MEDICAL MATTERS

[Wendyf]

The Latanaprost drops are remarkably effective Tiz. The pressure in my eyes was 27 in the left eye and 36 in the right, the drops have brought it down to 18 in both eyes. They have given me dry eyes so I'm now putting in drops for that.

[Stanley]

Best of luck to both of you!

[Tizer]

I'm glad someone is giving attention to this problem. We used to discuss it when I was doing my PhD on steroids nearly 50 years ago! Then it was more of a concern about purity of our drinking water and its contamination with steroids from contraceptive pills via urine. Now it's a wider range of drugs (and now including residues of illicit drugs) and the effects on aquatic organisms as well as humans...
`Scottish project tackles pills' 'environmental impact'' LINK

[Tripps]

when I was doing my PhD on steroids

Did you really need to take steroids to do a PhD?

[Tizer]

Well spotted, Tripps! Charles Atlas was my supervisor...

[Stanley]

When you give it some thought, the cocktail of minute doses of chemicals we are all exposed to is quite bewildering. Start with radiation then vapours given off in the home from paint plastics and carpets and then add drug traces..... I am always aware of the school of thought that says there is no such thing as 'a safe dose'. Than I remember a story I one read about shepherds in high mountains taking enormous doses of Arsenic, enough to kill us lot, because they believed it helped them to work at high altitudes. Their systems had learned to tolerate the poison through long use and ever increasing doses. I wonder whether we do the same with pollutants?

[plaques]

Homeopathy is considered a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine which personally I am very doubtful about but now we read about all these trace chemicals in water and in the air that could be harmful. How far removed are these warnings of dangerous effects when compared to the promised beneficial effects of Homeopathy?

[Marilyn]

When your doctor say “ you drink too much” you must enquire “ compared to whom?”. ( I read this somewhere...honest...it doesn’t apply to me)

[PanBiker]

Still not received any results from my first annual MRI scan from last October. I rang Debra, Mr Andersons secretary just before Christmas but have still not had a reply. I have emailed her this morning to see if I can gee the department up.

Notwithstanding my recent three week hacking cough which has now mended up. I am feeling generally well and any deficit from my surgery that I have been left with has not deteriorated. Nevertheless it would be nice to have confirmation that nothing has changed upstairs. I reckon results are for the benefit of patients well-being as well as bread and butter information for the medics.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz has had a bad cough for weeks and it's just clearing up. Somehow, it hasn't infected me, but I did have an identical bout a couple of years ago so perhaps it's the same bacteria but I'm immune to it now.

[PanBiker]

Mine was the one that made your ribs sore from so much uncontrollable coughing, lot of it about it would seem this year.

[Stanley]

P. I wondered about that when I was writing the post but decided it might muddy the waters.... I suppose the two are comparable. (I keep stum about Homoeopathy because a very good friend is a practitioner.....)

[Tizer]

`Fatty tongues could be main driver of sleep apnoea' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard that report as well Tiz. Could it be related to excessive snoring as well? I must have a slim tongue!

[Stanley]

Airedale are on the ball. Appointment for cystoscopy in late March arrived yesterday. I am expecting three earlier appointments for BCG treatment. I suspect the letter is lagging behind endoscopy!

[Stanley]

I suspect I may be paying a price for my socialising with the family over Xmas, I think I have my first winter cold for as long as I can remember. Mild flu-like symptoms. I don't think it's serious but have taken note and gone to the usual defenders in the medicine cupboard. I shall be very kind to myself and do a lot of sleeping. (That's what triggered today's tip, "Feed a cold and starve a fever.")
This doesn't bode well for the shed!

[plaques]

if you have caught what is going round you'll get this heavy mucus sliding down your throat which sticks like the proverbial and you finish up breaking ribs and tearing muscles to cough it up. ( I exaggerate a little) but you get the gist, its nasty.

[Stanley]

It's not going to be as bad as that.....My immune system is fully deployed in blitzkrieg mode, my message to the vius is RESISTANCE IS USELESS!

[PanBiker]

Lots of folk have had it, "it's med to go round" as they say. Nowt wrong with my immune system but it still took three weeks to run its course. All normal self medication undertaken to boot. If you have been involved with kids in any way, they are the usual fester balls.

[Stanley]

You're right Ian and I suspect it was socialising over Xmas that got me. Symptoms are not severe and I ache less today. I shall continue with my normal TLC. Good grub, no strenuous exercise, plenty of sleep and the usual standby medication, Covonia, whisky and Sudafed, they seem to work for me!

[PanBiker]

Covonia and paracetamol worked for me, or at least masked the symptoms while my immune system did its stuff, still nasty though.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz was on Lemsip and Boot's Catarrh Pastilles and ate plenty of oranges to boost her vitamin C (helps the immune system).

`NHS to pioneer cholesterol-busting jab' LINK
`A twice-a-year injection that reduces bad cholesterol to protect the heart is to be pioneered by the NHS in England. Already, millions of people take daily statin pills to cut their cholesterol. But later this year, a "ground-breaking" large-scale clinical trial will offer NHS patients a new form of medicine, gene silencing, in an injection called inclisiran. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the initiative could save 30,000 lives during the next decade...'.

This new treatment to lower blood cholesterol uses injection of a drug called inclisiran. This lowers the LDL-cholesterol (`bad cholesterol') by increasing the numbers of available LDL receptors in the liver. LDL is naturally prevented from accumulating in the blood by sticking to the receptors as the blood passes through the liver. The drug is called a `gene silencing' method because it operates by switching off a specific gene to achieve the required effect.

[Tripps]

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the initiative could save 30,000 lives during the next decade...'.

Does that mean 30,00 more lives 'saved' above those already 'saved' by tablets?

Say the population is 60 million, and say half might benefit from Statin treatment, then 30,000 lives saved is about 0.1 % of the population. Bearing in mind that this drug is still in a trial stage, and even this figure is still unproven, is their really going to be any meaningful benefit? I have an open mind, and invite comments.

****************

I had a letter today to get me to sign up to a service that manages my presciptions. they use the NHS logo freely, but it's a private company called Pharmacy2u

I see no benefit at present to me from their service, but I can imagine a time when it would be useful to me.

[plaques]

Does that mean 30,00 more lives 'saved' above those already 'saved' by tablets?

These statistics aren't meant to be thought about, just accept the numbers. My interpretation is .. if you are going to save a life then this individual would have died within the ten year period whether they were taking alternative drugs or not. ie; you can't save a life twice from the same cholesterol problem. If tablets saved 70,000 then this would make it up to 100,000. But there again Matt Hancock is a Conservative politician which says it all.

[PanBiker]

I'm a simple minded bloke and I read it as it saves you popping hundreds of pills, two jabs a year and you are done. You could alter your diet also although this does not work for everybody.