Treatment is with the antiviral drug ribavirin in severe cases Also similar to Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) which has appeared again in China this winter. There are outbreaks every winter and it can be fatal in infants. Treatment is with the antiviral drug ribavirin in severe cases.Symptom Dry eyes, dry mouth and swollen jointsMost likely cause Serious night on the tilesOr could be Sj?n's SyndromeThese three Symptoms suggest Sj?n's syndrome, an auto-immune disorder like rheumatoid arthritis, but rarer. There is no treatment but recovery normally occurs within a few weeks.Symptom Runny nose, sore throat, wheezing and breathing difficultiesMost likely cause Common coldOr could be Respiratory syncytial virusDifficult to distinguish from colds and flu, this is a lung infection that targets the young, though it can also affect adults, and is a major cause of pneumonia in infants and children. It causes an illness indistinguishable from glandular fever - fatigue, loss of appetite, fever and general malaise. Few trials have been made of vitamin D for treatment of diseases other than bone disease because the vitamin cannot be patented and drug companies cannot justify expensive trials which will not lead to profits. However trials of several compounds similar to vitamin D have begun recently for treatment of cancer because these compounds can be patented.Crucial pieces of the jigsaw puzzle now seem to be in place and a consistent picture has emerged although many researchers remain sceptical, especially those who have spent most of their lives committed to other theories. The sceptics point to technical difficulties in the scientific evidence and the lack of final proof that vitamin D is the cause of most of these diseases. But the weight of so many different studies demonstrating or suggesting the health benefits of sunbathing and vitamin D supplements can no longer be overlooked.Yet every year doctors repeat the mantra: "There is no such thing as a healthy tan," words which are enshrined in a Consensus Statement of the UK Skin Cancer Prevention Working Party and endorsed by more than a dozen health charities as well as by UK government health departments. Treatment is with penicillin.Symptom Fatigue with intermittent high feverMost likely cause Over-demanding boss in over-heated officeOr could be CytomegalovirusLiterally, a mighty big virus, related to the herpes virus. It usually starts with a wound or a cut but often there is no obvious cause.
Symptom Hot, red, angry looking patch on the skin Symptom Hot, red, angry looking patch on the skin Most likely cause Alcoholic flushOr could be CellulitisNot a quick way of ridding yourself of cellulite but a nasty bacterial infection that gets under the skin and makes it look like orange peel (the French call it peau d'orange). The total cost of D deficiency disease to the UK must certainly be calculated in billions of pounds."This is money that really could be saved if people generally took supplements of vitamin D or sunbathed regularly," says Professor Heaney.Part two. The cost to the UK National Health Service of just one disease, diabetes type 1, which can probably be prevented by vitamin D supplements, runs to £500m a year or about 1 per cent of the NHS budget. How many billions is the issue," says Professor Robert Heaney of Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, who has made many studies of vitamin D and disease.The cost of disease believed to be caused or exacerbated by vitamin D deficiency has been estimated by Wiliam Grant to be some 50 billions of dollars in the United States. "It is safe to say that the cost of vitamin D deficiency is billions of dollars. Until recently, few skin cancer experts were prepared to recognise the probable role of vitamin D in preventing other cancers, there was little understanding of how important vitamin D is for prevention of other diseases, nor were skin experts prepared to concede that regular sunbathing or use of supplements is needed to provide adequate levels of vitamin D in our climate. This much has been clear since at least 1997 when Mark Elwood, a distinguished scientist at the University of Otago, New Zealand, published a review of 50 studies of melanoma and sun exposure in the International Journal of Cancer. The Consensus should have been redrafted then, but its momentum, financed by government and World Health Organisation funds, has proved to be unstoppable. When care is taken not to burn, intermittent exposure to the sun probably carries relatively little risk of skin cancer, and provides a very great benefit from the vitamin D it gives. Heavy occupational exposure to the sun such as is seen in farmers and construction workers is associated with a reduced risk of melanoma, the worst type of skin cancer. The stark truth is that advice to avoid the sun has put more lives at risk than it can possibly have saved and, it must be faced, is responsible for many thousands of deaths.Dr Neil Walker, chairman of the UK Skin Cancer Prevention Working Party, says: "The phrase 'no such thing as a safe tan' is one way of getting the message across that sun damage can lead to the development of potentially fatal skin cancers I think we need to look at this again Personally I advise my patients not to bake and not to burn. And every year doctors complain about the large number of people who ignore their advice by sunbathing and tanning. The advice of the Skin Cancer Working Party has of course been given in good faith with the very best of intentions but it is based on a mistaken Consensus It can no longer be defended. But these trials of the health benefits of vitamin D supplements are exceptional. |
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