We told you about Wolfram|Alpha in the past. Now it seems that the answer engine (as opposed to search engine) can help you if you were diagnosed with a disease or are on a drug treatment.

The new features allow you to compare your situation to others with your condition. You can enter the name of your disease and see, for example. how many others have been diagnosed with it, what were their symptoms, what other diseases they commonly have, and relevant blood tests.

For example, entering diabetes into the engine shows this data (among other things):

You can see info about other patients, their symptoms, and the drugs that were prescribed for them. You can also learn about those drugs by clicking “show drugs”, which will give you the names of the drugs as you see on the bottle, including other data.

If you or someone you know have been diagnosed with a new condition, or even if you suffer from a condition and want to know more about it or about the treatment you’re taking, Wolfram|Alpha can be a fascinating place to start your discovery.

Wolfram|Alpha

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Last December Brittany Murphy was found dead at her home. Many rumors were raised regarding the cause of her death – from drug overdose, to a cardiac arrest, and also possible murder by her husband Simon Monjack. An autopsy found that she had died of complications of pneumonia.

According to TMZ, another cause was suggested early during the investigation – mold that was found at the couple’s home. It was deemed “not to be a contributing factor”. A few months have passed, and Monjack also died mysteriously inside that same house, also of pneumonia, leading authorities to investigate into the mold issue.

Photo by Rob & Jules

The connection between mold and respiratory health

According to an article published by the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in 2005, even though mold is present normally in all homes, it’s usually harmful only in large concentrations to allergic or sensitive individuals.

There are tests you can take to see if you’re allergic to fungi (a mold is a type of fungus). In people who are allergic to fungi, a wide range of allergic illnesses can occur, from asthma to rhinitis (an inflammation of the nose causing a runny nose). The article also mentions other illnesses that can happen after exposure to mold:

• Respiratory infections – By a fungus called aspergillus.
• Irritant reactions – These include sneezing, coughing, etc.
• Toxic reactions – That usually happens after you eat food contaminated with mold.

Should you check your house for mold?

As you can read above, most of the problems caused by mold are related to allergic reactions, such as sneezing, coughing, shortness of breath, etc.

The article mentioned that respiratory infections can be caused by the fungus aspergillus. Aspergillus usually doesn’t cause infections in healthy people, and usually only attacks people whose immune system is weak (such as those taking steroids for a long time, treated with chemotherapy, or people that have AIDS). In healthy people an inflammation of the lung may occur, but it usually recovers by itself.

It may be that other factors played a part in Brittany Murphy’s case, apart from the mold itself.

Photo by inspire*dream*create*

What can you do if you’re still afraid?

According to the article, "The best known management of indoor fungal contamination is prevention". "Regular inspection for sources of moisture and their elimination is the most important strategy to control indoor fungal growth. Since fungal growth depends on moisture and a carbon source, the most important strategy for reducing or eliminating its growth is controlling the amount of moisture present."

They recommend the following steps to prevent mold growth:

1. Maintain indoor relative humidity at no greater than 50 percent.
2. Seal all leaks to prevent water accumulation and use a sump pump in basements prone to flooding.
3. Increase the use of bathroom and kitchen ventilation by using exhaust fans.

If you do discover areas of mold growing in your home, you should clean it with a dilute bleach/detergent solution. There are commercial products available for this purpose.

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A pandemic, according to Google Dictionary, is “an occurrence of a disease that affects many people over a very wide area”. Examples of pandemics include the cholera, smallpox, and malaria pandemics, as well as a pandemic that happened not so long ago – swine flu.

Now what if such a pandemic would hit your neck of the woods and affect your close ones? Discovery and Facebook decided to give you a rather creepy taste of how it would feel. Visiting this page will take you to their project, in which you are taken to a fictional Facebook page, in which you and your Facebook friends are involved in an imaginary crisis, including status updates, pictures, and comments about the disease.

The whole experience is meant to promote Discovery’s new show, The Colony, debuting July 27 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, in which 7 volunteers are dropped into a town and told that there’s a biological disaster in the area.

What do you think? Are you going to watch it after experimenting with their Facebook app, or are you too freaked out?

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This is part of our House MD Project series.

Click here to read the connection to the episode (spoiler alert!)


On episode 15 of season 1, called Mob Rules, a mobster named Joey arrives at the hospital with a coma, from which he comes in and out to repeatedly. It turns out Joey has ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, a disease causing him to not being able to digest red meat. On a side note the team also discover he has hepatitis C (an infection transferred either by needle sharing or homosexual activity) and that he has a high estrogen level in his blood, caused from a drug used to suppress libido. The last two facts lead house to the conclusion that he is also gay.

Danger level: High

What is it?

Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTD) is a rare genetic disorder causing a problem with eating protein.

Who gets it?

OTD is a rare condition – it affects about 1 in every 80,000 people. The condition is genetic, meaning it is passed on in families. It also usually happens to males, due to the mode it is inherited.

Usually the condition becomes apparent in the first few days of life. Sometimes, though (like in the House episode), the condition can manifest later in life.

What causes it?

We live and function thanks to millions of reactions that happen in our body each day. One of those reactions happen inside a cycle of reactions called the urea cycle.

The urea cycle. Drawing by Yikrazuul

The urea cycle is a sequence of reactions that happen in our liver cells. It processes excess nitrogen, which is generated when our body uses protein. In order to get rid of the excess nitrogen, the cycle turns it into urea, which the kidneys can get rid of in our urine.

Each of the steps in the cycle happens through the action of a special machine, called an enzyme. In OTD, one of those enzymes is damaged or missing. Since the body can’t get rid of the excess nitrogen, it is accumulated in the body, turning into a dangerous substance called ammonia.

Ammonia is dangerous for our nervous system and so the condition causes neurological problems. The excess can also damage the liver.

How does it feel?

The condition, as we mentioned above, usually becomes evident in the first days of life. The baby will be lacking energy, vomit, or refuse to eat. Its breathing rate and body temperature will be poorly controlled. Sometimes seizures can occur, and even a coma is possible.

In adults the symptoms aren’t very different. They can include loss of appetite, irritability, heavy or rapid breathing, weakness, vomiting, disorientation, sleepiness, and also coma and death. (Remember that the guy on the House episode had recurrent comas).

How is it discovered?

A blood test is done which shows that the person has too much ammonia in their blood. There’s also a test done on a urine sample that can give a clue to the condition.

Also, a genetic test can find out if the person has the defective gene (although it doesn’t work all the time).

How is it treated?

Since the body can’t handle large amounts of nitrogen (it can’t turn it into urea like it normally should), the treatment includes measures that lower the amount of nitrogen in the body.

This includes not eating lots of nitrogen (protein is very nitrogen-rich. That is why a low-protein diet is subscribed. Remember the mobster in the House episode couldn’t eat steaks?).

Treatment includes saying goodbye to steaks. Photo by FotoosVanRobin

Treatment also includes lots of food and water when a person is ill (since otherwise the body tends to break down its own protein at these times) and some medications that can lower the nitrogen in the body.

What happens after treatment?

The baby’s brain can be damaged from the disease (by the ammonia) if not treated on time. It’s important to catch the disease on time, and then to keep with the strict diet throughout life.

The bottom line – How do I avoid it?

As with other inherited diseases, you can’t really prevent it once the person is born with a defective gene. Parents that know they carry the defective gene and can transfer it to their children can use genetic testing to test if the developing embryo has the defective gene (a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis).

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1. Allergies: All You Wanted to Know (As Seen on House MD)
2. Echoviruses (As Seen on House MD)
3. Bulimia Nervosa–How An Outside Image Can Kill (As Seen on House MD)

Headaches can ruin any activity, but during exercise they can literally bring you down. Even through it is known that headaches are a major problem for a large number of people (in the US alone about 45 million people suffer from chronic headaches), the relation between headaches and exercise is less talked about.

An article in Fitness Magazine tackles the issue. It turns out that regular cardiovascular activity (the kind you do when you jog, swim, run on a treadmill, etc.) lessens the reaction in our brain which brings about headaches, thanks in part to release of endorphins during exercise, which act as natural painkillers. The blood flow to the brain is also improved during exercise, which, along with less muscle tension and fatigue also helps deal with the headaches.

On the other hand, certain activities, or doing them wrong, can actually bring about the occasional workout ache.

Having a headache during workout? Photo by magandafille

For example – improper breathing – holding your breath while exercising can trigger a headache, according to the article. Also the choice of foods you eat before workout can affect your headaches during the workout: a pre-workout banana or smoothie can prompt headaches in some people.

The article covers more headache triggers, such as sudden sprinting, dehydration, weak muscles and poor posture, as well as ways to correct these problems and have a pain-free workout. You can read it by following the link below.

Is Exercise Giving You a Headache? [Fitness Magazine]

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This is part of our House MD Project series.

Click here to read the connection to the episode (spoiler alert!)


On episode 14 of season 1, named Control, a young ambitious CEO named Carly presents to the hospital with severe leg pain. During her hospital stay it is found that she also has heart failure. After the usual series of misdiagnoses House arrives at the conclusion that she has been abusing a drug called ipecac, used to induce vomiting, since she has bulimia nervosa. The ipecac syrup caused the damage to her heart, and probably also the damage to her leg’s muscles.

Photo by Fox.

What is it?

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder in which people eat a large amount of food in a short time and then get rid of the food they just ate.

Who gets it?

Like other eating disorders, mostly women (there are probably 10 times more women with the condition than men). It usually starts in teenage years or early twenties.

It is believed that in the US about 1-3% of women of high school or college age have the condition.

What causes it?

As with other mental illnesses, the exact cause isn’t known. It may be a mix of a few elements -

• Society – The modern Western world gives more and more importance to body image. Magazines and TV shows are scattered with images of thin individuals. Some people tend to equate thinness with success and worthiness. Add to that pressure from friends and the surroundings.
  
  A mannequin. With display windows showing such slim bodies, many women feel overweight. Photo by The Life of Bryan
• Emotional health – People with eating disorders may have psychological problems contributing to the condition, such as low self esteem, perfectionism (like the woman on the House episode), impulsiveness, family or relationship conflicts, and so on.
• Biology – It turns out there are genetics involved. If you have siblings or parents with the condition you may be more likely to develop it yourself.
• Occupation – If you have a job or do a sport that give an importance to body size, such as ballet, modeling, or gymnastics, you may be more likely to develop bulimia (other things considered…).

How does it feel?

People with bulimia repeatedly eat in binges – this means they eat large amounts of food within a short time. They tend to do it secretly. The food tends to contain high calories, such as ice cream and cake, and can sometimes reach thousands of calories. They may eat such large quantities that their stomach and esophagus may be damaged or torn in the process.

After eating comes the purging phase, in which they get rid of what they just ate. Ways of doing that include vomiting on purpose, taking laxatives (like the woman on the House episode), doing hard diets or fasting, over-exercising, or any combination of the above.

The vomiting can erode our teeth, since vomit includes acid. It can also enlarge our salivary glands and cause damage to the esophagus. It can change the level of salts in our body, putting the body in risk of abnormal heart rhythms and sudden death.

And, as was seen on the House episode, laxatives such as ipecac are dangerous to the heart.

This video tells the story of Sarah Siskin, who died of bulimia:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHZesejU6tU

How is it discovered?

When the doctor sees a person in the right age (and gender) that expresses concern about gaining weight combined with weight fluctuations, signs of laxative use, and other signs (such as scars on the knuckles from inducing vomiting, swollen salivary glands, etc.) their suspicion rises.

The only way to be sure of the diagnosis is by having the patient tell, which doesn’t always happen.

How is it treated?

There are 2 ways to treat bulimia:

Psychological: A therapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy is usually used, in which the wrong thoughts that led to the behavior are faced with, and people are helped to give them up.

Medication: A type of antidepressant drug is given and may help.

What happens after treatment?

There’s no sure path. With some people the disease may be related to life crises and pass when they do. For others, it may be fluctuating over many years. That also depends on how compliant the person is with their treatment.

Related posts:

1. Naphthalene Poisoning – When Mothballs Kill More Than Just Moths (As Seen on House MD)
2. Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency– What If You Couldn’t Eat Steaks? (As Seen on House MD)
3. Echoviruses (As Seen on House MD)

Ahhh, summer… What hasn’t been written about it? It’s fun, hot, sunny, and brings about all sorts of problems. From sunburn to heat rashes to insect bites.

Here at A Disease A Day we recently told you about sunscreen myths and about the best 4 sunscreens.

Photo by Warm ‘n Fuzzy

Now Reader’s Digest published an article covering 8 remedies you can concoct at home that will fight summer-related problems. For example – swimmer’s ear – the ear inflammation we covered before here on A Disease A Day. Reader’s Digest solution – garlic:

Take advantage of garlic’s potent antibacterial properties and use this herb in eardrops. You can buy garlic oil in health food stores, or make your own. Grate three medium cloves of garlic and place them in a shallow dish. Cover them with olive oil and let the mixture stand overnight. Strain out the garlic and apply 3 drops in the affected ear.

Interested in the other remedies? Follow the link to learn more.

8 Home Remedies for Summer’s Common Problems [Reader’s Digest]

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