– Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Responding to Comments. Why are we waiting? Bee-woop. (upbeat music) Only casual, am I the sole
male viewer of this channel? No, you're not, actually
let's do this right now, I'm gonna do this live. I'm going to My Analytics and I'm gonna find out in
the last 28 days what the, it's 59% female and 41% male, but the reason why you may think that is because males are probably less likely to engage in the comments. Why does Advil not work
for me but Tylenol does? Diane, I have no idea. I do tell my patients
to experiment with both, if they're both acceptable, so if one works better than the other. Sarah Amaladoss, what are some good ways to clear soft ears? Like when you're on the plane
and your ears get clogged? Something that I do that's very simple is chew on a piece of gum. That motion of your jaw can
open up your Eustachian tube and that can allow free flowing of air, which allows your ears
to feel less clogged, I think that's a great way of doing that.
Also drinking some water for an extended period of time so like slow chugs can also
open up the Eustachian tube as well. Should I be worried and see a doctor if at random times, different limbs start to go numb every so often? It happens especially when
I'm laying down in bed. Monica, that sounds like
a very unique symptom. When things are going numb in your body, two things are happening. Most likely something's
happening with the nerves. So is there pressure
being put on the nerves that's causing them to malfunction and causing you to feel numbness? Also it could be a lack of blood flow, for example, if you cut off the
circulation to your fingers, your fingers can go numb.
Which one of those two things
can be happening to you is an important question. It can be answered only
through a thorough history, a thorough physical exam and again, maybe some tests or labs
that need to be ordered. Go see your doctor. Nate Davis it's not safe
to wear two watches. Sometimes I wear a Fitbit and a watch. I know the Fitbit tells the time, but I'm old school, I like
to wear a classic watch. I know this isn't an
example of a classic watch and guess what it is
safe to wear two watches. Doctor approved. I wonder if I can get sued for that. What is your opinion on
pre workout supplements. Noremac, great question. When I was in the beginning
of my weightlifting journey, I was very passionate about it, I was taking Creatine,
I was taking protein, I was monitoring my intake of carbs, I actually got to the point where I was like 218 pounds, but very low body fat. I was in really good shape. As far as pre workouts go, I am not a fan. And it's really for two reasons. There's a ton of caffeine in these things.
Caffeine and sugar, usually
those are the two ingredients that I don't like in there. If you're gonna have something
to boost your energy level, might as well have a cup of coffee. Why have artificial caffeine
put into this chemical blend of God knows what? You and I hopefully both now know that supplements are not
regulated by the FDA. All of these blends that you
see in the ingredients labels, you have no idea what that blend is. It's all sorts of chemicals. If you want an energy boost, drink some green tea,
have a cup of coffee, no need to go for a chemical
mixture of a pre workout. Kaylor Andrews hey doctor Mike, I was wondering what are the
white dots on fingernails, I've heard lots of
different reasons as to why. Leukonychia, specifically
punctate Leukonychia is white dots on nails and specifically white dots that when you press on your
nail bed they don't disappear.
A lot of times this happens
as a result of trauma, like you bang your nail and you get a little white spot on it. If you have a lot of these
and on multiple fingers, even if as far as you
find lines on your nails, that's something you should bring up to your doctor, especially if they're new or enlarging or increasing in number, because the state of your nails tell a great story about
the status of your health. Those who have immune problems, pulmonary problems, cardiac problems, we see certain signs inside fingernails that can give us and point
us as to where we should look inside their body. Every good doctor looks at patients' nails when we're doing a physical exam. I love coffee, I've been
drinking a cup a day since high school, but recently
I've been getting anxious and my heart gets shaky. Could that be from coffee consumption? If so, why has it never
affected me before? Thanks. Alyssa, great question, I generally discourage
those in high school from ingesting caffeine, just cause like you have
so much energy as is, taking more through
caffeine is just not great, you're gonna build up
a tolerance early on.
Shakiness and anxious,
could that be as a result of your caffeine intake? It's possible, could there
be something else happening in your body? I'll use an example and I'm
not saying this is happening to you. If your body is producing
too much tyroid hormone and your drinking coffee,
now you have two things that are increasing your heart's output which makes it feel like
your heart's racing, it can increase your anxiety,
all sorts of symptoms, but the only way we can figure out if it's the tyroid that's happening, if it's something else, if it's just the caffeine
is to rule it out by asking you questions.
When does it happen, how
often does it happen, what other associated
symptoms are going on? Then doing a physical exam,
listening to your heart, seeing if there is a murmur, seeing if your heart's beating normally, go see your doctor, find out
if it's just the caffeine, if you need to reduce the
amount that you're having. Generally we say below 400 milligrams, you shouldn't be having too
many side effects with caffeine. Nowadays, with Starbucks
and Dunkin' Donuts loading up the caffeine content.
I've seen some patients
drink a large coffee with three espressos in it that equals like six, 700
milligrams of caffeine on one drink. Everyday when I wake up my throat hurts. So what do I do? I have cough drops and I take them but the pain comes back every morning. By the way, I'm not sick
and I'm not catching a cold. This has been happening every morning for about a year now. Emma, I can't diagnose people
through the YouTube channel because I need to ask questions
I need to do a physical exam I may need to order lab work, maybe do some kind of culture, to see what bacteria's around, but I'll talk about my past experiences.
I've had a lot of patients come in with the misconception that
they have some sort of bug, whether that's viral or bacterial, it doesn't matter for this explanation. The reason they think that is
cause they have a sore throat just like you're saying for
an extended period of time. So I ask a bunch of questions and what we end up finding
out is that they have post-nasal drip, which means that you have excess mucus production
from the posterior part of your nose that at night, especially when you're lying down drips onto the back of your throat, your pharynx and it causes soreness, because that mucus is irritating
the back of your throat. Another thing that could be going on is something called LPR,
laryngopharyngeal reflux.
I know that's a mouthful, but all that is is it's
traditional heartburn acid reflux, the acid from your stomach going up, but it's not causing you burning here. To cause burning here it takes
a substantial amount of acid but now if a small amount
of acid touches the back of your throat that can cause damage that can last many weeks and if you're eating citrusy foods or you're consistently
getting this acid in there, you're causing repetitive damage and that can cause a chronic sore throat. Every once in a great while I feel a sharp pain in my chest or my side when I breath in which causes shortness of
breath for like two minutes.
Is this normal? Jaybirdie, this doesn't sound normal. Any time you're feeling
symptoms in your chest or your lungs that induce
shortness of breath, that should be checked out. I don't know your age, but
odds are you're probably young and you don't have heart disease, but even though something
has a lower likelihood of occurring in your age group, if that one thing can be very
dangerous to your health, like a heart attach,
you wanna catch early.
My thoughts if I had to venture and guess and this is not a medical opinion, my medical opinion is that
you should see your doctor, but somethings that could be going on is that you can have a muscle cramp within the inner coastal muscles, which is the muscles in between your ribs and when you get that
sort of spasm in there it can make it heard to breathe 'cause you can't take a deep breath and maybe that's what you're feeling. Also I've heard of people
having a diaphragm cramp which is that large muscle
immediately below your lungs that you can also have a
cramp or some kind of pain in and that can also make it
difficult for you to breathe. In the past few months I've
gotten this annoying headache on the lower back left side of my head. The pain stays there but also radiates down my neck sometimes. I also get headaches
frequently all over my forehead and back of my head,
should I go to the doctor to have this checked out? Riley to answer your
question very simply, yes.
A headache that's that
severe or that chronic, meaning it's going on
for a long period of time should be evaluated by a doctor. Does that mean that there's
something worrisome going on? Not necessarily. There are some red flags that we look for in patients who have headaches and don't panic if you have some of these. These are just some red flags. A, you wake up with a headache. B, you have a headache
with physical exertion or sexual activity. C, you get headaches after you eat food. D, you have a headache that
causes neurological symptoms.
Numbness of your face, bad vision and this can happen with migraines, but it is a red flag that we look at. The final one I guess would
be that you have a headache that's very severe that's been ongoing for an extended period of time. Now I now that's not complete, I know I only gave you some red flags, but I think I answered your question, go see your doctor. Please keep it going,
smash the like button, hit the subscribe button and the notification bell so we can keep this channel going. As always, stay happy and healthy. (upbeat music).
