Period 1-2
Case #101
What Mineral is Paul Missing?
Paul is a vegan, who is also allergic to nuts. Paul likes to avoid leafy vegetables
because they would leave tiny leaves on his teeth. His diet consists of carrots,
potatoes, and other non-leafy vegetables.
Recently, Paul has been getting headaches. He never thought anything of it, as
they were often relatively mild. But as time went on they were increasing in severity.
Eventually, frequent headaches were not the only medical abnormality Paul was
experiencing. Paul noticed that whenever he brushed his teeth, his gums would begin
to bleed heavily. Even when he would floss, which was very strange to him since he
flossed regularly.This is when Paul began to become concerned.
Paul visited the doctor, but the doctor could not find anything wrong. Paul was
sent home and told to keep an eye on his symptoms and to come back if they got any
worse.
Shortly after his visit to the doctor, Paul began to experience an alarmingly
increased heart rate. Not only this, but he noticed when he got up to go to the bathroom
in the middle of the night that his night vision had sharply decreased. About a week later
he is hospitalized due to experiencing severe nausea and constant vomiting, along with
all of his other symptoms. After a couple of days, Paul fell into a coma. The hospital
staff still cannot figure out what Paul’s condition is. That’s where you come in. What’s
wrong with Paul?
Case #102
The Mysterious Case of Lucille Conch
Lucille Conch was going for her daily run and realized something was wrong with
her body. Lucille usually runs two miles but this time she could only run one mile
because she was very fatigued. She decided to end her run early because she was
getting light headed and dizzy, so she turned around and started for home. Lucille
didn’t think anything of her strange fatigue at first but this was only the beginning. When
she was relaxing after her workout she started to have weird chest pains and once
again she brushed it off and didn’t think much of it. Throughout a span of five days her
skin had become pale and had an uncomfortable tingling and crawling feeling in her
legs. When she went to get ready for a date with her boyfriend she realized her nails
have become brittle and some of her hair was falling out. Lucille decided to talk to her
boyfriend about her recent struggles. She told him that she recently decided to cut meat
out of her diet so she could lose some weight. Lucille woke up in the middle of the night
and she was cold especially her hands and feet. Lucille decided to go to the doctor.
After multiple tests, the doctor told Lucille that she was deficient in…
Case #103
You have been friends with jake for a long time now, you have both been
doing track for quite a while now. In the past races you guys working as a team have
came out very successful. You just feel as if you two could just run and run forever
without stopping. When you’ve visited his house the meals you eat there are just
wonderful. Gives you an idea how healthy jake has been eating most of his life. Now
lately you have seen a decreasing performance from jakes part during track season.
He has been eating healthy but doesn’t understand what going on. Hes been feeling
too tired after running lately, he did say “ I don’t know, lately I just feel more and
more tired after running, I don’t know why, I feel as if my muscles are becoming
weaker little by little. “ After one track practice you see he rushes mildly to the
bathroom as if something was wrong, you go to check on him and you see him
vomiting, he then tells you he has been feeling nauseous lately after exercising his
body too much, something neither of you expected to ever hear from each other. His
parents are aware of whats been going on with jake lately but don’t quite know
what the problem is. Maybe hes not eating right, but “ all he eats is healthy food” his
parents say, maybe theres something hes not eating right. About a week later, his
parents decided that this is bad so they decided to take him to the doctor, the doctor
informed the parents of jake, that he has a deficiency that’s has ben affecting him
since these symptoms started.
Case #104
Joe Shmo Story
Joe Shmo was a 28 year old man who loved to do cross fit. He had a huge competition coming up so he
thought if he stopped eating and drinking certain substances that it would improved his weight reps. A
week after he started this diet, he started losing a lot of weight. He didn’t think this was so bad because
its what he wanted, he was shooting for a target weight. Another week passed by and he noticed his
weight went down substantially he thought it didn’t really matter that he’s losing all this weight
because hes working out hard. Several days after he noticed that he started to get this conjestion, that
really didn’t seem to be going away. Worried enough bob thought to himself this diet is really affective,
but he wasn’t sure if it was in a good way. As the days passed bob felt more pain, and thought maybe his
body was just getting used to the diet and that it would go away shortly. He started having trouble going
to the bathroom, number two. He started noticing that his feces contained varying amounts of blood
and mucus. Joe Started to now get really nervous and decided to stop this diet and start drinking regular
tap water instead of distilled water. Also he started eating more foods but still healthy. After a few days
he started to feel better and his symptoms slowly decreased. What Deficiency did he have?
Case #105
Story
Brian is the starting midfielder on his lacrosse team. He recently had
been put on the 1st string line up and he is enjoying it very much. Brian is also active
in a few other sports such as basketball and football. He is very athletic and also
very smart. He gets straight As and is in all accelerated classes. The only problem
with Brian is that his diet isn’t the best. I mean he tries to balance out the amount of
junk food and healthy food but he leans more towards junk. Recently, Brian has
been having unusual problems that has been affecting his athletic performance. He
has been having agitation and anxiety and something called Restless Leg Syndrome.
He didn’t think any more of it and continued to play sports and live a normal
lifestyle. As a couple weeks went by he continued to develop more unusual
symptoms. He began to have trouble sleeping and he experienced a lot of nausea
and vomiting. “ I don’t know what it is I just haven’t been feeling good these past few
days” Brian had decided that it was time to tell his parents about these weird
symptoms he was experiencing. His parents were shocked when they heard the
news and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with their son. A few days later,
he began to have confusion and muscle spasms from time to time. “ Im starting to
feel very dazed and confused and my muscles having been spazzing out too” The
parents decided that week that they would take him to the doctor. Brians mom took
him to the doctor on the Thursday afternoon. Brian explained to the doctor about
what has bee going on and the symptoms. The doctor knew exactly what was wrong
with him. Once Brian and his mom found out the results, they were very shocked,
Turns out Brian was suffering from a mineral deficiency.
Case #106
Mineral Case Study
Violet was a very normal 80 year old ball of energy. Every day she went for a power
walk for 20 minutes and went to the pool to do some aerobics about 3 days a week. She was
pretty active for her age, she even went on dates. She ate the same thing everyday: a fruit
smoothie for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch, her dinners varied evernight but she always left
room for dessert. Recently she started a yoga class. This class was more stressful on her body
than she thought it would be, but she loved the workout so she continued to do it. Also, the price
of bananas are raising and since she is giving all of her grandchildren cars in the next year she
decided she needs to cut back in her spending. Bananas being one of her expenses that she has
cut back on. She she doesn't have them in her morning smoothie anymore.
Recently Violet has had some trouble going to the bathroom. She’s been taking medicine
to help, but it has not worked. On her morning walks she sometimes has to stop and take a break
because she feels a numbness in her feet. Once she gets back up her muscles feel like they’re
going to collapse. They feel like dead weight to her for the rest of the walk. She sometimes even
has to end her walk early. She’s reduced her time in the pool from 3 days a week to 1 because
she finds herself too tired after her walks to even think about going in the pool let alone go to
yoga. She’s noticed these symptoms over the past month and is worried that her age might be
catching up to her but she’s still confused. What can Violet do to get back to her normal self?
Case #107
Mineral Case Study Story:
Selena has decided to start a new, vegan, diet. It consists of mainly fruits and vegetables.
She’s also working out more often than before. Selena is taking her diet extremely seriously until
she starts to feel different. She continues her diet, not realizing that the diet is what is causing her
issues.
After only a few months, Selena has been experiencing fatigue, colds, and generally is
not feeling herself. Aside from her daily struggle to concentrate, Selena feels as though her hair
has gotten thinner. Her mother has also been telling Selena that she is gaunt and pale. Last
month, Selena’s best friend, Amber, gave her a coupon for a nail salon saying her nails seemed
for be “different”.
What is it Selena could be missing from her diet?
Case #108
Within the past month Kathleen has become a vegetarian. This means that she cannot eat any
meat or seafood. Kathleen participates in her school swim team and is captain of the school’s
cheerleading squad. Nuts and beans are Kathleen's favorite foods but lately she has been
breaking out in hives when she eats them. Kathleen suffers with bad acne and can’t get any guys
because she has no game. Her horrible ADHD personality also scares everyone away. It also
doesn’t help that she has massive diarrhea in the bathroom at school. The one time she did get
with a guy she gave him herpes. Kathleen just can't succeed in life. She has been performing
horribly during sports practices from stomach pains and unexpectedly defecating.
Kathleen has been noticing lots of bruises all over her body. She doesn’t know if it’s from
fighting in school or internal bleeding. She recently visited the doctor and they noticed that her
skin was turning a sickly yellow color. When the doctors were asking questions she was having
problems with speech. The doctor’s diagnosed her with Wilson’s disease. For the next several
weeks Kathleen felt weak and unable to move. Kathleen started to look very sick and her skin
started to age. Friends from school were scared with what is wrong with her, and also scared of
how she looked. When Kathleen tried to go back to school she was unable to walk from class to
class. The cheerleading team kicked her off because she didn’t look the “part”. Kathleen has
been feeling very depressed and just wants to get her life back together and needs to find out
what’s wrong with her.
Case #109
Melissa is a Junior in highschool, she has been playing soccer since 2005. She runs a lot
and practices playing soccer everyday even when the season is over. Recently Melissa
has been throwing up every time she eats dairy. Her mother took her to the doctor and
found out that she is lactose intolerant. Melissa is also a very picky eater, she only eats
about a handful of different things. She doesn’t like any vegetables and only eats chicken.
Lately Melissa has been training much harder to get a soccer scholarship to Lehigh. She
trains everyday for 3 hours and extra on the weekends. Now that she has been practicing
harder but her playing has gotten worse. She isn’t being social with anyone and looks very
sad lately. Her friends haven’t spent time with her in over two weeks and she shows up to
school 3 times a week. When she is playing soccer her muscles start to twitch which throws
her off her game. Her grades are dropping drastically. Melissa tells her mom that her test
grades have been so bad because she can’t even remember what she learned the few days
before. Her parents are starting to get really worried about her. She is usually outgoing, fun
and always out with her friends. Last night before she went to bed she thought she saw
someone in her room but when she closed and opened her eyes again the shadow of the
person wasn’t there. She claims that this isn’t the first time it has happen to her. Melissa is
starting to get really scared and sometimes during soccer she can’t feel her hands.