Hemophilia: Could Meghan Markle's Children Have This 'Royal' Disease?
Blood Diseases
Do you know what is your blood made up of? There are several components of blood- red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Your blood majorly consists of plasma which is the liquid part and consists of protein and salts. Red blood cells work to supply oxygen to the tissues, white blood cells are important to fight infections and platelets help in clotting. When one or more parts of the blood get affected by blood diseases, your blood is unable to perform its core functions. In most cases, blood diseases are hereditary but there are several other reasons such as other diseases, deficiency of nutrients and side-effects of medications, that can cause a blood disease to occur.
What are the symptoms of a blood disease?
Symptoms of blood diseases are different from one another. It depends on what part of the blood is affected and how severe it has become. Let us tell you the general signs of a blood disease.
Symptoms of red blood cell diseases:
Symptoms of white blood cell diseases:
Symptoms of platelet diseases:
Blood Diseases Affecting Red Blood Cells
Anaemia: This is a very common blood disorder that is caused when the number of red blood cells becomes too low in the blood. Mildly anaemic people don't show significant symptoms but severe anaemic people may experience a problem in breathing, fatigue and pale skin.
Iron-deficiency anaemia: You must have heard that iron is very important for the body. It is because it makes red blood cells. When you don't consume an adequate amount of iron, it causes iron-deficiency. Menstruating women should have iron to combat red blood cell loss during periods.
Chronic Disease Anaemia: People who have chronic diseases like kidney diseases are highly likely to develop anaemia. This doesn't require treatment as this can be managed by a synthetic hormone named Epogen or Procrit to increase the production of red blood cells. Only some patients may require blood transfusions.
Pernicious anemia or vitamin B12 deficiency: If you are not consuming enough vitamin B12 or your body is unable to absorb this vitamin from your diet, this anaemia may be caused. The common cause of this condition is an autoimmune disease.
Aplastic anemia: In this disease, there is a problem with the bone marrow as it doesn't produce enough red blood cells. Hepatitis, pregnancy, HIV, chemotherapy medications and side-effects to any drug may be causing this condition. If the condition is not treated with medications and blood transfusions, the patient may need a bone marrow transplant.
Autoimmune hemolytic anemia: When the red blood cells are destroyed due to an overactive immune system, it causes hemolytic anaemia. Immune-suppressing medicines can help in controlling this condition.
Thalassemia: This is a chronic blood disease wherein the patients are administered blood transfusions regularly.
Polycythemia vera: Excess of red blood cells is also injurious to health. If the body produces too many red blood cells, it may cause unnecessary blood clots.
Malaria: Not many people know but malaria is also a red blood cell disease where the mosquito carrying the parasite bites a person and injects the parasite into the blood. This causes infection in red blood cells and leading to numerous symptoms.
Blood Diseases Affecting White Blood Cells
Lymphoma: This is a kind of blood cancer where a white blood cell named lymphoma becomes malignant and starts to multiply and spread abnormally. The two types of this cancer are- Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy can reduce the damage and cure this cancer condition.
Leukaemia: This is another blood cancer where white blood cells inside the bone marrow become malignant. Leukaemia may be slow progressing or severe and the best ways to combat this condition are bone marrow transplant(stem cell transplant) and chemotherapy.
Multiple myeloma: This is another blood cancer where plasma cell becomes cancerous and releases a dangerous substance that can cause damage to organs. There is no cure for this condition but treatments like chemotherapy and stem cell transplant can extend the life span of the patient.
Myelodysplastic syndrome: This is a slowly-progressing syndrome that is a blood cancer. This can progress into acute leukaemia.
Blood Diseases Affecting Platelets
Thrombocytopenia: When the number or platelets in the blood are very low, thrombocytopenia condition can be caused. This disorder is characterised by abnormal bleeding.
Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: This thrombocytopenia condition is induced by heparin which is a blood thinner that helps in the prevention of blood clotting. This can cause a low platelet count. Abnormal bleeding, abnormal bruising and red spots on the skin are symptoms of this condition.
Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura: This is a very rare condition where clotting occurs in the blood vessels leading to a drop in the platelet count.
Primary thrombocythemia or Essential thrombocytosis: In this condition, the body produces excess platelets due to either reason but these don't use up properly leading to bleeding and excessive blood clotting.
Blood Diseases Affecting Blood Plasma
Haemophilia: This is a deficiency in genes where some proteins trigger the blood to clot. Depending on the severity of the condition, there are different types of Haemophilia.
Hypercoaguable state: This is a condition where the blood easily clots and in most cases, this condition goes unnoticed and undiagnosed. Some people may suffer from this condition throughout their lives and some have a severe form of this condition where they may need to take blood thinning medicines daily to combat the situation.
Deep venous thrombosis: In this blood disorder, blood clotting occurs in the deep vein which is mostly in the leg. This disease can travel to your vital organs where it may also cause a pulmonary embolism.
Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC): This is a blood disease that causes unnecessary bleeding and small blood clots in the entire body. Several conditions like pregnancy complications, recent surgery and severe infections can lead to this condition.
von Willebrand disease: In this blood disorder, the body either produces too little or too high von Willebrand factor protein. This protein is essential in blood clotting. In most cases, this disease is inherited but sadly, it doesn't have visible symptoms.
Harvard Cardiologist Debunks Three Common Myths About Heart Disease
Every 33 seconds someone in the U.S. Dies of cardiovascular disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And yet, many of us would be unable to recognise the early warning signs of this disease, or know who might be at risk.
To debunk some of the most common myths around heart disease, Newsweek spoke with Harvard cardiologist and Brigham and Women's Hospital physician, Dr. Haider Warraich.
Can You Feel High Blood Pressure?"One important thing to remember is that many of the risk factors for heart disease can be completely silent," Warraich, author of the book State of the Heart, told Newsweek. "Things like high cholesterol and diabetes can cause no symptoms all the way up to when someone might have a heart attack or some other emergency.
"While many might believe that they can 'feel' their blood pressure, fact is that for the vast majority, high blood pressure causes no symptoms, and would be totally missed unless one gets it checked."
High blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking are all key risk factors for heart disease, as are an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol consumption and obesity. And, contrary to popular belief, heart disease is not only a male issue.
Does Heart Disease Mainly Affect Men? Photo of Dr. Haider J. Warraich, associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Photo of Dr. Haider J. Warraich, associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Rabail Baig"Many don't know this but the most common cause of death amongst women is also heart disease," Warraich said. "In fact, when women do have heart attacks, they are more likely to suffer a bad outcome than men, in part because either they themselves or their medical team might not take their symptoms seriously. Women need to pay as close attention to their heart health as men."
Is Chest Pain the Only Symptom of Heart Attacks?When it comes to heart attacks, knowing the symptoms can help you get early treatment to minimize the damage caused to the heart muscle and maximize your chances of recovery. "Heart disease can lead to a series of very common symptoms beyond just pain in the chest," Warraich said. "First of all, many people who have a heart attack say they feel a pressure in the chest rather than pain. Pain that radiates to the arms can also be concerning for a heart attack as well."
Heart attack symptoms may also vary between men and women. For example, according to the CDC, women may also experience feelings of nausea, light-headedness or fatigue.
Lastly, we need to choose carefully about who we listen to for education and advice on heart health. "There is a lot of misinformation about heart health and heart medications like statins on the internet, spread mostly by people who often have an ulterior motive," Warraich said. "While there are many benefits to seeking health information, including from the internet, care needs to be taken to use trustworthy and reliable sources, and to discuss everything openly with the medical team.
"Modern medicine means that many if not most cases of heart disease are preventable. And even if someone has developed heart disease, including serious conditions like heart failure, they can still live a long life and be able to do the things they love as long as they work closely with their medical team."
Is there a health problem that's worrying you? Do you have a question about heart disease? Let us know via health@newsweek.Com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
Uncommon KnowledgeNewsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Over 14% Of World Has Had Lyme Disease, The Most Common Tick-borne Illness
Farmers and workers who regularly interact with host animals like dogs and sheep were most at risk of getting bitten by an infected tick, a recent study found. – Photo: AFP
More than 14 percent of the world's population has had Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne illness, according to a major review of the available research published on Tuesday.
Central Europe had the highest rate of infection with 20 percent, while men over the age of 50 living in rural areas were most at risk, the study in the journal BMJ Global Health found.
The condition is rarely fatal, but people bitten by an infected tick often get a rash and suffer flu-like symptoms including muscle and joint ache, headache, nausea and vomiting.
To find out how common Lyme disease is across the world, the researchers pooled data from 89 studies.
The bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), which causes the disease, was found in the blood of 14.5 percent of the nearly 160,000 total participants.
"This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date systematic review of the worldwide" prevalence of the disease, the researchers said.
After Central Europe, the regions with the highest antibody rates were Eastern Asia with 15.9 percent, Western Europe with 13.5 percent and Eastern Europe with 10.4 percent.
The Caribbean meanwhile had the lowest rate, with just two percent.
Previous research has shown that the prevalence of tick-borne diseases has doubled in the last 12 years.
Reasons for the rise included longer, drier summers due to climate change, animal migration, habitat loss and "increasingly frequent pet contact", the study said.
Farmers and workers who regularly interact with host animals like dogs and sheep were most at risk of getting bitten by an infected tick, the study found.
It warned that the data could be skewed in regions where Lyme disease is endemic, because health workers are more likely to carry out regular antibody tests there compared to regions where it is less common.
The study also said that research using an analytic technique called western blotting was more reliable and that its use "could significantly improve the accuracy" of future studies.
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