Hair in the wrong places

In my early teenage glory days, I remember how weirdly I used to look at all those aunties who in my teenage eyes have allowed themselves transition into "Manhood". It was a great amusement for me. Many of my classmates concluded only very wicked woman were afflicted with such as a result of their wickedness, others said it was a sign of power with these women. I knew deep down that if that was a result of wickedness, I sure wont be a partaker in that sort of affliction. I also was certain that if that was a sign of power, I would rather be a hairless powerless lady:) I could never wrap my head around why a female would leave her house with a strand of hair which isn't on the eyebrow, or on her head.

You can imagine the horror when I discovered my first facial hair!!! I was Stressed. I was wondering where I had gone wrong, who I had offended to cause me this great affliction. I immediately after making this depressing discovery started the rituals of plucking stands of hair, applying excess makeup in my chin area to mask the stubborn strands of hair.

Four years after this discovery, I still pluck hair as regularly as I can, although there are days a couple of my friends be like 'hey, you are starting to grow facial hair'... and I'm like 'awwwwww' unknown to them, its been my 4yrs long journey.

I only hope it wont escalate...

source: curezone.org

Hair in the wrong places (2)- Hirsutism

Hirsutism- that's what we doctors call hair in the wrong places. Find my own personal "Hirsutistic"experience here.
Hirsutism is a condition where a female starts to grow a male hair pattern (distribution of hair)- particularly growing a beard, hair on the chest, belly or back.
Normally, hair pattern is sort of controlled by some regulatory hormones particularly the male hormones (Androgens). Little quantities of this hormone is found in women ordinarily. However, sometimes there could be a dis-balance, leading to an increase in this hormones' concentration which in turn causes this symptom.
The little amount of Androgens is what I like to believe causes the few strands of unwanted hair some females may have.
 Hirsutism is either familial, or caused by some diseases of endocrine glands.

Familial hirsutism is identified usually in a family. look for your sisters, if they have similar isolated strands of hair, great, you could rest.
Hirsutism due to diseases of endocrine glands usually is accompanied by several other symptoms including

source- curezone.org

• weight gain
• menstrual irregularities
• voice changes- hoarse voice
• decrease breast size
• rapidly increasing hair growth
• acne

If any of the symptoms listed above is being experienced, it would be wise to visit with your doctor and have your hairiness investigated.

There you can expect to have hormone profiles done to investigate what the issue is and treated based on whatever they discover.

For those of us who are just plain old hairy and wish to,
home remedies include

• Shaving regularly
• plucking hair- which is quite painful but totally worth it for single strands**
• waxing for bulk hair
• hair removal creams or gels

However, a long lasting solution is having either laser hair removal or electrolysis which happens to be a permanent solution, but could be painful as well.

Beauty is pain...

Find what suits you, and have a hairless rest of your week.
xoxo

Meet the world's first HEARTLESS man who is able to live without a pulse

In March of last year, Craig Lewis, 55, was dying from a heart condition that caused build-ups of abnormal proteins-Amyloidosis-, and not even a pacemaker could help save his life.

But two doctors from the Texas Heart Institute proposed a revolutionary new solution – install a ‘continuous flow’ device that would allow blood to circulate his body without a pulse.

Dr Billy Cohn and Dr Bud Frazier installed the device after removing Mr Lewis’ heart. Within a day, the patient was up and speaking with physicians.

The two doctors had developed the device some time before and had tested it on nearly 50 calves.

They removed the animals’ hearts, and by the next day, the calves were doing everything they were the day before – eating, sleeping, and moving – but this time, without a heart pumping blood through their bodies.

Mr Lewis’ amyloidosis was getting worse, and doctors feared he would die soon without necessary efforts. Doctors grimly said he had 12 hours to live

Dr. Billy Con

Dr Bud Frazier

So, with the permission of Mr Lewis’ wife Linda, Dr Cohn and Dr Frazier installed the heart in March 2011

The device works by supplying a continuous flow of blood through the body, using blades to move it along. 

Dr Cohn said it contains ‘a moderate amount’ of homemade materials

Mr Lewis’ wife was astonished when she tried to listen for his pulse. ‘I listened and it was a hum, which was amazing,’ . ‘He didn’t have a pulse.'

The Texas Heart Institute said that prior to having the revolutionary new device installed, Mr Lewis was reliant on a dialysis machine, a breathing machine, and an external blood pump.

In March of last year, Texas Heart Institute president Dr James T. Willerson called it ‘medical history in the making.’

The first artificial human heart prototype was successfully implanted in 1969 by Dr Denton Cooley

Heart Stop Beating is the story of Billy Cohn & Bud Frazier, two visionary doctors from the Texas Heart Institute, who in March of 2011 successfully replaced a dying man's heart with a 'continuous flow' device they developed, proving that life was possible without a pulse or a heart beat.

Join the conversation and tweet #heartstopbeating to have your tweet featured on the Focus Forward website. Go to http://www.focusforwardfilms.com/films/9/heart-stop-beating to see the discussion

Ladies,please don't bleed out! act on your fibroids now!!!

I was on call the other day, when i was called to see one of the nurses on duty. she had reported for duty that day, and was trying to change into her uniform when she started to feel dizzy. I raced upstairs to the changing room to see what the problem was.

 I was able to help her to a room nearby where i started to examine her. I noticed this bulge in the lower part of her belly, which was quite painful especially when i tried to touch it.  I further noticed she had a pad on, when i expected she was menopausal. I then asked if she was menstruating she replied in the affirmative, which precipitated my next question- "do you have a fibroid?"... it turns out she had known for almost a year, and had been experiencing the excessive bleeds, but was still temporizing on having the surgery done since she felt she would soon attain menopause.
I checked her vitals- pulse rate, blood pressure, all of which were relatively normal, and did a quick general exam. I thereafter ran a test to know her blood level, so we can have a baseline in case it dropped further.
I made it a point of duty to report her to my boss as i cant understand why someone would practice medicine and wouldn't want to use medicine.
Shes had her Hysterectomy and isn't bleeding out anymore.

Ladies dont wait till you are bleeding out. talk to your doctor about your fibroids today

xo

Fibroids and you

While in medical school, we learnt that fibroids are common in the elderly women without kids. However nowadays, that doesn't seem to be the case. there seems to be an increasing number of young ladies suffering with a fibroid.

What is it? A fibroid is a tumour (abnormal growth) of the uterus A.K.A womb.
This tumour distorts the normal structure and function of the womb, which causes the associated symptoms noticed by women suffering the disease.

Symptoms include:

• feeling of pressure or heaviness in the lower part of the abdomen
• bulge in the lower part of the abdomen
• changes in the menstrual cycle- duration become shorter, i.e one could experience 2 periods in a month.
• increased menstrual flow.
• tiredness during menstrual flow due to excessive blood loss.
• severe menstrual cramps. 
• inability to achieve conception or to carry pregnancy to term.

How to diagnose
Should in case you have any of  the above symptoms, its best you checked with a doctor. Who would prescribe you have a scan done to confirm the diagnosis.

Treatment
The ultimate treatment for fibroids is surgery. the procedure is called a Myomectomy (removal of the growth). However in some occasions following a myomectomy, after a number of years, a fibroid could still reoccur, hence in women who do not desire children anymore, it could be advisable to have the womb taken out a procedure called Hysterectomy.

Note, other forms of intervention given are supportive, and do not address the main problem.
The symptoms especially excessive bleeding could be very fatal if not promptly addressed.
If you or someone you know are suffering from a fibroid, please talk with your doctor, so you can choose a treatment option best for you.

xo

Vitamin D deficiency now linked with Diabetes.

Lose weight: It's the go-to recommendation for preventing diabetes.

But according to new research published in theJournal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, it may not be enough. Vitamin D deficiency also appears to increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes -- no matter your weight.

More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's 9.3 percent of the population. Another 86 million have prediabetes (prediabetes is a condition where blood sugar is persistently high, but not high enough to be called diabetes, its also associated with high risks, and up to 30 percent of them will develop Type 2 diabetesin the next five years. In Type 2 diabetes, the body cannot properly use insulin, resulting in chronically high blood sugar levels. Blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and loss of toes, feet or legs are common side effects.

Meanwhile, up to 41.6 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin D, according to 2011 a paper published in Nutrition Research. While previous research -- including one study published in Diabetes Care -- has suggested a link between vitamin D deficiency and diabetes, many experts believed obesity was the middleman. Perhaps vitamin D deficiency spurred weight gain, which, in turn led to diabetes? According to the Endocrine Society's 2012 scientific statement on vitamin D, people who have low levels of vitamin D are at increased risk of obesity as well as Type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and metabolic syndrome (characterized by high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels).

However, more than 10 percent of people living with Type 2 diabetes aren't overweight, according to the Obesity Society. That might not seem like a huge percentage, but 10 percent of 29.1 million people is still a lot of people.

So, to determine if vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of diabetes -- or if it simply causes weight gain -- a team of Spanish researchers examined the vitamin D levels, metabolic health and body-mass indexes (a measure of body fat based on height and weight) of 138 adults.

The researchers classified all of the participants from two Spanish hospitals by their BMIs as well as whether they had diabetes, prediabetes or no glycemic disorders. They then measured their blood levels of vitamin D and their adipose (fat) tissues' expression of the vitamin D receptor gene. (Vitamin D activates genes throughout the body. If the gene is in the fat tissue, vitamin D affects that fat tissue.)

Results showed that obese individuals with diabetes had lower levels of vitamin D than did their diabetes-free counterparts, and that vitamin D gene expression was higher in morbidly obese individuals than in those with lower BMIs. What's more, healthy-weight subjects with diabetes were more likely to have significantly low levels of vitamin D compared to normal-weight subjects without the disease, suggesting that vitamin D deficiency may throw off metabolic health all on its own -- not just by causing weight gain. In fact, vitamin D levels correlated with insulin resistance, but not with BMI, meaning that deficiency can put you at risk for diabetes, even if you're at a healthy weight.

"Our study shows that the deficit of vitamin D is associated with diabetes and less with obesity," says study author Manuel Macías-González of Complejo Hospitalario de Málaga (Virgen de la Victoria) and the University of Málaga. "We believe that vitamin D deficiency could be a new mechanism to promote metabolic disorders, such as diabetes."

He hopes future research will examine how vitamin D and substitutes could affect blood sugar levels and metabolic health in both overweight and healthy-weight individuals.

In the meantime, he believes that -- whatever you weigh -- you may be able to reduce your risk of diabetes through a healthy vitamin D-rich diet and by spending more time outdoors.

That's because vitamin D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin," is by and large produced in our bodies when sunlight hits our skin. While it can also be absorbed from the few naturally high-D foods (think eggs and fatty fish such as salmon and tuna) as well as fortified foods (e.g., some milks and cereals), sun exposure is the largest contributor to healthy vitamin D levels. Those who suspect they're not getting enough vitamin D through food and sun exposure can talk to their doctor to see if they have deficiency and, if so, whether supplementation is needed.

Apart from Type 2 diabetes, vitamin D deficiency has been linked with rickets, weak bones and  other serious conditions including cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and depression. Learn more about vitamin D and how to get enough of the health-boosting nutrient

source: yahoo news

Fever- temperature

Please pardon us doctors when we go all medical on our patients, it's just when we learn new words, we can like to show off... it takes a while for us to learn some if them;)

So this post is just to let you know what to do to help reduce temperature at home pending when you can get to a hospital

High temperature aka fever is dangerous especially for children because it can cause them to convulse. 

Once you notice a fever in your child, you can help them cool down by:

Removing their cloth to expose them to fresh air.

Giving the child a cool bath or using a cool wet towel for them

Giving the child paracetamol syrup in appropriate dosage. (< 1 yr- 2.5 ml, 1-3 yrs- 5ml, 4-6 yrs 7.5 ml, 6-9 yrs 10ml, 9-15yrs 1 tab-500mg)
Adults- 2tabs of paracetamol not more than 3 times a day.

This steps could help bring down the child's temperature for a couple of hours till you can get to a hospital and find out the cause of the fever.

Pls note the dosages given are approximate and should be safe as children's doses are given according to weight. You could cross check with a doctor or registered pharmacist to be certain the dosage your child would maximally benefit from. Paracetamol shouldn't be used more than 3 times daily. All drugs have potential side effects! Let's be careful.

Have a fever free week!

Big, Bigger, Biggest

Comparative and superlative was an aspect of English I enjoyed in primary school.
But today, I would be attacking our weights. How big is big?

We live in an age and time where everyone is appearance conscious. Many big looking people are trying to shed the excess kilos whereas the slim looking are looking to gain some weight. This is also a period where mothers who have children with healthy appetites and are smallish in stature automatically thinks something is wrong with the kid and she's forgotten to look for the answer in her husband' small frame; or when people around you are  extremely worried you may have been terminally  ill when you shed some weight.
True there are some big boned people- the category I eagerly claim to be in when I'm not too pleased with the report on the weighing scale. However, fat is something else. Excess fat or Obesity as it's called happens to be a major health challenge as it puts it's sufferers at risk of other diseases and illnesses which include-  high blood pressure aka hypertension, diabetes, joint diseases with persistent joint pains, some forms of cancer etc.
The degree of obesity can be measured according to the persons BMI- body mass index, which tells the relationship between your weight and your height. BMI is considered normal when it's between 18-24. You are considered obese when it's greater than 30.

Tips to combat obesity
Diet change. This is easier said than done. I know how cravings can be and keeping up can be very challenging. However, there are many health forums that deal with diet. I recently found one doctor, who has recreated many Nigerian dishes to give healthier options. Drop the sugar. Challenge your self to cut sweets and excess carbohydrates for 1 week and then look at the scale afterwards, I know it works.- Instead of having rice and vegetables,  try vegetables and rice. ;)

Lifestyle change- get up, and get moving!
Find someone who can motivate you and stick with them like a parasite on a host...

I wouldn't recommend slimming pills because of some of the reported risks associated with them.

For people with severe obesity, consider talking with your doctor about surgical options (bariatric surgery). They improve chances of weight loss, then consider a diet, stick with it, and throw in some exercise.

Have a fat free week!

xoxo

I've got a Sore Throat!!! when your sore throat is more than just a sore throat....

Tonsillitis is a kind of sore throat- but its a very much severe kind of throat infection. The Tonsils are a group of swellings in the throat which fights infections basically.

When the infection becomes overwhelming, then you get a Tonsillitis.

Chances of getting a Tonsillitis is quite higher during the cold weather, especially in children.

How to recognize it:

• If you have a sore throat, and its quite painful, its likely you have a tonsillitis.
• You could have an extension of the pain in your ear- on the same side.
• Pain gets worse on attempts to swallow, and sometimes speak.
• Open your mouth wide and say "ahh" in front of a mirror, look in the corner of the back of your tongue on both sides, you may need to get a flash light for proper illumination.
• An infected Tonsil would usually look swollen and red on the affected side. 
• In some cases, you may see white patches as shown above.
• You could run a fever as well.

What to do:

• particularly if you see just a red and swollen tonsil

1. drink lots of warm tea (twinnings does a good brand of tea) 
2. warm water with a little bit of salt gargle as frequently as possible.
3. use pain relief- if you have no allergies or aren't pregnant- then you can use Ibuprofen or Diclofenac. if you do, then use paracetamol which is safest.
4. avoid kissing please. Tonsillitis isn't something you want to be sharing
5. If you do this for 2 days and it doesn't feel like you are getting better, please see a doctor.

• If you see white patches, then you need some antibiotics. you could see your doctor for that and follow the above listed steps.

However, if you do have more than 4 episodes of this infection in a year, then its a reason for you to see an ENT specialist to have them remove your tonsils via a Tonsillectomy, as the procedure would reduce risk of you having a recurrent infection. Note your body has other several defensive mechanism, so worrying about your tonsil should be the least of your worries.

A Tonsillectomy typically takes about 45 minutes, and the recovery is very sweet as you are on an ice-cream diet for a couple of days:) that's the best thing about ENT :D

I'm Thankful we don't have to experience pain to learn about it (my doctor-patient view point on Tonsillitis)

Ironically, I took ill after I posted tips for coping with cold. As humorous as God is, I was down with Tonsillitis- a kind of throat infection which is much more painful than a regular sore throat (that's my new definition-  I really don't care what any other text may call it). This episode of Tonsillitis has opened my eyes to the many dimensions of pain.

Pain is a very personal experience. In medical school, we are taught the characteristics of pain, but in my opinion to really understand pain we have to feel it. Imaginably, if we had to feel pain to understand pain, I definitely would have dropped out of medical school! In medical school, we learnt about different kinds of pain and their characteristics. I also learnt to ask my patients to rate their pain on a scale of 1- 10, with 10 being the most severe. However sometimes when a patient claims the 8-10 range, I give them my "drug dependent" look- like they are drug addicts :$.

  my "drug dependent" look

When we talked about radiation of pain in class, I  always imagined pain reappearing somewhere else. So when I ask my patient "does the pain go anywhere?" and they say "yes... to my arm" for example; I sometimes imagine they may have read up the symptoms on the internet and have come armed with the correct signs and symptoms. Incidentally My mother used to say - "its the person that wears the shoes that knows where it hurts"...


I must say here, I'm a pretty healthy person. I'm not sure I remember what it feels like to have a headache:) so you can imagine my horror when I woke up with a nasty pain in my throat. I've had sore throats before, and I guess I know what they are, however this was a different kind of pain. I was alarmed. I knew something was definitely wrong!!! I tried to swallow and it hurt some more. I got out of bed, and went to the mirror, picked my phone for the flash light, opened my mouth as wide as it would permit and I saw it! Lo and behold, I had the dreaded Tonsillitis!

Armed with a pre-knowledge of what to do, I began following the rituals of what I needed to do. While I was drinking my first cup of tea, as the tea hits the back of my throat, I noticed a sharp pain in my left ear. Immediately I understood... the famous question... where does the pain radiate to?... I took some paracetamol aka PCM for the pain and proceeded back to bed. The pain in my ear was rather unbearable. It felt as though I was waiting endlessly for my PCM to kick in which made me remember how another woman i had labelled drug dependent calls PCM chalk. I began to wonder if I was already drug dependent... and then it hit me, I needed to step up my pain relief tablet. which I did. Eventually I did get some sleep. I continued my warm tea, warm saline gargle and vitamin C ritual till I was able to eat solid meals again.

This ordeal has helped me understand very much the patho-physiology (medical term for disease evolution) and management of Tonsillitis. Thank you nature for this crash/refresher course. I hope I wont have any more soon or ever again... Thank you:)

Most of all, I'm thankful we don't have to experience pain to learn about it.

With this illness; I've learned a couple of things

• pain is very personal
• pain is quite distressing
• pain really does radiate
• the pain associated with tonsillitis is an 8 for me, so i guess a heart attack for me would possibly be like an 18 and maybe labour would be a 100.... and that's out of 10!!!
• to believe some of my patients when they say their pain isn't controlled. not everyone is a junkie...
• PCM sometimes feels like chalk
• Doctors are really the worst group of patients!
• Maybe experience is a good teacher. isn't it why we do a number of practicals?

Thank God Medicine is practice (practice makes perfect), I guess I would be able to empathize better with my next patient of tonsillitis

Dr Anonymous
xo