Why are my children short yet I am tall?

Dear doctor, my wife and I are tall. Why is it that my children are all short?
Juma Kambugu Esq

Dear Juma, being tall and short may depend on genetics. While both you and your wife are tall, your parents could be short people who could have sowed seeds of shortness in your children. Also, it may not only be genetics that determine whether children may be short or tall. The food the children eat and the drugs they take among other things may also be factors determining their height.

Many Ugandan children with allergies or asthma (which are now common) are taking steroid drugs ending up being short. But shortness is not a disease requiring treatment. I hope your complaint is not a show of parentage doubt!

Dear doctor, I have noticed that the kanyamas have small buttocks. What could be the problem?
Isac Chirema-Agamba

Dear Isac, the buttocks are made up mainly of skin, muscles and fat. Many kanyamas (body builders) have sacrificed fat, which is responsible for the shapely female buttocks for muscle.This then makes the buttocks of these body builders look smaller compared to the rest of the body.
Also, body builders are in a habit of using anabolic steroids (drugs to build muscle) resulting in, among many other health problems, sexual complications including a less functional manhood and are thus advised against the drugs.

Dear doctor, why do I keep on belching? I find it embarrassing, not to mention very uncomfortable at times. Tests, including stomach x-ray, have shown that I am normal.
Yvonne

Dear Yvonne, however much a public embarrassment it may be, belching (burping), is useful in expelling air through the mouth hence relieving us the discomfort from excessive gas in the abdomen. The other way that abdominal gas is expelled is the more embarrassing farting.

Everyone of us has belched before especially after a meal. So, belching is normal unless it becomes excessive. When we gulp food, chew gum or drink too rapidly especially using a straw, or drink lots of carbonated beverages, or when we have anxiety or nervousness, we swallow lots of air which if not expelled will lead to distress.

In some people, excessive belching has become a learned behaviour, or habit, to relieve gas, but after some time, even without gas, it may continue subconsciously. Some people have difficulty digesting certain foods completely leading to excess gases which has to be expelled by belching or farting. Such foods include beans, and milk. Sometimes excessive belching is associated with stomach acid reflux into the gullet, (heartburn), and treatment of this condition may alleviate bothersome burping.

A germ, Helicobacter Pylori, has to be looked for and eliminated if present. Anti-gas medications, such as charcoal, are generally useless for excessive belching. However, lifestyle modification such as avoidance of rapid eating, chewing gum, carbonated beverages and stopping smoking are often recommended though the response is variable.

Dear doctor, I have swellings in my breasts, which worries me. I had an operation before and no cancer was found. Could it be that the doctors operation caused spread and now I have cancer?
Amelai Lukonko, Kyanja

Dear Amelia, in a lot of women, breasts feel bumpy or lumpy especially, before one’s periods due to an increase in female sex hormones that stimulate growth of fibrous (hard) tissue and water retention.

Since cancer first surfaces as a lump, people are wary of breast lumps though one out of 10 lumps in adult women may be cancer. The discovery of a breast lump, whether by chance, during a routine breast self-exam, or a doctor’s examination, can be stressful for a woman and many women even after a thorough examination indicates the lumps are not cancerous, they still ask for surgery. Breast tissue responds to hormonal changes and, therefore, certain lumps can come and go.

That said, all breast lumps should be evaluated by a doctor who might do tests such as breast x-ray called mammography (above 35 years) and ultrasound (regardless of age ). A piece of the lump may also be taken by a needle or after cutting all of it out and checked for cancer.

This is true especially if the lump is persistent, is one, new, firm, hard or fixed and the margins difficult to tell, if it changes or gets bigger and the atop skin changes to look like that of an orange peel, or there is a bloody, discharge from the nipple.