Doctor's Column: Does boiled marijuana and lemon make you resistant to malaria?

Dear doctor, when we were young, we were given boiled marijuana together with lemon to make us resistant to malaria. I must say it worked because I last suffered from malaria in 1995 yet I see others suffering. Does it work?
Adoniya Rutehenda

Dear Adoniya, malaria is a disease we mainly get from bites of mosquitoes carrying plasmodia parasites. Not everyone who is bitten by mosquitoes, even when they are ladden with parasites gets malaria.

Infants and children, pregnant women, those with diseases that reduce a persons resistance to infections (such as those on drugs for cancer or advanced HIV infection) and those coming from non-malaria areas catch malaria more easily from infected bites.

Boiled marijuana (njaga) and lemon are not known to help one resist malaria attacks and can build a drug habit in a child and should therefore be avoided.

It may be that you do not suffer from malaria as an adult because you inherited resistance to malaria (genetic resistance) or as is mostly the case, children after repeated attacks of malaria, by school age are resistant to severe attacks and less frequently suffer from malaria.

You could also be effectively using malaria prevention, especially if you sleep under insectcide treated mosquito nets.

Dear doctor, I have a swelling on my clitoris, I have gone to several hospitals but doctors tell me it is normal, but I don’t feel like it is normal. What can I do?
Clare

Dear Clare, if doctors have told you that you are normal then it is likely that you are. Body part sizes vary and what you call swollen may be normal when examined by those in the know.

Dear doctor, it is now 12 years since I last got my periods. I have fibroids and now feel something heavy down. Is it possible that the fibroids are growing? Can I have an operation to cut them out?
Agnes Kabanyana

Dear Agnes, fibroids are benign swellings or tumours in the walls of the uterus. The exact cause of uterine fibroids remains unclear but apparently genetics and female hormones may play a key role. During and after menopause, the reduced levels of female hormones result in the shrinking in size of the uterus and with it the shrinking of fibroids as well. Apart from the shrinking, fibroids do not occur as a new development unless a woman is on hormone replacement treatment (HRT).

It is true that one of the symptoms of fibroids is feeling heaviness of the lower abdomen but if you are not on HRT it is unlikely the cause of your feeling something weighing you down is fibroids.

The uterus is held loosely in place in the pelvis by several sets of ligaments and pelvic floor muscles. When they (ligaments and muscles) stretch and weaken as happens in women after menopause or related to pregnancy and difficult child birth, the womb may slip down and depending on severity it may be felt protruding out of the vaginal canal.

This so called genital prolapse may cause a woman to feel something heavy coming down. There are treatments for genital prolapse and you should therefore visit a doctor for diagnosis.

Dear doctor, I normally jog and sometimes I get that pain under my ribs in Luganda called kinsimbye. I am kindly asking what causes it scientifically. Does it have any negative effects on someone more especially if you feel it and ignore it as you continue jogging? I will be very grateful for your response.
Robert of Kireka

Dear Robert, pain under the ribs on the right could mean an inflamed gall bladder or gallbladder stones.

However, if you felt pain on the left during or after jogging then it could be that you have a big spleen which is holding lots of blood which spleen is contracting albeit painfully to release more blood to the working jogging muscles that require more glucose and oxygen to perform.

Kinsimbye is a type of sharp chest pain that may at worst make one gasp for breath. Usually, it results from sicknesses (usually an inflammation) of the membrane that covers the lungs or the inner side of the chest wall (pleura and the pain pleutic chest pain). When a person jogs, the lungs expand to carry more oxygen to give yet more energy required for jogging. This will make the sick membrane stretch or rub against the other areas resulting in pain. Sometimes, however, kinsimbye pain is due to a muscle spasm in the chest muscles sometimes related to lack of physical fitness.

Since pain is a warning of impending destruction of tissue, you need to have the pain investigated by a doctor for proper treatment. You also need to make sure you do not jog immediately after eating because you are likely to have to get pain though mostly in the abdomen.

Dear doctor, I have pimples and around exam time they become very big and painful. Why does this happen and what can I do?
Sanyu

Dear Sanyu, acne or pimples is a harmless but cosmetically annoying condition involving the oil glands of the skin on the face, back, chest, shoulders, external ear canal and the genital area. Though harmless, acne may result in ugly looking skin scars. Plugging of skin pores which connect to oil glands located under the skin is responsible for acne. Too much oil, thickening of the pore membrane and activity of acne bacteria related to increases in male hormone especially during adolescence is mostly to blame.

That said both girls and boys suffer from acne because they carry male hormones but boys usually suffer for much longer. Anxiety and stress can also affect levels of some hormones, such as cortisol making acne worse. Hot and humid weather when we sweat more, and oil based make-ups can worsen acne. Squeezing the pimples which risks scarring should be avoided.

Acne will go with time and requires no treatment in many girls and boys. The more one minds and keeps touching the pimples, the more easily other people will take notice. Serious pimples may require prescription creams or antibiotics or even contraceptive hormonal pills.

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