not together. The doctor treating them said, that she had a too high level of acidity in her vaginal area (don't know where exactly) which is killing specificly his s***m.
EJN 9 months ago (edited)
I had many miscarriages and only one pregnancy that made it to term. The doctor ran the standard tests and never could tell me why. My maternal grandmother was the same. She had one daughter just like me. I suspect there is some genetic problem that results in miscarriage of males. Unfortunately, there was no genetic testing done when I miscarried and no particular chromosome or gene found in other cases that would account for it.
Cory Kent 9 months ago
Everybody looks for physical causes, things that can be shown on tests or fixed with things we can give them or do. That's too limited. We need to start realizing that the physical things have causes behind them, and those things that can't be seen or found on tests or imaging have causes that come from somewhere else.
Cathy Carey 9 months ago (edited)
There is a child out there that needs a home; hopefully, you want a child So Badly that you will be willing to love one even though it is not biologically yours.
Orange Mum 9 months ago
Perhaps you have too many of the same chances for specific birth anomolies and defects in your DNA. My daughter and her partner got tested and its quite frightening what we have hiding in our DNA that we can pass on to offspring. ( They got tested because my son has cystic fibrosis, I have half of the fault as does my husband and also two of my daughters.) The genetic testing that came back showed a lot of damaged DNA but they didnt share any of the damaged sections, so nothing that could be passed on to their children. I hope that makes sense. Perhaps consider genetic testing, I believe they test quite an extensive range. If this testing had been around when I was starting to have children it would have been extremely beneficial
#19
I’m a derm. We don’t know what exactly causes itching, like the molecular pathways for it. That’s why it can be so hard to find a good treatment when a patient comes in for itchy skin.
Data1001 9 months ago
Anyone else get random nighttime itches when waiting to fall asleep? Someone on Reddit described them as whack-a-mole itches -- which is a perfect description, because as soon as I scratch one, another itch pops up randomly somewhere else. There's no rhyme nor reason to it: I can get an itch on my nose, scratch it, then my lower leg itches so I scratch that, then the top of my head, then my arm, then my face, etc., etc. It's very annoying.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
That sounds kind of like a twist on restless limb syndrome. That's a sensation as well, only I can't tell you what it feels like, because (for me, at least) it doesn't feel like anything else. It becomes painful if I don't give in to it.
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Toothless Feline 9 months ago
Yes. Apparently the sensations are carried by the same sensory cells, and it's still unclear as to why the brain interprets some of those signals as itching and some as pain.
Load More Replies... trixiefly11 9 months ago
I hate this. I have one patch on my abdomen that just randomly gets itchy. I can't figure out why, no rash no real topical signs. It'll itch for a week then go away for a random period of time. Then it comes back. It was gone last for about 6 months. Then suddenly itchy again. I keep trying to figure out what I am having a reaction to. Before I had a patch on my side. It stuck around for about a year then it's never itched again. Its so annoying.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
I have the same thing. It's certain spots on my back. For years it was in one place and then stopped. Now it's moved to the back of my shoulder. Really weird.
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StrangeOne 9 months ago
As someone who itches very often, I've narrowed down that it's possible the nerve endings are being stimulated just enough to feel something but just barely. This can be from dead skin drying out and hardening, creating a very thin layer. Scratching disrupts and helps shed that thin layer of tight skin. It's sort of like having a mud mask, or peel masks on your face, and once it dries you smile, and you just feel the tightness and cracking. But on a larger scale so it's just feels weird.
clairebear 9 months ago
My brain interprets pain as itching. I would rather be in pain i can tune that out. Itching is far worse yet is often treated as no big deal by doctors.
Never Snarky 9 months ago
Funny. I just asked my doctor this question. He tried to come up with an explanation, but he wasn’t sure.
Xip Dizc 9 months ago (edited)
I have a large scar on my forearm where I had swelling (compartment syndrome) after a compound fracture. They had to cut my arm open from the inside of my elbow to my wrist and let the swelling expand outside of the skin. To close it as the swelling had not gone down doctors used a skin graft. Now when I get an itch on one side of the scar, sometimes I have to scratch the other side to relieve the itch.
Mark Hastings 9 months ago
I was diagnose with psoriasis about 10 years ago. I have patches of it all over my body, the biggest is about 1 square inch on the middle finger of my right hand. I have learned some things about it too. The patches do not tan or burn in the sun. Some patches get so dry the skin just cracks and bleeds. I can't use anything antibacterial. The only deodorant I can use is made from salt. And last but not least, my whole body itches something fierce sometimes. Benadryl helps but puts me to sleep. A large tube of Cortizone-10 lasts me about a month if I'm lucky.
#20
Not a doctor but I study cell and molecular biology. The immune system is wildly complex and right now feels as though we’re staring down into Mariana’s trench.
Charles Kormos 9 months ago
Your immune system is your best friend but it can be a total jerk and cause your demise - whenever.
Bob Brooce 9 months ago (edited)
Not an oceanographer but I do know that it's the Mariana Trench, and gets its name from being near the Mariana Islands, not for being a possession of them.
Stannous Flouride 9 months ago
One of the few really good things to come out of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was the realization that many illnesses are related to autoimmune disorders.
Cathy Carey 9 months ago
You guys have my prayers - you and all medical professionals but it sounds like you need something specific. So glad I read through these. ~love~ and ~prayers~
Cathy Carey 9 months ago
I've been wondering if Hashimoto's might be caused by the synthetic hormones used to treat low thyroid.
Zaach 9 months ago
Don't forget that your eyes have a completely different immune system and if your body discovers it existence, it will attack
Charity Angel 9 months ago
Sort of? Immune cells can move in and out of eyes, and it's all fine. Just like everywhere else in a healthy person. It's not separate - it's what's called a "privileged area". But what you mean is that if an eye is damaged, and antigens that are only found in the eye find their way elsewhere, the body stops ignoring them and goes absolutely nuclear. Not just on the damaged eye, but the healthy one too. Essentially, it's an autoimmune condition, but I don't believe it is classed as such. It's one of the reasons docs are so very careful when it comes to eyes, and there is so much emphasis put on protecting them: you can go completely blind from a singular eye injury. And we don't know why.
Load More Replies... #21
The brain and especially how it governs our actions and personality.. Why do some people commit crimes like r**e and m*rder despite knowing the consequences while others would never do such things? Why do some people require multiple chances for ‘rehabilitation’ while others live their entire lives ‘right’? We don’t know the answers. It annoys me to no end when some people while chime in and claim “everyone can be rehabilitated” as if we actually know what that even means and how it works.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago (edited)
Disorders with the prefrontal cortex can lead to violence and commiting crime. It's the area of the brain, located roughly behind the right eye socket, responsible for basic morals like not killing another person. It combines emotions and logical thoughts into a descision for actions
Amy S 9 months ago
I think this is such an interesting field of study. There was a news article recently about a particular medication for restless leg syndrome leading to uncontrollable 'deviant' sexual behaviour in people. Makes me wonder if moral people are good intrinsically or if their chemistry is just set up that way. Begs the question can immoral people control their behaviour, and if not ehat does that mean for society?
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Lee451 Henderson 9 months ago
Psycho/socio paths do NOT have empathy. They cannot empathize with their victims.
Alex Boyd 9 months ago
It annoys me to no end that our criminal justice system is built around the small fraction of criminals who commit crimes because they like to, and don't want to stop. I know such people exist, but they're such a small proportion, that it would be more productive to start out with the assumption that *most* criminals--most, not all--did whatever they did it for normal human reasons like greed, or selfishness, not seeing any better way to fulfil a normal human need, desire for status, failing to understand how their actions affect others, etc., and can be rehabilitated if those normal motivations are addressed in a productive way. When that doesn't work, sure, move on to the carceral/punitive model for those cases--there are bad people who don't want to be better, and for those few, probably the best thing is just to keep them away from everyone else. But most people in jails and prisons are regular people who made a bad choice (or several) for basically normal reasons.
Annabelle 9 months ago
My ex should be locked away from all living beings, but he is VERY good at keeping his mask up. He's been in prison and feels that he is the one who should determine his own consequences. He is a soulless monster. A few people in my former town seem to keep their distance, and even they have NO CLUE how vile, sadistic, and predatory his really is. If someone meets him, they are already being played. I saw a photo of when he got a degree in prison, and when I looked at it, I thought, 'I wonder how many of those people shaking his hand actually thought he was bettering himself.' He's ONLY "gotten better" at covering his tracks. He has a loyal dog who loves him endlessly, and I have watched other dogs love on him. When I read about trusting a dog's instinct, surviving that evil has reshaped my thoughts about how a dog decides who is safe. Of course, *his* dog doesn't know any better because he is a perfect being loyal to a monster. Other dogs can be fooled by a playful sociopath, too.
Load More Replies... Robin Roper 9 months ago
This is the reason capital punishment is not a deterrent. Before a person r***s or m*urders another person they don't stop and think "Oh, I could receive the death penalty if I do this." No one thinks this.
The Darkest Timeline 9 months ago
Some people like to think punishment is a deterrent and it can be but it’s mostly about revenge
Load More Replies... Mary Gillis 9 months ago
I too often wonder about this. I have a brother who totally went to $hit and I cannot figure out why, what went wrong - what made him like he is? We all grew up together so it makes no sense as to why he went into crime, d***s etc.
Cathy Carey 9 months ago (edited)
Evil or good. One of my greatest regrets is not teaching my children how to protect themselves from evil - evil thoughts, evil ideas, evil human influences, etc. I'm so sorry that this site doesn't allow new paragraphs. What we don't take into account are childhood instances. Instances when evil could take hold. When a child is left on his own after traumatic events, there is opportunity. Opportunity for evil to take hold. One narrative is Jeffrey Dahmer; his parents got divorced and that trauma was not intercepted by the grownups around him. No one noticed that little Jeffrey was having difficulty accepting the absence of his beloved mother and he was overtaken by thoughts, by evil entities that cannot be seen. I watched through the biography and do sincerely believe that if his father had simply talked to him right after his mother's departure that he could have intercepted the internal dialogue that probably happened when a child's mind is not directed at the right time
Courtney Christelle 9 months ago (edited)
I think the reason for a lot of crimes, such as serial m*rderers/r**e, is a brain defect. Like a connection in the brain got wired wrong.
#22
Rabies pathology
Alzheimer’s etiology
Encephalitis lethargica/chronic fatigue syndrome.
SolitaryIntrovert 9 months ago
I have had several conditions since I was born. For the last 40 years, I have been seeing Doctors and have had many tests that were negative, but they have no clue. They just give me some meds to lessen some of the effects. 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Crissy Newbury 9 months ago
I have all the symptoms of fibromyalgia but my doctor can’t see it. 🤷🏼♀️
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Dori 9 months ago
I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I've only previously heard it described as Myalgic Encephalitis. E. Lethargica is new to me. Very interesting.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
The biggest issue with ME/CFS is that it's not really a diagnosis. It's a label slapped on when they can't (or can't be bothered to) find something else. It's very, very likely that there are multiple disorders with similar presentations given this label. What helps one might not help another, so they just tend to give up.
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Livingwithcfs 9 months ago
I have cfs and fibro. No one can really explain how these are different but cause the same issues. In fact there is so little research going into any if these diseases. Also why more woman suffer from than men.
Kabuki Kitsune 9 months ago
The one thing we know about Rabies, is if you start showing the symptoms of it... you're dead. There's only ever been ONE person in the recorded history of rabies treatment, to survive once they started showing symptoms. No one knows why the person survived either, so there's that. In every other case, once a person starts showing the key symptoms (adverse reactions to water for example), then they're dead. There's no coming back from that.
#23
I'm a sleep specialist. While we do have some good theories about some of the functions of REM as far as how it affects the brain and health, we still don't fully understand the purpose of dreaming. Like, why do we dream at all and why do dreams have a narrative instead of random incomprehensible imagery? Unfortunately this is unlikely to even be solved.
Nadine Debard 9 months ago
My theory: I believe dreams are a way of encoding memory, and as we function by telling stories, we built a narrative in our dreams by being partially conscious. Like our brain creates pictures and we tell a story based on them, so the brain adapts and forms pictures according to our narrative. Sometimes there are ruptures in our dreams (we change place, people around, even the goal we have in the drea) because brain takes the lead. The narrative, though, expresses feelings and disappointments. In other words, our brain would throw random pictures and our self interprets it with a narrative based on feelings/frustrations
Senjo Krane 9 months ago
My theory: We spend our waking hours controlling (supposedly) our thoughts and emotions and when we sleep, the mind is set free to wander.
Load More Replies... Zaach 9 months ago
And what about lucid dreamers? These are people who stay asleep/dreaming but have full control of the action in their dreams. The first person to prove it to scientist arranged to move his eyes all the way to the right, then left, then up and down - he controlled the REM
rullyman 9 months ago
I don't think lucid dreaming is good for us. The subconscious needs to work through things and we need to get out of the way
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Unkeptwoman 9 months ago
My whole life I have visited the same locations in my dreams. Same people, like a chapter book. As I work through things consciously the story patterns of my dreams changes to show my progress.
Danish Susanne 9 months ago (edited)
I don't know about all dreams of course but I have often woken up with a solution to a problem I had given up trying to solve. And those dreams don't drift away, so I don't have to write them down. I have formed the theory that the subconscious mind is working more freely when I sleep and sends the solution to my conscious mind during the night.
My O My 9 months ago
I'd like to know why I have only nightmares. There are better and worse ones but I never dream anything nice
Nadine Debard 9 months ago
Are you usually stressed, under pressure, or are you an anxious person, or do you have some trauma that hasn't been sorted yet? All of these can lead to nightmares.
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Jumping Jellyfishes 9 months ago
My theory is that we dream because the brain gets bored during reboot hours, so it entertains itself to pass time
Kathy Brooke 9 months ago
Are we sure dreams do have a narrative, or is the narrative imposed on the random images by the conscious mind when we wake?
Thay Cavalcante 9 months ago
There is a whole book about it. "The Oracle of the night" by Sidarta Ribeiro
#24
I’m a nurse, not a doctor, but in school I learned that when in vitro fertilization was being pioneered, scientists were unable to create an embryo from the combination of s***m and egg. It wasn’t until they added female secretions in that they were able to produce viable embryos, and they don’t know what role those secretions play in the process.
This was about 15 years ago, so if anyone has new information on the topic I’d love to hear it!
Upstaged75 9 months ago
STOP whining about it. No one at BP cares what we think. And it's an AI program that's doing the censoring - not an actual person. I swear people here spend an inordinate amount of time commenting on the censored words. YES, we ALL know there are censored words. Get over it or go somewhere else!
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Verfin22 9 months ago
Wouldn't it be common sense to have some semblance of female discharge to mix with male swimmers? That's how it usually works.
Jumping Jellyfishes 9 months ago (edited)
Actually, this is proven that the discharge changes during fertile periods to facilitate the movement of s***m (edited: ...tadpoles *sigh*)
Load More Replies... #25
We don't know the precise mechanism by which B12 deficiency causes nerve damage. We know that it happens, but not why.
(Many medical things are like that - easily observed and proven cause and effect, but complex and unclear mechanisms. Much of biology is still a black box to us. Neurological stuff in particular is full of this - lots of "we definitely know damage here causes effect XYZ, but not why.").
Sven Grammersdorf 9 months ago (edited)
I'm an alcoholic and I take a B12 supplement every day that has 8333% of my daily value. It makes my pee bright green.
Crissy Newbury 9 months ago
I’m vegan and I take it too. And D3 because I burn so easily in the sun.
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Anna Drever 9 months ago
I supplement for B12 (I just take a good multi B) because I do not want to have issues. We’re more prone to deficiency as we get older.
Earl Grey 9 months ago (edited)
The reason for B12 malabsorption as we age is because there are only a certain number of receptors in the intestinal tract for B12 (distal ileum, end of the small intestine), and we start losing them as we age. So increasing supplemental B12 dosages to ridiculous amounts to flood the system offers no benefit over a good multivitamin supplement. You can either absorb it or you can’t. If an older person still has a B12 deficiency after that, then B12 injections may be needed.
Load More Replies... lluf eman 9 months ago
If I were you, I wouldn't overdo it with the supplementation, but rather try to find the golden mean, like in Buddhist philosophy: don't overtighten the string, but also don't let it get too loose, because it won't make a sound or it will break. Not long ago, scientists began to receive more and more data confirming that B12 may have a connection with cancer. https://www.everlywell.com/blog/b-vitamins/high-vitamin-b12-levels-and-cancer/
Cathy Carey 9 months ago
Scientists still don't know how a seed germinates. It must be So frustrating to be denied information. But just think, knowing everything would make life in this state so boring.
#26
Apparently we know next to nothing about fibroids, which like 75% of women have at some point in their lives. That's great, considering that the largest one removed was 100 lbs- so not exactly a minor issue.
There are theories about different hormones and what things put you at higher risk, but aside from having surgery to have your existing ones removed, there is basically no information on what you can to do prevent them from coming back.
BrunoVI 9 months ago
75% seemed high, so I looked it up. The real figure is 20%. That's still a LOT.
Amy S 9 months ago
The NHS website says 2 in 3 women (66.67%) will get at least 1 fibroid in their lifetime, with about 1 in 3 having symptoms. Source https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/fibroids/ Google AI says its between 20% and 80%, interesting that there is such a variation between figures.
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Socks Thecate 9 months ago
I had surgery to remove fibroids. It was a likely reason why my second pregnancy ended in miscarriage but I didn't know that at the time.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
I have fibroids and endometriosis. They fibroids don't bother me, but they're the only thing that's visible on imaging so doctors always try to tell me that's the problem.
Anzelle Van Der Vyver 9 months ago
Google says 80% of women? https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+a+friboid&oq=what+is+a+friboid&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIMCAEQIxgnGIAEGIoFMgwIAhAjGCcYgAQYigUyEwgDEC4YgwEYxwEYsQMY0QMYgAQyEwgEEC4YgwEYxwEYsQMY0QMYgAQyCggFEAAYsQMYgAQyDQgGEAAYgwEYsQMYgAQyDQgHEAAYgwEYsQMYgAQyDQgIEAAYgwEYsQMYgAQyBwgJEAAYgATSAQg0NzI3ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
winterwidow87 9 months ago (edited)
I have several fibroids and there's one that is not excessively big, 1,4 cm, but it has to be removed because it sits on the endometrium and it's most likely the cause of my hemorragic bleeding when i menstruate. Most likely as not even the doctors are sure but it's the best guess they made for what causes the excessive bleeding.
#27
The biggest one I want solved
How we remember things, how does our memory work?
Some headway has been made at MIT but it hasn't been completely c*****d yet.
Jesse 9 months ago (edited)
c r a c k e d. As in, crácked the code. Edit: seriously, BP? You're being ridiculous.
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Marilyn Holt 9 months ago
coded? clarified? covered? cancelled? confined? confused? corrected? coerced? crumbled? carved? cowabunga
Billo66 9 months ago (edited)
As long as you don't smoke methyl (1R,2R,3S,5S)-3- (benzoyloxy)-8-methyl-8-azabicyclo[3.2.1] octane-2-carboxylate
Sven Grammersdorf 9 months ago
It's okay every once in a while. Like your birthday or a friend's birthday. Or a bachelor party. Or a holiday. Or if you're tired from doing a lot of yardwork. Or if you're just bored.
Load More Replies... Charles Kormos 9 months ago
I have kept a diary for the last 40 years. Mostly facts - went there, did that. My best friend in high school has no memory of the day he saved my life because I was drowning. Yet the day/time written in diary. My wife has no memory of our dog killing and eating a mouse in our backyard five years ago. Diary "Wife screaming, mouse in dog's mouth, I came out to help". Your memory is not your friend. Most of it didn't happen and you'll never remember what did.
Anna Drever 9 months ago
I have a memory of my grandmother carrying me down the stairs when I must have been 3 or thereabouts, but… is it a true memory anymore? Or am I remembering what I thought I remembered years ago? I can’t be sure anymore if it was an actual true memory or something I just told myself and I’m replaying that story in my head as though it’s the real thing.
Load More Replies... Crissy Newbury 8 months ago
Apparently, what we remember as memories are actually memories of memories. Work that one out.
#28
The “uncanny valley” fear. Why are humans unnerved and/or afraid of things that sound like, mimic, look like or act like humans but aren’t human?
Think of seeing human shaped shadows, dolls, robots, animals walking on 2 legs vs their usual 4, AI… it’s fascinating how we all have that feeling about some of the same things.
Amy S 9 months ago
I think it's because at some point on the past we had good reason to be afraid of something that looked human but wasn't quite, another type of hominid or similar perhaps?
Motivated sloth 9 months ago
Maybe there is still a good reason for that instinct but we don’t know it. I would certainly not want to meet something mimicking a human.
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Deeelite 9 months ago
I thought this fear was due to seeing a human horribly disfigured by disease and the brain's natural reaction was "stay away"
Alex Boyd 9 months ago
That's definitely one of the proposed explanations! There's also one where the disease is, specifically, rabies, which is absolutely something where having some mechanism to override the normal compassionate response to try to help, would help your genes to survive and be passed on. It's unclear what kind of evidence could be found to support this explanation, but it's interesting.
Load More Replies... Ron Man 9 months ago (edited)
Uncanny Valley isn't just about false humans, but spotting and getting creeped out by things we see as being false or specifically constructed to fool us. This is likely an instinct we've had since the beginning of humans. A lot of survival is based on recognizing threats vs safe things.
miguel soto-cudnoch 9 months ago
I would say its because it remind us a dead person, we shouldnt be around a dead relative or friend. Thats my opinion, sir.
#29
I have a very niche answer. We don’t know what is supposed to naturally bind to the area that benzodiazepines work at.
Benzodiazepines, BZD, are medications like Xanax and Valium. They produce anti-anxiety effects. And they have a very distinct chemical shape to fit into the BZD site in a group of five proteins. But we don’t know what is supposed to go there. Many medications are analogs of naturally binding molecules that we copy and then use to create an effect. The BZD site is for something, we just don’t know what.
Feathered Dinosaur 9 months ago
That's not true, we know they mimick the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and bind to GABA(A) receptors
Pferdchen 9 months ago
So, when you studied such things, did you or anyone else ever sing out "Gabba Gabba Hey!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabba_Gabba_Hey
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JP Doyle 9 months ago
Surprisingly they have found CBD eases anxiety not by binding to the BZD sites but by matching the 5-HT1A receptor. This can sometimes lead to longer reduction of background anxiety whereas Xanax is only a short term effect. Though Xanax does trigger its anti-anxiety effects much much faster than CBD.
Cydney Golden 9 months ago
There are so many non medical, non professionals are chiming in on this list.
#30
Not a doctor but a speech pathologist - we still don’t fully understand what causes people to develop a stutter. We know there’s sometimes a genetic link and that some children do it as a developmental stage that they grow out of. It’s very difficult to treat.
Lee Gilliland 9 months ago
Well, making lefties write with our right DEFINITELY makes kids stutter because we have to switch brains over. Dratted nuns and their stupid steel-edged rulers.
Peeka_Mimi 9 months ago
I had speech therapy as a young kid. I was mostly non-verbal and when I did speak there were issues. The thing is that I was diagnosed AuDHD at age 50. If only they believed that girls could be neurodivergent in the 70s/80s. It would have been a lifesaver for me. Also yes I still stutter sometimes. I also have a slight lisp. I say "Shtop" instead of Stop.
miguel soto-cudnoch 9 months ago
I stuttered when i was a child, then one day I saw in a comedy in tv that a stutter guy was singing to stop it... I tried once and it worked, Im not "singing" a song, but I noticed that when we speak we make a melody, we call it accent, so I place the words over that melody and I can speak quite well now. In fact, in time I started to have my studies on my language (spanish) and I feel super confident now when I talk.
#31
For many medicines, it’s not clear how they work, or even if they work (for example, look at the actual efficacy trials of name brand antidepressants. When you look at them in aggregate, they look like they barely work. Yet, basically everybody knows somebody whose life was saved by a specific antidepressant.).
Tamra 9 months ago
Ah, this one hits home for me. I'm currently on medication #7 with no results. It's very disheartening. And exhausting.
ispeak catanese 9 months ago
I'm so sorry you're in this situation. My first 3 meds either didn't work or stopped working, then I took a combo of four and am now back to two, all were different. It took a long time to find something that helped.
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Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
I finally got the right antidepressant, and things are so much better for me than they've been in many years.
Peeka_Mimi 9 months ago
Not an SSRI but Adderall has been a lifesaver for me. No more panic attacks all day and night.
#32
There's still *a lot* about the immune system that's undiscovered.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
My Allergist once told me there was really no way to test for what was causing my hives - they could try hundreds of things and still never find it. So it was best to just treat the symptoms.
#33
Have you ever had a muscle knot? Well apparently they're undetectable by any test or machine, and medicine hasn't yet figured out what's going on in our bodies when we experience them.
#34
If I'm not mistaken, don't we still not have a definitive cause for migraines?
Edit to add: it took me years to find my trigger (sleeping on my back, exacerbating my apnea). I would wake up with a raging headache at 4am and barf 2-3 times an hour until 2pm, twice a month. I couldn't eat, drink, take medicine, drive, talk, watch TV, or think. I would spend the day alternating between the bathroom floor or in bed hallucinating from the pain.
I got a daith piercing nearly 4 years ago and it changed my whole life. I can count on one hand the number of times a headache has made me barf since getting the piercing. If I wake up with one, I maybe get sick once, take an extra strength Tylenol, and lie down for an hour, and it's like I never had anything wrong to begin with.
Edit 2: I feel like migraines are one of the most polarizing health issues. Ask any sufferer and they'll tell you about the absolute hell they experience- and everyone's triggers and cures are different.
Feathered Dinosaur 9 months ago
My trigger is sleep deprivation, too much sleep, stress and wine. That I know of. Daith piercing didn't help at all, but a very regular cycle of getting up and sleeping did
OneHappyPuppy 9 months ago
My trigger is alcohol, more specifically dehydration caused by alcohol. And something to do with my menstrual cycle bc I get those bitches every 28 days...
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Crissy Newbury 9 months ago
I rarely get the pain, but I’m always getting auras and sometimes nausea. I’m photophobic anyway so don’t know whether that’s related or not.
Eunice Probert 9 months ago
When I started getting migraines in the 70's, the doctor told my parents that there was no such thing as a migraine. So oh boy, didn't I get it in the neck for pretending to be in pain. It wasn't until my sister and father got them, that they let up on punishing me.
Xenia Harley 9 months ago
I used to get migraines when I was getting my period. Thank goodness for menopause! Only developed them when perimenopausal.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
I rarely get migraines, but a pain at a specific point on my temple means one is on the way. What is a "daith piercing"?
Hell'n Damnation 9 months ago
My mother and I both got migraines regularly, but we experienced them in completely different ways.
Papa 9 months ago
Mine started in my teens, and occurred apparently randomly every few months, but have tapered off in frequency and severity as I've gotten older (I'll be 64 in a couple months).
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Hellcaste's Wife 9 months ago
My trigger is changes in weather, good or bad. I'll lose vision in my left eye and throw up. It's awful!
#35
There are smell receptors in the nose for things that don't exist.
Edited to include more information:
They're called "orphan olfactory receptors"
"The state of the art of odorant receptor deorphanization: A report from the orphanage" - Zita Peterlin, Stuart Firestein, Matthew E. Rogers (April 14 2014)
From the top of the article:
*the odorant receptors (ORs) comprise nearly 50% of the ∼800 G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) in humans, yet ∼90% of human ORs remain orphan receptors with unknown ligands.*
It goes on to discusses the challenges of deorphanizing the vast majority of human olfactory receptors and outline different strategies to identify ligands for these receptors and explains why almost 90% of human ORs remain “orphan” despite their large numbers.
DaisyBee 9 months ago
Of all the things on this list, I hate this the most. WHAT AM I NOT SMELLING? WHAT AM I MISSING OUT ON?
howdylee 9 months ago
Probably hormones, pheromones - those types of things animals seem to smell that humans don't. Not that we want to go sniffing each others' rear ends like dogs do.......
Load More Replies... My O My 9 months ago
*waves hectic* pleeeeaaase let me participate! Scents are often overwhelming and I can tell the scent of my body changes when I go into a depressive episode. I can smell it before I feel it.
Load More Replies... #36
There are organelles called [vaults] in human cells and in most other eukaryotic species. They are made of 78 copies of a protein called the major vault protein, totalling about three times the size of a ribosome, and larger than most viruses.
Their function is not totally understood, but it's probably something to do with the nucleus, though analogs of the genes for vaults even appear in bacteria. As they are found in such a wide variety of species, life on Earth must have started making vaults early in its history. The similarity of the genes encoding vault proteins across diverse species would presumably indicate the importance of vaults for viable life, but experiments haven't shown a great deal of harm done to lab animals that had their vault genes knocked out.
Even stranger, several of the species used in laboratories as model organisms naturally lack vaults. The use of these organisms long predates the discovery of vaults in 1986, with some going back over a century.
#37
The Role of Our DNA: We’ve sequenced the human genome, but a large part of it remains unexplained.
Huddo's sister 9 months ago
Sequencing the genome meant that the condition my brothers had was finally named and found to be a specific chromosome being faulty.
Lila Allen 9 months ago
What does he have? My youngest has IRF2BPL related disorder nonsense mutation c516. we had to do the full exome sequence to find it as well.
Load More Replies... #38
Chronic Pain. Or pain management, the whole spectrum of it.
Total mystery.
Upstaged75 9 months ago
I work with pain specialists. It's a very complicated field. But you should know they are doing SO much research to make peoples' lives better.
Lady Eowyn 9 months ago
I suffer from chronic pain, amount varies by day. and most painkillers don't work for me.
#39
What causes chronic fatigue syndrome, what type of illness it is (neurological, immunological etc) or how to treat or cure it.
Tim Pateman 9 months ago
This was tough during covid - trying to work out if people like me with CFS were more vulnerable or not and there being no consensus!
#40
We still don’t know what actually causes ADHD— which is why it is not readily accepted as being a “real” disorder by much of the population, and people think it “only” affects attention.
However…
Without trying to make this in to a lecture and keeping it short…
There’s a very active part of the brain that does a lot of… “things”. We don’t know what those “things” specifically are, but there are a lot of indicators it does something big!!
**The Claustrum!**
The theory goes, it’s the part of the brain responsible for actual consciousness!
…but back to the ADHD part.
2-5% of people have ADHD. If you’re on social media you can tell it’s a lot of people…! Additionally the leading causes of death for people with ADHD are s*****e and murder. That’s right, if you have ADHD, you are more likely to die of s*****e *or* murder than to live to old age… yes. If you have ADHD you literally have an actual disorder that means you’ll either off yourself or get
killed by someone else….but I digress….
What we do know, the Claustrum, lights up with greater activity with people who have ADHD. We know when the Claustrum is inhibited in rats, they kind of just do…whatever…
If one day we understand the Claustrum better, and it turns out that is responsible for ADHD.. that would mean the general public could finally come to understand — especially the parents of ADHD kids (who are significantly more likely to abuse their ADHD children)… that they’re actually mistreating their kids because of a health issue more closely related to *Epilepsy* than just “lack of discipline” or “behavioral problems”.
That shift in thinking would save lives. I hope the purpose of the Claustrum is clearly identified and understood one day.
(It also might mean people with ADHD may experience human consciousness very differently, too… and that’s where it gets *really* interesting.).
Grenelda Thurber 9 months ago
A young man in my family died from a Fentanyl o******e at 19 a couple of years ago. He had ADHD and was treated with Ritalin for many years as a child. The autopsy showed that his corpus callosum was "underdeveloped." We don't understand everything the corpus callosum does, but I've often wondered if this was related to his ADHD.
Peeka_Mimi 9 months ago
I'm a left handed woman with eidetic memory, IQ of 167, dyscalculia and minor dyslexia, is also AuDHD. Someone please help. I think i see things vastly different than a neurotypical person.
#41
Dr Why can't I sleep even with my sleep meds?
Feathered Dinosaur 9 months ago
Chronic Stress causes a state of hyperarousal and low-level inflammation of the body - including the brain. Both can make sleeping very difficult. Add the noise and light pollution in most human settlements et voilà...
#42
Mental health professional rather than MD, but we still don't know much about the mechanisms of schizophrenia or bipolar. We know some things about them, but there's a lot that's very confusing.
#43
Why we sleep.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago (edited)
Isn't it because our brain flushes itself with a cleaning liquid during sleep and needs processing capacity to sort through the information it took in during the day? Basically a self-cleaning and maintenance mechanism
LilLostHere 9 months ago
I'm not sure, but what living thing doesn't sleep? Can you sleep without a brain?
#44
Not a doctor. But I've spent a lot of time in doctors offices. There's a lot of s**t wrong with me.
So. I have an illness called idiopathic intracranial hypertension the idiopathic means they don't know why the f**k it happens.
So, I got it right after I got the Mirena IUD. It turned out a lot of people get it right after they got the Mirena IUD. Enough for a class action law suit it be filed.
It got tossed immediatly.
So, Mirena has listed in the side effects it could cause a stroke, sure, but effect csf? Absolutely not. Not a side effect.
But here's my thing. If I go to my gyno right after I get birth control, and say 'hey, I've had a nonstop headache and Im concerned.' they shouldn't wave it off and say it's normal. They should remove it and send you to a neuro to check for a stroke or csf issue, cause it's a possible side effect. But they don't.
And neuros deny birth control could be an iih factor cause IT'S NOT LISTED IN THE OFFICIAL SIDE EFFECTS.
But also.
So, I got my thyroid removed years and years ago. I'd been on a stable dosage of levothyroxine for like, 6 years.
I get the Mirena, the csf vein in my brain collapses, and all of a sudden my tsh levels go banana balls. Its like, 7. It had been 1, so, I am no longer absorbing my levothyroxine correctly.
My neuro tells me to keep in the Mirena, my endo tells me the Mirena and the iih can't effect the levo absorption, and I'm just... Dying.
Over the course of the year we keep adjusting the levo, and my tsh just is not playing ball. It's just ping ponging wildly.
One year after this all starts I just take the Mirena out, against gyno and neuros recommendations. The pain of my neverending headache decreases SIGNIFICANTLY. My tsh levels finally go back to normal.
All my doctors just shrug. Oh, what a coincidence. It wasn't the Mirena though. It can't do that.
Also. When my brain collapsed, I suddenly became intolerant to A LOT of foods. But according to the allergist that doesn't happen. You don't suddenly become allergic to basically everything. She kicked me out. I basically eat the mcas+oral allergy syndrome diet now but honestly help would be good. Brain damage couldn't cause massive food intolerances? Wtf?
I also spent two years just... Passing out over and over again every day from the sheer agony of it all. After I finally got neuro surgery I couldn't fall asleep naturally any more. No pain, no sleep. I went to a sleep specialist and he was like 'pain keeps you awake it doesn't put you to sleep. You aren't special'. I don't think they've researched people stuck in a neverending migraine for years.
Working with doctors is hell.
Edit: bonus. I live in Boston. All my doctors were supposed to be at the top of their field. Big wigs. Muckity mucks. Professors at Harvard or tufts or BU.
Phffffffffff.
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
Ugh this is the side of healthcare that I hate…when doctors become “so great” they no longer feel the need to listen to their patients…they become so complacent in their routines and standards of care set by insurance companies they forget sometimes they need to push back…not every case is routine…it’s not always black and white like the insurance wants us to believe! :(
Crissy Newbury 9 months ago
I had chronic shoulder pain until I stopped taking my statins. The arthritic pain in my hands stopped too. And my wrist problem. Lesser of two evils?
Xenia Harley 9 months ago
Um, birth control pills can cause a stroke! Does this IUD have hormones imbedded?
Aaron Miller 9 months ago
Your experience highlights a major flaw in modern medicine—its rigid reliance on "official" side effects and dismissive attitudes toward patient experiences. The fact that idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is "idiopathic" should make doctors more open to potential causes, not less. The Mirena connection, your thyroid chaos, and sudden food intolerances suggest a systemic reaction, yet specialists refuse to acknowledge it because it’s not in their textbooks. Medicine should evolve based on lived experiences, not just clinical trials. Patients aren't medical anomalies; they’re data points in real time. But when doctors refuse to connect dots, patients suffer in silence.
#45
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. A disease that causes diffuse scarring “fibrosis” of the lung. Anytime you hear idiopathic in medicine it essentially means we don’t know what causes it. There are multiple fibrotic lung diseases that they have identified the causes of over the years. In general any idiopathic illness is likely something we will know much more about one day. This just comes first to mind.
OneHappyPuppy 9 months ago (edited)
I know this was meant as a joke but hear me out - idiotic in greek means personal. Of oneself. Pathic is from the greek word happen. So idiopathic means (something that) happens to oneself. A "one off" if you will. They will classify an illness by saying it occured in an individual and is yet to be classified - happened to one patient.
Load More Replies... #46
Not a doctor, but someone who just got diagnosed with POTS after a year of medical chaos. There’s a TON of “yeah this medicine for this thing helps with this other thing, we don’t know why, but it works” (aka propranolol for migraines)
Also concussions. Half the research isn’t up to date and it’s so specific to the person. .
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
POTS is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome…it’s a cardiac rhythm disorder that affects primarily young thin/slender build women. It’s very hard to diagnose because there’s so many other conditions that have the same symptoms that need to be ruled out first such as chiari malformations and underlying metabolic conditions. (Cardiology is my specialty especially electrophysiology I do all the high level coding ;) )
QueerAxolotls 9 months ago
The sense of satisfaction I get from seeing other LGBTQ+ aquatic salamanders with POTS online :)
Kira Okah 9 months ago
Ah, propanolol. It also helps angina and...general anxiety symptoms. Though from my experience, doesn't stop actual panic attacks, but the general symptoms otherwise certainly.
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
It’s an alpha beta blocker it will lower heart rate and blood pressure and relieve angina but it won’t act like a benzodiazepine and relieve anxiety unfortunately :(
Load More Replies... #47
According to my doctor.... what causes IBS
Oh.... also... what exactly causes sexually induced sneezing.
Huddo's sister 9 months ago
My dietitian said IBS is just a diagnosis for when they don't have another cause to diagnose, but I don't know how true that is. There does seem to be a connection between people with auto-immune conditions and IBS as well as allergies that develop later in life though. It's a rabbit hole my cousin went down and I didn't, but she tried to explain it to me.
DaisyBee 9 months ago
Yeah, I was diagnosed with IBS when they didn’t know what else it could be. Later turned out I had Endo that’s more than likely on my bowel, which is what causes IBS in my body. It definitely seems to be one of those umbrella terms
Load More Replies... TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago
Higher blood pressure causing a swelling in the nose's mucous membranes and causing the reflex? Some people get nosebleeding when getting to excited due to that
#48
Not a doctor, but this was posted a few years ago when the same question was asked:
We still aren't sure what causes precordial catch syndrome.
Reddit is where I finally put a name to the sporadic chest pain I had in my teens/20s that goes away when you take a deep breath.
brownowlgonewhouse 9 months ago
Thank you for this! I had never heard of "precordial catch syndrome", but that is exactly what I experienced! My parents just thought I was being melodramatic complaining of heart pain 🙃
#49
Another, how babies/young children assimilate so much information so quickly.
It cannot (as far as I know) be replicated by a computer.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago (edited)
According to the Hebbian Theory neurons that activate together build connections, which probably happens faster / in faster rates during the developing phases of the brain as it gets less plastic with age
#50
Not a doctor but I always find it wild how unsophisticated a lot of surgery is. Like it is the year 2025 and our best solution for lots of problems is still just cutting something. Like your hand/wrist hurts lets just cut that ligament. Oh you’ve got stomach pains? Let’s just cut out the gallbladder. It is crazy that we haven’t figured out less barbaric solutions to a lot of these problems.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago (edited)
What else are we supposed to do without proper understanding of many mechanisms? Having the knowledge WHAT to cut out as treatment alone is a huge step forward since a simple appendicitis had a high lethality rate before people even knew which organ was affected or even exists. Also it's way better than trying to balance "the 4 body fluids" by draining some of them
#51
There's still a lot unknown about hunger and satiation. Nobody really knows what causes eating disorders, especially anorexia. It's scary how much hunger cues impact all of us.
Verfin22 9 months ago
Anorexia is a mental disorder tied to body image. So is bulimia. Overeating is also an illness tied to never feeling full or compensating for depression.
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
Pica? Prader-Wali Syndrome? Those are just two more off the top of my head…
#52
I’m not a doctor but when I found out I was having identical twins I started looking into the biological process that leads to identical twins and it turns out nobody knows! There’s a lot of info on the type of identical twins you’ll get depending on when the zygote split (like whether a placenta is shared, if the sac is shared, or if they’re conjoined)… but WHY??? There is also significant disagreement in the medical community on whether or not there’s a hereditary factor.
Feel free to correct me if my info is out of date though cause I looked into this about 5 years ago….
#53
Ibuprofen is a blind ninja.
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
I think that’s what they meant…might chew up your stomach or intestines…might attack your kidneys…
Load More Replies... #54
The distance between your wrist and the bend in your elbow is the exact distance of your foot. Try it.
Aaron Miller 9 months ago
False—but close for many people. The distance from your wrist to the inside of your elbow (your forearm length) is often roughly equal to the length of your foot, but not always exact. This approximation is based on proportional relationships in human anatomy, similar to how your arm span is often close to your height. However, individual variations in limb proportions, genetics, and body structure can cause slight differences. While this rule is a useful generalization, it’s not universally precise for everyone.
#55
How the placebo effect works.
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
I think this has to do with the sympathetic nervous system…which we know little of WHY it works!
Aaron Miller 9 months ago
No, the placebo effect is not fully understood. While research has uncovered mechanisms involving neurotransmitters, brain activation, and conditioning, many questions remain. Scientists don’t fully know why some people respond more strongly than others or why the placebo effect can sometimes mimic real d**g effects, even in conditions like pain management, depression, and Parkinson’s disease. The interaction between expectation, subconscious processing, and physiological changes is still being explored. Additionally, placebo responses occur even when people know they are receiving a placebo, challenging traditional explanations. Despite progress, the full scope and limits of the placebo effect remain a mystery.
#56
Apparently no one knows why aspirin works. We just know it does.
Edit: apparently it's acetaminophen not aspirin. My bad.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago
It prevents the body from producing prostaglandins and other natural chemicals, which play a role in the transmission of pain, inducing fevers in cases of inflammations or the formation of blood clots. That took less than 5 seconds of using Google
Aaron Miller 9 months ago
Acetaminophen (paracetamol) works by inhibiting cyclooxygenase (C*X) enzymes in the brain, reducing the production of prostaglandins, which mediate pain and fever. Unlike NSAIDs, it does not significantly reduce inflammation. It may also activate serotonergic and cannabinoid pathways, modulating pain perception in the central nervous system. Its exact mechanism is still not fully understood.
Load More Replies... Kira Okah 9 months ago
Yes, it's paracetamol/acetaminophen. NSAIDs, yes, paracetamol, no. We think it is something to do with reducing the intensity of pain signals by acting on the brain, but that isn't known for sure. It doesn't have anti-inflammatory properties though, which I have noticed gets mixed up.
#57
How the organs we think are safe to remove are actually not.
Verfin22 9 months ago
Are we dead and donating? I've heard people can have four kidneys cause they're not taken out when a donor gives you one.
KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
I learned this recently also…I guess some function is better than none plus the risk of blood loss…
Load More Replies... #58
Not a doctor, but I have a “rare” chronic illness. Young doctors are more open to helping me, while older doctors (especially male) are not very helpful.
I’ve heard doctors say “I’ve heard of your disease. We had a lecture on it once.”
So there is so much they do not know.
#59
Obligatory not a doctor, but a lotttttt of folks don't understand spinal cord stuff.
I think people should know spinal cord injuries aren't "healed" if the patient starts walking again. And that if one happens to you when you're young, it's okay and you don't have to try to force yourself "back to normal". You have a new normal now, and that's OKAY, and nobody can make your decisions but you. They can be ableist and shame you, but don't listen to them.
Source: experience. K love y'all bye.
#60
How it gets conscious.
LilLostHere 9 months ago
Some people believe that dogs and cats, and animals don't have a conscious, but wouldn't they have a conscious but understand differently because the communication is different. Why do people not get that and just say that they don't understand emotions, like fear and pain. and that they just run on impulse?? And how does a bonding between a pet and its owner work??
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What do you think ?
Jacquelene Coetzer 9 months ago
Can you please stop this nonsense of censoring words! If you cannot deal with seeing a word like d***s, s*x, killed or whatever else, then what are you doing on the internet? The videos available are way worse, but suddenly people are offended by simple words??? It is insulting & irritating to censor/redact words!
Annabelle 9 months ago
Oh! Killed wasn't censored! I saw it uncensored in someone's reply the other day, too.
Load More Replies... KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
Okay my fascination: Collaterals…some people when they develop heart disease will have a heat attack and die…others for unknown reasons will develop what we call collaterals…which are tiny little bypass vessels around areas of blockages…so basically some peoples bodies will reroute blocked blood vessels and we have NO idea why some people do and some people don’t!! :)
CD Mills 9 months ago
My MIL had this happen, shortly after she lost her husband she had a heart attack and they wanted to do a double bypass but she refused. I think she wanted to join her late hubby so she went home ready to die. Four years later she is in the hospital for something different and they find out that that is what she did! I had never heard of that before then, it seemed so crazy.
Load More Replies...
Mary Peace 9 months ago
Ha ha, I could just hear what you said there! I think the best they can do is give you another sound to concentrate on!
Load More Replies...
Sky Render 9 months ago
One thing I've learned over the last few years is that the medical field at large knows next to nothing about intersex conditions. What research has been done has been extremely basic at best, and few doctors are well-versed enough on the subject to give an intelligent discourse on the subject. The amount of blatantly false stuff that I've heard otherwise quite competent doctors say on the subject is alarming, to say the least.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
Of course, there's not much in the way of research going to be allowed to be funded in the US right now. Nor would research from elsewhere in the world be legally accepted. You can't have it acknowledged that even biological séx isn't a true binary, because what would that do to the argument about gender? Meanwhile, biology is busy being utterly fascinating.
Load More Replies... Phred 9 months ago
I'm a medical librarian. When I can't find anything on a topic someone asks me to search, I have a couple of answers: There are a lot of mysteries in life. This is one of them. If you're looking for a subject where you want to become a renowned world expert in, this may be it. NOTE: there's a difference between serious and solemn. The people I search for know the difference, and if I say there isn't any information on their topic, they know I've searched to the point I'm convinced there isn't anything there.
Danish Susanne 9 months ago
This made me think how no-vaxers reason (or if they do). Vaccination is as far as I can tell one of the best explained medical treatments.
Forrest Hobbs 9 months ago (edited)
Never mind the explanations of how vaccines work. Vaccination has wiped out two diseases - smallpox and rinderpest. Polio and Guinea worm disease are next on the list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eradication_of_dracunculiasis. Vaccination works so incredibly well, I wouldn't mind if the best explanation was "Er, magic?" 😉
Load More Replies...
Uncle Schmickle 9 months ago
I'll add my voice to comments below re : censorship. I can understand bad swear words, etc. but not pure words describing something of a scientific / medical nature. I would like too see BPs policy on this. It's so silly and irritating. When it comes to human reproduction, why can't the word s p e r m be permitted ? Recently I saw this type of whale's name deleted. Like the cat breed, Maine C o o n being redacted. COME ON BP, get real please ! Like the stupidity here in Australia a while ago, where the name of a well - known cheese had to be changed, after many decades on the market. Yes, it was C o o n. That was the family name of the person who developed that type of cheese long ago. Political correctness insanity.
Jacquelene Coetzer 9 months ago
Can you please stop this nonsense of censoring words! If you cannot deal with seeing a word like d***s, s*x, killed or whatever else, then what are you doing on the internet? The videos available are way worse, but suddenly people are offended by simple words??? It is insulting & irritating to censor/redact words!
Annabelle 9 months ago
Oh! Killed wasn't censored! I saw it uncensored in someone's reply the other day, too.
Load More Replies... KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
Okay my fascination: Collaterals…some people when they develop heart disease will have a heat attack and die…others for unknown reasons will develop what we call collaterals…which are tiny little bypass vessels around areas of blockages…so basically some peoples bodies will reroute blocked blood vessels and we have NO idea why some people do and some people don’t!! :)
CD Mills 9 months ago
My MIL had this happen, shortly after she lost her husband she had a heart attack and they wanted to do a double bypass but she refused. I think she wanted to join her late hubby so she went home ready to die. Four years later she is in the hospital for something different and they find out that that is what she did! I had never heard of that before then, it seemed so crazy.
Load More Replies... Mary Peace 9 months ago
Ha ha, I could just hear what you said there! I think the best they can do is give you another sound to concentrate on!
Load More Replies... Sky Render 9 months ago
One thing I've learned over the last few years is that the medical field at large knows next to nothing about intersex conditions. What research has been done has been extremely basic at best, and few doctors are well-versed enough on the subject to give an intelligent discourse on the subject. The amount of blatantly false stuff that I've heard otherwise quite competent doctors say on the subject is alarming, to say the least.
Charity Angel 9 months ago
Of course, there's not much in the way of research going to be allowed to be funded in the US right now. Nor would research from elsewhere in the world be legally accepted. You can't have it acknowledged that even biological séx isn't a true binary, because what would that do to the argument about gender? Meanwhile, biology is busy being utterly fascinating.
Load More Replies... Phred 9 months ago
I'm a medical librarian. When I can't find anything on a topic someone asks me to search, I have a couple of answers: There are a lot of mysteries in life. This is one of them. If you're looking for a subject where you want to become a renowned world expert in, this may be it. NOTE: there's a difference between serious and solemn. The people I search for know the difference, and if I say there isn't any information on their topic, they know I've searched to the point I'm convinced there isn't anything there.
Danish Susanne 9 months ago
This made me think how no-vaxers reason (or if they do). Vaccination is as far as I can tell one of the best explained medical treatments.
Forrest Hobbs 9 months ago (edited)
Never mind the explanations of how vaccines work. Vaccination has wiped out two diseases - smallpox and rinderpest. Polio and Guinea worm disease are next on the list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eradication_of_dracunculiasis. Vaccination works so incredibly well, I wouldn't mind if the best explanation was "Er, magic?" 😉
Load More Replies... Uncle Schmickle 9 months ago
I'll add my voice to comments below re : censorship. I can understand bad swear words, etc. but not pure words describing something of a scientific / medical nature. I would like too see BPs policy on this. It's so silly and irritating. When it comes to human reproduction, why can't the word s p e r m be permitted ? Recently I saw this type of whale's name deleted. Like the cat breed, Maine C o o n being redacted. COME ON BP, get real please ! Like the stupidity here in Australia a while ago, where the name of a well - known cheese had to be changed, after many decades on the market. Yes, it was C o o n. That was the family name of the person who developed that type of cheese long ago. Political correctness insanity.
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