Сайт о лекарственных препаратах. Лекарства, таблетки, медицина

Wash your hair two or three times each week with shampoo containing tar. Tars have minute traces of chemicals which are lethal to the yeast cells. Your chemist can advise you of the different types available. Polytar is a typical one.

In some cases it affects only the nerves of sensation, leading to feelings of numbness or sometimes stabbing pain. But it can also affect the nerves carrying signals to muscles - the motor nerves - which will lead to muscle weakness and wasting through lack of use.

It occurs when areas of the skin that contain a high density of sebaceous glands ( microscopic glands that secrete an oily substance to lubricate the skin) get inflamed.

If neuropathy is suspected, it's vital you are referred to a neurologist, unless there's a known obvious cause such as diabetes. Neuropathy affects 15 per cent of diabetics, with high blood sugar levels damaging the nerves, giving rise to numbness and tingling in toes and feet.

However, if this is not the cause, neurologists will usually carry out a type of testing called nerve conduction studies. This involves electrodes being placed onto the skin to measure the strength and speed of any signals being sent through the nerves.

Then, every night and morning, apply Canesten or Daktarin cream, both of which are reliable anti-fungal preparations available without prescription from the chemist.

However, it is a bit of a blunderbuss approach as it contains an antifungal (nystatin), a strong steroid (clobetasone) to reduce the inflammation and an antibiotic (oxytetracycline), which is probably not doing much.

Use the tip of one little finger to apply just a trace into each ear. On this combined treatment, the scaling should clear in a month or two.

Peripheral neuropathy can be caused by injury (such as broken bones or slipped discs), by disturbances of body chemistry and as a side-effect of some drugs (cytotoxic medicines used in cancer treatment and a random list of others).

I am 82 and for the past ten years I've had dry, scaling skin in my ears. The only product that seemed to have any effect was Trimovate, but it stained very badly. Can you help?

Afterwards, when you've dried your head with a towel, dry your ears with paper tissues (sterile, out of the box): do not use the corner of a towel as this is too abrasive and might open tiny cracks in the delicate skin, allowing bacteria in.

This will confirm the diagnosis, work out the severity of the condition and also gain clues about the likely cause.

When you do this, wash some of the foam into your ears with your little fingers and wait a minute or two before washing it away.

Granville Wild, Accrington, Lancashire.

I suggest you and your father seek a consultation with the GP to talk through what causes, if any, have been identified bearing in mind that in about half of all cases it is not possible to reach a conclusion.

The staining you mention is another objection to using this, so I'd suggest the following strategy.

However, physiotherapy would be helpful with balance and walking. This will assist him with making the best of what he has got.

It can also be linked to poor diet. People don't get enough vitamins through being malnourished because of poverty, or as a result of an eccentric diet (not as unusual as you might think with the elderly), or a failure to eat properly because of alcoholism.

Why this happens we don't know, but a yeast, pityrosporum ovale - an organism found on the skin of all of us - has something to do with it. The incidence and severity of the condition are influenced by genetic factors, and stress can also affect it.

Scaly skin in the ear canals can be fiercely itchy, so I understand why you want to be rid of this problem. The condition you suffer from is a type of dermatitis known as seborrhoeic dermatitis.

Although it affects mainly the face, scalp or upper trunk, it can centre on just the ear canals, between the eyebrows, or the hairline ( commonly described as dandruff).

Treatment can only be precise when the original cause can be pinned down and redressed.

You didn't mention whether your father has diabetes, but I would expect that his doctor has already tested his urine levels for glucose. The next step would be to get the diabetes under control.

In the absence of a cause, I hesitate to recommend a non-specific treatment. Unfortunately there is no evidence that acupuncture or any other complementary therapy will be of value here.

As well as noting the symptoms, diagnosis is by physical examination. This will include testing sensation (perhaps the difference between the sharp and blunt ends of a sterile disposable pin), and the ability to feel the difference between hot and cold.

Preparations that suppress the yeasts on the skin - such as the Trimovate cream you mention - should help.