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Central Illinois Gazette

Champaign doctor solves a medical mystery

Posted by: Tom Kacich

Monday, May 11, 2009 8:04 AM

I always enjoy these Sunday magazine pieces about medical problems ad the doctors who resolve them. Yesterday's piece was about Dr. John Helfrich of Christie Clinic and and patient who came with a host of seemingly unrelated problems ...

"He didn’t have any trouble falling asleep, he told the sleep expert, Dr. John Helfrich. He fell asleep all the time — in meetings, after meals and sometimes he felt close to dozing off when he was driving. But he could not stay asleep. After an hour, maybe an hour and a half, he would wake up. Then if he could get back to sleep, he would wake up again 90 minutes later. Every night was a series of catnaps strung together. Sometimes when he woke up he was hungry, even though he had eaten dinner. That happened every couple of hours during the day too. He thought his sugar might be low, because he felt dizzy and kind of shaky until he ate. Yes, he did snore, and no, he didn’t have pain in his legs, the former a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, the latter of restless legs, two of the most common sleep problems.

"The patient ate a healthful diet and exercised for one or two hours every day. Despite this, his blood pressure was high (for which he took two medicines), and so was his cholesterol. He had allergies, which drove him crazy despite an antihistamine and a nasal steroid spray. A couple of years ago he broke his foot and found out that his bones were thin and weak. He saw an endocrinologist, who was treating him for that problem. He had adult onset acne and saw a dermatologist for that. And his teeth had their own midlife crisis: he was fitted for braces to repair his bite. “Seems like everything just went to hell after I turned 40,” the patient would tell each doctor."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/magazine/10wwln-diagnosis-t.html?ref=magazine