WHAT IS ADDISON`S DISEASE?

By Charles Douglas Wehner

It is not a skin complaint. It is fatal.

It is so rare that every doctor has seen it a thousand times - but in his dreams.

There is no mild version. Symptoms appear only when the adrenal glands have been destroyed by ninety or more percent.

It causes gradual exhaustion, with no collapse. Consciousness is retained to the last.

There is a burning heat due to blood acidity, and a whole host of pains and symptoms. Some pains are like rheumatism.

The limbs become too heavy to lift. The victim is obliged to lie down.

Gangrene sets in. The body rots whilst the victim is fully conscious.

It is always due to tuberculosis of the adrenal glands. Modern doctors who have seen the disease in their dreams have altered the definition, but the statistics do not lie.

It can be cured, but has never been cured because there are so few genuine cases. Also because the standard antibiotics against tuberculosis include RIFAMPICIN and related compounds, which trigger a fatal reaction. Antibiotics must be chosen with extreme care.

False Addison`s disease is due to steroid addiction. This may be the fault of the patient or of the doctor. Widespread steroid misuse has made the discovery of genuine cases almost impossible.

Sometimes, but not when the patient is very blond or ginger-haired or dark-skinned, a sign can be seen on the skin. The sign is tribo-sensitive pigmentation.

Addison noticed, for example, that the stone-mason John Iveson had a sun-tan under the arm-pit. He alerted the medical profession to look out for brown pigmentation in strange places.

Revealed here for the first time is the truth. Iveson was a stone-mason. He picked up heavy, rough stones under his right arm-pit. The friction pigmented the skin.

Addison should have specified that the brown patches are to be expected at sites subjected to mechanical stress. This was only noticed by F. J. J. Schmidt, Martineau, Greenhow and others after the publication of Addison`s book and after Addison`s death, and was never widely promulgated.

Spots of pigment were sometimes found in the mouth. Of course - due to a sharp tooth rubbing, or something gritty in the food. Friction can and does occur in the mouth.

The depth of pigment is meaningless. Some patients died with no pigment. It is the link between pigment and mechanical stress that provides the clue - the tribosensitive skin is a useful sign when found.

It is known that amino-acids 4 to 10 inclusive of the sun-tan hormone alpha-MSH link to the pigment cells. This sensitises the skin to darken in the sun.

Addison was looking at the action of the STRESS HORMONE ACTH, whose additional 26 amino-acids shift the emphasis to the darkening of skin under mechanical stress. This possibly new discovery was made by the author. In Addison`s day, hormones were not known.