When we were growing up, it was fashionable to hear our parents refer to some of their friends and colleagues as people who exuded comfort and good health by putting on some weight. In fact, those who failed to gain weight as expected were derided as not having arrived. Among the people of Cross River, this was taken a step further when young women ready for marriage were taken into fattening rooms to be pampered so that they could gain weight. Weight gain was equated with respect. And while perceptions today have radically changed, such changes in thinking are absolutely reinforced by the weight of current knowledge and endorsed by many years of research work conducted across several countries. The verdict is in: a big abdomen is injurious to your health. And this fact is not limited to the men only; women, who have a large abdomen, particularly after the menopause, are similarly prone to the diseases associated with a large abdomen. A big abdominal girth is therefore injurious to your health if not immediately, then certainly in the long run.
The size of the abdomen is somewhat beyond what you might see when the person takes off their clothing. It is the visceral fat, the pad or apron that embraces the internal organs that is the real culprit here. However, it must be emphasised that the volume of the visceral fat has a bearing on the eventual size of the abdomen. When you have a waist-line that exceeds 40 inches (101.6 centimeters) as a man and more than 35 inches (88.9 centimeters) as a woman, you are very prone to some of the most profound disease conditions you can care to name. These are first, the series of changes called collectively as the metabolic syndrome during which state a person is resistant to insulin, becomes sedentary and gains weight rapidly. These developments ultimately cause the person to develop a high level of cholesterol in the blood, to develop heart disease and hypertension and also to succumb to diabetes. To be sure, this is not the lot of everyone who fits this description but they certainly make you far more prone to them. Furthermore, such people are far more likely to develop certain types of dementia and also become fair game for some types of cancer. Breast and colon cancers are most frequently linked with obesity.
The reasons for these changes in the composition of the body are not far to seek. The stored fat in the abdomen becomes a huge metabolic engine of its own, secreting various hormones in such a manner as to cause a persistent kind of inflammation that perpetually puts some cells in the body into overdrive. The result is a situation in which the said amount of fat can be used as a predictor of some types of cancers, insulin resistance, and adult-onset diabetes also called Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. In men, such accumulation of fat typically forms around the abdomen. In women, similar fat accumulates around the arms, hips and thighs. After the menopause is reached, such fat is also now deposited around the abdomen just like in men. This is believed to be caused by a relative increase in the amount of testosterone that women produce at a time when the production in men is lessening. In some ways, at this stage of life, both sexes will look alike unclad. They look like an apple, somewhat thick in the middle. This happens because the visceral fat, lying under the skin, eventually pushes out against the skin and causes it to bulge at the sides and in front.
If you do nothing else today to protect your health, you should endeavour to take an honest measurement of your waist. Stand upright, breathe out and take a measurement of your waist at about one or two finger-breaths above the hip bones. Do not do the opposite by trying hard to breathe inwards in order to flatten your abdomen; you will merely be deceiving yourself. The good news is that you do not even have to be overweight or obese to face the risks named above. People of normal body weight have been known to habour such amounts of harmful fat because they have accumulated it all over a period of time. The worse news is that this is not the kind of fat you can burn off simply by seeking to tone up your abdominal muscles with sit-ups and press-ups. Weight loss that is ultimately of benefit is the one that is comprehensive enough to include serious routine exercise and changes in diet from a high carbohydrate, high dairy diet that is rich in meat to one rich in whole grain meal and vegetables garnished with fish and white meat. Activities like walking, swimming and riding are the sure ways to get rid of such fat.
The finding is astonishing to say the least; that the more muscle bulk you have, the more fat you are likely to burn. What this adds up to is that when you engage in exercises that build up your muscle mass, you tend to burn more calories even at rest than those people who have less of such muscle buildup. As an extension, whenever you work in a high-rise building, it is beneficial to your heart and body to take the stairs rather than the lift. The elevator proves in the end to be a lazy way to move from one floor to another and it adds up in the end to the fat we build up around the abdomen. If you can imagine the “Paris Batman” who sprang from one floor to the next across the front of a high-rise apartment block in Paris last month to save a four-year-old boy dangling from a balcony, you would vote for muscle over fat. I am sure many people would wish they could do so. It is not magic. In a way, it is training and everyone without significant systemic disease can do it. That is a fact when you consider that last week, a Chinese veteran similarly did that batman stunt to save another four-year-old old boy dangling from a balcony in Guangdong. No man with such an apron of fat could have performed such a feat.
Ask the doctor
Dear doctor, please I have a medical issue that demands your advice. I am 45 years old and have been married for six years now without an issue. My wife has twice been pregnant but lost both pregnancies early in the East where we live. Both of us did tests and were treated together for an infection. In March this year, I repeated the tests and was told that I have a low sperm count. The count was 20 million and about 70 per cent of the sperms were dead. What is possibly responsible for this? What do we do? Thank you and God bless. 0802xxxxxxx
Thank you very much for your prayers. The causes of this kind of problem are multiple. Often, there is usually a bacterial infection that may be responsible. At other times, some prior infection in the testes may be to blame such as mumps during the teenage years or tuberculosis in childhood. Occasionally, a malady known as varicocoele may be responsible. All of these problems have peculiar ways of confirming which one is the problem and that will help determine the sort of treatment you should be getting. To map the way forward for you and your wife, you should perhaps see a fertility expert. A count of 20 million is considered a borderline low figure. With 70 per cent dead sperms, you are far below par in terms of successfully impregnating your spouse and it is the correction of these statistics that attention should focus on.
Dear doctor, I have an eight-month-old baby with severe cold. There is no cough. Sleep is bad because I think the nostrils are blocked for much of the night. I have been using piriton syrup and vitamin C syrup as well as erythromycin syrup. Now there was an improvement at some time in the recent past but it has become bad again since the week began. Earlier this year, she develops some reddish marks on her body that appear and vanish after some time. When I scratch the spots, she calms down and stops crying. What should we do about this? 0802xxxxxxx
When your baby suffers from this kind of problem it is possible that she has an allergy of some sort. Reddish skin lesions that appear and disappear quickly may be part of a complex of features called urticaria. If you scratch these spots and your baby seems to be at peace as a result, then it is likely to be the case. Even though I am often reticent to prescribe medications on this page, I would advise that you try your baby on a medication called Loratadine at a small dose of 5milligrams once a day and that should both clear the nostrils and also help the skin lesions to disappear. If they persist despite this addition to what you are currently giving, then you should see a paediatrician.
Dear doctor, I am 25 years old and a mother of a six-year-old. I always find a thick, white substance coming out of my private part and I am unable to conceive. I have been experiencing this now for the past two years. Please sir, what is the solution to my problem? I am getting tired. Thank you sir. 0816xxxxxxx
Thank you very much for that question. Several similar questions were asked in the past one week and I hope this singular response satisfies all of them. The discharge you see may or may not have a bearing to your inability to get pregnant again. And just like the others, there is no indication in your question that you have been to see a doctor. That is where you should begin. You must get examined, and have swabs taken of the discharge and get treated based on the results obtained. After each cycle of treatment, you will need to go back to your doctor for a repeat investigation and this will have to be done in a cyclical fashion until the infection is clear. With that out the way, it will then be possible to undertake some other investigations not previously possible because an infection was present and all these singularly or together will ultimately help show the way to finding a solution to your problem. Good luck.
Dear doctor, kindly advise me on the kind of doctor to see for a person with a brain disorder in Ondo State. Thank you. 0703xxxxxxx
First of all, you do not have to go directly to any such doctor wherever it is within the country that you live in and I do not know any such specialist in Ondo State. Please take the person in question to any of the state specialist hospitals in Ondo State so that any of the doctors can examine the person and reach a diagnosis. Once this is done, they will be in the best position to refer your relative appropriately to the specialist doctor you must consult. That is how the referral system works. As for me, I am not able to give you any such contacts.
Dear doctor, I got your number from SUNDAY PUNCH. I have seen the work you are doing. Please keep it up. I need help. I am having pain on my down part (I assume lower abdomen). It all started yesterday because I was dwelling on sexual thoughts and I began to have pains to the extent I could not walk again. What could be the cause? I would love to know. Thank you. 0812xxxxxxx
When you have sexual thoughts in a vivid manner as it was with you, your imagination runs wild and you can have an erection. That is perfectly normal; but when such an erection is unrelieved and those thoughts persist, the penis does not relax back to its normal state and the sustained nature of the erection you then have can become painful. That kind of pain is what you had. It will throb in step with your heart beat and will be quite uncomfortable. The treatment is to banish those thoughts from your mind. A cold bath could also be helpful.
Dear doctor, I am a boy of 15 years old. Is it normal for someone’s penis to be curved to the left when it is erect? I also noticed that as it curves to the right, there is also a small bump on the right making it more curved. Will surgery be the best answer? 0703xxxxxxx
I must say that most penises are curved one way or the other. A penis is seldom straight. That said, however, when it gets to be curved in the manner you have explained and there is in addition a bump on the opposite side, it is likely a circumcision injury. The best thing for you to do in the circumstance is to see a paediatric surgeon or a urological surgeon. Either of these experts will examine you and help determine what needs to be done depending on how mild or severe the problem is. The clearest way to see them is to have an assessment from your family doctor who will then refer you as appropriate. So surgery may not necessarily be the best answer.
Dear doctor, you are quite appreciated for your educative column in SUNDAY PUNCH. Your fountain of knowledge and wisdom will not run dry in Jesus name. A brother of mine was diagnosed as a carrier of Hepatitis who won’t need treatment as he is just a carrier. This is already affecting his marriage plans as he is finding it difficult to get a medical report to that effect stating clearly that he is a carrier who will not require any treatment. The medical report is required to convince his fiancé before the marriage plans are consummated. Please what do you advise? 0903xxxxxxx
Amen; thank you very much for your prayers. Results like this must be interpreted with great care. A carrier status does not mean he cannot transmit the virus and to that extent, no doctor would give you the kind of medical report you are seeking. However, hepatitis A can be treated to the point of cure such that a person is unable to transmit the virus and so is hepatitis C. The latter is very expensive to treat but then so is hepatitis B. The level of infectivity is dependent on whether it is the surface or core antigen such a person is found to be reactive to. In order to clear any ambiguity, take your brother to any of the teaching hospitals or federal medical centres of big general hospitals around the country. If you are in Lagos or Ogun, you could also go to the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, for a proper determination of his status.
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