Health related information and news from around the world.

If you think you have testicular torsion, you should see your doctor or urologist immediately. He will first try to manually untwist the spermatic cord. It’s likely, however, that even when he succeeds, he will also want to perform minor surgery by placing a few judiciously placed stitches that will prevent the cord from twisting again, which is a likely possibility. The surgical procedure to repair the torsion and prevent future episodes will require several days in the hospital and about a week of recuperation.

If the pain is caused by an infection in your testicle caused by bacteria in your urinary tract, the doctor will need to find out what particular bacterium is causing the infection. He will do a prostate exam through the rectum or massage the penis to extract a sample of discharge (if it exists) to send to the lab for a culture. An antibiotic will then be prescribed depending on the organism isolated. If the infection is caused by a sexually transmitted disease, your doctor will prescribe the antibiotic Floxin 300, which you will take twice a day for 10 days; your sexual partner or partners will also need to be treated.

*482\167\8*

Sometimes diarrhea can be the body’s way of ridding itself of a harmful substance, such as the bacteria that cause food poisoning or contaminate water. However, when you have diarrhea that lasts for more than a few days, it’s usually due to another reason.

Whenever a patient complains to me about chronic diarrhea, the first thing I look for is a change in his diet. Juice diets or diets that are high in fruit can cause chronic diarrhea when you first start the new regimen. A new medication, especially blood pressure medication, can also cause chronic diarrhea. Obviously, the continuing use of laxatives, stool softeners, and antacids can cause chronic diarrhea, as can new vitamin regimens, especially when they contain yeast.

If “you have lost weight during your bout with diarrhea, it’s probably because your intestines are not absorbing most of the food you eat; the most common cause of this malabsorption is lactose intolerance. Lactose is found in dairy products such as milk, ice cream, yogurt, and cheese.

A more serious kind of malabsorption is caused by an intolerance to gluten, which is found in all bread products and cereals made with wheat. If you have a gluten intolerance, you probably have a long history of diarrhea and weight loss, in addition to hair loss, mild anemia, and abnormalities in any liver function tests you take.

*428\167\8*

Description and Possible Medical Problems

You’d think that if you had a tendency to become short of breath with slight exertion, sitting or lying down would allow you to catch your breath. Not so for some people; lying down can actually make breathing harder.

If you find yourself to be short of breath when lying down or sitting and you also often have the seemingly unrelated symptom of swollen ankles, you should see your doctor. This is important, especially if you have diabetes or a previous history of heart disease of any kind.

If your shortness of breath is accompanied by wheezing, coughing, and an inability to talk, you will need to seek immediate medical attention.

In the elderly population, shortness of breath that occurs while lying down is usually caused by heart failure. Other times, however, the cause can be as simple as a heavy intake of salt. When I was a young doctor, we saw a group of nursing home residents come to the emergency room with heart failure. They had recently eaten a meal of hot dogs, corned beef, and pastrami, provided as a generous gift by the local deli. These people, who usually ate low-salt diets, could not handle the sudden overload of sodium, and as a result several ended up in the emergency room.

Treatment

If you are short of breath whenever you lie down and your doctor suspects heart failure, he will perform a total medical evaluation, which will include an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram, among other tests. The ensuing treatment will depend on the degree of the heart failure.

The condition might actually require only a simple change in diet— limiting salt intake. Fat consumption should be reduced, and, if you’re overweight, you’ll probably need to lose some weight.

If your condition requires it, your doctor may prescribe a diuretic such as hydrochlorothiazide to reduce your blood pressure and take some of the strain off your heart. The ACE inhibitors digoxin and Lasix may also be used on an individual basis.

*374\167\8*

The hot new product in skin care the past couple of years has been Retin-A, popularly called the “antiwrinkle cream.” Retin-A is the brand name for tretinoin, a derivative of vitamin A, and it’s been around for 20 years for the treatment of acne. Retin-A has been shown to reduce fine wrinkles and improve skin texture by smoothing out rough patches of skin, but this prescription drug has still not been approved by the FDA for the specific purpose of reversing the effects of photoaging.

It’s not known exactly how Retin-A works, but it does stimulate new collagen growth in the dermis of the skin and help restore the epidermis to its natural, undamaged state. As with any medication, some individuals are sensitive to Retin-A and many people experience dryness, peeling, redness, and swelling when they use it. People who are prescribed this preparation by their physicians are also advised to use sunscreen regularly, as Retin-A increases sensitivity to the sun.

Although Retin-A may help make your skin look and feel younger, you shouldn’t relax when it comes to monitoring any changes in your skin that could point to melanoma and other skin cancers.

*315\167\8*

Usually, the best way to treat hoarseness is to rest your voice, learn to talk at a normal volume, and let the taspiness run its course. Drinking warm beverages, such as hot tea with honey, is also quite soothing. And if you smoke, stop. If the hoarseness is accompanied by a cold or flu, you should treat your other symptoms as well as limit your conversation.

If you become hoarse only after certain instances—like after a late night out—and your voice returns to normal after a few days, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you have chronic laryngitis or your hoarseness lasts more than a week, or if your voice changes, you should see your doctor immediately to rule out the possibility of polyps or a more serious problem. He or she may refer you to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, who will use a laryngoscope to check your vocal cords for polyps or other growths. A laryngoscope is a thin, small, flexible tube that your doctor will insert through your nostril so that she can look down into your throat. The procedure lasts only a few minutes and requires a local anesthetic.

Tips and Precautions

Many people gargle with salt water or an antiseptic mouthwash when they become hoarse. Although you’re probably just doing what your mother told you to do when you were a kid, you may actually be doing more harm than good. First, you should keep the use of your vocal cords—including both speaking and gargling—to a minimum in order to give the larynx a chance to rest and heal. Second, salt water and antiseptic may irritate the infection of a cold more, delaying a return to your normal voice.

*261\167\8*