Author Topic: The health and fitness thread about random things  (Read 475381 times)

Clare

  • Is in NZ
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4675 on: 15 December, 2023, 09:16:55 pm »
I gave this advice ages ago in a different thread but it is worth repeating here:

Quote
Get a pair of white cotton gloves of the type worn by snooker referees and a hyooooge pot of emollient ointment. Prior to going to sleep slather your hands with the ointment and put on the gloves. The ointment will do its work overnight.


Technical bit - fold the gloves halfway inside out, so the hand bit is folded back over the fingers it is then easier to get them on with massively gooped-up hands by sticking your fingers in the finger holes of both gloves then using gloved fingers to fold the bottom part of each glove down to cover the rest of your hands.


Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4676 on: 17 December, 2023, 09:14:03 am »
Bugger. I have a cold. That’ll still be lingering on until well into Christmas knowing me.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4677 on: 17 December, 2023, 12:48:27 pm »
GWS!
Partner's piano pupil yesterday had a cold and he reckons he'll get a Christmas cold too.

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4678 on: 17 December, 2023, 02:36:58 pm »
GWS!
Partner's piano pupil yesterday had a cold and he reckons he'll get a Christmas cold too.

Ta. Colds have always lingered for me (well, runny noses) hence the removal of my adenoids as a child, when that was A Thing. Decided not to go into work tomorrow (almost unheard of for me) so only 1 working day left this year (Tuesday).
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4679 on: 17 December, 2023, 03:25:30 pm »
I think D still has his tonsils & adenoids but his colds tend to last longer and are much more miserable than mine.

He tends to announce he's dying, when I just need to blow my nose a bit more...

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4680 on: 17 December, 2023, 08:43:20 pm »
I think D still has his tonsils & adenoids but his colds tend to last longer and are much more miserable than mine.

He tends to announce he's dying, when I just need to blow my nose a bit more...
Isn't that cos "man flu"

Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk


hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4681 on: 17 December, 2023, 08:58:26 pm »
Well yes but he does appear to have worse symptoms.
His nose gets too blocked to allow him a comfortable night's sleep, while mine doesn't etc.

I presume the same bug is causing both our colds if we have rgem simultaneously or in quick succession.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4682 on: 18 December, 2023, 03:03:35 pm »
Yebbut women's immune systems mount stronger defences against infection because they evolved to cover the foetus as well as the mother. Thus "man flu" is a sexist myth.

Meanwhile, was worried about my old cycling chum El Prez, who has a branch block (left or right, dunno) and has had a few malaises recently, one sufficiently acute to take him to hospital overnight. His BP was heading for the heights, too. However, a change of BP meds has improved things and he was able to do a short ride on Saturday. He should be getting a defib/pacemaker in the New Year.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4683 on: 18 December, 2023, 03:25:56 pm »
Yebbut women's immune systems mount stronger defences against infection because they evolved to cover the foetus as well as the mother. Thus "man flu" is a sexist myth.

Harvard medical school completely disagrees with you.

Women's immune systems have a less strong response.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/man-flu-really-thing-2018010413033
<i>Marmite slave</i>

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4684 on: 18 December, 2023, 03:48:59 pm »
Yebbut women's immune systems mount stronger defences against infection because they evolved to cover the foetus as well as the mother. Thus "man flu" is a sexist myth.

Harvard medical school completely disagrees with you.

Women's immune systems have a less strong response.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/man-flu-really-thing-2018010413033

Interesting. From the above:

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Since flu symptoms are in large part due to the body's immune reaction, a lessened immune response in women may translate to milder symptoms.

and

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So, I agree with the author of this new report, who states "…the concept of man flu, as commonly defined, is potentially unjust." We need a better understanding of how the flu affects men and women and why it may affect them differently.

So we would both appear to be right wrt the man-flu myth.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4685 on: 18 December, 2023, 04:10:56 pm »
Yebbut women's immune systems mount stronger defences against infection because they evolved to cover the foetus as well as the mother. Thus "man flu" is a sexist myth.

Harvard medical school completely disagrees with you.

Women's immune systems have a less strong response.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/man-flu-really-thing-2018010413033

Which would make more sense as their immune system needs to be more tolerant to the foetus.  There is in the news this week, emerging research that is concluding that miscarriages has a strong genetic component tied to certain gene variants the father contributed.

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4686 on: 18 December, 2023, 04:24:22 pm »
Yes. Stronger immune response means more and stronger symptoms. Not healthy for a fetus.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4687 on: 19 December, 2023, 06:47:06 pm »
do we mean immune response or immune sensitivity?  The female immune system probably needs to be more tolerant/les sensitive to non-me proteins but that does not mean it cannot mount just as good an immune response to a challenge.

There is also some evidence that women have some extra protective measures to enhance parts/all?? of their immune system and men have a higher incidence of cancer than women.

Fascinatingly it may be due to men only having one X chromosome and women having 2.  https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/02/why-is-cancer-more-common-in-men I haven't linked the primary data because I probably wouldn't understand it!!

ian

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4688 on: 19 December, 2023, 09:05:50 pm »
Women, as far as I have read, mount a broadly stronger immune response – greater antibody responses than males, higher basal immunoglobulin levels and more B cells. It's complicated though as a number of key immunity-related genes are located on the X chromosome (indeed, the X is a significant determinant of autoimmunity, karyotypes with multiple X chromosomes typically result in a significant propensity toward autoimmune diseases). Also the X chromosome contains around 10% of the machinery that determines which other genes are expressed and these work in concert with a number of sex and other hormones. In men, X chromosome effects are relatively simple, they have only the one. Women have two, which means (nearly) every cell in a woman's body has to silence one of the X chromosomes, and it may be one of them, or it might be the other – so all women are chimeric. Of course, there's the entire foetus thing, which entails massive adaptations though the core one is maintaining physical separation (most animals achieve this by the females laying eggs and effectively air-gapping the entire shebang). The placenta is an amazing and complex organ. That said, it may be that when you are around eight month's pregnant, the egg-laying alternative might sound appealing. Evolution, eh?


Of course, all this is modified by environmental influences and the microbiome. Tldr, it's complicated.

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4689 on: 20 December, 2023, 07:55:10 am »
Ian, I had been taught that women turn off one of their X but the study seems to suggest that a few immune related genes on the other X remain functional. Humans are so amazing.

ian

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4690 on: 20 December, 2023, 11:17:40 am »
Ian, I had been taught that women turn off one of their X but the study seems to suggest that a few immune related genes on the other X remain functional. Humans are so amazing.


I can't pretend to understand how since the inactivated X is usually seen to be tightly bundled up in heterochromatin and thereby physically isolated (not to mention the DNA is heavily modified), but I read this too, so there's some clever mechanism to access certain genes. For added complication, it also seems that the inactive X can modify the active X's gene expression, which is counterintuitive (one X has to be inactivated to avoid gene dosage effects, two active Xs would mean women producing twice the gene products and a regulatory mess). I think there's a school of thought that X inactivation is key determinant of genetic sex differences (basically the presence and interaction of two X chromosomes), the Y chromosome is mostly congenitally useless, and effectively sits around the sofa eating Pringles and drinking cheap beer while the X does all the hard work.


If I recall, only placental mammals randomly inactivate the X chromosome so any cell in a woman will have either the maternal or the paternal X active, in other mammals, females inactivate the paternal X.


Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4692 on: 25 December, 2023, 10:38:23 am »
10 days on from coming down with a cold, I’m still sniffling and coughing through the day. I’ve always been the same. Luckily at night it completely clears.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Salvatore

  • Джон Спунър
    • Pics
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4693 on: 27 December, 2023, 10:24:06 am »
I went to bed on Christmas Day feeling distinctly unwell, and spent the night throwing up at regular intervals. I spent yesterday in bed not doing anything, but today I'm up, showered and shaved, and enjoying a coffee.

Meanwhile, nuncio has some of what I had yesterday and is staying in bed.
Quote
et avec John, excellent lecteur de road-book, on s'en est sortis sans erreur

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4694 on: 27 December, 2023, 03:16:15 pm »
Get Well Soonest, Spooners!

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4695 on: 27 December, 2023, 07:10:37 pm »
I had a bit of a fright this afternoon. I had just taken some nose spray AVAMYS and I got a massive nose bleed..the wife called the ambulance and of course by the time they arrived it had stopped..I was advised to phone my doctors surgery and speak to a doctor who told me that the nose spray was not best used frequently (which I was Initially told it was OK for daily use instead of sudufed.I had using).apparently nosebleeds are a common side effect. I'm not using it anymore as it frightened the *ell out of me  :facepalm:
the slower you go the more you see

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4696 on: 27 December, 2023, 08:01:04 pm »
Steroids thin the skin.

Hope you get no more nosebleeds!

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4697 on: 27 December, 2023, 08:24:55 pm »
Avamys isn't like the decongestant nasal sprays, it can be recommended for long and short term use _ i've had it for both.

It might be worth visiting the GP again or talking to a pharmacist about nosebleeds and managing the dose and what it's for. It may be that there's alternatives, or you keep it for shorter term use as times of need.

Also worth getting advice on how to use nasal sprays as many of us use them wrongly cos we're not explicitly taught...

Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4698 on: 01 January, 2024, 09:30:18 am »
Although I have not used any nasal spray since the nose bleed 20 mins ago I have just had another one. It's pretty much stopped now but I I have no idea what has caused it. Scared now 😳
the slower you go the more you see

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: The health and fitness thread about random things
« Reply #4699 on: 01 January, 2024, 04:47:53 pm »
I think nose bleeds can be caused by various things but it may be worth getting GP advice about them if they are frightening you, the GP should be able to advise you on tracking them, and when is risky and when is just annoying and so on.