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In todays Daily Mirror 15/12/08.
(Dr Miriam Stoppard)

None of us can escape the fact that we're the product of our parents.
Every time you look in the mirror you see the nose you inherited from your Mum or the ears you blame on your Dad.
But as well as obvious family traits, there may be a hidden health inheritance you're not aware of. For example, you may know granny died of cancer but do you know which type? Or was the "nervous disposition" attributed to your uncle actually a form of depression?
In such cases, ignorance can become a health hazard, as many diseases and conditions have a genetic element.
Scientists in the US announced last month they're trialling a DNA test that checks genetic risk factors for more than 20 health conditions, including cancer and diabetes.
However, until such a test becomes routine, simply knowing any health conditions your parents or grandparents had can highlight your risk, so you should watch out for any symptoms.


Stephanie.

Did anyone watch Horizon a couple of weeks ago where they had 10 or 12 people, half of which had some form of 'mental illness'? There were experts who were watching the volunteers perform a variety of tasks and then trying to decide which were 'normal' and which had an illness and what the illness might be. The illnesses were OCD, anorexia, manic depression and a couple more.
I thought they were way off the mark with their assumptions and emphasised my own opinion that some Dr's are too quick to diagnose a mental illness these days. The days of 'getting on with it' are long gone.

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

I missed it unfortunately, bet it was interesting. Things are given fancy names today like Bi-Polar and attention deficit disorder. Like you say they used to just get on with it. But saying that a lot of 'normal' people were also locked away for minor misdemeanours, such as having children out of wedlock at a very young age, it seemed to be if anyone was out of the ordinary or caused any trouble to their families they were locked away.
I remember many years ago nursing an old lady on the medical ward I was working on at the time, she was sent to us from Calderstones, which was a well know psychiatric hospital near Burnley. She was put there by her family at the age of 15, because she was having a baby, she was classed as promiscuous and unruly, she was too much trouble to her family, so she was locked away "for her own good". That lady had been shut away in a mental institution for most of her life all because she was different. When actually all she was, was a bit 'slow'.


Stephanie.

We have a case in our family of a relation being sent to a mental hospital because she was pregnant and unmarried. She left the place after the birth but did not take the baby with her. The baby grew up in the hospital with a few minor mental health problems. I have often wondered if that was because of where she was raised or whether she did actually have a problem?

Looking at the 'symptoms' the specialists were using for diagnosing on the program, both Lyndon and I could be classed as having one ailment or another. Then again, I think most of the people I know could have applied the diagnosis to themselves.

A very good friend of mine was diagnosed with bi-polar 2 years ago. She has highs and very low lows but the one thing that strikes me is that her highs and lows work to a calendar. I feel sure that if she did not know what month it is, she would probably be much better. We were planning a trip for next year and she actually said, "best not do it then, I'll be low". Is she programming her own mind to be low at that time??

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

That is dreadful Stephanie, and I bet the baby was put up for adoption. The poor woman.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

Re: your friend,Mel, who could predict her highs and lows...clearly her condition was hormonal...not mental illness. So many physicians are trained very poorly re the associations between systems: stress and respiratory systems; stress and circulatory systems; stress and skeletal/musculatory systems - all seem to have broken through the medical barrier somewhat....but endocrinology and stress not so much. Stress and neurological system hardly ever.
I have long been anecdotally aware of the effects of stress on the neurological/emotional state(although there is plenty of empirical evidence too)
...reduce the stress (which can even be from early in life and not resolved) and the emotional symptoms reduce markedly.
Hormone fluctuation is connected to blood sugar levels and add stress and you have a condition often misdiagnosed as a mental illness.