I LOVE receiving your questions each week and am so glad you feel able to share your health concerns and worries with me and our Sun Health community.
I am a practising GP in clinic most of the week, so sadly the team and I are not able to directly reply to every email.
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While I aim to reply to as many of your questions as possible each week, please do not delay in seeking medical help if you need it.
For medical or mental health emergencies attend A&E or call 999.
mergencies attend A&E or call 999.
NHS 111 is available 24/7 if you have an urgent medical problem and you are not sure what to do.
And of course, you can call your GP surgery if you need an appointment, urgent or otherwise, or use their e-consult service if they have one.
Your pharmacist will also be able to help with more minor ailments and advice.
Here’s what some of you asked me this week . . .
Q) I AM 68 and over the past couple of months I’ve been having trouble holding my urine.
I have heard of pelvic floor exercises and was wondering if there is any other way, maybe tablets, that could help me.
I love reading your column in the paper and hope you can advise me
A) Firstly, thank you very much, what a kind thing to say.
Secondly, in answer to your question, yes there are medications that can be prescribed.
But they are not usually the first port of call and the medicines that are commonly prescribed for urinary incontinence can have side effects, ranging from fatigue and blurred vision to nausea.
You say it’s over the last couple of months, so my first question if you came to see me would be, “What’s changed?’.
Could you have a urinary tract infection?
Have you started any new medication for another condition?
Have you had any surgery or experienced any mobility issues that make it harder for you to get to the toilet on time?
It could be that your GP, who has your medical history, could pinpoint an obvious cause.
If not, the next question is, what type of incontinence is this?
Is it stress incontinence — so leakage of urine when you cough, sneeze or jump?
Or is it urge incontinence, when your bladder starts to squeeze urine out before you are ready, meaning you are not making it to the toilet on time?
Or, as is very common, is it a mixture of the two?
Either way, you can start by thinking about lifestyle changes that might help.
Make sure your last drink is a couple of hours before bed time and reduce your caffeine intake as it is a diuretic, which means we wee more when we drink a lot of tea and coffee.
Carrying excess body weight, drinking fizzy drinks, as well as age, are all risk factors for incontinence.
Pelvic floor exercises are always an important part of the treatment plan and should be done by all of us, whether we have issues or not.
Training the muscles of our pelvic floor to keep them strong and functioning well is important, just like it is for other muscles of our body.
But the bottom line is that there are a multitude of therapies and treatments for people with incontinence issues.
These range from pelvic trainer devices and to surgery to electrical stimulation and biofeedback, which both work by inserting a probe to help your urinary muscles contract.
So please do not suffer in silence or see this as a normal part of ageing.
The sooner you take action, the better.
JOINT PAINS WORSENING
Q) MY wife who is 76, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and uses inhalers.
She also takes Nexium twice a day. For the last three years, she’s been getting sharp pains in the ribs and now in her hands and feet too, as well as a tingling in her feet sometimes.
The pains are getting worse and are on most joints.
A) Musculoskeletal pains that are widespread and affect many bones or joints require a full assessment, especially if it’s affecting a person’s daily functioning and/or their quality of life.
Your GP will want to assess for a number of conditions that can cause these pains, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, menopause, fibromyalgia, vitamin D deficiency and some rarer conditions such as blood cancers or other cancers that have spread to the bone.
We see many people in general practice who complain of musculoskeletal pain and in most cases, we can rule out any underlying medical condition.
The plan of action then is often to treat the symptoms by getting the person moving better.
Humans are designed to move, every day, but we tend to spend most of our time sedentary, especially as we age.
Just ten minutes of physical activity each day, such as brisk walking, dancing, or doing seated exercises, can make a big difference.
Breaking up sitting regularly is advisable too.
I often suggest doing ten sit/stands or squats when the TV adverts come on.
And try balancing on one foot when waiting for the kettle to boil.
I believe we should be determined to do what we can to fight bone and joint pain, which often means making movement and physical activity a normal part of each day.
Q) I HAVE had a cough for two weeks, no sore throat, but I’ve lost my voice.
I’ve got no energy, the light hurts my eyes but I have had negative Covid tests. What can it be?
A) To further add to the winter of discontent, it seems like everyone is getting ill at the moment, doesn’t it?
In addition to Covid, we are still in the thick of flu season and Strep A continues to be a health concern.
You mention symptoms that could be flu, with lack of energy, light sensitivity and a dry cough.
Most people feel better a week or so after coming down with flu but it’s not uncommon for the symptoms to hang around longer.
Lots of people will take a few weeks for their energy to return and really feel like they are back to normal.
Of course, it could be a number of other viruses, such as any of the 200-plus that cause the common cold.
You do not say how old you are but lots of people are eligible for a flu vaccine, including children, those with certain medical conditions and people over the age of 50.
So if you fit the criteria, I would advise still getting your vaccine if you have missed it this year.
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