Man with severe headaches needs to get accurate diagnosis
Q: My husband gets headaches that are sporadic but severe enough to make him vomit. We found that wrapping his head in ice seems to be the only thing that helps. (He refuses to see a doctor.)
A: Your husband really needs to see a doctor to get an accurate diagnosis. If he is suffering from migraines, he might benefit from a variety of treatments. Coenzyme Q10 and magnesium are available over the counter, and so are herbs such as butterbur and feverfew. A doctor could prescribe a migraine medicine such as sumatriptan, which often reverses severe headaches promptly.
If he is suffering from cluster headaches, breathing oxygen has been shown to be helpful (Headache, July 2016). Sumatriptan and zolmitriptan also work.
We were fascinated by your use of ice to wrap his head. Previously, we have heard from many migraine sufferers that inducing “brain freeze” by drinking ice water can stop a migraine quickly.
Q: I had been taking the blood pressure pill lisinopril for about 20 years before I had an allergic reaction. My tongue swelled so big that I had to get to the emergency room quickly.
It was very scary, as my throat was swelling shut and making it hard to breathe. From the ER I was admitted to the intensive care unit and given steroid breathing treatments as well as Benadryl and adrenaline.
After 24 hours, I was feeling better. Could the abdominal pain, bouts of diarrhea and bouts with shortness of breath have been warning signs of this allergy? It’s incredible that, after taking a medication for so long, one day it nearly kills you.
A: The reaction you experienced is called angioedema. It can affect the digestive tract as well as the mouth and throat. Angioedema is becoming more common among people taking ACE inhibitor medicines such as lisinopril (Medicine, November 2015).
You are lucky that the emergency room staff knew how to treat it, as hospitals don’t always have specific protocols in place (International Journal of Emergency Medicine, online, April 2017).
Q: I have known several healthy older Americans who ate a reduced-salt diet and nearly died. When they landed in the emergency room in trouble, their blood tests showed very low sodium levels. Once IV fluids with sodium were added, their health improved immediately.
A: Public-health experts often recommend that Americans consume as little salt as possible to keep blood pressure under control. The 20152020 Dietary Guidelines recommend that sodium intake be kept under 2,300 mg/day.
A new study suggests, however, that restricting sodium does not benefit blood pressure. The Framingham Offspring Study included more than 2,600 men and women between 30 and 64. All the volunteers had normal blood pressure when the study started, 16 years ago.
Surprisingly, by the end of the study, the average blood pressure of people whose sodium intake stayed under 2,500 mg a day was higher than the blood pressure of people who consumed more sodium. The results were presented at the Experimental Biology 2017 meeting in April.
Q: My doctor recently diagnosed me with diabetes. I don’t want to deal with pills and shots, so I started experimenting.
Through trial and error, I found that turmeric controls my blood sugar. I don’t like the taste or smell, but if I sprinkle some ground turmeric on my food at dinner in the evening, my blood sugar reading the following morning is just where it should be. This works great!
A: Turmeric (which makes curry yellow) is not the only spice that can help control blood sugar (Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, March 2017). You might want to try cinnamon and fenugreek as well ( Journal of Pharmacy Practice, online Sept. 11, 2016). In addition, finishing your meal with a salad dressed with vinaigrette can be a useful tactic, since vinegar helps control blood sugar (Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, August 2016).
You can learn more about nondrug approaches to Type 2 diabetes as well as some popular medications for blood sugar control in our Guide to Managing Diabetes. It can be downloaded for $2 at peoplespharmacy.com.
Q: I was very excited to read about using crystallized ginger as a cough remedy. I had a sore throat and ate a piece of crystallized ginger. Not only did my sore throat go away, the relief lasted for almost four hours. It also worked well for the cough that came later on in the cold, quieting it for more than three hours.
I now keep some crystallized ginger in my purse and next to my bed. No more sugary cough drops for me!
A: Ginger, known scientifically as Zingiber officinale, has been used for centuries to calm coughs as well as to settle digestive distress. Ginger tea and crystallized ginger both are effective. Scientists recently worked out which water-soluble compounds are responsible for fighting coughs (Phytotherapy Research, January 2016). While crystallized ginger may be more appealing than sugary cough drops, it also contains a fair amount of sugar.
Q: An article in the newspaper mentioned that a reader’s psoriasis improved when he took biotin along with the resveratrol, which he was on for another purpose. My husband tried it, and it is working! He is seeing slow but steady and significant improvement in his psoriasis by taking these daily. Thank you.
A: As far as we can tell, there have been no clinical trials involving resveratrol for treating psoriasis. Nevertheless, there are studies suggesting that this antioxidant found in red wine might be beneficial (Oncology Reports, January 2016; PLOS One, May 12, 2015).
Biotin is a B vitamin. It has a reputation for improving hair and nails. There are no data on its effect on psoriasis plaques.