MEDICAL MATTERS

[Tizer]

Pain killers are addictive. Just think of those pop stars who end up killing themselves through over-use. (Perhaps they think that a `pop' star has to `pop' pain killers?)

[Stanley]

I doubt if it could happen to me Tiz.....
Have a look at THIS, I had never heard of 'bagpipe lung' but have often wondered about the insides of wind instruments especially when you see a player operating the spit valve to drain the instrument.

[Tizer]

Fungi are less trouble than bacteria but when they do infect us it can be very serious. I've probably mentioned before Mrs Tiz's uncle in Canada who was very fit, an outback type living out in the sticks and always walking and skiing etc. He started with breathing problems and it got worse and when he had tests they decided he had a big tumour in his lung. But when they came to operate they found it was a large fungal growth which they removed and he was OK afterwards. I think it might have been because he did a lot of woodworking and had plenty of logs about the place. There could have been fungus growing on the wood and he was constantly inhaling spores in his workshop.

There are news headlines at the moment saying `More than a third of teenage girls in England suffer depression and anxiety'. Is it pure coincidence that there are also headlines in the business press proclaiming big profits at the cosmetics firm Estee Lauder and that the firm now does most of its promotion on the Internet via social media? The firm claims that its sales have soared due to `selfies' and Instagram where girls and women want to show off at their best.

[Stanley]

'Farmer's Lung' contracted from spores on badly made hay is also a recognised industrial disease. My mate John Henry had to give up farm work because of it but when he went for compo they told him it was asthma! Actually it turned out to be loss of blood from bleeding piles, he had kept the fact he had them quiet but Arthur Morrison identified it and cured him.
I'll go with your theory about expectations placed on young women to 'look their best' being a possible cause of depression and anxiety. Look at the 'Aesthetic Plastic Surgery' business.... Life is complicated enough without making a market out of 'beauty'. Think corsets, hobble skirts and 4" high heels.....

[Tripps]

I have just learned from Sky News what 'Nootropics' are. Good grief. . .

nootropics

[PanBiker]

Go for a walk to clear your head, preferably up a hill.

[Tizer]

`Nootropics' look like something you sell to people who want to improve their brain power but would be better simply applying some everyday scepticism!

[PanBiker]

My ankle is a bit stiff today after twisting it yesterday, might take a day or two to mend up. I will have to make another dental appointment as well.

I went just over a week ago for my regular 6 monthly checkup, my dentist did a cleanup and scale and I noticed that my treatment notes say "minor adjustment to filling". I noticed during the procedure that she was poking around a bit with one of my lower molars. A couple of days ago I noticed I had a sore mouth adjacent to the molar and I can feel a sharp edge on the tooth which is almost certainly the reason. I think I might have lost part of the filling, no pain in the tooth and no problem eating. I'll get it checked though as I don't want it to get worse when we jet off to foreign parts next month.

[Stanley]

Nootropics give an entirely new meaning to snake oil.....
Ian reminds me once again how much I love my pot gobblers!

[Tizer]

Michael Mosley has done another Trust Me, I'm A Doctor programme, this time to see if apple cider vinegar has health benefits. I wish he'd included cider itself in the tests!
`Are the health claims about apple cider vinegar true?' (BBC News web site, 1/9/16)
"Apple cider vinegar is a traditional folk remedy that has been around for many centuries. But is it beneficial for our health, asks Michael Mosley. Apple cider vinegar is made by mixing chopped-up apples with water and sugar, then allowing the mixture to ferment, turning some of it into acetic acid. Despite being acidic and definitely something of an acquired taste, in recent years apple cider vinegar has become incredibly popular. At least a part of that is because of claims that it can help with everything from obesity to split ends and arthritis."

The conclusion: "...apple cider vinegar probably won't help anyone slim down, but it may help those who struggle with their blood sugar or cholesterol levels. Because it is acidic I would only drink it diluted or use it sparingly in food." Apple cider vinegar

[chinatyke]

Because it is acidic I would only drink it diluted or use it sparingly in food."

That statement doesn't make any sense to me because the stomach is much more acidic.

[Tizer]

That was a quote of their statement, not mine, but I would agree with them. Under normal conditions the stomach produces hydrochloric acid mainly when food enters or when it expects food. The acidic, part-digested food then passes to the intestine. Drinking or eating acid can expose the stomach to acidic conditions for too much of the time. As someone who has had ulcers and now gets an inflamed gut I can confirm that consuming acetic acid can play havoc with the gut lining, regardless of the normal HCl!

[Stanley]

I seem to remember there was a a previous craze for apple cider vinegar.... I eat at least an apple a day and that probably does as much good. Grandma may have been right.....

[chinatyke]

That was a quote of their statement, not mine, but I would agree with them. Under normal conditions the stomach produces hydrochloric acid mainly when food enters or when it expects food. The acidic, part-digested food then passes to the intestine. Drinking or eating acid can expose the stomach to acidic conditions for too much of the time. As someone who has had ulcers and now gets an inflamed gut I can confirm that consuming acetic acid can play havoc with the gut lining, regardless of the normal HCl!

Thanks Tiz. I thought the stomach was a constant bath of HCl waiting for the food to enter. I live and learn. Actually I always thought I was good at biology and the digestive process, so this is one of those cases where I've got an erroneous idea absolutely set in tablets of stone in my brain.

[Stanley]

I think we all have them China especially when it comes to medical matters!

[plaques]

The one thing that concerns me now-a-days is the way medication is offered on a 'probability' basis. We have all read the so-and-so epidemiological studies show that if your cholesterol levels are... or BMI is... then you have a 5% chance over the next ten years of suffering from X,Y,Z. So to counteract this probability take two pills a day of this that or the other for the rest of your life. Of course the counter argument is if it is only a 5% probability of getting it there must be a 95% chance of not getting it. So why upset a system that is working reasonably well on such a slim probability. Then, some time down the line another study will show that there are unintended consequences about taking these magic potions and the best action is to adopt a more sensible lifestyle. Meanwhile big Pharma are laughing all the way to the bank and Doctors are continuing to bury their mistakes.

[Tizer]

A bit more on stomach acid. It's not surprising we all think the stomach is extremely acid because most textbooks talk about it having a pH of around 1.0. This sounds extreme but it is only this low when food is present or about to be eaten and the stomach lining secretes a lot of HCl. Most of the time it has a `resting' pH of 3 to 4, which is about the same acidity as beer (Coca Cola has a pH of 2.5!). The pH scale is logarithmic so the resting stomach is 100 to 1000 times less acid than during a meal. When we eat a meal the stomach secretes HCl that is at about pH 1.0 but this is quickly diluted by the food and any drink we take at the same time so even then the pH is going to be higher than the 1.0 figure. The function of HCl in the stomach is not so much to directly break down food but more to activate digestive enzymes and unravel protein chains. When the food moves on into the intestine the acid is neutralised by secretion of bicarbonate.

Why doesn't coke taste very acid? It's simply because the high sugar content masks the acid taste. In fact it has about the same acidity as vinegar and it's sensible not to drink a lot of coke or cider vinegar! The acid in `soft' drinks is probably one of the main factors responsible for the high level of tooth decay in children now. As regards the stomach, occasional acid drink isn't a problem but frequent consumption gives the stomach no respite and that's when the problem begins.

Plaques, your `if it is only a 5% probability of getting it there must be a 95% chance of not getting it' is bang on target and applies in a lot of other situations too. There's s story on the front page of, I think, the Telegraph this morning about `Pollution, pesticides and even gadgets lead to 1300 more cases of cancers a year in the young' under the headline `Modern life is killing children'. Again, it's out of balance, it doesn't mention how lucky we are that so many diseases of childhood have been minimised. Childhood cancer has definitely increased since the 1970s but the survival rate for children’s cancer has more than doubled since the 1960s.

[Stanley]

P. I agree with you entirely as does Tiz. If my doc had his way I would be on statins but I refused on the grounds that as far as I was concerned the jury was still out on statins and I didn't believe I needed them anyway. All these recommendations are based on averages and neither I, my life style or my diet are average.
I can remember many years ago reading a book that recommended if you were going to be spending a long time out of touch with civilisation it was a good plan to have your appendix removed before you went as this eliminated one possible cause of trouble. In the days when we were really worried about the possibility of nuclear war I used to wonder what would happen to people on long term medication if our society broke down. I suppose my thinking on long term medication is tinted by these memories but like P I don't want to be locked into taking pills for the rest of my life and will resist any efforts to make me do it as long as possible!
One other point. I had all my teeth out when I was 23. This causes shock and horror these days but it relieved me of dependence on increasingly expensive dental care over the last sixty years..... Pot gobblers are the best investment ever!

[Stanley]

See THIS New Scientist article on research at Lancaster University. They have found that there are far more magnetic particles of iron in our brains than the natural particles that are formed in our bodies. These are round and have been identified as being formed at high temperatures and in consequence are almost certain to be from air pollution, particularly from vehicles. Worrying stuff if you live in a polluted city and we have some beauties!

[Tizer]

It looks convincing. At least we might now move faster towards electric vehicles. If we accumulate much more magnetite in our brains we'll be able to navigate without GPS!

[Pluggy]

Its these nasty Diesel engines that do the damage.

Looking into it, I reckon we were sold a Con with Diesel engines being enviromental , they produce less CO2 but its the other crap coming out of their exhausts thats the problem.

If I get my way, the Dacia will be my last car with an internal combustion engine. (Still haven't got it back after the accident, I'm suffering a Fiat 500 courtesy car at the moment) I reckon another 10 years and the majority of new cars sold will be electric. The cost is dropping and cost is one of the major hurdles standing in the way. There is already a passable rapid charging infrastructure in place and is improving, The current Teslas and the next generation Nissan Leafs will have a good range (> 200 miles) and better than ICE performance. The Tesla model S is the quickest (if not the fastest) production car.

[Stanley]

I agree Pluggy. Two things spring to mind.... The culpability of planners and governance which has led to basic scientific evidence about air pollution being ignored to the point where many of our cities are, by any standard, not fit for human habitation. In a factory environment levels of pollution on that scale would be illegal, the same applies to noise.
Second, two of the quiet revolutions that have been rapidly progressing over the last twenty years is the efficiency of alloys for permanent magnets which have made small efficient DC motors much more efficient and the parallel improvements in batteries, we have come a long way since the old lead/acid cells! (And then there are fuel cells....)
Thinking about noise. I have mentioned before the tinnitus I have which I put down to a lifetime of exposure to diesels, big guns and riveting. My ears could solve the world fuel problems if the wax could be harvested! So I frequently use Earex drops to keep them clear. One of the problems about cotton wool plugs for keeping the oil in is that they absorb the Earex so the other day, as I was sat reading and didn't need to hear I dosed them with Earex but used plastic coated disposable ear plugs left over from the riveting days. They are very efficient and one thing I noticed was that my 'tinnitus' was almost completely eliminated. The thing that intrigues me is whether the noise is generated in my head and somehow using the plugs reduced it or is what I hear an ambient sound that we all suffer from. I should say that apart from a drop off in the ability to hear high frequencies my hearing is quite acute.

[Tripps]

I spent the evening in A&E yesterday. Some waiting involved, so I spent the time watching the process. It struck me that they were very very busy, and that the new computerised record system seemed to be working well - everyone had a terminal - even the 'bloods' lady who is now known as a 'Physician's Assistant'. Scanning the wrist band should easily remove identity errors

I am always confused by the different uniforms, and it is hard to tell who does what. The doctors of course identify themselves by wearing no uniform, and having a stethoscope around their neck. The thought then occurred that despite all the technical advances, this item remained largely unchanged for decades. Is there not scope for adding a built in amplifier to the device, or even using bluetooth? Could be a case of 'if it isn't broke - don't fix it' but this contradicts my theory that 'we never live at a level of technology below that which is available'.

I know I should have taken a book.

[Stanley]

I hope they helped with whatever you were in there for David. Interesting observation.... Perhaps the stethoscopes are just good enough?
My medical problem this morning is Jack's knackers! They are evidently itching and he is licking them until they are inflamed. I have put some steroid cream on..... Will keep my eye on it, not life threatening at the moment!

[PanBiker]

Day 3 in Greece and we have already been to the medical centre. Sally has developed a swollen eyelid (almost closed), nice doctor saw her without our medical documents and gave her a steroid injection and a prescription for a course of tablets. We picked them up from the pharmacy next door e2.60 in total. We have to call back in tonight with our docs. No messing around and excellent service, I wonder what it will be like after Brexit