All posts by Dr. Gabriel Symonds

  • When babies won’t sleep.

    Wide-awake-at-night babies drive first-time parents nuts.  The reality of having a new baby can be quite a shock: Total disruption of married and home life by the arrival of a vulnerable-looking little creature with a loud voice...

    • Posted July 10, 2020
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  • How to deal with stress

    Regularly, I see patients suffering from ‘stress’, by which they mean they feel knotted up inside, are anxious and unhappy, cannot relax, have difficulty enjoying normal activities, and whose family and other relationships are under strain. To...

    • Posted February 18, 2020
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  • What You Need To Know About Fever In Children

    The lowdown on a high temperature

    • Posted May 27, 2019
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  • Lice in Japan? Tackle the problem head on.

    Head lice, or to be more precise, Pediculosis Humanus Capitis can strike at any time.  The likelihood of head lice is higher in the warm months. This infestation of the scalp hair occurs mainly in school children...

    • Posted August 9, 2018
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  • Water, water everywhere and too much to drink

      Have you noticed as the weather gets warmer, and even when it’s not so warm, there are many people walking around carrying bottles? Why should this be?  It seems there is a widespread concern about ‘dehydration’...

    • Posted May 18, 2018
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  • Immunisation for babies: When is a good time to do it?

    Newborn babies should be seen by a doctor within forty-eight hours of delivery, at six weeks, and again at seven or eight months.  Another examination is carried out at eighteen months.  In practice we also see children...

    • Posted November 27, 2017
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  • Isn’t it counter-intuitive that if a child is ‘hyperactive’, you can ‘treat’ this with a stimulant drug (Ritalin, amphetamines, etc.)?

    If someone is already ‘hyped-up’, why give him or her an ‘upper’? Ah, you see, stimulant drugs, when given to ‘hyperactive’ children, have a ‘paradoxical’ effect compared to that in adults, and actually calm such children down!...

    • Posted November 27, 2017
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  • Should you have your boy circumcised?

    What do insanity, syphilis, and epilepsy have in common? They are all caused by masturbation, or so it was believed in Britain and the US in the late 19th century.  And the cure?  Circumcision.  When this notion...

    • Posted October 10, 2016
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  • The modern way of birth

    Kony 2012.  It might be a golf tournament.  In fact, as you probably know, it’s a film about atrocities perpetrated by a man of that name, last seen in Uganda that became an overnight viral sensation with...

    • Posted May 1, 2016
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  • Home remedy: What to do when baby is in pain

    Question What home remedies can be used for babies and young children having diarrhoea? How long is diarrhoea likely to continue and what symptoms should we be looking for that need medical attention? Answer   The most...

    • Posted December 28, 2015
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  • Tokyo roads: How good a driver are you?

    You know the situation: you’re in the outer lane of the Expressway, going about 110 Km per hour, moving along with a fair bit of traffic.  A foreign car with blacked out windows comes charging up behind...

    • Posted June 18, 2013
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  • Decorative English

    I’m standing between “Love & Peace” and “Hugme”. This was the position of a patient who got lost on her way to my office. What a lovely place to be! I knew exactly where she was and...

    • Posted May 9, 2013
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  • Dizzyland

    The commonest reasons for requests for hotel visits – which I do as a normal part of my work – are respiratory infections (coughs, colds and influenza), and stomach upsets (diarrhoea and vomiting).  Often the patients are...

    • Posted May 7, 2013
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  • The Anxiety Makers

    This is the title of a book, first published in 1967, by a doctor with the splendidly appropriate name of Alex Comfort, in which he debunks with scholarly aplomb certain medical pre-occupations of that time which were...

    • Posted March 3, 2013
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  • Immunisation safety

    There was a recent news item of a tragic case where a boy of around 10 years of age was given Japanese encephalitis immunisation.  Shortly after he collapsed and died. This story is a sad reminder of...

    • Posted December 3, 2012
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  • Of mice and men

    At least the headline, in the 14 July 2012 edition of the British Medical Journal, is honest.  “Animal experiments rose in 2011 despite coalition pledge to reduce them”. That’s bad news – for the animals.  But what...

    • Posted September 30, 2012
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  • A course, B course, or C course?

    I do not mean the choice of lunch menus in Japanese restaurants, which are generally nourishing and good value.  I am referring to the different types of routine medical check-ups, the ‘human dock’ examinations offered in many...

    • Posted August 30, 2012
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  • Ancient wisdom, modern practice

    It is curious that these days much medical activity is directed, not to the sick, but at people who are well.  The idea, it seems, is to detect disease at an early stage, before symptoms develop, so...

    • Posted July 31, 2012
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  • Febrile convulsions

      Febrile convulsions are fits or seizures which occur during a fever (raised temperature) in a child aged between 6 months and 5 years.  They affect about one child in 30.  The words convulsion, fit, and seizure...

    • Posted November 2, 2011
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  • Are birth control pills making me stressed and depressed?

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   QuestionI am a 34 year old married woman and took birth control pills for the previous three years because I wished to defer pregnancy. After stopping the pill I became depressed and...

    • Posted September 30, 2011
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  • What is ‘frozen shoulder’?

    The Japanese have a good name for it: go-juu kata, 50 shoulder. This is a common and distressing condition which comes on for no known reason, typically in people in their 50s. One shoulder gradually...

    • Posted September 1, 2011
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  • How to get the best out of your doctor

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   From time to time I get e-mails or phone calls from members of the public along these lines: ‘I need a so-and-so test – how much does it cost?’  Are they expecting...

    • Posted July 29, 2011
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  • Itchy rashes

    One sometimes hears of people suffering from ‘hives’.  This is a colloquial word for urticaria, an itchy rash in the form of blotches or wheals which can appear on any  part of the body and disappear after...

    • Posted June 8, 2011
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  • Is it safe to prescribe psychotropic drugs to preschoolers?

    “30% of specialists prescribe psychotropic medication to preschoolers” the alarming headline reads (Japan Today, 10 March 2011). What’s your view, Dr. Symonds? The implication, of course, is that these drugs are over-prescribed. The article seems to have...

    • Posted April 1, 2011
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  • The prescriber’s dilemma

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   Before prescribing any medicine, a doctor ought to be prepared to answer the following questions to the patient’s satisfaction:   What good will it do? What harm might it do? What harm...

    • Posted April 1, 2011
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  • Generalist or specialist: which is better?

    If you need to see a doctor, is it better in the first instance to consult a general practitioner (GP) or a specialist?   After all, a specialist knows more than a GP, right?    Although in...

    • Posted February 28, 2011
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  • Baby Genetics

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   QUESTION: My husband and I are trying to conceive and would like to know if the baby will take after my husband’s features or mine.   ANSWER: It depends on which genes...

    • Posted November 29, 2010
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  • Baby questions

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   1. I didn’t know I was pregnant until my 8th week.  I had taken analgesics on various occasions. What steps should I take to ensure that baby is developing normally? It is...

    • Posted August 30, 2010
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  • Fibromyalgia: another view

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   As a general practitioner, hardly a day goes by when I don’t see at least one patient with a painful condition affecting the moving parts of the body.  Such patients come to...

    • Posted June 28, 2010
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  • Too much of a good thing?

    Photo © Elena Derevstova   It is remarkable that a great deal of medical activity these days is directed not towards the treatment of illness, but to prevent disorders which may never happen. The Bible has some...

    • Posted February 27, 2010
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