Obese From Secret Disease

Sunday, October 15, 2006

October 18 -- Imagine exercising everyday, eating very little and still gaining weight. That's what happens to hundreds of people with a rare metabolic disorder that often goes undiagnosed for years. But there is hope and help.

As a young teen, 22-year-old Jaimie Augustine weighed 130 pounds. She started gaining weight at 15. At 22 she weighed 220. "I was at the gym every day for an hour and a half; I was consuming 1,000 calories or less a day," she says.

Augustine also had insomnia, excess hair growth, severe acne, depression and stopped menstruating. But it took five years before she found a doctor who recognized the symptoms of this mystery disease.

"I felt validation because I had friends and family that didn't believe me," Augustine says. "They're just thinking, 'Oh, you're sneaking Oreos at night.'" Then she was diagnosed with Cushing's disease.

"Virtually all the symptoms and physical features of Cushing's can be associated with other diseases -- and diseases that are more common than Cushing's," William Ludlam, M.D., Ph.D., an endocrinologist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, tells Ivanhoe.

Cushing is caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland that imbalances your hormones. Glands on the kidneys then release too much of the hormone cortisol. "So despite what you do, your metabolism has been hijacked by too much of a hormone that you actually need to live," Dr. Ludlam says.

No one knows exactly how many people have Cushing's disease because it often goes undiagnosed. But about 1,000 people are told they have it each year in the United States. The first step in diagnosing it is to find an experienced endocrinologist -- the diagnosis can then be confirmed through blood and urine tests.

Some centers treat it through drugs and radiation, and surgery can remove the tumor, with the greatest chance for a cure in the hands of an experienced neurosurgeon.

Augustine's first surgery didn't work, so last fall she had a second procedure. It worked, and she's already lost 40 pounds.

If you would like more information, please contact:

http://www.cushings-help.com

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