Living with Cushing's Disease

I was diagnosed with Cushing's in April of 2001 and my symptoms at the time were excessive weight gain insomnia panic and anxiety infections that were not normal to my body excessive facial hair growth and just a sense that my body was out of control Cushing's disease is a serious debilitating endocrine disorder caused by the presence of a non-cancerous pituitary tumor which ultimately leads to excess cortisol in the body Cushing's disease is exceptionally cruel in that it not only alters your appearance but affects your self-esteem in my case it affected my ability to think clearly to function as a physician Cushing's disease can be difficult to recognize as symptoms ranging from uncontrollable weight gain to depression to hypertension are easily mistaken for other diseases the time to diagnosis for a patient is on average 6 years from the time they noticed symptoms there are therefore numerous people suffering from this debilitating disease waiting to be diagnosed every specialist just looked at their area and no one was willing to make a whole diagnosis and so it wasn't until I gained enough weight and lost enough sleep and started to look like a football player that I was pushed by my father and my psychiatrist to go get my own cortisol tested Cushing's disease can cause severe illness and death with mortality up to four times higher than the healthy population Cushing's disease can be managed talk to your doctor about your options help support those impacted by Cushing's disease and spread the word about this often misdiagnosed condition to learn more visit www.kingston.com/support for

Channel: Novartis

Views: 40,088

Keywords: Novartis, Novartis YouTube, Novartis AG, Cushing's disease, pituitary, pituitary disorder, diagnosis, Cushing's, Lisa Wollman, CDAD13, symptoms, cancer, patient stories, endocrine disorder, pituitary tumor, ACTH, ACTH hormone, rare disease

Id: 80TrJa4ZlrQ

Length: 2min 17sec (137 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2013