Morgellon's Disease

[hanso]

What is your take on Morgellons Disease?

[Dr Steve]

What is your take on Morgellons Disease?

Morgellon's is a weird thing...people feel like their skin is crawling and when they pick at it, they see little white fibers or balls. They bring these into the doctor (who has dealt with this a dozen times with the same patient) saying "SEE? SEE?!" Or they'll pick their skin in the office to show the staff that they're not crazy.

In fact, they're not crazy, though this disease has been called "Delusional Parasitosis" in the past. What they're seeing, though, are not abnormal structures, but most likely connective tissue under the skin.

Look at all the crap that makes up skin:
http://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/articles/image_article_collections/anatomy_pages/skin.jpg

You can imagine that if you started picking at the epidermis, that the stuff underneath could scare the shit out of you when you saw it under your fingernail.

Anyway, no one knows why people have this feeling under the skin that causes morgellon's. I personally believe it may have something to do with peripheral stimulation of mu opioid receptors, because we see this a lot in people with liver failure and they itch all the time due to mu receptor agonism. (The mu receptor is the same receptor that morphine hits to do its thing.)

People with Morgellons sometimes complain of other symptoms which may include:

Difficulty paying attention and concentrating
Extreme fatigue
Hair loss
Joint and muscle pain
Nervous system problems
Tooth loss
Sleep problems
Short-term memory loss

also a couple of studies have linked it to thyroid disease and also Lyme disease.

I like the drug DOXEPIN for the itchy feeling; works like a charm in some people, though not all.

your pal,



steve

[spoon]

http://www.ducksters.com/biography/explorers/ferdinand_magellan.jpg

[Dude!]

spoon replays his little "joke"
we saw it the first time, loser

[spoon]

http://skreened.com/render-product/g/o/r/gordmctaqsbzxylngmse/i-m-like-magellan.american-apparel-unisex-tank.white.w760h760.jpg

:bye:

[Dr Steve]

http://www.ducksters.com/biography/explorers/ferdinand_magellan.jpg

ha, made me laugh out loud, though. Stupid Magellan.