Statins: Is the public beginning to question mass medicalisation?

Great Information FOR NOSES

There is, regrettably, not a whole lot that can be carried out for individuals troubled by persistent catarrh, with all its attendant miseries of a constantly blocked nose and hefty head, a post-nasal drip and, worst of all, the reduction (or marked diminution) of the sense of smell. These with a historical past of allergy may possibly be helped by the use of a steroid nasal spray, and some may react fairly drastically to abstaining from milk and dairy items. But for everybody else – aside from typical steam inhalations – that’s about it.

It as a result verges on the miraculous to understand that more than 3-quarters of individuals are “significantly improved” following a 3-month program of the low cost antibiotic erythromycin, taken at half the standard dose. Those wishing to know far more should read “Macrolide Therapy of Persistent Rhinosinusitis” by Anders Cervin, published in the journal Rhinology. Check out tinyurl.com/rhinologydownload for a totally free pdf.

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AN Reply TO FACIAL NUMBNESS

The misfortune of the young girl with persistent facial numbness, hearing troubles and vertigo following her return from a backpacking holiday in West Africa two many years in the past, has prompted readers to stage out that the US Food and Drug Administration lately warned that the antimalarial drug mefloquine can trigger neurological side-effects that could “persist for months or many years or grow to be permanent”.

Meanwhile, the same pattern of symptoms might, if transient, be a variant of migraine affecting the blood provide to the brain stem that connects the brain to the spinal cord. A correspondent from Dubai reports recurrent, and quite distressing, episodes that went undiagnosed for four many years – in spite of all the usual brain scans – right up until a new doctor joined the practice and recommended he give the anti-migraine drug Imigran. This, apparently, “did the trick”.

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CAN YOU Aid?

This week’s health-related query comes courtesy of Mr HM from Bolton, whose enthusiasm for walking the fantastic outside is increasingly curtailed by a dread of heights – both when hill rambling and on cliff-tops – which induces feelings of nausea and vertigo. He also finds descending inner staircases with a wide central void “almost impossible”.

Curiously, his wife is similarly impacted, as nicely as discovering the interior of massive buildings such as cathedrals quite tough to deal with. They would the two be much more than interested in any achievable options.

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RESTLESS LEGS Take A NAP

Finally, a reader reports that because discontinuing the acid-suppressant drug omeprazole, she can when again sleep through the night, getting no longer stored awake by the unpleasant sensation of restless legs syndrome – usually compared to “ants crawling up and down the bones”. This satisfied end result is practically undoubtedly relevant to the truth that omeprazole interferes with the absorption of iron from the gut – as iron deficiency is the underlying, and eminently treatable, result in in virtually one particular fifth of these with this problem.

Email medical questions confidentially to Dr James LeFanu at drjames@telegraph.co.united kingdom. Answers will be published on the Telegraph site every Friday, at telegraph.co.uk/overall health

Statins: Is the public beginning to question mass medicalisation?