Joe's Blog

Syphilis is an infection with the bacteria Treponema pallidum. It has often been called “the great imitator” because so many of the signs and symptoms are indistinguishable from those of other diseases.  

Treponema Pallidum

What is it? Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum.

How do you get this disease? Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease, so you can it through intercourse and direct fluid contact such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid and etc..
Congential Syphilis-pregnant mothers that are infected can pass it down to their developing child in their womb.

 Symptoms Syphilis has several stages

• Primary stage-Painless sores ( chancres) form at the site of infection after 2-3 weeks after you are first infected. There is a possibility of no symptoms at this stage or the symptoms are not clearly visible. The bacteria are dormant in your system at this stage and might go away without treatment.

Syphilis Primary stage

•  Secondary stage-Secondary syphilis occurs about 2-8 weeks after the first sores form. The bacteria are dormant in your system and might go away without treatment.

Syphilis Secondary stage (Finger)

• Tertiary stage- is the final stage of syphilis. The infection spreads to the brain, nervous system, heart, skin, and bones. The dormant bacteria may be detectable either by seeing the damage they cause to a part of the body, or through a blood test for syphilis.

Tertiary Syphilis (hand)

 Treatments Antibiotics are an effective treatment for syphilis. The antibiotic of choice is penicillin. Doxycycline is used to those who are allergic to penicillin.

I came upon this article which I thought was pretty interesting. Here’s the link to the article. Yahoo always has their way of getting people’s attention, that’s for me at least. This article explains 7 ways of raising your risk of getting a stroke. Catchy title isn’t it?…this is what I said to myself “Oh my, I sure would like to raise my risk of getting a stroke, so I’m going to go ahead and read this.” Sarcasm….

First off, what is a stroke? Stroke is placed third for killing in the United States! Congratulations stroke! however you’re still behind heart diseases and variety of cancers. Keep up the bad work or just give up! Stroke aka “brain attack” occurs when blood circulations are inadequate or is vanquished. Due to lack of blood and oxygen, this may result in the deaths of many brain cells which would cause major brain dysfunction and damages. There are two types of stroke, one being the Ischemic stroke and the other being the Hemorrhagic stroke.

Ischemic stroke: Most common stroke that causes a blockage of a blood vessel around the brain.
Three types of conditions:

• Thrombosis-forms a clot within a blood vessel.
• Embolism-clot that was move from another part of the body such as the heart.
• Stenosis-narrowing of an artery toward or around the brain.

Hemorragic Stroke: Bleeding into the brain
Two main types:

• Subarachnoid hemorrhage-uncontrolled bleeding on the surface of the brain between the brain and the skull.
• Intracerebral hemorrhage-ruptured artery deep within the brain.

How do you get this disease? The article stated 7 ways to raise your risk of getting a stroke, which is somewhat analogous to getting the disease. Here are some risk factors in getting a stroke among others:

• High cholesterol rate
• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• Heart diseases
• Diabetes
• Excessive amount of alcohol intake

Also according to the article, here are some additional risk factor of getting a stroke:

• High-fat diet
• Being single
• Being unhappy
• Being obese
• Being born in wrong demographic
• Being a born and bred Southerner

So, in order to prevent yourself from the risk of getting a stroke; change your diet by cutting down on meat (this also helps prevents animal cruelty), quit or limit smoking and the consumption of alcohol, exercise more often (you can never go wrong with that), find a significant other (don’t be single!), make sure you are not raised near the south (not much of a choice now isn’t it?) well for future reference, don’t raise your child near the south, and “live like we’re dying” so enjoy life and do your best to be happy. Life is too fragile.

“Live like we’re dying” by Kris Allen

-Joe Li

Chondromalacia of the Patella aka Runner’s knee- This injury is common to runners or people who jogs.

What is it? Chondromalacia of the Patella is basically the articular cartilage being worn out or torn down around the patella. Wearing down of the articular cartilage would result in pain or inflammation due to the fact that this cartilage helps cushion three bones: the Patella, the Femur, and the Tibia, the cartilage also allows these three bones to move freely and easily.

How do you get this injury? Based on my research, you can get it from improper ways of running, direct trauma on your knee, muscle imbalances, repeated pressure or too much force on the knee and simply overuse of the knee.

Symptoms: Sounds made from the knee such as crackling or grinding/Sharp pain/pain from sitting for a long period/pain from walking or using the stairs

Treatments: Resting/refrain from applying pressure to knee/Ice/when better, quadriceps and hamstring strengthening/limit sport activities/surgery on extreme case

-Joe Li