2020’s oddest, non-coronavirus health news
2020 was fairly the yr — although doubtless not in the best way many have been anticipating. (iStock)
2020 was fairly the yr — although doubtless not in the best way many have been anticipating.
Shortly after the world welcomed within the new decade, COVID-19 started to dominate headlines, from the moment the pandemic was declared to latest news of two separate however promising vaccines in opposition to the virus receiving emergency use approval within the U.S.
But there have been some cases the place health news didn’t contain the coronavirus. Read on for a have a look at among the oddest health news that 2020 needed to provide.
Massachusetts man dies after ‘overdosing’ on black licorice
They say an excessive amount of of a superb factor could be dangerous, as was the case for one Massachusetts man whose love of black licorice finally price him his life.
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In a case report just lately detailed within the New England Journal of Medicine, medical doctors revealed {that a} 54-year-old Massachusetts building employee basically “overdosed” on black licorice. The sweet accommodates glycyrrhizic acid, which prompted the person’s potassium ranges to plummet. Dangerously low ranges of potassium can result in irregular coronary heart rhythms, hypertension, and, in some instances, congestive coronary heart failure.
Read the complete story here.
Poop transplant cures man’s ‘drunkenness disease’
Drunk… however with out ingesting any alcohol?
That was the case for one 47-year-old man who had intestine fermentation syndrome, also called auto-brewery syndrome (ABS). This uncommon situation includes extreme fungal development within the intestine, which feeds on carbohydrates after which fuels ethanol manufacturing. Often occasions, ABS is linked to an extreme quantity of yeast within the intestine.
In the person’s case, clinicians tried placing the affected person on a low-carb weight-reduction plan and course of antifungals, however indicators of intoxication continued, in response to a case examine printed in August within the Annals of Internal Medicine.
When all else failed, clinicians appeared to fecal microbiota transplantation — a poop transplant. Bacteria within the feces was transferred into the affected person’s small gut. The transplant got here from the person’s 22-year-old daughter and his signs resolved, no less than till his most up-to-date follow-up at 34 months.
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The authors of the report stated on the time that the case is believed to be the “first successful treatment of a patient with chronic gut fermentation syndrome by using fecal microbiota transplantation.”
Read the complete story here.
Woman’s headache attributable to tapeworm larvae in mind
A case report printed simply earlier than Halloween this yr detailed the harrowing purpose for an Australian girl’s persistent headache: tapeworm larvae.
Physicians in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene detailed the girl’s case, which is believed to be the primary “autochthonous case,” or domestically acquired case, of neurocysticercosis, a parasitic illness that happens after one by accident ingests Taenia solium (pork tapeworm) eggs.
The girl suffered complications two to 3 occasions a month from the time she was 18, and the complications have been usually accompanied by “visual aura.”
MAN HAD HUNDREDS OF TAPEWORMS IN BRAIN, CHEST AFTER EATING UNDERCOOKED PORK
Painkillers would often present her reduction, however her headache described within the case report was persistent, main her to hunt medical consideration. Her visible signs additionally worsened.
A subsequent MRI scan revealed what medical doctors at first thought have been both a mind abscess or a tumor. But when the girl went in for an operation to take away the mind lesion, they found the stunning trigger behind her ache: a cyst stuffed with tapeworm larvae.
Read the complete story here.
Colorado hiker with coronavirus-like signs discovered to have uncommon, probably life-threatening illness
A lady who hiked the Colorado Trail over the summer season later fell sick with coronavirus-like signs in October.
After receiving a number of unfavorable COVID-19 exams, nevertheless, the girl went to the hospital and was examined for a number of strains of the flu however was discovered to have none.
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Finally, after present process imaging screenings, the girl obtained a solution — studying her uncommon, life-threatening sickness was doubtless associated to her summer season mountaineering tour.
“I actually got this disease and didn’t die,” the girl later stated.
Read the complete story here.
Fox News’ Kayla Rivas contributed to this report.
