From a sensitive stomach to burning armpit pain – Dr Jeff answers your health questions
DR Jeff Foster is The Sun on Sunday’s resident doctor and is here to help YOU.
Dr Jeff, 43, splits his time between working as a GP in Leamington Spa, Warks, and running his clinic, H3 Health, which is the first of its kind in the UK to look at hormonal issues for both men and women.
Q) I HAVE a very sensitive stomach and have been advised in the past that it could be IBS.
However in recent years I have noticed I have extremely bad reactions to milk, chocolate and anything creamy.
Does this just mean I’m dairy intolerant or could it be coeliac disease?
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David Johnson, Crawley, West Sussex
A) According to the medical journal The Lancet, lactose intolerance, is widespread in around two thirds of the world’s population.
Therefore, it is highly possible you have become intolerant to dairy products. Certainly we see many people who develop abdominal cramps, or loose stools when they ingest any form of dairy, and this can occur at a range of ages.
Coeliac disease is a very different condition, and is an intolerance to gluten found in wheat and wheat-based products such as bread and pasta.
The important distinction is that we can do a blood test to confirm if you have coeliac disease or not, and not treating it can increase your risk of bowel cancer over time.
However, there is no formal test to confirm lactose intolerance and it is more just about exclusion.
The good news is there is little evidence that continuing to consume the occasional dairy product will do any harm in the long term.
Q) I AM a 28-year-old woman and one of my armpits has become incredibly sore. It almost feels as if it is burning and it’s painful to have my arm down.
I can’t bear to shave the armpit now. I had a small ingrown hair that I pulled out with tweezers and it has got worse since then. Any ideas please?
Laura Jamie, Rochester
Removing hair from any part of the body can be painful and can cause localised trauma to the skin and the surrounding area.
To compound the issue, an ingrown hair is more likely to cause a secondary bacterial infection as there is a direct route of entry into the subcutaneous skin layer.
Sometimes this can result in the formation of a sebaceous cyst, which feels like a hard small lump and often discharges thick pus-like material from it.
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In addition to bacterial infections, hair removal can cause a localised dermatitis or promote the risk of fungal infections due to a breakdown in the natural skin barrier.
Most cases of this can be managed by your pharmacist with treatments such as topical steroids or topical antibiotics but if there is any discharge, swelling or significant pain in the armpit then speak to your doctor.