Finding relief for your back pain

Back pain

What you need to know:

  • Applied to the skin, capsaicin depletes nerve endings of a neurochemical substance called P, which transmits pain sensations to the brain. With that, the pain is subsidised. You might have to use it for a week but stop in case of skin reaction.

A number of people suffer from back pain as a secondary reaction to something gone wrong. It could be strains, arthritis, hairline spine fractures and kidney infections. Aisha Nakato, the administrator at AAR Health Centre, Bugolobi, says you can resolve the pain using home remedies:

Comfortable posture
Find a posture where you place the least stress on your back. To do this, stand straight with your weight evenly balanced on both feet. Tilt your pelvis forward, then back, exaggerating the movement. Then settle into the position that feels most comfortable.
Thereafter, ‘work up your’ back, paying attention on one area at a time. First, concentrate on the area around your waist, up to your chest and finally the shoulders and neck. In all this, you are looking for that position that puts the least strain whether you are walking, standing or exercising.

Stretch
Every morning, before you get out of bed, lie on your back and slowly stretch your arms overhead. Then gently pull your knees to your chest, one at a time. To rise, roll to the edge of your bed, turn on your side, put your knees over the edge, and use one arm to push yourself up as you let your feet swing to the floor. Once you are on your feet, put your hands on your buttocks and very slowly lean back to stretch out your spine.

Pepper
Not only is it great for food, it works for that pain. Buy a liniment containing capsaicin, a heat-producing substance in hot peppers.
Applied to the skin, capsaicin depletes nerve endings of a neurochemical substance called P, which transmits pain sensations to the brain. With that, the pain is subsidised. You might have to use it for a week but stop in case of skin reaction.

Why does my breath smell?

I have a bad odour from my throat and sometimes I have a discharge that is also smelly. What could it be? Adenike
Dear Adenike,
The throat can be one source of breath odour, especially if it keeps getting inflamed from infections or allergies or irritated by say, tobacco smoke. And not surprisingly the inflammations may involve the tonsils which are the mainstay protectors of the throat.

The tonsils have nooks and crevices where bacteria and other materials, including dead cells and mucus, can become trapped, leading to white things which may sometimes harden forming white stones in what is called tonsilloliths.
These, when they come out, are very odorous and their presence alone can also lead to a breath odour.
People have used their tongues, toothpicks or even ear buds to dislodge the tonsilloliths but they usually keep returning. Gargling with warm salty water, taking prescribed antibiotics or even oral irrigators may help but if they keep returning, the ultimate cure is tonsillar surgical removal.

Also, allergies, infections of the throat or irritations from smoking tobacco, or stomach acid (when regurgitated) can lead to chronic throat discharge, which may be odorous requiring addressing according to its cause.
Allergies and infections of the paranasal sinuses can cause a thick mucus discharge that goes to the throat (post nasal drip) as well as a breath odour. Treating the sinusitis will stop the white discharge as well as the breath odour.

Is it normal to have hair on the penis?

I have noticed that since I started getting pubic hair, my penis seems more hairy. Won’t it get worse as I grow older? Zessooli

Dear Zessooli,

Usually the penis has hair at the base but the shaft is smooth and free of hair. However, in many cases of circumcision in babies or the traditional type that takes up a lot of penile skin apart from the penis getting shorter and smaller, the base hair may be pulled up during an erection so that the penis looks hairy. This penis with hair apart from chaffing the private parts of a woman, can be more difficult to clean after sex.

Shaving the penis unfortunately causes more hair growth and bumps because shaving irritates the skin and the hair root. Because penile hair is coarse and has deep roots just like eyebrow hair, plucking it out yields better results than shaving. Plucking can be done, one at a time using tweezers though this may be time consuming. After plucking, apply hair inhibitory cream immediately (which then gets in contact with the hair root) makes sure there is no plucked hair regrowth.

Can one still get hepatitis after immunisation?

My daughter was immunised yet she has been vomiting yellow stuff for two days. Is it hepatitis? Annabella

Dear Annabella,

Vomiting is the forceful bringing up of stomach contents to the outside through the mouth but sometimes the nose. There are many disease conditions including those that cause fevers or a peptic ulcer that can cause vomiting.
Usually, the lower end of the stomach is closed so that the vomit is of the stomach contents and if one has just eaten, the food will be vomited. If one has not eaten, watery or frothy stuff will come out. The lower open, bile from the first part of the small intestine (duodenum) may come up to the stomach and be brought out as yellow vomit.

Yellow vomit is more common in older people and does not always indicate “enkaka” the local word for hepatitis. Your daughter requires investigating the cause of vomiting whose proper treatment will then take away the vomiting.
Hepatitis, which means the inflammation of the liver, though may commonly be due to Hepatitis viruses, can be caused by bacteria, toxins, drugs and other types of viruses. Immunisation against Hepatitis B, if done correctly using effective vaccines, leads to long life immunity in most people.