chatwithketch

Q: What causes protein in the urine
or in the body? Does it mean eating too much protein can be dangerous sometimes?

A: Thanks for writing in.

First point…even if a food is considered healthy, it doesn’t mean you
should eat as much of it as you want. For instance, beans is healthy on so many
levels but it also high in calories and so you still need to stick to the
portion described. Moderation in everything!!

Protein molecules in blood are typically too large
to be filtered into urine so that normally, very trace (very little/low) amount
is present in the urine as healthy kidneys do a great job of filtration. Therefore,
when protein is found in urine, it is abnormal and usually suggestive of the
fact that the kidneys may be malfunctioning. This condition is known as
proteinuria and the most common relevant protein suggestive of kidney disease

Hey! Thought to share this again.

Q: Hello Doctor, thanks for being a source of medical education to most of us. Please, I would like to know if it is normal for a baby’s navel to get bigger. My boy is 7 weeks old and his Navel is getting bigger than it was after the normal birth treatment. My daughter presses it in my absence. Could it be the reason for it to get bigger almost by day? Again he stretches a lot…could that also be the reason? I’m just curious ma’am. Thanks for being there to lean on.

A: It does sound like your baby has an umbilical hernia. Don’t go shouting and screaming just yet! It’s probably not as horrible as it sounds. It looks all dramatic any time the baby cries and does appear to ‘swell up’ causing parents to panic. But, it usually closes up on…

Q: How can one treat or cure stubborn dandruff?

A: Hmm! Stubborn dandruff sounds really serious!!! 😀 I feel your pain! It can be very embarrassing to comb your hair or brush it and see those horrible looking flakes all over the comb or surface where you are. Even more embarrassing when the hair stylist or barber at the salon says, ‘Aunty/Oga, you have a lot of dandruff. We need to put hair treatment!’
So what are these dandruff? They are whitish, flaking scalp skin which are not contagious…Thank God!!! 😀 They can also be terribly itchy.

It can be caused by dry hair, oily hair that is irritated, hair that is not shampooed frequently and hair that is shampooed too often ( 😀 You just can’t win, aye?). Fungi have been implicated in dandruff and some hair care products are also suspect. In addition, piling on hair care products…

Q:Dr., can u enlighten us about autoimmune diseases pls. A lot of people are good through dis condition and they don’t know what exactly is wrong because in Nigerian, they don’t really call patients attention to it unlike in America. Kindly help discuss about it.

A: Hi dear, thanks for writing in. You are correct. Many people do not know about auto-immune disorders. So what is an auto-immune disease? This condition refers to a situation in which the body .for some reason, turns on itself and starts to attack itself. It sees healthy cells and tissues as unhealthy and infected cells and starts to attack these healthy cells.

Some common examples of this condition include:

Graves’ Disease in which the body no longer recognizes the thyroid gland as part of it and produces antibodies to fight it. In response, the thyroid gland produces excessive amounts of thyroid hormones.

Rheumatoid arthritis…

Q: Hello Doctor, my wife is 27 yes old and cannot conceive after a number of visits to the gynaecologists, we’re told everything is fine except hormonal imbalance. We’ve bought every sort of drugs from the chemists but to to avail, we’ve even visited the traditionalists for the herbs, but no success. She can go for many months, like 7or 8 without experiencing menses, how do you assist?

A: A collection of tissues called the endocrine system is responsible for the production of hormones which control various functions in the body like metabolism, sexual reproduction, mood etc. Sometimes, these hormones are produced in excessive or too little amounts throwing the whole body off.

Treatment of hormonal imbalance is dependent on the cause. Excess weight can lead to high estrogen levels. So, exercise and weight loss can be beneficial here. High levels of thyroid hormones can be treated with drugs, radioactive…

Q: DR Ketch,My daughter is Nine months,but she sticks out her tongue. Her tongue is always out & her mouth open (Ikpu Ire na onu…in Ibo). How do I stop this? Thanks

A: Tongue protrusion happens when the tongue hangs out beyond the lips.

The causes of tongue protrusion in children could be a couple of things:

First, it could be absolutely and completely natural and occur during the period of breast feeding when the sucking reflex is strong.

Then it could be due to a pretty small mouth with a normal sized tongue or a big tongue in an otherwise normal sized mouth.

In instances where there is loss of normal muscle tone in the body, this could also affect the tongue leading to tongue protrusion. Muscle tone is the normal resistance to movement in muscles. If the tone is lost, the muscles become flaccid. Masses or swellings on…

Happy International Women’s Day for all my ladies! I hope you wore a touch of purple today signifying your royalty, dignity and willingness to fight for justice? I had a great but very fulfilling day! It’s always great to spend a day with ladies thinking about how we can turn things around and change the world.

I hope y’all had a great day too.

Now to our question for the day….

Q: Greetings Doc, I pray you are well. I have a problem. each time I take pain killers I get serious stomach pains. I am even afraid to take meds. What could be the problem?

A: Hello dear. Thanks for writing in.

What painkillers are you taking? There are a group of painkillers called Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). These meds reduce inflammation (which is the body’s reaction to injury characterized by swelling, redness, ‘hotness’ of that area of the…

It’s International Women’s Day! And today, the theme is Press For Progress!

Today I celebrate my sisters! Today, I celebrate all women!

I celebrate this woman…yes you!

The one who cries herself to sleep at night…so her children won’t see her tears;

The one who starves herself just so there’s enough for others to eat…and when you ask her why she didn’t eat, she says she wasn’t hungry anyway;

The one whose salary is spent, even before the money hits her bank account, not because she’s buying things for herself, but because she’s paying off debts or saving for that child to have a little extra;

The one who holds it all together, even when it looks like it’s all falling apart…

Yes, you! I celebrate you!

The one who has great ambitions and the world judges her for it because she’s a woman and not a man;

The one…