Night Fright

Subject: Night Fright Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:24 am

Night Fright Night Fright 3

Have you ever woken up with a throbbing headache or an agonising toothache in the middle of the night?

Many times certain ailments catch us off-guard in the middle of the night. We may sometimes experience muscle cramps and at other times severe toothache and ear pain. To make matters worse, we try and do certain things to cure the ailment which again turns out to be harmful. Here, Dr Bharesh Dedhia, Chief, Critical care services, Jupiter Hospital, Thane, lists out the seven most common ailments and also provides us quick home remedies to counter these ailments.

Severe Toothache

This is a result of severe dental cavities, which could expose the inner dental nerves and cause pain or even severe gingivitis. Other causes could be severe ear infection or sinus infection which could masquerade as toothache.

Home Remedy: Rinse your mouth with warm water using dental floss to remove any food particles between teeth. Consume a pain reliever like crocin or apply locally acting pain relieving gels like Dologel. For swollen gums, application of ice pack on the outside of the cheek for 20 minutes could help. Chewing on a clove or applying clove oil is a century old practice and still works.

Earache

This is mostly due to a severe middle ear infection, and occasionally due to an outer ear infection. The symptoms that may require emergency treatment include: sudden change in hearing, sudden onset of dizziness, inability to concentrate, muscle weakness on the same side of your face as the affected ear. This could indicate spread of infection, and need urgent attention at any time of the day or night.

Home Remedy: Use a hot-water bottle, a hot towel or a heating pad, warmed to a comfortably hot level and wrapped in a towel. Keep the heat on your ear for 20 minutes or until the pain subsides. Take one tablet of crocin. Any application inside the ear canal is not recommended, till you see an ENT doctor.

Stomach ache

It could be due to infection in the bowels (food poisoning), acidity, stress, pre-menstrual reasons, infections in the urinary tract, stress, overeating, lactose intolerance or due to a variety of reasons.

Home Remedy: For most ailments, could lie on the bed with a hot water bottle on your stomach, which will ease the pain. Chewing an antacid tablet like Digene could also be helpful. Again taking a simple pain reliever like Crocin is recommended. But if pain increases or is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, fever or blood in the stool, seek medical attention immediately.

Muscle Cramps

They are due to overexertion and dehydration. Lack of proper fluid intake during over activity or hot sunny days could cause depletion of water and electrolytes in your body that could cause the muscles to cramp. The main electrolytes affecting muscle cramping are potassium, sodium and calcium. Frequent and intense cramps could be due to clots in the blood vessels and need immediate medical attention.

Home Remedy: Gently massage the affected area and stretch the muscle gently. Drinking water mixed with salt, sugar and lemon juice helps restore fluid and electrolyte imbalance in your body. Apply either ice or a heating pad which improves local circulation and relaxes the muscle.

Vomiting

Vomiting is nature's way of removing unwanted food or fluid from your stomach. This could be due to overeating, contaminated food, over consumption of alcohol. Sometime it could be due to stomach ulcers, infections in the abdomen, pregnancy or even a sign of other ailments in other parts of the body.

Home Remedy: Gargle with water mixed with salt. Do not take any food or fluids for a few hours. Try taking only liquids initially. If that stays in, then try a bland diet. Usually nausea and vomiting clears within one day. Persistent vomiting, or vomiting of blood, indicates some serious ailment and would warrant immediate medical attention.

Headache

This could be due to stress, tension, migraine attack, sinus infection and ear infection, eye problems, high blood pressure, or rarely even more serious conditions such as infection in the brain, bleeding inside the brain etc.

Home Remedy: Apply an ice pack on your forehead or top of your head. Heat pad could be tried on the back of your head or the neck. Lying in your bed, with the room lights off and a quiet environment also helps. A head massage could also do the trick. Taking a simple pain reliever like Crocin helps. But if the headache persists or increases and is accompanied by visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, fever, you must seek immediate medical help.

Sneezing

This is due to seasonal allergies which many of us have through common household allergens such as dust, dust mites, mold, mildew, pets carrying allergens, or even due to pollution, upper respiratory track infection, sinusitis, etc.

Home Remedy: Try taking an over-the-counter antihistamine if the sneezing spell is short and seasonal but beware as they could cause drowsiness and other side effects. Certain non-sedating antihistamines are available but the doctor must examine you and prescribe these. You should change your bed sheet and pillow cover as these can hide dust mites. Bed sheets and pillow covers should be washed with hot water (50 degress celsius) to kill the mites.