More words of wisdom from Hilden’s House Calls in Episode 15 of the Healthy Matters Podcast – or at least some handy information to chew on before you train for a marathon, clean your ears, or donate bone marrow.
We start out by tackling something a lot of you can relate to at nighttime – trying to get to sleep with a bed partner who is shaking the house with their snoring. Kate from Willmar is ready to trade in her husband of 25 years who has this issue.
Hold on Kate – the good news is that there are new treatments for snoring – but first you must convince your husband to do something about it. Snoring is usually an anatomical problem like sleep apnea, but it can also be a symptom of other problems. A sleep study can help diagnose what’s going on, but a visit to your doctor with your concerns may be the best first step toward a good, healthy night’s sleep for both you and your bed partner.
Seth from Green Bay wrote in with a very common concern. “Is there anything that can be done medicinally or nutritionally to prevent hair loss?”
Most hair loss is age-related, and it happens to both men and women but is found more prominently in men. There are a few things you can do including treating it with medications under the care of a physician, laser treatments, and hair follicle transplants. But if your hair loss is significant, you can also choose to embrace it by wearing a wig or a Vikings hat. I’m kidding! Of course, any hat will do. Go Packers (and Vikings!).
Harry from Iowa City was wondering about limbs that fall asleep. “What does it mean when your legs fall asleep? What’s happening in your body?
Well now you’ve really hit a nerve. Seriously! What you’re talking about is called paresthesia and it’s actually not your blood supply getting cut off. It’s almost always a nerve problem – you’re pinching a nerve. There are people who live with permanent paresthesia or neuropathies, but for those of us whose leg just falls asleep because we’re sitting on it and pinching a nerve – it’s a just a temporary thing and it usually resolves within 30 seconds.
Arthur from Ann Arbor, Michigan says, “I have a twitching eyelid that’s driving me nuts. What causes this? And is there anything I can do to make this stop?”
Our eyeballs are finely tuned, small parts of our bodies with many muscles. There are six muscles along that control each individual eyeball. And there are little muscles that control your eyelids, and microscopic nerves and very small blood vessels that go to your eyelids. Anytime those things get irritated, they twitch, and the vast majority of these twitches are not dangerous. It can happen if you’re sleep deprived, if you have a little viral inflammation on your eyelid, or something in your eye that’s just irritating it, but it’s temporary. If it doesn’t get better and goes on for days and days, you should see someone with neurologic expertise.
Check out the rest of Hilden’s House Calls in Episode 15 of the Healthy Matters Podcast and don’t hesitate to dial in your questions to 612-873-8255 or simply send an email to healthymatters@hcmed.org. Thank you for listening to Healthy Matters – be healthy and well!
