Risk Factor For Diabetes

If there is a disease that deserves great emphasis with respect to adult life, it is diabetes. It has rendered millions of lives and marriages miserable.

First, let us talk about some risk factors for developing diabetes and/or its complications.

1. Overweight/Obesity: approximately 80% of diabetic people are overweight. Excess body weight is the single most important risk factor for diabetes; particularly those whose fat is distributed round the middle. The risk of diabetes is approximately doubled for those who are overweight and tripled for those with obesity. This is why weight reduction is the most important factor in the prevention of diabetes and the elimination of its systemic dangers.
2. Hypertension: this is the co-agent of death in diabetes. Hypertension worsens diabetic problems by accelerating vascular damage, increasing risk of atherosclerosis (narrowing of the blood vessels), stroke and heart diseases. As a matter of fact, diabetes and hypertension should not be allowed to dwell in anyone's body without serious attention.
3. Cigarette smoking: ''man must die of something'', so say the addicts, and cigarette is one off such things. Cigarette smoking predisposes you to hypertension and worsens all the complications of diabetes. This point cannot be over-emphasized; an adamant diabetic smoker has signed his death warrant.
4. Genetic inheritance: diabetes runs in families. A person whose parents are diabetic has a high chance of developing the same in adult life. This is why routine medical checks are advised for such affected individuals.

Is “Staph” a Sexually Transmitted Infection?

Strange, this will sound to many ears but total freedom and hope shall it deliver to the many under this ignorance-induced health torture.

Staphylococcus is NOT a sexually transmitted infection. Just swallow this hook-line-and-sinker because it is an indisputable medical fact.

The essence of elaborating this subject is that t

he devil has capitalized on the ignorance of people to wreck havoc in many once peaceful and loving homes. Today couples are suspicious of each other because of unreliable Lab. report of so called “scanty”, “moderate” or “heavy growth” of staphylococcus. Because of the way it is being sounded in the streets as a sexually transmitted infection, most couples accuse themselves of unfaithfulness, which may never have existed.

A lady almost packed out of her matrimonial home because she had an infection which she claimed resulted from her husband’s unfaithfulness. Surprisingly, when I probed further she brought out series of lab results showing she had “staph” infection. What a pity! Staph has never being shown to be a cause of infertility.

Menstrual Disorder

Question : Doctor Richard, I have not seen my menses for past 3 months, what is the cause? Any treatment for me?

Answer : There are several causes of absence of menses in a woman. However, the first striking thing in the mind of a doctor for a woman who failed to see her period is that the woman is pregnant until proven otherwise. In other words pregnancy is the commonest cause of absence of menses in women.
Apart from pregnancy, there are other problems in a woman that can make her not see menses.
1. Age : Usually between the 13 and 20 years of age, menstrual flow may not be regular. Most of the girls that suffer it later have their periods normal.

2. Menopause : Between the ages of 45 and 55 years, a woman's period may stop finally. if period after the age 45 stops for 6months, menopause is confirmed.
3. Abortion or Miscarriage : After D&C there could be gumming together of the two surfaces of the womb making menses difficult to come out or the flow might reduce.
4. PCOS : Polycystic Ovarian Syndrom. This a hormonal problem. It usually manifests with menstrual delay, spotting, no ovulation and difficulty in acheiving pregnancy.            
5. High Prolactin level. (Hyperprolactinaemia). This is also a hormonal problem. In this case, one of the hormones that make a breastfeeding mother to produce breast milk called prolactin is high in the blood. Most times it manifests with breast milk or water- like secretion from the breast in a non pregnant or non breast feeding lady. That could also cause delay in menses and child bearing.
6. Congenital abnormality : No menses due to complete coverage of the hymen of the vagina. This manifest with monthly waist pain during the assumed menstrual period but no flow.

TREATMENT

1. For a woman who has entered menopause but still desire to have children, ICSI fertility treatment can help her. Through assisted reproductive technology, A 60 year old had become pregnant and delivered twin through this technology.
2. The case of post abortion absence or reduced menses can be treated depending on the degree of damage of the inner lining of the womb during the abortion. New technology called hysteroscopy can be used for diagnosis and treatment of it.
3. PCOS is a challenging hormonal problem. It can be treated with a combination of some drugs and a laparoscopic procedure called Ovarian Drilling. See your doctor.
4. Hyperprolactinaemia : Secreting breast milk when you are neither pregnant nor breast feeding. This can be treated with drugs like Parlodel, Bromocriptine, Dostinex. First go for hormone profile test to confirm before you treat.
5.For Congenital abnormality Treatment requires surgical opening of Hymen.

Shocking!!! 26 Nigerian Men Die of Prostate Cancer Everyday

Risk Factor:
1. Common among men over 50 years of age.
2. People who have a history of prostrate cancer in their families have double risk.

Symptoms:
1. Frequent urination.
2. Difficulty in urination.
3. Traces of blood in urine.
4. Waist pain.
5. Weight loss.

Prevention:
1. Go for routine prostrate tests - PSA and prostrate scan
2. Go for digital rectal examination by a doctor ( esoecially if you are 50 years and above.
3. Stop smoking.
4. Stop excessive red meat consumption.

Treatment / Hope:
1. Prostrate cancer can be cured if found early.
2. Drugs - see doctor.
3. Surgery - Laser prostatectomy
4. Orchiectomy

Watch video of Laser prostatectomy performed at Save A Life Mission Hospital here https://youtu.be/znQwJ7vARGM…

The Difference Between Infertility and Impotence

Most times, the words infertility and impotence is used interchangeably but that is wrong. In fact it is a misguided information. Basically, impotence and infertility are two different biological phenomena, though the former compliments the later.

Conventionally, infertility simply means abnormally low ability to reproduce while impotence is the inability of a man to achieve and sustain erection. By implication, the word infertility can only be used when a man is not able to get his wife pregnant while impotence is used in the case of poor sexual satisfaction due to poor or no erection. What this means is that a man can have good erection (not impotent) yet unable to impregnate a woman.

On the other hand, a man may have weak erection (problem of impotence) but can get the wife pregnant any day he manages to get good erection (in this case there is no infertility problem).
It is therefore wrong for a man to depend on the strength of his erection to assess his fertility profile.

The Wonders of Laparoscopic Surgery in Removal of Fibroid

One common question people ask is, “how can a big fibroid be removed through such a tiny hole?” That was the initial challenge of this procedure before the invention of the “musculator”. It is an amazing instrument which has a flexible loop that can be directed to any object and be controlled from the outside. It has the ability to “chew and swallow” tissues like fibroid and bring the pieces outside the body. It does not matter how big the fibroid is, the musculator eats it up piecemeal.

Laparoscopic surgery is indeed developed for the interest of patients. Those who have experienced it keep sharing the testimony. Can there be a better option than a less painful, less bleeding and less tearing kind of surgery? Laparoscopic surgery is indeed an all-in-one package. It is one of the dividends of technological advancement and a gift to this our generation. More interesting is the fact that we do not have to travel abroad to get it done. It is available now in Nigeria, so there is no need for extra spending on a return ticket abroad.

Fibroid