37 Doctors Share Which Diseases Should Scare People More Than They Do

Multiple Sclerosis or any of the many central nervous system issues that we can have. Honestly, most cancers are applicable here as well because we are so surrounded by carcinogens that we are bound to have higher rates in many cancers. These are especially noticeable in firefighters, where they are exposed to burning petroleum products that contain god knows what. Granted most firefighters are required to wear SCBAs but hey, stuff happens.

Not a disease, but tongue rings! Wore down the inner bone of my jaw with little damage to gums, so didn't know till the puss was seeping out and I needed a bone graft. Cannot stress the amount of damage they do.

Here's something that is not a disease, but that I think you should REALLY care about: diminishing long-term treatment compliance.

What is that, you ask? Well, say you're on a treatment for a certain disease for life. At first, you take your pills just like your doctor prescribed. Then, months in, you slip a few doses, or maybe some days you don't take them at the precise schedule they should be taken. Then you skip days altogether. And why do you? Because you stop feeling sick, or you stop noticing the difference the medication does.

This can be catastrophic in many situations, but there are two that I personally consider more important: in mental health conditions, and in immunosuppressive therapy after an organ transplant.
In both these cases you stop noticing what the medication is actually doing, and as you stop being disciplined about it, you increase the risk of serious complications and acutisations.

Non-compliance in immunosuppressive therapy in particular, is very bad. These days, even delivering different numbers, every published study agrees most rejections are caused by non-compliance to treatment. You're about 3 times more likely to develop a late acute rejection if you're non-compliant. Basically, your lack of discipline can cost you your very rare 2nd chance - your kidney, your liver, your heart, you lungs.

Same goes for diabetics - you don't notice your glucose levels are through the roof as easily as you notice they're too low. You skip a few insuline doses and notice no immediate consequence - that doesn't mean they don't exist!

So, just remind yourself that the medication you buy and take everyday is there for a reason. You feel great, probably because it's doing its job.

Hep C. Probably worse than HIV. No great treatment. High conversion rate to liver cancer.

Saw a post of a leg infected with something and the comments said it was black plague and that there's an outbreak in China so there's that.

Malaria. Though it's not common to catch in the states, and is most commonly associated with mosquitos, it has ended half of every person who had ever lived on Earth. And treatment is unreasonably difficult to get in the places where it's still a threat.

Most of the really dangerous stuff has been covered by others here. However, while not usually life threatening - these lesser threats still scare the hell out of me.

Chikungunya - spreading in the Caribbean to near epidemic levels, and can cause years of joint pain if you get it (mosquito carrier)

Lone star tick bites - found in most of the US east of the Mississippi (and spreading) and induces long-term allergy to red meat.

Doctor Here. Here's the truth and I won't go with the high profile answers. But I will tell you on the whole, that for everyone reading this right now, the vast vast majority will not get the hell scared out of them from High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol and Diabetes.... but you should, and I'm really sorry to say this but... you will.

Exercise, Stop Smoking and Eat a Balanced Diet.

Honestly the biggest health risk I'm seeing more and more in young populations is obesity. Obese patients that come in with relatively benign problems fair much more poorer than people who have an appropriate weight. I'm in the intensive care unit this week and there are 2 patients here who are obese that came in with relatively treatable illnesses except there bodies behave as if they are in their 90s. Additionally there are an increasingly more and more peer reviewed articles stating that obese people do much worse in major surgeries/difficult hospital stays than any other population. Lastly the generation right now that are obese and sick are usually in their 60s, and didn't turn this way until their late 40s. However nowadays you are seeing more and more children become obese at a younger age, which can lead to more devestating illnesses at a younger age. All the patients I speak to about their weight tell me how they started off slightly overweight, but the combination of both age and ingrained habits led to unmitigated weight gain that was near impossible to lose. So moral of the story is stay within a normal weight range, and if you end up going down the dark side please do everything you can to return to a normal body weight.

Chinkungunya is starting to look like its gonna be pretty scary within the next decade.

It might not be a disease as we traditionally view them but antibacterial resistance. Seriously, we bathe ourselves in antibiotic soap daily.

Lyme Disease

I'm not a doctor, but my mother is a nurse. My whole family was diagnosed with Lyme Disease a few years ago, and it's quite traumatic. It can cause horrendous muscle pains, joint swelling, and memory loss. One day after leaving Highschool, I forgot how to get home. Three years of going to this school, taking the same route everytime, and my brain had just let it all slip away. I ended up asking a friend who lives near by if he could lead me home.

Skin cancer. We actually don't know very much about it at all.

Diabetes. Had a pt in his early 30s who was noncompliant with his meds (HgBa1c 10%) that got a small foot ulcer. Patient did not pay much attention to it, and kind of brushed it off - only used topical antibiotics. Ultimately became osteomyelitis (bone infection) - wound consult could pass a probe right through the dorsal and plantar surfaces. Surgeons amputated everything below the knee.

Diabetes. Diabetes is the freaking worst, because the second you get it, you develop 10000 other problems.

Obesity. It's the number one preventable cause of death, it accelerates the speed of aging, it increases your risk of cancer, it contributes to the epidemic of type II diabetes, it makes surgery more risky, and it can be incapacitating in itself.

Not a doctor or a nurse, but I did have to do a lot of extensive reading about people going to the ER instead of a dentist for a toothache and having an infection spread from their tooth/teeth into their brain

I would honestly like to know how true this was, because I have two teeth that are pretty bad. I know I should see a dentist, but I haven't seen one in like 16 years, so I'm partially embarrassed/scared.

My mom used to be a dentist in Mexico, *years ago* and tells me to go, but assures me that I'm not going to die because of it.

I'm torn between facing a fear and my health, so I'd love to hear from professionals.