MEDICAL CONDITIONS EXPLAINEDOther Medical Conditions Explained is a sub-section of Answer My Health Question, a service provided by Carolina Valdivia, MD On this page, I provide my responses to questions that have been submitted by visitors to Answer My Health Question on glaucoma-eye-info.com. This page specifically addresses medical problems that are not directly related to the eye. Diseases and disorders do not exist in a vacuum. They occur within the context of the complex systems of the body. Thus, a disease or disorder that appears to be confined to one area of the body often affects other areas as well. A good example of this is the inherited disease cystic fibrosis. Most people are familiar with the severe problems that cystic fibrosis can cause in the lungs. However, it also causes significant difficulties in the pancreas and liver as well. Many diseases and disorders with primary symptoms elsewhere in the body also have affects on the eyes, either direct or indirect. Other medical conditions explained is the place where I discuss these diseases. When I first started glaucoma-eye-info.com, I posted questions and my responses to them on specific theme-oriented pages, and only if they advanced the discussion on that page in some way. These questions are identified by the now familiar question mark icon shown below that appears throughout this website.
 However, I soon was overwhelmed with questions, some that pertained to material on existing pages on glaucoma-eye-info.com, but many that did not have a direct connection. Nevertheless, they were interesting in their own right. Others required a more substantive response from me than was appropriate for inclusion on a regular page. Thus, Answer My Health Question was born. Over time, I received so many questions that they became difficult to organize on a single page. I initially created a second page called Other Eye Problems that was designed to address questions that pertained to the eye but that were not directly related to glaucoma. I soon realized that not even this division was adequate. I had received a number of questions about diseases and disorders that did not have their primary symptoms in the eye, such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, kidney disease, and thyroid disease, but nonetheless had affects on the eyes. Thus, I created Other Medical Conditions Explained to organize those questions. The growth of the readers' questions part of this website is a testament to the engagement and interest of the readers of glaucoma-eye-info.com. You have asked me some timely and challenging questions. I am very grateful for your support. Other Medical Conditions Explained is not designed to be a comprehensive listing of diseases and disorders. It instead is driven by the interests of visitors to glaucoma-eye-info.com. As always, I am strongly committed to protecting your privacy. I always secure permission from the author of a question before it is posted on this website. Moreover, except for gender and age, no other identifying information is presented with a question. For more information, please read the privacy policy for glaucoma-eye-info.com. I hope that you will find the Other Medical Conditions Explained sub-section of Answer My Health Question useful.
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