Their signs and symptoms, rather, are a mixture of depression, anxiety, side results of medicine and preceding brain damage – some of which are treatable but can be overlooked if the patient has been (incorrectly) diagnosed as getting dementia. It also appears the numbers progressing to much more severe varieties of cognitive impairment are significantly reduced than previously supposed, raising doubts about the utility of diagnosis in the 1st location. Christopher Maycock, a retired household medical doctor “at risk of an unsolicited GP dementia assessment” intends, when asked to title the current Prime Minister, to reply “Disraeli” – a tactic that others may possibly want to adopt.
As for the red tonic, yet another reader vividly remembers getting taken by his mom to the family members physician who, at the end of the consultation, emerged from his dispensary with a bottle, instructing him to take two teaspoons each morning: “It was lovely.” Not too long ago his brother-in-law introduced him to the energising drink sarsaparilla that has, reputedly, a selection of medicinal uses. “My first mouthful distinctly reminded me of that red tonic dispensed 50 years previously,” he reports.
The most potent of these hidden components, nonetheless, was that stand-by of murder novels, the poison strychnine. At a minuscule dose (one twenty-fifth of a grain) it was claimed to “increase the speed of impulses in the nervous system”.
The nearest modern day equivalent to these tonics, it is advised, may be a glass of Mackeson’s ale.
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The reader’s account of “excruciating and agonising pains” in the reduce jaw, spreading down to the neck, arm and chest, has prompted even more plausible explanations.
A couple of readers recommend this may possibly be oesophageal spasm, that can often be relieved by a slug of alcohol (which relaxes the muscle groups) or the burp-inducing effects of fizzy lemonade. The spasm itself is generally brought on by acid reflux and so people often impacted would advantage from the preventive effects of an acid suppressant drug this kind of as omeprazole.
The additional probability is that the ache may possibly be induced by clenching of the jaw muscle tissue at evening (bruxism), which can be prevented by sporting a mouth guard.
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This week’s healthcare curiosity comes courtesy of Mrs FD of Leeds, who has been troubled by mild vertigo on and off for numerous many years, especially when lying down or turning more than in bed. The dizziness is a lot more marked at the time of the equinoxes in late March and September, when day time and night are of roughly equal duration – following which she improves again. Could there be, she wonders, some cosmic explanation?
Electronic mail health care queries confidentially to Dr James LeFanu at drjames@telegraph.co.united kingdom. Answers will be published every single Friday, at telegraph.co.uk/well being
Doctor"s Diary: When is dementia not dementia?
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