Dysbacteriosis, chondrosis, sclerosis: Where do non-existent diagnoses come from
Many had to deal with diagnosesheart palpitations and sweating palms, and the treatment offered almost life-long. However, on close examination of the issue, it may turn out that the diagnosis is not a diagnosis at all, and the purchased medicines create a hole in the budget, but do not improve well-being. This is because Soviet medicine has been developed for many years in isolation from the world, and standards based on the international classification of diseases were absent even ten years ago. Unfortunately, even today there are many conservative doctors who do not practice evidence-based medicine and hold on to their usual concepts. Let's look at the most frequent diagnoses, which in reality does not exist, but at the same time we will dispel several myths.
Dysbacteriosis
Dysbacteriosis (also known as dysbiosis) is treated by the realization that it does not exist. Unfortunately, in our country, dysbacteriosis has been overgrown with an insane amount of unconfirmed facts - and many drugs have been created for it, the so-called probiotics, prebiotics and eubiotics, designed to normalize the intestinal microflora. The flora of the colon (and the bacteria live only there, normally the small intestine is almost sterile) can actually change slightly, for example, against the background of antibiotics, and then diarrhea develops - but more often it passes on its own. Traveler's diarrhea is also a normal reaction of the colon to a new microflora that enters the body when the situation changes, but it cannot be called a disease.
Vegetative dystonia
Vegetovascular dystonia, practitioners of evidence-based medicine, called the "diagnosis-garbage", implying that careless doctors hide behind this term ignorance of the symptoms of disease. Typically, patients with this diagnosis complain of dizziness, palpitations, weakness, fainting, panic attacks, or something else.
For all these symptoms, it is important to look for the cause and treat it - but not under the diagnosis of "vegetative dystonia". For example, heart palpitations may indicate a reduced level of hemoglobin, and dizziness may reflect problems with the vestibular apparatus. The diagnosis of “VSD” existed 200 years ago in the USA, but only in Russia it is still being used today. By the way, not a single English-speaking doctor will understand him, and if translated literally, he will be frightened - after all, “a violation of the coordinated work of the vessels and the (vegetative) nervous system” sounds like something close to a stroke.
Salt deposits
This diagnosis is rarely made by doctors - more often it can be heard from friends when describing pain in the neck or clicks when moving in a joint. Recommendations vary: from "eat less salt" to different detox and superfood intake. It seems that popular rumor confuses this state with gout - the deposition of uric acid in the joints and soft tissues. Gout is a completely different story, in which there is acute inflammation and pain around the joints, not at all similar to those that take place during a massage or regular exercise. In general, not the disease, and the salt is not the same.
But there is no need to ignore the advice of less salt; reducing the amount of sodium in the diet is one of the most important ways to prevent arterial hypertension (which is often mistakenly called hypertension).
Osteochondrosis
In general, such a diagnosis exists; Ostechondrosis is a rare and extremely serious disease that begins to develop in early childhood. It is a degeneration or necrosis of bone tissue, resulting in severely impaired growth. Again, it is worth bearing this in mind when communicating with foreign doctors - after all, only in the post-Soviet space this diagnosis is made to everyone who has changes in the intervertebral discs. Most people over 40 have these, and many are unaware of this. Unfortunately, under the sauce of such a diagnosis, it is possible to prescribe a patient a costly examination and then a no less expensive treatment.
(Hyper) uterus tone during pregnancy
The uterus is a muscular organ that, like any muscle, can contract and relax; this happens both during and outside of pregnancy. An English physician, John Braxton Hicks, almost 250 years ago described normal uterine contractions throughout pregnancy; they can become tangible in the early months. Sometimes they are called training bouts - and sometimes they are referred to as training only contractions before childbirth, and for some reason, conventional Braxton Hicks contractions are considered pathological “tone”. Even worse, this is a condition that you can ignore, for some reason, they are treated with no-spa, papaverine and other medicines.
Cervical erosion
Again, erosion does exist and requires treatment, only it occurs much less frequently than this diagnosis is made - the reason is that erosion is mistakenly called ectopia. Normally, the vaginal (visible part) of the cervix and its canal are covered with different epithelium, but the boundary between these two types of cells is visible when viewed. This situation is called ectopia; This is a variant of the norm and condition that you definitely do not need to be treated or cauterized for anything.
Immunity reduction and vitamin deficiency
The mysterious reduction of immunity comes to our country from October to April and requires the purchase of a variety of drops, ointments or tablets designed to protect against flu viruses and other delights that accompany rainy, dank and cold weather. But it protects against colds only by limiting the possibility of infection, and also by vaccination against influenza.
In fact, serious disorders in the immune system rarely manifest colds - immunodeficiency may be indicated by infections that are very difficult, difficult to treat, last for a long time, recur, caused by rare and unusual pathogens.
The same applies to avitaminosis - a complete lack of one of the vitamins in the body can lead to tooth loss (with scurvy) or curvature of the limbs (with rickets). But only the malaise at the sounds of spring drops, although it may be associated with a diet that is not very rich in vitamins, is not vitamin deficiency.
Sclerosis and rheumatism
This is another case of misuse of terms; it is not clear why people call sclerosis forgetfulness, because in fact the diagnosis of "sclerosis" does not exist at all. There are several single-rooted diagnoses that speak of the proliferation of connective tissue - for example, in the walls of blood vessels in atherosclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is also not associated with either age-related forgetfulness or absent-mindedness - this is a serious disease of the central nervous system that usually occurs at a young age. It is called scattered because the foci of hardening are scattered randomly (scattered) in the brain.
Rheumatism is often referred to as anxiety in the back and joints - about the same as those mistakenly diagnosed as osteochondrosis. In fact, rheumatism is an inflammatory disease that primarily affects the lining of the heart. It occurs because of an excessive immune response to infection by certain bacteria and is most often in children and adolescents - but older people do not get rheumatism.
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