Dr Le Fanu"s online health clinic, Friday 4th July 2014

I thought it really worth mentioning in situation you desired to inform your readers that there is an different supply. I understand it it also offered in Spain.

I discover your column really useful without a doubt.

Greatest wishes

Dear Anon,

Thanks for that most useful and indeed critical observation. This trouble in obtaining Cholestyramine is typically attributed to ‘production problems’ which can scarcely be the case if it is obtainable in France and Spain. This would recommend its non-availability in Britain is a marketing and advertising ploy to advertise the income of much more costly variants. I will mention this in the column.

ALAMY

Concerning Monica O’B"s leg pains, I am a woman now aged 71 who has suffered for many many years with excruciating nighttime pains/cramps in my feet, ankles, calves and thighs (which are the worst). It appears that practically each other lady I meet has this same dilemma, specifically females more than the age of forty.

Anyway, in my personal situation I have finally traced this to sugar, and if I never eat something with sugar in it after my evening meal, this dilemma doesn’t normally happen. If I have e.g. some chocolate or biscuits in front of the Tv, it does. Drinking lots of water before going to bed also helps.

Just believed I’d let you know.

LW

Dear LW,

Thanks for getting in touch and that most intriguing observation about the prospective causative part of sugar in nocturnal cramps. I was unaware of this and search forward to mentioning in in the column in the near long term.

Dear Dr Le Fanu,

My daily life is becoming significantly compromised by my osteoarthritis, especially in my knees, and most mornings I can hardly move for the very first hour or so. I consider not to take discomfort medication as fairly honestly, it just isn’t going to work. I go through and meant to tear out a reference to a treatment that can be helpful and of course lost it! It was a handful of weeks ago in your column and I would be quite grateful to have it once more.

Thank you,

Lisa RR

Dear Lisa RR,

Thanks for your query. I am not really positive which is the reference you allude to – maybe how the (very) well-known Glucosamine could paradoxically exacerbate the pain of knee arthritis – which improves when it is discontinued. As your signs and symptoms are worse in the morning I did wonder no matter whether it may be advantageous to get a prolonged acting anti-inflammatory (this kind of as 50mg Diclofenac) prior to retiring.

ALAMY

Reading about the magnet remedy this morning reminded me that a handful of years ago I study in your column of an individual who kept a bar of soap in their bed for the identical explanation. I reasoned that “never knock it prior to you consider it” was a good dictum, and have never ever had cramp in bed since I have had a tiny white companion close to my feet! If it’s all in the mind, that Ok? It still operates!

A lot of thanks Dr James

Rev Barbara S-P

Dear Rev S-P,

Thanks for becoming in touch and delighted to hear you benefitted from the soap bar remedy.

Dear Dr. Le Fanu,

I was interested to read the part on Ghostly Goings On. I bear in mind my Mom, on more than a single occasion telling me about how she had a dream (details of which I can’t recall getting told) about her 19 yr outdated elder brother being killed in France. The up coming day the telegram arrived. My Mother was 16 at the time.

(Some years ago when you had been investigating folks seeing spots as they have been in the previous, I lent you my guide(because returned!) on the Moberley sisters seeing Versailles in the 18th Century. I was disappointed that you did not adhere to up on these paranormal experiences, or probably I missed it.

For very good measure it was your write-up a lot of years in the past on a patient on statins going on vacation in the West Indies with a wheelchair who forgot his statins and returned property without any want for the wheelchair which encouraged me to stand up to my GP in obtaining him to alter my medication when I located myself with severe muscle fatigue. Some twenty many years on, at 82, I am nevertheless ready to stroll miles.

Thank you for your lengthy series of intriguing content articles.

Regards

Dear Anon,

Thanks for getting in touch and your account of your mother’s premonition of her brother’s death – presumably, I suppose, on the battlefields of France. It is extremely hard to imagine her feelings on obtaining the telegram. I am delighted of program that you, like so a lot of other people, have been inspired to discontinue their statins by that item in the column you mention and twenty many years on are still going powerful.

I read that someone had a ache following urinating at night for no apparent cause. I had the very same, and had the typical tests etc. In the end I took a pint glass and filled it with cold water and “dangled” my bits in for 4/five minutes. It has worked a deal with.

Good luck

Richard W

Dear Richard W,

Thanks for getting in touch however I am a bit puzzled as to why the uncommon manoeuvre you describe ought to have alleviated your bladder ache.

Dear Medical professional

When individuals ask me how I am I reply that I am fine from the knees up.That is since ,despite the fact that I do not seem to have any respiratory,heart,blood and so forth issues, I do endure from neuropathy in my reduced legs and feet.

I have gone from getting a match and lively 71 year previous in 2009/10 to a badly disabled 75 yr previous now. I was advised that the problem is down to a stenosis of the spine and in 2010 a laminectomy was carried out aimed at preventing additional deterioration. As I have received older nonetheless my mobility has worsened. My stability is negative and I can stroll only quite brief distances with the support of sticks or arm crutches. The only issue recommended for me has been occasional physiotherapy but I do admit to getting not very disciplined in which exercise routines are concerned.

I ask as a result for your views please on this situation all round and whether you are mindful of any kind of medicine or remedy which you have heard of which may supply some succour? I must say that I do not, fortunately, have significantly soreness – it is the lack of mobility and seeming inevitability of becoming confined to a wheelchair before long which frustrates me.

I thank you in advance for your observations.

Sincerely

Geoffrey L

Dear Geoffrey L,

Thanks for being in touch and my sympathies for this severe mobility difficulty which you describe. It surely sounds that your lumbar stenosis has critically damaged the working of both the motor and sensory nerves to the legs. There is no medical therapy for this even though I wonder clearly whether a couple of sessions with an osteopath might have some modest result in bettering the mobility of the reduce spine. I would advise, if you reside in the south east, contacting Dr Clifford Harley who is quite knowledgeable in these issues. HIs phone quantity is (Tel 07810 620058)

In the winter of twelve-13 I acquired chilblains on the index &amp middle fingers of my left hand just behind the nail.

Right after they cleared up the nails began to deteriorate and have never ever recovered. The index finger is the worse, with an very thin nail which keeps cracking &amp has vertical splits. It is not feasible to let this nail grow to its total length due to the fact it cracks or bends in excess of &amp breaks off. This is inconvenient as it can make items this kind of as choosing up small objects, carrying out up buttons and so forth. difficult (I’m left handed).

I don’t know whether this is just an age issue (I’m 80). My GP says he doesn’t feel something can be completed about it.

If you’ve any concepts I’d be really grateful.

Derek B

Dear Derek B,

Thanks for your query it certainly sounds as if your chilblains have broken the growth bed of the nails – for which to my information there is regrettably no specific remedy. It may with luck improve with time. I would advise against making use of the formaldehyde primarily based nail strengthening preparations – although reputedly typical moisturising of the nail with a lanolin primarily based cream (this kind of as Cutemol) can be of value.

On the subject of night cramps may I supply yet another remedy. I have had agonising night cramps for many years and while in South Africa in January somebody suggested I consider corks beneath my pillow! I will not drink so had to collect corks from other sources! It is like a miracle! No far more pain, thank goodness. My husband has also stopped suffering from the same issue.

Mrs. J. G

Dear Mrs J G,

Thanks for being in touch and your more affidavit for the cork treatment.

Dear Dr Le Fanu

I wonder if you can assist me. I am struggling from eczema and am so itchy regardless of applying tons of moisturisers, sporting only cotton or wool and sleeping in dream silk sheets. I will not have a rash. I consider warfarin tablets,Digoxin,Bisoprol,Esomeprazole. Citirizine Hydrochloride. The only thing that assists is a cold, moist flannel. Yours Sarah G-S

Dear Sarah G-S,

Thanks for your query to which I will reply in my next column at the beginning of August.

Good afternoon, I have been diagnosed with moist amd but my vision is too excellent to qualify for NHS treatment. I have had my first injection of avastin. It is an costly business and I am asking yourself if I can appeal in anyway. I am 65 and will run out of funds prior to lengthy. Exactly where can I get actually good information about the potential for my eyesight ? Thank you so significantly Mary P

Dear Mary P,

Thanks for your query. The rationale for prompt treatment of moist AMD in its early phases will be that it may well stop, or at least slow its fee of progression. There is however (to my information) no evidence that this is the situation – consequently the Nice suggestions to which you allude. I would have considered it wise to adhere to them on health care and financial grounds.

Dr Le Fanu"s online health clinic, Friday 4th July 2014