The NHS can help obese children
Contrary to the predictably alarmist claims of two groups of experts last week, that in certain areas of Britain children are perilously overweight (“a damning and shaming indictment of the health of our nation, blah blah blah”), the situation is actually rather encouraging.
To be sure, throughout the Nineties, and in line with the adult population, the number of children categorised as “obese” increased almost twofold, to around one in five. Since then, however, the trend has plateaued with little change over the past 10 years.
The proposed solution of spending lots of money on “hardhitting” health education campaigns is similarly fallacious. These have never been shown to work – in contrast to parents ensuring their children eat less (those who are overweight consume more than their peers) and exercise more.
For those with the misfortune to have inherited a genetically determined metabolic impairment or have some other medical conditions that predisposes to obesity, more rigorous measures may be required. It might sound a bit drastic, but a recent article in the Archives of Disease of Childhood reports that keyhole bariatric surgery – inserting an adjustable gastric band around the stomach – to be very effective. This procedure – “the only intervention resulting in clinically meaningful weight loss” – is available on the NHS, though is apparently “under-used”.
Those parents who might wish to know more should email Dr Billy White of the Department of Adolescent Medicine of London’s University College (billy.white@ucl.ac.uk).
Cranial nerve theory
The difficulties of the practice nurse, featured a fortnight ago, when doing dressings and taking blood during her episodic bouts of unilateral itching of the throat, watering of the eyes and excess salivation has prompted several similar accounts including, for one woman, “the sensation of a hot needle piercing one side of my throat, mucous in my mouth and a stinging in the eye”.
This pattern of symptoms would indicate disturbed functioning of the ninth cranial (or glossopharyngeal) nerve that innervates these structures, notes emeritus ENT surgeon Hugh Fairman. They might thus be due to the “poorly recognised” condition of calcification of the styloid-hyoid ligament that abuts the nerve – confirmed if palpating the back of the throat with a gloved finger triggers an attack. There are apparently a couple of simple surgical procedures to relieve this.
Alternatively, eye specialist William Coddington notes the intermittent and recurring nature of these symptoms is consistent with a migraine-type syndrome with narrowing of the vessels and reduced blood flow to the affected nerves.
Wi-fi sensitivity
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of Mrs MA from Bath, writing on behalf of her husband who, three years ago, had the great misfortune of suffering a right-sided haemorrhagic stroke that has left him with both impaired movement and sensation. Since then, he has become “hypersensitive to electromagnetic fields”. Proximity to Wi-fi networks, computerised till systems, microwaves and so on all induce “excruciating pins and needles on the affected side”. His symptoms have worsened since the provision of a stronger broadband in their village. While she acknowledges this is a contentious matter – given the prevailing scientific scepticism that electrical sensitivity is a genuine phenomenon – the localisation of his symptoms to the side of his body affected by the stroke would certainly suggest these electrical fields are disturbing the function of the damaged area of his brain. Might anyone else, she wonders, be similarly affected?
Tremor treatment
Finally, my thanks to a lady from Devon for yet further indication for the gin-and-raisin remedy to relieving arthritic pain and improving psoriasis. She is much troubled by essential tremor of the hands that is ameliorated by alcohol. Accordingly, she soaked raisins in a flat container, as commended, leaving them for a few days for the gin to evaporate. She then took a dose of three, after which, for the first time in over a decade, she was able to write five cards in a row.