As the title suggests, I have a health project on diseases to do, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a topic, or presentation.

I wanted to get a giant bra and make that into a presentation for breast cancer, but it was taken. Most of the one's that people would think of the top of thier heads(diabetes, anorexia...) are taken though.

If I can't think of a new topic, I already have manic depression(bipolar disorder) set aside, because I certianly have a lot of experience with that. :P

Any ideas/suggestions?

multiple myeloma

My brother has that. You can get a skeleton and drill holes in the bones and stuff the holes full of tumors...

my wife was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease) last year.

as wikipedia states: "At about 14 cases per 100,000 (in the U.S.), it is one of the lesser known autoimmune disorders." it's an interesting disease. chronic but treatable with a good prognosis. it's lesser known so raising any kind of an awareness is a good thing...

not to sound disrespectful, but diseases like the ones you mentioned - diabetes, anorexia, etc. - are pretty well known and students/instructors probably see presentations on these diseases every year...so a disease like MG could be a good choice (imo)...

if you google or search wikipedia, you will find some good resources...

Spasmodic dysphonia

A very very interesting medical condition where some people can sing or rhyme, but not talk for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia

I would suggest something somewhat common but more or less overlooked for these sort of projects.
My suggestions:
Multiple Sclerosis
Lukemia
Lymphoma

Or if you want weird and kind of obscure:
Chiari malformations

there's only one "fun" choice... Tourettes Syndrome.

Celiac Sprue? Often missed at diagnosis because its symptioms resemble other diseases. Ditto for Lupus.

How about Lyme disease? Check out a book called "LAB 257" which makes a very good case that Lyme escaped from a bioweapons lab on Plum Island, off the coast of NY!

HPV and the connection to cervical cancer? Very timely topic.

Autism? Also very timely, since diagnosis rates are going way up with better testing.

Along the autism line... Aspergers is getting a lot of PR right now.

Good luck!

Irritable *fart* bowel syndrome.

Premenstrual syndrome

WHAT? YOU'RE DOING WHAT KIND OF REPORT? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS???

The Queen of PMS has spoken.

Meniere's Disease - almost nobody has heard of it, but it's fairly common. Some of the more fun symptoms include dizziness and tinitus, so you could blast a high pitch noise in peoples ears while spinning them in circles, to give them a very small idea about what life is like for sufferers.

Well I was going to say Tourettes Syndrome, but since BrownTrout beat me to it, I'll suggest this:

Start off by bringing in some drinks and donuts. Pass them out to everyone.

Then begin your presentation on


I can imagine their faces when they start to wonder...

Nope, my father has Fuch's Syndrome. It was an interesting experience trying to look this up online. NSFW was an understatement.

It is hereditary, so I had to be tested. They don't know if I have it or not. It is a disease of the cornea that causes the cells that regulate eye pressure and moisture to die off. The only real issued early-on are constantly waterin eyes, and copious readers often experience this one just because the do not blink normally. At the final stages, you need new corneas or you just go blind. (Dad is just starting to experience failing vision.) Fortunately, the expectation is that these last stages tyically occur in your 70's and I will probably be killed in some silly cheese-related accident long before it is an issue.

Seriously consider LUPUS. It is being discovered more and more, and is still almost unknown to the public at large.

What education level is this? Some diseases would make excellent research papers in college, but be really sucky diaramas in elementary school, if you see where I am going.

From the Bra comment, I assume this is a science fair or high school project?

EDIT: Forgive me if you already know this, but, avoid any single source of info, particularly an online source you are not familiar with. CNN may be a trusted source for news, BOB'S BLOG should be verified if it says the sky is blue. Research not only the disease, but the authorities on whose work you base your project. (I especially distrust the Wiki-made-it-up.) If you start there, follow the links to the backup info or find another independent source.

This is WAYYYYYY Wicked (in both senses of that word)!

Just have stomach pumps and mops on hand!!!

I gave you an upvote. Please don't hurt me!

This made me smile like a cheshire cat!

Hooah! Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all the suggestions! Now I have stuff to look up and actually learn during the night(instead of all that porn... :p).

It's for a tenth grade health class, and I think I have a week or two to work on it. Maybe more... I'm a surprisingly bad student for someone getting an A(I turn in an extra credit article every week thank to none other than plime! So you can all bask in the glory of my grade as well; without plime I would have had to actually... try(perish the thought).