Archive for May 15th, 2009
MIGRAINE – INCREASING THE FREQUENCY
The menopause often brings relief to many women.
The contraceptive Pill and added oestrogen for other conditions may bring on migraine or increase the frequency and severity of migraine.
Many foods, such as red wine, chocolate, fatty foods, nuts, garlic, citrus fruits, flat beans and alcohol have, at times, been known to cause migraine.
Nervous tension, overtiredness or bright lights may all bring on an attack.
One feature which may be misinterpreted is a feeling of well-being before the attack.
A woman may wake up feeling great. She does all her cleaning, shopping and other tasks she, maybe, has put off for some time. Next day she wakes with a splitting migraine and blames overdoing it for causing the headache.
The typical migraine headache starts with some warning, usually a disturbance in vision. The headache is usually throbbing in character and, in a third of cases, is on one side only. Nausea and vomiting are common.
*503/71/1*
CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME – INTRODUCTION
Pain is the commonest warning signal that something is wrong with our bodies. Pressure on nerves anywhere in the body will usually result in pain as the main symptom.
At the front of the wrist there is a groove formed by the small bones of the wrist. Lying in this groove and passing through it, as though a tunnel, run the tendons that flex the fingers and also the median nerve.
This nerve carries sensations from the thumb, index finger, middle finger and half the ring finger. It also carries nerve fibres to some of the muscles of the hand.
Roofing over and converting the groove into a tunnel is a broad band of ligament tissue. The median nerve can be compressed as it runs through this tunnel and cause the condition known as carpal tunnel syndrome.
This disorder is more likely to occur in the middle-aged. The cause is unknown although occasionally it is attributed to work, but this is not always definite. It may occur in the young as the presenting feature of rheumatoid arthritis. In this condition it is the swelling of the tendon sheaths which compress the nerve.
*246/71/1*