Monday, May 26, 2014

An autistic child

The other day a mother brought her five year old daughter to the clinic.

"Doctor, my daughter has a sore throat, I'd like you to check her out please"

As I was about to get up to examine the girl...

"Please note that she's autistic...examination might be tricky."

As two nurses and the mother struggled to hold the child down I glanced at the the mother. Her expression spoke of the endless sleepless nights, of the worry for the child's health.

Autism is a huge challenge for the child, and more so for the parents and carers. Though the cause is as yet not precisely identified, research is ongoing as this article in National Geographic shows.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/21/the-roots-of-autism-are-in-the-skin/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20140526ph-autism&utm_campaign=Content&sf3050086=1


Edit (September 2019): A reader of this blog recently brought to my attention the relation between people with ASD and the internet. In today's world the web is ubiquitous and naturally everyone has some form of interaction with it...including persons diagnosed with ASD. The following are some guidelines to help those with this condition navigate safely this sea of information. Thank you Mariya Klorova.

Internet safety for people with ASD


Thursday, May 22, 2014

The dangers of (too much) tea

While sipping my afternoon cuppa I chanced upon an article on Pubmed...a case of tea overdose.

A lady was complaining of loss of appetite and weight loss to her doctors. They could not find a cause for her symptoms and in the end suggested she cut down on her two litre per day tea consumption. Her symptoms improved and she regained the lost weight.

The readers with a medical background might be interested to know that the only laboratory abnormality was an elevated CA 19.9.

Original article here.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

This has nothing to do with medicine...

Recently I unearthed a box of my old toy cars. These were promptly confiscated by my elder son. One of them is the one in the picture shown.

Since I never recall seeing anything like it on the roads, I did some research. It's called the Vauxhall Guildsman and the story behind it is in the link below.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Gluten sensitivity

Gluten sensitivity is a condition where patients experience gastrointestinal upset in response to exposure to gluten in food.

Now researchers seem to be doubting its very existence after carrying out further studies. More details in the link below.

http://www.businessinsider.com/gluten-sensitivity-and-study-replication-2014-5

Sunday, May 11, 2014

More on electronic cigarettes

Recently I posted on electronic cigarettes, link here.

A letter in the New England Journal of Medicine provides further insight. Its gist is that nicotine is highly poisonous, and since e-cigarettes contain nicotine in solution they can be a cause of serious poisoning.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1403843

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Does size matter?

A recent study suggests that it does.

Watch video here http://dne.ws/RlF1rf

For those interested to read the original research paper please click the link below.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0095298