Healthy Person Disease

[Psyborg]

I've noticed over time that Wegs seems to affect "healthier" people most often. By this I mean it's the physically active people that seem to be affected. I've seen this noted on a lot of peoples posts about their Wegs story.

It got me thinking. I came from a unhealthy background, but due to a gastric bypass was actually in the best shape I'd been in for a LONG time. Was able to run, go to the gym, etc.

When I had my aborted TS dilation the anethetist said "that probably saved your life with the Wegs." At first I kind of chalked that up to ignorance of the fact that most people with wegs seem to come from a pretty healthy background.

Last night I was laying in bed and started wondering. Maybe the bypass did save me. I was thinking of the bias that all overweight people face, especially obese people. EVERYTHING is attributed to your weight. I'm willing to bet had I not been thin when this struck that it would have taken a very long time to get a diagnosis.

I mean the joint pain would have been chalked up as weight being too much for the joints. Any number of the affects could be attributed to "failures" caused by weight.

Basically I was thinking that a lot of people that have this could slip right through the cracks for diagnosis potentially.

I dunno...just wondered what others thought.

[Sangye]

It's probably true, Bob. I know even with this weight gain from pred I have doctors attribute things to the weight that are just ridiculous (though some things are definitely connected to it). And there isn't much sympathy from many of them when I explain how difficult it is to lose weight now. Even though I should know better by now, I still expect them to get it. I really need to give up that expectation. Like all expectations, it only leads to suffering.

[Psyborg]

I honestly spent a long time in denial about my weight, to the point that I wouldn't go to the doctor unless I was extremely sick. I hated the accusations and the referrals to dietitians. Not that parts of it weren't correct, but in large part because it was remarkably brutal at times. It's like fat people are the one group that people can discriminate against without any sort of risk.

I certainly had made my own bed, but I also now something was wrong with me at one point as I had run away weight gain for about a year. Further gains later just made it worse. But of course everyone wants to assume that you eat 3 big macs every meal or something I never was a big eater, I really underestimated the damage I was doing to myself drinking soda.

[NicShaf]

You bring up a very interesting point, Bob. I have noticed this also, even in my own diagnosis story. I was very healthy right before I was diagnosed, I ran a couple miles a day, ate overall healthy things. And that is why I kept pushing my doctors to figure something out, I was too young and healthy to be sick for as long as I was, it wasn't normal. But, I see where if someone was heavier, all those "signs" could be attributed to other things, because most of the signs of Wegs are so general.
I have also put a lot of thought into this, and I have wondered if my physical exertion pushed my body over the edge and caused Wegs. It's that nagging feeling that I know we all get...what happened, where did I go wrong, why did this happen to me? I felt like I was coming down with a cold, but had signed up for a greuling 10K race and attempted it despite feeling a bit under the weather. I barely got through half the race, and the track workers were asking me if I was ok...I'm assuming I looked pale or something as I walked back to the finish line. Sometimes I wonder if that was the straw that broke the camels back? I know there is no point in trying to figure this out, but it is soemthing that crosses my mind every once in a while.

[watersedge]

I think you are on to something here Psyborg. Myself and my mother have talked about this numerous times. My dad was very healthy, porridge for breakfast, a couple of pieces of fruit per day, healthy dinners and very rarely ate anything sweet, drank plenty of water and never weighed above 10.5 stone in his life. He also took cod liver oil, flaxseed, manuka honey, herbal teas and all kinds of things. The one thing I do remember is that the doctors were very interested in what type of things he took and had us write down a list, they seemed to think it relevant to his condition. My mam has herself convinced that he was too careful with what he ate along with taking different supplements. She thinks his immune system was probably too high and in turn started to attack his body, who knows, maybe she is right!

[NicShaf]

Just feeding this theory, being conscientious about our health is something that my dad and I share in our personalities...and we both have auto-immune diseases...interesting, I think.

[Barry]

I think we would need to differenciate between healthy people getting WG and only healthy people being diagnosed with WG. The doctors do tend to find every every other reason first. So for example if you smoke they tend to stop looking farther.

[elephant]

The question is how many people on this forum didn't exercise? I was a runner before a was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

[Sangye]

. My mam has herself convinced that he was too careful with what he ate along with taking different supplements. She thinks his immune system was probably too high and in turn started to attack his body, who knows, maybe she is right!

For what it's worth, that can't happen. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system is dysregulated--meaning it can't regulate itself. It becomes overactive and underactive in an attempt to find balance. So the root question is: What dysregulated the immune system in the first place? There are a gazillion possible answers to that. Some of the more common are stress, toxins and chronic infections.

[Sangye]

The question is how many people on this forum didn't exercise? I was a runner before a was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

I was in great shape-- hiked 5-10 miles a day in the mountains, came home to do 1 hr of yoga, then worked all day as a chiropractor. I ate nearly all organic.