Dr James Le Fanu: 31 May
Mainstream medicine has always taken a dim view of the popular enthusiasm for taking vitamin supplements on the grounds that there is more than enough of these vital chemicals for the body’s needs in a sensible diet – and any excess, purchased at considerable expense from the chemist, is excreted unchanged in the urine.
The possible exception would be vitamin D, essential for healthy bones, most of which we derive from the action of sunlight on the skin – of which there has been precious little in the past few months. Hence perhaps the surprising claim that one in four adults may be ‘seriously deficient’ – particularly during the winter.
This is not so severe as to cause, as in the past, the soft ‘bowed’ legs so typical of rickets, but may result in muscular aches and predispose to several medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Accordingly, Professor Simon Pearce of Newcastle University, writing in the British Medical Journal, suggests doctors should make a practice of measuring the vitamin D level in their patients and giving a hefty restorative dose to those found to be deficient.
The renewed interest in the possible adverse effects of insufficient vitamin D also helps clarify the grievous situation where small infants have ‘unexplained’ fractures. Here it is not unusual for the unfortunate parents to be accused of baby battering – despite an unusual variant of migraine and ginger’s healing properties the absence of any circumstantial corroborative evidence of physical assault, such as bruising. The more probable explanation, proposed by the medical experts who maintain that these parents are innocent, is that these babies are deficient in vitamin D for the first few weeks of life. This causes them to develop fractures with minimal trauma – or just normal handling.
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of a reader in her mid-60s who, over the past few years, has had a dozen or more attacks of acute vertigo, with vomiting, headache, difficulty in focusing and looseness of the bowels. Her GP referred her to an ENT specialist who arranged for her to have a brain scan, which was clear, and he suggested she might have ‘early onset’ Ménière’s disease – without the usual accompanying symptoms of tinnitus and deafness. The only treatment that seems to work is the anti-vertigo drug Stemetil that must, because of her severe vomiting, be given as an intramuscular injection.
The intermittent nature of these episodes – and their severity – is not typical of Ménière’s. It’s more likely to be a variant of migraine that can occur without the classic unilateral headache. It would be worth considering a trial of migraine drug Sumatriptan, which, were it to abort an attack, would confirm the diagnosis.
drjames@lady.co.uk
On Boxing Day this lady noticed that the pain and swelling of her wrists and finger joints was much diminished and, suspecting her Christmas gift – consumed the previous evening – might be responsible, put herself on a daily dose of ginger-root capsules. ‘I’ve not been able to wear my wedding ring for two years,’ she writes, but she can now slip it on and off her finger at will.
This is particularly gratifying as she’s intolerant of the standard anti-inflammatory drugs that cause ‘dire side effects’. Investigating further, she discovered that the Chinese have used ginger for this purpose for at least 2,000 years.
The possible exception would be vitamin D, essential for healthy bones, most of which we derive from the action of sunlight on the skin – of which there has been precious little in the past few months. Hence perhaps the surprising claim that one in four adults may be ‘seriously deficient’ – particularly during the winter.
This is not so severe as to cause, as in the past, the soft ‘bowed’ legs so typical of rickets, but may result in muscular aches and predispose to several medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Accordingly, Professor Simon Pearce of Newcastle University, writing in the British Medical Journal, suggests doctors should make a practice of measuring the vitamin D level in their patients and giving a hefty restorative dose to those found to be deficient.
The renewed interest in the possible adverse effects of insufficient vitamin D also helps clarify the grievous situation where small infants have ‘unexplained’ fractures. Here it is not unusual for the unfortunate parents to be accused of baby battering – despite an unusual variant of migraine and ginger’s healing properties the absence of any circumstantial corroborative evidence of physical assault, such as bruising. The more probable explanation, proposed by the medical experts who maintain that these parents are innocent, is that these babies are deficient in vitamin D for the first few weeks of life. This causes them to develop fractures with minimal trauma – or just normal handling.
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of a reader in her mid-60s who, over the past few years, has had a dozen or more attacks of acute vertigo, with vomiting, headache, difficulty in focusing and looseness of the bowels. Her GP referred her to an ENT specialist who arranged for her to have a brain scan, which was clear, and he suggested she might have ‘early onset’ Ménière’s disease – without the usual accompanying symptoms of tinnitus and deafness. The only treatment that seems to work is the anti-vertigo drug Stemetil that must, because of her severe vomiting, be given as an intramuscular injection.
The intermittent nature of these episodes – and their severity – is not typical of Ménière’s. It’s more likely to be a variant of migraine that can occur without the classic unilateral headache. It would be worth considering a trial of migraine drug Sumatriptan, which, were it to abort an attack, would confirm the diagnosis.
drjames@lady.co.uk
A Daily dose of ginger
Some Christmas presents are more welcome than others, but for one recipient, a box of crystallised ginger transformed her life for the better.On Boxing Day this lady noticed that the pain and swelling of her wrists and finger joints was much diminished and, suspecting her Christmas gift – consumed the previous evening – might be responsible, put herself on a daily dose of ginger-root capsules. ‘I’ve not been able to wear my wedding ring for two years,’ she writes, but she can now slip it on and off her finger at will.
This is particularly gratifying as she’s intolerant of the standard anti-inflammatory drugs that cause ‘dire side effects’. Investigating further, she discovered that the Chinese have used ginger for this purpose for at least 2,000 years.