Three must-know things about three important things.

Jaundice

As red blood cells naturally break down in the liver, all the time, a certain amount of a pigment called bilirubin is released. This is processed by the liver and excreted through the gall bladder into the gut. This is normal.

  1. If any part of this process is dysfunctional, bilirubin levels may rise too high and be seen as yellowing of the skin and eyes. This yellowing is called jaundice.
  2. There are many possible causes for jaundice but hepatitis (viral infection of liver), pancreatitis (infection and swelling of the pancreas), gallstones (obstruct the flow of bilirubin from the liver to the gut), medication side effects, and cancer (of the liver or pancreas most commonly) are among the most common.
  3. Jaundice is an important symptom that must be properly assessed urgently because several possible causes are either serious and or require treatment.

Jet Lag

Our bodies sleep and wake in a natural circadian rhythm that is mainly driven by daylight exposure. Travelling across time zones (east-west, not north-south) results in a time-shift that disturbs this circadian rhythm, causing what we call jet-lag (mainly fatigue and insomnia and fatigue).

  1. For trips involving less than 2-3 time zones (2-3 hours’ time change), most people will handle jet lag well enough without needing any special approaches.
  2. For longer-distance trips (more than 3-4 time zones), a number of approaches are recommended. For short trips (few days) it is often suggested that travellers remain on “home time” (eat and sleep at home times) as much as possible. For longer trips travellers are often advised to pre-adjust (few days before travel) towards or to “destination time”.
  3. Some studies have shown benefits from the use of Melatonin and many regular travellers do use this. 

Juvenile Arthritis

Also known as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, this condition (actually a range of conditions that are only partly understood by medical science) is a form of arthritis (joint swelling and pain) that affects children.

  • Juvenile Arthritis (JA) presents as swollen red painful joints. There may be fever and signs of generalised illness such as pale-skin, swollen glands,  and fatigue.
  • The nature and course of JA varies considerably. Some have one or few joints only mildly affected and make a full recovery. Others have many affected joints, severe illness, severe pain, and go on to develop various complications and disabilities, some of which may be life-long.  Mercifully, such severe cases are not common and most patients do make a full or good recovery into adulthood.
  • Treatments range from mild and as-needed symptom relief to complex disease altering medications that require super-specialist care and oversight. 

Written by Dr Colin Burns