- Gout
- a painful inflammation of the big toe and foot caused by defects in uric acid metabolism resulting in deposits of the acid and its salts in the blood and joints
- Hutton IT
- Hutton IT is a web consultant and publisher which manages the NDPA site. Their site can be found at www.hit.uk.net
- Marie Ratcliff
- NDPA Secretary September 2004 -
- Multiple sclerosis
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, causing problems with muscle control, vision, balance and sensation. Around 85,000 people in the UK are affected by MS.1,2 It is most likely to begin in people aged between 20 and 40 and women are more likely to be affected than men.
What are nerves?
Nerves are made up from many nerve fibres. Thousands of nerve fibres in our body transmit tiny electrical impulses or messages between different parts of the brain and spinal cord.
Nerves come out of the brain and spinal cord and take messages to and from muscles, the skin, body organs, and tissues.
Each nerve is structured like a microscopic cable, with an inner core for conducting nerve signals protected by a coating called a myelin sheath.
What is MS?
MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease. This means that your body's immune system, which normally attacks things like bacteria and viruses, attacks your own healthy body tissue.
In MS, damage to the myelin sheath - known as demyelination - means that the nerve can't send signals properly.
The nerves damaged in this way become scarred or hardened. Sclerosis means hardening.
- Myasthenia Gravis
- Myasthenia Gravis is an auto-immune disease which is characterized by fluctuating, sometimes fatal, muscle weakness.
The body's immune system, in the form of antibodies, attacks and damages the nerve signal reception areas on the muscles - causing a breakdown in communication between nerve and muscle; this results in a loss of effectiveness of the muscle.
What Does This Mean?
To someone affected by Myasthenia Gravis it means that symptoms vary according to the amount of activity undergone, the onset of infection or stress of any kind. As a result diagnosis by a GP is extremely difficult. Also family and friends need a great deal of understanding to come to terms with a relative or friend who seems perfectly normal one moment, and a few hours, or even minutes later is droopy and listless.
Activities taken for granted by most of us become difficult or even impossible at times for myasthenics. Simple things like eating food, lifting arms, speaking to friends or laughing.
Found at http://www.mgauk.org/
- NDPA
- National Disabled Police Association. Founded September 2004.
- Nigel Graham
- NDPA Webmaster - Propriator of Hutton IT.
- OsteoArthritis
- Arthritis of middle age characterized by degenerative and sometimes hypertrophic changes in the bone and cartilage of one or more joints and a progressive wearing down of opposing joint surfaces with consequent distortion of joint positioning usually without bony stiffening.
- Pregnancy
- Human pregnancy refers to the process by which a human female carries a live offspring from conception until childbirth. The medical term for a pregnant woman is "gravida," just as the medical term for the unborn human is embryo and then fetus.
This is not a disability on it's own.
- Scott Westbrook
- The Chairman of the NDPA from September 2004 until -
- Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
- Seasonal affective (or mood) disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at particular times, commonly in the winter months.
Mild forms of SAD are commonly referred to as "winter blues" but some people have a more severe form and these people cannot function in winter without treatment.
For most sufferers of SAD, symptoms get worse in the autumn and winter when the days are shorter, and clear up in spring and summer. People are more vulnerable to SAD the further away they live from the equator as daylight hours become fewer.
Some people get SAD in the summer months but this is much less common.
- Sleep Apnea
- A condition characterised by temporary breathing interruptions during sleep. The pauses in breathing can occur dozens or even hundreds of times a night. Symptoms include loud snoring and a gasping or snorting sound when the sleeping individual starts to breathe again. Although the individual may not be aware of having sleep apnea, the condition can disrupt the quality of sleep and result in daytime fatigue.
- Stress
- Stress affects virtually everyone at some time in their life. As well as the emotional and psychological disruption it causes, stress-related medical problems are becoming increasingly common. In the modern world, we all need to learn how to cope with stress.
What is stress?
The body has an inbuilt physical response to stressful situations. Faced with pressure, challenge or danger, we need to react quickly, and our bodies release hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline to help us do this. These hormones are part of the "fight or flight" response and affect the metabolic rate, heart rate and blood pressure, resulting in a heightened - or stressed - state that prepares the body for optimum performance in dealing with a stressful situation.
Very often, modern stresses do not call for either fight or flight. Nevertheless, the same stressing hormones are released as part of the reaction and this natural reaction to challenge or danger, instead of helping, can damage health and reduce the ability to cope.
- Underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)
- Hypothyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones. This tends to slow down the body's functions. Symptoms include tiredness, constipation and sensitivity to the cold.
Approximately 1 in 50 women and 1 in 1000 men will develop symptoms of hypothyroidism at some stage in their lives. Once diagnosed, treatment is usually straightforward.
