Indeed wrong diagnosis can be contributed to by the patient who often out of embarrassment is reluctant to disclose full information to her doctor or has provided insufficient information upon which the doctor can respond to.

Many a times, it can be due to the fault of the doctor. In the National Health Service, statistics have shown that a G.P often spends less than 6 minutes with each patient. Furthermore, there are up to 20,000 types of diseases and doctors only know the most common. We are no exception either. Certain diseases are over publicised and tend to get a lot of attention, hence the stronger possibility of an over diagnosis. Or in an effort to save money, the doctor fails to order the necessary tests. In some cases, the doctor may consider it adequate to get the overall disease and attach less importance to the “subtype” of the disease. Behavioural and emotional problems including the mental well being of a patient is often difficult to diagnose.

Laboratory and pathology tests: Needless to say, human error can occur in any tests. This can happen with blood tests and scans. All laboratory tests have known conditions under which they fail. They can either fail with a false positive, wrongly indicating that you have a certain disease or a false negative indicating that you do not have a certain disease when you actually do.

LIST OF THE MORE COMMON DISEASES THAT CAN BE WRONGLY DIAGNOSED.

Many diseases can be wrongly diagnosed. Here we list out some of the more common and will only touch on them.

Parkinson Disease: The problem with diagnosing Parkinson accurately is that the symptoms are not always as conclusive as they ought to be. Indeed up to 35% of people treated with Parkinson could be wrongly diagnosed and are therefore receiving the wrong treatment.
The type of symptom varies from one person to another. Symptoms that develop in the early stages of the disease in one person may not develop until much later or at all in another person.

The most common symptoms include: Tremor or shaking often in a hand, arm or leg. Tremor caused by Parkinson’s disease occurs when the person is awake and sitting or standing and subsides when the person moves the affected part of the body. Stiff muscles and soreness is another symptom. . Difficulty with walking and balance are other symptoms. The affected person is likely to have small steps and shuffle with his feet together, bending forward at the waist slightly and have trouble turning around. Tremor is often the first symptom that people with Parkinson or their family members would notice. The tremor may also affect the lips and tongue. Sleep, complete rests and intentional movement or action would usually reduce the tremor.

At Beyond Medicine, we do not automatically conclude that it is Parkinson despite the symptoms. We would take great care to examine the patient’s cervical spine and the whole spine for stiffness. If the spine is very stiff that would lead us to suspect that there is inhibited blood flow to the head and which can cause the problem. We would also test the patient’s arteries for signs of hardening. Indeed reduced blood flow to the head can cause symptoms that are similar to Parkinson.

As a possible therapy, we would manipulate the spine to be followed by a course of ultrasound to increase blood flow and to reduce the inflammatory process. Acupuncture may help. What is more important is a course of nutritional therapy at mega dosage. The supplements that we would routinely prescribe for this sort of disorder would include L’Arginine, folic acid, vitamin C & E, Niacin, B6, B12, B Complex, Alpha Lipoic acid and very high dosage of Eskimo 3 (fish Oil). Intelectol which we routinely used to help patients to enhance their memory would help as it would increase the blood flow to the brain.

Alzheimer, dementia and other related problems: Similarly, we are of the opinion that problems with Alzheimer, dementia and other related problems are often misdiagnosed. Using the same prescription for Parkinson, we have been able to help with Alzheimer, dementia and other related problems.

Heart Problems: Heart burns caused by an overflow of hydrochloric acid (reflux) that causes heartburn can often contribute to symptoms of heart diseases. Therefore heart problems can be wrongly diagnosed. Please refer  to our article on high blood pressure, heart problems etc for more information.

High Blood Pressure: Please refer to our article on high blood pressure, heart problems for more information on secondary high blood pressure. Many a times, high blood pressure can be wrongly diagnosed. Patients are needlessly prescribed statin drugs on account of secondary high blood pressure.