Unless you are a healthcare professional, it is difficult to know exactly when your health is compromised.
Seemingly innocuous decisions can send you over the edge, and the most debilitating illnesses often have non-specific symptoms.
In other words, it is the doctor’s role to help people navigate the quagmire.
Questions posed to celebrity NHS doctor Renee Hoenderkamp: [email protected] This week’s Q&A talks about the anxiety that comes with uncertainty, including the unknowns surrounding the shiny new drug Ozempic, the myths surrounding cracked joints and arthritis, and determining exactly when memory loss is a sign of dementia.
Last week, she looked at the best supplements for forgetfulness, how alcohol affects your risk of dementia, and the myriad causes of chest and armpit pain.
It is important to remember that the advice given below is general and not specific, and you should always seek individual health care from your doctor.
Those caveats aside, check out Dr Hoenderkamp’s answers to GB News members’ burning questions below.
I’ve tried everything but I can’t lose weight. Should I take Ozempic?
First of all, can I really understand and say I understand the frustration of people who want to lose weight and are really struggling? It’s easy to see why influencers and celebrities would make loud and dramatic claims that Ozempic changed them forever. that’s allweight a person to their thin, slender shadow previous I have charm. But will that claim stand up to scrutiny?
First, let’s take a look at what Ozempic is and what it does.
Ozempic is the brand name for semaglutide. Semaglutide is a prescription-only drug that helps people with diabetes control their blood sugar. It may also promote weight loss.
However, mainly due to posts on social media, there has been a recent surge in the number of people without diabetes using Ozempic solely for the purpose of weight loss, creating a shortage and increasing the number of people in need of diabetes medication. It’s having an impact.
Ozempic is not approved for weight loss in the UK. but, wegobeeIt contains Same ingredients (semaglutide) and approved for weight loss.
Semaglutide lowers glucagon, a hormone that increases blood sugar levels, and slows its passage through the stomach tube, helping to keep you feeling full longer. As a result, weight loss may be accelerated.
However, like any drug, it has side effects, some of which can be fatal. And like all side effects, it doesn’t matter how rare a side effect is if it affects you and you have no way of knowing if it will happen.
Most people who use it experience gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and constipation, which usually subside.
More serious potential side effects include:
- Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) It shows Risk of pancreatic cancer increases after pancreatitis. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers. Only 7 percent of patients survive five years.
- changes in vision
- Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
Potentially life-threatening side effects include:
important to remember all Cancer is life-threatening unless treated successfully.
Let’s take a look at some real success stories. data -That’s not what the celebs are claiming. A once-weekly dose of 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide combined with lifestyle changes over 68 weeks produced the following results:
- 5% to 20% weight loss
- Decrease in waist circumference
- Improving blood sugar levels
- Blood pressure improvement
- Improved cholesterol levels
And your appetite returns when you stop using it, but does that mean lifelong use and a much higher risk of serious side effects? And how can you do that without any negative effects? Only pharmaceutical companies. They don’t want you to lose weight permanently, they want you as a lifelong customer.
So my answer to your question is: no. This is not an answer. The answer to effective and sustainable weight loss is lifestyle changes. Consider eating home-cooked meals that are nutritionally balanced, eating less, avoiding all processed foods (which cause obesity), and above all, thinking about exercising.
Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?
This may have been my quickest answer to the GB News question. The answer is no…but it’s a deeply ingrained superstition, so let’s get rid of it.
Some people crack their knuckles and other joints forever, others never crack them, but those who do often report a sense of satisfaction when their joints are freed. And they are correct. The popping sound in a joint is caused by the bursting of air bubbles in the synovial fluid that helps lubricate the joint.
When you pull the bones apart, stretch your fingers by pulling them back or bending them, which pops the air bubbles and creates negative pressure.
So, you don’t have to worry about arthritis and can continue cracking happily, but chronic cracking of your knuckles can lead to decreased grip strength. There are also reports of people getting injured while trying to crack their knuckles. Therefore, it may be best to avoid it if possible.
How do I know that my forgetfulness is a sign of aging and not dementia?
Bear with me…I can’t remember, it’ll come to mind soon!
If you say things like the above often, it’s probably just because you’re preoccupied and busy with the effects of aging. But it’s an interesting question…how do you know? You’ll be glad to hear that there are some simple standardized tests that can help.
While some level of forgetfulness is a normal part of aging, dementia is not. The deterioration in mental abilities seen in dementia is even more serious. The time to consider a dementia diagnosis is when symptoms are having a significant impact on your daily life. Therefore, if you have difficulty performing daily tasks at home, at work or in the community, you should see a doctor. If you walk into a room and forget why you entered, or can’t remember words or people’s names, that’s probably normal.
However, is it possible to understand this more scientifically? There are distinct areas of cognitive changes that are not part of normal aging and can be seen in:
- amnesia
- Confused and need help with daily tasks
- Language and comprehension issues
- behavioral changes
So consider the following regarding normal and possibly demented cases.
Memories/new information
It may be normal to forget something that was said a while ago, but it may not be normal to forget something that was said very recently. And since I don’t feel comfortable asking it over and over again, I ask, “Is the car locked?” Repeated repetition can be a sign of concern.
It’s okay to misplace your keys or glasses from time to time, but repeatedly leaving them in strange places, like inside the refrigerator, can be worrying.
Planning/decision making
It’s okay to make mistakes every now and then when paying your bills, but it’s worrying to not be able to deal with your financial situation and pay or plan for your bills.
mood and behavior
We all feel depressed or sad from time to time, but feeling sad, anxious, or disinterested and frightened all the time can be worrying.
orientation
Sometimes the day of the week or month cannot be entered, but that moment may be a normal change over time. It is not normal to completely lose track of the time, day of the week, date, or season.
language
It happens to everyone that from time to time we can’t find the right word, but eventually it shows up, but frequently we have difficulty finding a word and we either can’t find it or we make up for it with “that thing”. You may be concerned about being noticed.
vision and recognition
Vision problems are not normal and should be investigated, but could be due to normal eye aging, prescription changes, or cataracts, and while these are not signs of dementia, it is important to judge distance. They may be able to recognize the location of steps, or mistake the shape of an object for another.
Here’s a quick tour of how you can tell the difference between dementia and normal aging.For more information, we have great information here.
