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Unexpected causes of sore throat named

Editor 2019

Sore throat is the most common symptom of visiting an ENT doctor. And during a pandemic, doctors of this specialty are increasingly complaining about a hoarse voice. It’s not that people began to drink icy water more often in the cold – it’s just that today online conferences have become part of our life, which often requires the tension of the vocal apparatus. The experts talked about how to cope with all sorts of throat problems, and when you cannot do without the help of a doctor.

Keep your voice warm

Tatiana Neshpapa, therapist, pulmonologist, member of the Russian Respiratory Society, says that about two to three times a year, each person experiences unpleasant symptoms in the throat area (pain, perspiration, voice problems). According to the World Health Organization, 44% of humanity has an upper respiratory tract infection every year. A general practitioner every season of ARVI sees at least 600 patients with such complaints. Most often, their causes are pharyngitis and tosilopharyngitis of both viral and bacterial origin. Up to 5% of the working-age population of the Russian Federation and more than 70% of patients visiting otorhinolaryngologists suffer from chronic pharyngitis. According to WHO, more than 616 million cases of pharyngitis occur in the world every year.

The prevalence of chronic tonsillitis is also quite high: according to some reports, up to 10% of the population of European countries and Russia are affected by the disease. Both adults and children are ill.

But there are other reasons for the appearance of pain and discomfort in the throat. For example, symptoms can be associated with various injuries of the pharynx, abscess, and even pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract – for example, gastroreflux disease. “With gastroreflux, acid is thrown into the upper respiratory tract, causing chemical pharyngitis,” says Dr. Neshpapa.

More rare causes of pain and discomfort in the throat include nerve neuritis, osteochondrosis, neoplasms and Marshall syndrome. The latter is not so rare in children and is manifested by periodic recurring fever strictly on a certain day of each month, as well as sore throat, pharyngitis, stomatitis and lymphodenitis.

One of the common causes of throat problems today is an overload of the vocal apparatus. According to the actor and public speaking coach Fyodor Balandin, voice fatigue during online performances is higher. There are several exercises that can help you quickly restore an overworked voice and give it the desired depth and persuasiveness. “Try to stick out your tongue to the end and say“ KG ”several times – you will hear how your voice changes. Another exercise: make your palms like boats and mentally warm the sparrow in them – such a simple technique helps to open the throat, “the expert advises.

Fyodor Balandin singles out several voice registers of the speaker: “Prince” (delight without reason), “Warrior” (appeal, agitation), “King” (calmness, status), “Magician” (erotic, aspirated). “There is also a fifth register -“ Pretender ”: when we are under stress, the voice begins to tremble, switches to falsetto. If the “Pretender” appears, try to feel your feet, imagine how you are rooted in the ground – and then you will find yourself in the range of “King” and “Magician”, says Balandin.

Well, the main treatment for inflammatory diseases of the throat remains non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, for example, based on bendizamine, which also have antibacterial, antifungal and antiseptic effects. In addition, depending on the situation, antiseptics, hypertonic saline solutions, anesthetics, phyto- and homeopreparations are used.

Dr. Neshpapa supports the recommendation from the Soviet encyclopedia to dissolve a piece of ice for a sore throat. In addition, experts provide several recommendations to help you keep your voice alive during illness.

First, remember that silence is golden. In the case of throat diseases, this recommendation is especially relevant: constant irritation of the laryngeal mucosa, which occurs during a conversation, increases inflammation and does not allow the ligaments to recover.

Second, it is a mistake to believe that if you speak in a whisper, your voice will recover faster. Quite the opposite: during a whisper, the vocal cords are overworked more. It is better to say less, and if possible, as advised above, be silent.

Third: pay attention to what you eat. It is better to refuse spicy dishes and spices for a sore throat. You should also temporarily refuse food that can irritate the mucous membrane of the oropharynx – cookies, dryers, nuts, crackers, etc.

Try not to expose yourself to sudden changes in air temperature. It is better not to leave the house in the frosty air or at least stand in the entrance for some time so that the temperature drop is gradual.

Breathe correctly. To preserve the vocal cords, always start speaking on the exhale, in order to exclude situations when there is not enough air to complete the phrase, which also leads to overstrain of the vocal cords.

Remember that if you talk a lot during your illness (even online), nodules can form on your vocal cords, which can later develop into polyps. They are treated only by surgery.

The doctor named those who are harmful to masks

Editor 2019

The Russian airline announced that from now on, those who have medical contraindications for wearing masks are not allowed on board. Thus, the carrier decided to completely protect its passengers from “maskless”, whatever the reason they may call it. We found out from the doctors what diseases masks cannot be worn with and how to solve this problem.

Under the new rules, they will not be allowed on the plane.

Airplanes may be considered the safest place in terms of coronavirus these days. The stewardesses strictly monitor that the mask is in the right place for each passenger, even lowering it just below the nose “will not give a ride”, the vigilant flight attendant will notice this and make a remark. And now the airline has introduced a new rule: “Passengers who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons or for other reasons … cannot be allowed to fly,” their official statement on December 14 said.

We asked the assistant of the Department of Allergology and Immunology of the FSBEI DPO RMANPO of the Ministry of Health of Russia Marina Peredelskaya, under what diseases a person cannot wear a mask.

– There are relative contraindications for wearing masks. In this pandemic, we faced such a problem as contact dermatitis in people on the face after wearing a mask. If the mask is on the face for a long time, skin irritation may occur.

When a patient contacts us with this problem, we recommend that he refrain from wearing this particular type of mask, or change it more often. Indeed, after two hours of wearing the same mask, due to its excessive moisture, there is a rapid growth and development of microorganisms.

But all this is relative contraindications, because the risk-benefit ratio of the mask is controversial, which is better, to get infected with coronavirus or get contact dermatitis? We prescribe therapy to such a patient and recommend changing, for example, a medical mask for a medical respirator, which has a different degree of touch on the face.

Much more serious mask wearing difficulties can occur in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which causes shortness of breath. But these should be patients with extremely severe COPD who require oxygen support on an ongoing basis and who carry oxygen cans with them. For such people, a medical mask is an additional mechanical complication of the act of breathing. On the other hand, patients with COPD are at a special risk group, and if they become infected with coronavirus, they will definitely develop a difficult clinic.

– Maybe it’s better for such patients not to fly at all now?

– Why, maybe, such a person really needs a flight. There are different degrees of COPD, patients with mild and moderate degrees are quite intact people, they move around, they take care of themselves. But here, too, the question arises, which is better, to put on a mask and try to breathe through it or not to wear it, get infected and almost certainly die from COVID-19? If a patient comes to me and says, give me a certificate that I cannot wear a mask, I will not give such a certificate as a doctor. I will give recommendations on how to live with a mask, we will try to find a solution to his problem.

Cardiologists also warn that in people who suffer from heart failure, chronic severe bronchitis, asthma, wearing a mask can make breathing difficult. This will lead to a decrease in the level of oxygen in the blood, and, accordingly, worsen the oxygen supply to all organs and tissues.

Well, as for children, they are not forced to wear masks on airplanes, because Rospotrebnadzor indicates in its rules that “putting on a mask on a small child is not easy, therefore, for children under 7 years old, the main recommendation is to maintain social distance”. But older children, adolescents, as you know, must be in PPE. But, as doctors say, masks are contraindicated for children of any age if they have breathing problems, chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract and congenital malformations of the cardiovascular system.

The doctor named three drugs that need to be stocked up in a coronavirus pandemic

Editor 2019

The head of the Department of General and Clinical Pharmacology of the RUDN University, Professor Sergey Zyryanov, told what drugs should be stocked up for future use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Write about this “Arguments and Facts”.

No doctor's appointment is required to buy them

According to the pharmacologist, first of all, the home medicine cabinet needs to be replenished with antipyretic drugs. This can be paracetamol or ibuprofen, but it is better to give preference to the former, because medical research has shown ambiguity in the effectiveness of ibuprofen in treating symptoms of coronavirus. So, for example, in the course of some studies, the drug worsened the course of the disease.

The professor also advised to have nose drops on hand. Vitamin D, which has recently become a “fashionable topic” with COVID-19, will not be superfluous. At the same time, it should be taken without fanaticism, because an overdose can lead to a number of unpleasant consequences, including vascular damage and renal failure.

Zyryanov also added that in no case should one buy antibiotics and be treated with them without a doctor’s instructions. The same goes for antiviral drugs.

“They have a lot of unwanted reactions,” the doctor explained.

Earlier, an international group of scientists found that the hormone melatonin, which is synthesized during sleep, can alleviate the course of coronavirus disease.

Read also: Scientists gave a forecast for the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Russia