No April fooling these strange ills.

No April fooling these strange ills

From ancient medical conditions to those created by modern society, physicians must be ever alert for the unexpected. Recent reports have added a few more odd-but-true diagnoses:

Buckle up for safety, but make certain your seat belt fits properly, says Michael Bornemann of the Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. In the April ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE, he reports a case of thyroiditis apparently caused by a too-tight belt rubbing on a patient's neck. An inflammation of the thyroid gland, the thyroiditis caused neck pain, fever and a flu-like illness in the patient, who had purchased the car two months before the symptoms brought him to Bornemann's office.

Brush after every meal, but make certain you've satisfied that appetite first. In the March ARCHIVES OF SURGERY, physicians at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., say they've found toothbrushes inside four adults, who were not suffering from a psychiatric illness that otherwise might explain the unusual discoveries. Because there have been no reports that toothbrushes can pass through the body on their own without doing damage, the physicians removed them with a tube inserted into the throat. In two of the cases, say the authors, alcohol swallowing preceded that of the toothbrushes.

Add a little honey for sweetness, but beware the maddening aftermath -- if that honey is contaminated with compounds called grayanotoxins. Found in some rhododendrons, the toxins cause short-lived, rarely fatal symptoms that may mimic a heart attack, or dramatically affect the central nervous system. Physicians at the Karadeniz University School of Medicine in Trabzon, Turkey, report in the April 1 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION that they have seen 16 cases of "mad honey" poisoning in the last two years. Made by bees pollinating specific plants, the honey has been considered nasty since about 400 B.C., says Kenneth F. Lampe of the American Medical Association in Chicago. In an accompanying editorial, he warns that "(t)oday, cases of mad honey poisoning should be anticipated everywhere (including the United States). Some may be ascribed to a search for exotic tastes... from imported honey ... (or) the ingestion of unprocessed honey in the quest for 'natural foods.'"