What caused your AN ?

[Joef]

What do you think caused your AN ? .. this would be the place to look for a common thread !!

   Reading about the golf ball to the head, made me think of the time I was 8 , I had a bad concussion from when I fell from a bike and hit my head on the street. *No helmets back then*. Gave my parents a good scare! as I was out cold and spent a few days in the hospital.
   We seem to have a lot of teachers here! could noise be a factor? ... I've always been a metal head, music up loud as it could go my neighbors hated me as a teenager*. During my long comute to work *40 miles* I would always have a music up loud !!!!

[wanderer]

I've been in martial arts for over 20 years.   I've been hit in the head so many times it's not funny so there is no way to even guess if any trauma ever caused mine

[matti]

When I was finally diagnosed with my AN, one of the first questions my surgeon asked me was, "have you ever had any kind of head trauma?" My answer was yes, twice when I was a kid. Garage door slammed down on my head and a car ran a stop sign whille I was on my bike and I hit the ground head first. One of my questions to him was regarding loud music. During my teen years in the early 70's I never missed a rock concert and always had my stereo blasting. My surgeon did not think there was any link between loud music and my AN, otherwise alot more of the population would have one, but he did keep asking me about  the head trauma that I experienced as a kid.

Great question!

matti

[Kathleen_Mc]

I did have head trauma as a child, when I was about 6 I split the back of my head wide open in a fall. Also about a year pre diagnoses I was hit while driving (side swiped) and although I already had symptoms they greatly and quickly increased after this. I often wonder if the car accident caused the already present A.N. to grow at an acelerated rate. I myself believe the use of aspertaine (the sweetener, I can't spell tonight) may play a part in this....I was a big user of diet products from about the age of 14 and there was a study done in England (I believe it was England) linking the connection between sweetener aspertaine and A.N.'s. I have never been continually exposed to loud noise.
Kathleen

[jamie]

Aspartame is a nasty chemical, it's found in over 9,000 foods. There is a fairly wide belief that it can cause brain tumors.

[Crazycat]

Hi Joe,
   Are you refering to what I wrote in DeniseSmith's topic about the golfball? If you are I'm copying and pasting it here for easy access for others:
"Wnen I was five years old I was clocked on the left side of my head with a golf ball - on the ear
specifically. I started having short, profound dizzy spells at age 11 that would occur only once in a while up through the age of 30. I often wonder if those dizzy spells were a sign of what was to come?  The hearing in my left ear was good until 2001 or so."
  Now, I brought this to my doctor's attention during one of my visits and he didn't think it had anything to do with it.
  Interestingly enough, my paternal grandfather, who was also a musician as I am died from a non-cancerous brain tumor in 1941. Is it that these things are inherited? Not according to what I've been reading on the net. Is it if we have fibrocystic tendencies that we're susceptable?
 
                   Paul

[Joef]

Hey Crazycat ...
   Yea, I was referring to your post about the golf ball !! ..

   I know there are a lot of people that believe that Aspartame causes a huge list of issues, and I do think some people can have a allergic reaction to it,  or cell phone use but in most cases in don't think the cause is a simple as that  ..otherwise AN would be a common issue!  It seems that the nerve gets irritated by getting pushed against the bone from some sort birth defect or head trauma ..causing bells palsy or AN .. depending on how bad the nerve is irritated ...

[Boppie]

Joef, This is a good topic.

I never had head trauma, never attended a rock concert.   In my past I have had very good health.  The only connection I have ever pondered for my AN is estrogen use for HRT (6 years) This is probably bad logic.

I believe the deeper we look for a common cause of tumors in the body, the more varied our stories will be.

Since the advent and greater availability of the MRI, the head tumor is found and treated before mortal damage occurs.  I think there have always been more ANs in the world than the statistics state.

I wish that ANs could be prevented.   

[JHager]

Cool thread!

I could spend hours (none of you are surprised, huh?) regaling you with tales of head trauma.  Biking, falling, failing to duck, etc. - I've been blasted many times.  Not sure if there's a connection there, but the stories are funny.

Figuring out the cause of tumors is tricky business.  There are different causes for different tumors, but medicine doesn't know them all.  (For example, there's a virus that seems to be the cause of cervical cancer - research is still being conducted, but confidence is high.)  However, all tumors operate in basically the same way: they are cells that don't know when to stop dividing and growing.  When you cut your skin, a scar forms - but it grows only enough to repair the wound site.  Cells have a natural 'brake' that stops them from reproducing when they come in contact with surrounding, healthy cells.  Tumor cells have, through some means, lost that ability - they keep reproducing, even into healthy surrounding tissue.  One known cause of this is radiation damage to cellular DNA - but we've all been exposed to radiation at some level or another.

Basically, I think we could all find very common experiences we share, in addition to have AN.  And it's fun to share the stories! 

As for many of us who are teachers - some students are a pain in the neck, some in the butt, and others (apparently) in the head.  Not to mention parents, administrators, and people who verbally admire what you do but still think you are nothing more than a glorified babysitter and should be pain accordingly.  (Bitter party, party of one, your table is now available!) 

Keep posting these stories!

Josh

[jamie]

(For example, there's a virus that seems to be the cause of cervical cancer - research is still being conducted, but confidence is high.) 

HPV is the virus, there's over 100 strains and it is believed 80% or more of sexually active people have had HPV at some time, most clear it from the body within a year or two and it doesn't cause genital warts, dysplasia, or any other symptoms, but the 1-2% of women who have one of the few strains that can cause cancer and whose immune system isn't able to irradicate go on to have an increased risk of cervical cancer if they do not get regular pap smears. Also smoking increases that risk. Pretty freaky though, 80% of us get it, but women have the most to worry about.

[Larry]

Interesting thread and I agree with Boppie, in that we will receive varied and in some cases amusing stories. I never had any head trauma, did listen to loud music - still listen to Led Zep and Cream when i can, before my kids swing the sound to R&B, and used the mobile or for the "non-educated" cell phone (lol) as much as the next person.

My personal and tottaly uninformed verdict is that there is a combination of issues that would give rise to an AN. perhaps some weak gene or lack of a gene combined with execessive mobile phone use.

I know that there has been various studies of mobile phones and the rather inconclusive conclusion that they are safe doesn't convince me one bit. Look how long it took for the tobacco companies to own up (and they still fight). I think the dollars in the mobile phone and related industry is bigger than tobacco. Anyway, a great thread.


Larry

[Jeanlea]

Thought I'd add my thoughts to this interesting topic.  I rarely use the cell phone.  Don't think it could be that.  Don't recall any big head trauma.  Except maybe the time when I was 11 and fell off my bike going downhill too fast.  Only remember hurting my chin and arms though.  And the next day I got a bike for my birthday.     Must be the students then.  Some, although very few, have been a real pain (in my head??). 

[Sanddollar]

Gotta weigh in on this one!

Rock concerts - check!
Cell phone - check!
Aspartame - check!
Saccharine - check!
Caffeine - check!
Salt - check!  (Gotta cover all the vices while we are at it.)
Head trauma - maybe - I am not sure if it was on that side of my head, but I ran into a brick wall when I was a kid.  Duh!

[Joef]

Hmmm....

Concerts - check!
Cell Phone - check!
Head Trauma - check!
Smokin Tabacco - check!
Smokin (other!) - check! 
Caffeine - check!
Beer - check!
Whiskey - double check!
Too much computer use - check! (my first computer was in 1982!)
etc .....   

[DeniseSmith]

HA HA, you are all so funny!!!  Nice to see some humor in here today.

Head injury - check
cell phone - no
computer - check
artificial sweetner - always
loud music - no
smoking  - no


 
Have a Happy New Year!!!