The health and fitness thread about random things

[Ham]

The most inconvenience is probably the "no cycling" rule. Not only will it put me onto public transport, but next week I am in Coventry (MiL) travelling to Warwick (Work) where public transport doesn't really work the same as London. Looks like I need to order a taxi service from Mrs Ham, who would otherwise be lying abed.

[barakta]

I was routinely not allowed to blow my nose for a week after nose/sinus surgeries. I've had about 20 of them. This is because you can easily blow post surgery stuff apart as Helly says. It's all a bit interconnected and slimy around there.

My dad devised a very clever system using super strong soft tissues of carefully dragging a folded edge of tissue across the bottom of my nose to catch the snot and draw the rest of it out using its own viscosity. Cos of course there would be Ever More Snot than usual cos everything was irritated. Engineering solution from Mr Snot Phobic...

I've done 1g of flucloxacillin 4x a day for 7 days - that was my pet ENT consultant for a BAHA abutment infection in 2006 shortly after the surgery which was nasty and rather too close to my brain for liking. The food intake rules on fluclox are a nightmare no food for 2 hours before or 1 hour after each dose meaning I had hideous acid reflux for hours a day. I managed 5 days after having tried to fudge those hours by 25% on the grounds that they'd be conservative...

I was routinely put on amox/fluclox at 125mg x4 type doses for children as prophylactic after ENT surgeries as a child - especially until the mid 1990s. Annoyingly you can't get sub 250mg doses in tablet form so we had rows about that cos even as a child I must preferred pillz to fucking awful syrup medicine. Especially fluclox which was BRIGHT ORANGE and tasted utterly revolting - I think it was meant to be aniseed or something to cover the taste, but I HATE aniseed. Amoxycillin was at least just sickly sweet... Once he knew us, and my mum was a nurse ENT doc used to give us prescriptions for the syrups unmixed so we could mix em up if we needed them and otherwise not have me on antibiotics...

[andrewc]

I've just noticed a pain in my right eye.  On checking in the bathroom mirror I've a stye on my lower eyelid  .   I've not had one of those since childhood.    I wasn't there this morning. 


I hope it vanishes as quickly as it came, but no more contact lenses till it's gone.

[Salvatore]

I think I may have become a hay fever sufferer. My eyes were so sore and itchy yesterday I had to stop. I've had sore eyes a couple of times before but never as bad as yesterday. They are still sore today. I'll be waiting outside Boots when they open tomorrow morning.

[Kim]

I've had quite itchy eyes today, in spite of being mostly in bed.

[Salvatore]

I'd forgotten about the irritating cough, which is also a symptom of hay fever according to Ian Google.

[Ham]

A gram of Amoxil doesn't really trouble me. I hope you're as lucky!

Apparently not. It's making me as tired as a donkey and as constipated as a mormon.

[hellymedic]

A gram of Amoxil doesn't really trouble me. I hope you're as lucky!

Apparently not. It's making me as tired as a donkey and as constipated as a mormon.

Oh dear!

I thought it had the opposite effect!

Hope your dental work is successful and painless ASAP!

[Ham]

So did I, but apparently it can do either, it might yet move to that. TBH it's only the "tired" that's a problem, I'm sure gut will sort itself out, it normally does plus I've added Kefir to my intake which apparently out-probiotics the dedicated probiotics (Actimel etc)

I look like a lopsided chipmunk; Mrs Ham informs me my amended visage adds 10 years to my age. This too will pass. Probably.

[T42]

Yeah. Takes about 10 years.

[hellymedic]

Many other forumengers have had implants.

Salvatore's are very good...

[Ham]

From what I now know, there are a range of implant style experiences. I was having both upper rearmost gnashers renovated, both sides needing sinus lift where the bone in the sinus cavity is augmented with Polyfilla or something like that, the sinus lift elevating the process to difficult in all events.

One side was as bad an experience as I have ever sat through, involving 90 minutes of work; it is that side which is responsible for the chipmunk-pouch look. The other side was much quicker and less stressful, with minimal swelling which has now mostly subsided.

[Wowbagger]

I had a phone call from the doc's this a.m. Yesterday I phoned up for a repeat prescription of methotrexate. Methotrexate junkies are supposed to have a blood test every 3 months for the purposes of checking that their livers haven't self-immolated. Apparently I haven't had a blood test since January.

I am quite impressed by that reminder. Other things about this surgery have been less impressive, like the failure to provide repeat prescriptions on time, but that was good. I have booked a blood test for 8.35 next Tuesday.

[hellymedic]

What seems impressive, or at least encouraging, is that their computer systems seem to be functioning!

[IJL]

What seems impressive, or at least encouraging, is that their computer systems seem to be functioning!

we've been back running since about 16.00 yesterday, quite a few local practices are still down, just the got the backlog of paper notes, letters and pathology to catch up with.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've just read this: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/17/obesity-health-no-such-thing-as-fat-but-fit-major-study
and two things in it puzzle me.

Dr Rishi Caleyachetty, who led the study, said it was true that weightlifters could be healthy and yet have a BMI that suggested they were obese. “I understand that argument. BMI is crude … but it is the only measure we have in the clinic to get a proxy for body fat. It is not realistic [to use anything else] in a GP setting or in the normal hospital clinic. We have to rely on BMI measurements, however crude they may be,” he said.

I've heard talk of and possibly even seen photos of body-fat callipers and of course there was the slogan "Can you pinch an inch?" I've even read on here some reference to an electric current method. Is it not just as easy for GPs and nurses to use callipers as BMI? Or is that equally misleading (presumably because it needs measurements at many different places)?

And this one seems contradictory to me:

“At the population level, so-called metabolically healthy obesity is not a harmless condition and perhaps it is better not to use this term to describe an obese person, regardless of how many metabolic complications they have.”

If a person has 'metabolic complications', which I presume means things like diabetes or hyperthyroidism, then surely by definition they are not 'metabolically healthy'?

[Wowbagger]

I read that. I'm totally depressed.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Given that we know that fat distribution is important, 'pinch an inch' is a good guide. You can have fat hips, have relatively little fat on your waist and hence (as far as current understanding goes) be at lower risk for cardio disease. Yet probably have a very high bmi.

I'm not sure why it is so hard to grab calipers and measure the fat at a couple of points.

[Greenbank]

Dr Rishi Caleyachetty, who led the study, said it was true that weightlifters could be healthy and yet have a BMI that suggested they were obese. “I understand that argument. BMI is crude … but it is the only measure we have in the clinic to get a proxy for body fat. It is not realistic [to use anything else] in a GP setting or in the normal hospital clinic. We have to rely on BMI measurements, however crude they may be,” he said.

I've heard talk of and possibly even seen photos of body-fat callipers and of course there was the slogan "Can you pinch an inch?" I've even read on here some reference to an electric current method. Is it not just as easy for GPs and nurses to use callipers as BMI? Or is that equally misleading (presumably because it needs measurements at many different places)?

At a guess I'd say it's probably time that is the limiting factor. It takes a minute to do height/weight and lookup the results on a chart or grab a calculator. It takes longer than that to take accurate calliper measurements at several places and interpret the results. BMI can also be done over the phone or online if the patient has an idea of their height and weight.

[barakta]

BMI is such utter bollocks that any clinician taking it overly seriously after the "You DO know BMI was never designed for individuals, it's a population measure" goes in the "talks bollocks, go elsewhere pile".

I spend too much of my life dealing with medics to put up with crap. Admittedly easy for me as a white woman on the 'right side of' BMI...

[hellymedic]

I'm not sure why it is so hard to grab calipers and measure the fat at a couple of points.

Callipers are very difficult to apply consistently and accurately. The thickness of subcutaneous fat varies by several millimetres at locations only centimetre or two apart and the measure value is still dependent on the pressure applied.

A tape measure round the waist, hips and neck might be quicker and more useful.

[DuncanM]

My left thumb is sore again, and I've no idea why (this time). And it's a critical location for riding my bike.
I've had flare-ups occasionally for the last ~15 years since I did some serious damage to my ulnar collateral ligament playing sport (I've the same on my right thumb but that side is a little sturdier). Usually though, I know what I've done to cause it - this week I've not got a clue! I noticed it Tuesday evening, and I've not done anything unusual with it (last time on the bike was Sunday). In the past, the doctor has just said to stop doing whatever hurts it (helpful). I taped it and put voltarol gel on it - will have to see how it feels this evening.

[IJL]

At a guess I'd say it's probably time that is the limiting factor. It takes a minute to do height/weight and lookup the results on a chart or grab a calculator. It takes longer than that to take accurate calliper measurements at several places and interpret the results. BMI can also be done over the phone or online if the patient has an idea of their height and weight.

10 mins is the average consultation time, 10 mins to get the patient in find out the problem, come up with a plan and write the notes.  BMI is a good rule of thumb but nothing more,  Generally you don't need gadgets or maths to know if someone is overweight, the most interesting conversations are those with parents whose children have a beer gut with overhang.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The mother of a very fat and rather spoiled child in my son's class told me "The doctor says he's clinically obese but I can't see it myself." They were about 8 at the time and at that very moment walking home with a big pack of monster munch.

[DuncanM]

It's awkward with kids.  My daughter is overweight according to BMI, but is bang on average weight for her age - she's just short! She's not into sweets or chocolate (she still has easter eggs and christmas sweets kicking around!). There's some sort of balance to be struck between encouraging her to eat healthily and trying not to micromanage, but it's concerning nonetheless.