Aches and pains are an inescapable feature of life.
Acknowledging that fact is one thing, doing something about it is another.
Many health conditions have overlapping symptoms and there are crucial gaps in knowledge.
This comes at the cost of a timely diagnosis and effective treatment. You can sense these frustrations in the questions submitted to celebrity NHS Doctor Renée Hoenderkamp this week via health@gbnews.uk.
For this week's Q&A, our resident doc attempts to get to the bottom of memory loss caused by B12, the symptoms of high cholesterol on the face and whether 'Mona Lisa' laser treatment eases the pain felt during the menopause.
It's important to remember that the advice given below is general and not individual and you should always seek individualised health care from a doctor.
With those caveats aside, see below Doctor Hoenderkamp's answer's to GB News members' burning questions.
What a great question! So, it isn’t that common but high cholesterol can definitely show on the skin in a couple of ways:
You can get yellowish-orange growths on your skin if your cholesterol levels are high. These waxy lumps are actually deposits of cholesterol under your skin. They are painless and can appear in many areas, but especially the corners of your eyes, palms of your hand, or the backs of your lower legs.
This sudden appearance of bumps all over the skin area affected can look like a rash, warts, or molluscum contagiosum. They are actually fatty deposits of cholesterol caused by extremely high levels of triglycerides (a type of cholesterol) in the blood. Triglycerides is often high in familial hypercholesterolaemia.
The good news today is that the white pimples by your lips may be nothing to do with cholesterol and may be something called a sebum plug which is harmless.
However, the only way to know for sure is to have a blood test for your cholesterol levels and I would always recommend including apolipoproteins in that test because these are the ones that confer the cardiac risk that your cholesterol levels may hold for you. And the other good news is that if your skin lesions are being cause by cholesterol, they are often reversible by lowering your cholesterol, and if not, a dermatologist can remove them.
Firstly, I am sorry to hear that you are still suffering after what you hoped would be the treatment to distressing memory loss.
Memory loss can be a consequence of B12 deficiency alongside other cognitive/neurological symptoms that low B12 can cause such as depression, paranoia, delusions, memory loss and loss of taste and smell.
I have had a search of papers on the effects of B12 on cognition and although there clearly is a relationship between low vitamin B12 levels and cognitive decline, sadly clinical studies do not seem to show improvement in cognitive function, even with high replacement doses. In fact, most studies support screening for low B12 in order to replace before cognitive side effects occur which appear to worsen certain dementias.
Whilst I know this isn’t the kind of news you wanted, there are some alternative supplements which have been shown to increase cognitive performance and these include L-Theanine, vitamin D, magnesium, choline, and ashwagandha.
You could see the question I answered on this website on this very topic for more detail. I also see some good work coming out of the research on pro-biotics and I always recommend Symprove. There is definitely a Gut-Brain relationship and there is no downside to trying bar cost perhaps.
I would also suggest you speak to your GP and ask for a referral to memory clinic as there are tests that they can do to further classify your memory loss into type and offer treatments. So all is not lost. Good luck.
Firstly, as least your GP is offering up solutions and not telling you to grin and bear it which I heard recently!
Mona Lisa is a type of CO2 laser used to rejuvenate vaginal tissue that is suffering due to the loss of oestrogen that occurs in menopause and results in dry, easily damaged vaginal walls that for many women makes sex impossible due to pain.
There are limited ways of restoring this vaginal lubrication:
For some women, all four are necessary! Things can get so bad that women are constantly suffering from;
And let's not forget, UTI’s can lead to sepsis and even death so this is not just a case of missing sex. It can be lifesaving.
So how does CO2 laser work?
By the introduction heat to the tissues of the vagina, the cells are damaged in a way that causes them to change in the way that they function and as they repair they multiply and stimulate more and new cells with new collagen which deliver the important lubrication needed.
You need three sessions and the results improve over the period of treatment and studies show that all of the symptoms mentioned, including urinary incontinence were improved.
Is it really that simple?
As someone who has suffered from this, and had the laser, I would say this. Its more than just one approach if you want the results to stick. I would always advise that a woman suffering uses vaginal oestrogen and if possible HRT. I understand that some women don’t want HRT or can’t have it. So in those cases I would strongly suggest topical oestrogen which has very little systemic absorption (full use at prescription dose for a year is equivalent to taking one oral HRT tablet in that year). I prefer the vaginal creams over the pessary as they can be used all around the inner and outer areas. I would also always use a vaginal lubricant and my preferred one is YES Oil Based and this combination approach really supports the work of the laser, and lets face it, its expensive so you want it to last!
