Medical Matters - March 25th, 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Medical Matters on Talkabout. Brought to you in association with the Bonsacour Hospital Tralee. Celebrating 200 years of the Bonsacour mission.

**Deirdre** (0:10)
Now, sitting in for Eamon Shanahan, this week is Dr. John Chute. John, you're welcome.

**John Chute** (0:15)
Thank you very much. Thank you.

**Deirdre** (0:16)
We haven't seen you in a while.

**John Chute** (0:17)
No, no, I'm back. I know Dr. Eamon has gone far, far away on holidays. Well-deserved break. So I'll step in for him for a couple of...

**Deirdre** (0:26)
Couple of sessions. Very good. Delighted to have you. Well, just to remind the listeners that it's general queries today. So if you've got something to ask, John, send it in. And remember, if you're sending it in by text, it would be a big help if we knew how old you are and whether you're male or female. Remember, we can't tell from a text message whether it's a man or a woman who's contacting us. John, let's get down to business because there's loads of questions for you. We'll start with this one from a 47-year-old female. She says, I run every week. I don't smoke, but I do enjoy a drink, maybe three or four times a week. I had a blood pressure monitor on recently for 24 hours, and my numbers were high, mainly the bottom number. I have to meet my GP about this, but could you give me advice in the meantime?

**John Chute** (1:09)
Right. The first thing that strikes me there was, I drink three or four times a week. There's no quantity. It's three or four sessions she's drinking for, but is she drinking two drinks, four drinks, five drinks? We don't know. So alcohol adversely affects females more than males. And that would be the first thing I'd stop is drinking because alcohol is a dead weight. So it drives the blood pressure as well, because you're carrying that extra weight. She's running and absolutely keep it up. But certainly she wants to modify her blood pressure by not having to go on tablets, which may well be the case. She should cut back on the alcohol intake because it's this.

**Deirdre** (1:42)
Cut back or cut out?

**John Chute** (1:44)
Cut out ideally, but I won't be a killjoy. Definitely cut back for sure. And probably increase her exercise. And then the weight will fall off. The blood pressure will follow. Blood pressure drops tend to be about 5 to 10% with weight loss. So you don't have to go on medication if there's modifiable risks there that you can do. And eliminating alcohol, which is like I said, is a dead weight. There's no nutritional value whatsoever. Just simply piling on the pounds would be the way I would go initially, even if her blood pressure monitor is showing high blood pressure readings. Yeah.

**Deirdre** (2:16)
And is it the case that as women get older and go, we'll say postmenopausal, they can't metabolize it at the worst?

**John Chute** (2:22)
Same for males. Same for men. Yeah, absolutely. The difference between women and men is that there's more fat content with women. So they have a higher fat percentage than men do. So, for example, at least female athletes would have a fat content somewhere in the mid teens, mid to low teens, whereas the elite male athletes would be low single figures. And then your average female, for example, who would be a casual runner, for example, might be maybe high teens, low twenties fat, whereas your casual male runner of the same age might be maybe low teens. So there's a higher fat content. And like I said, that's been added to by taking alcohol up to four times a week. And as I said, we don't know the quantity per session.

**Deirdre** (3:01)
Yeah. So three or four times a week, that stands out to you.

**John Chute** (3:04)
It stands out to me straight away. And as you can multiply that by the number of drinks per session.

**Deirdre** (3:09)
Yeah. So that's the first thing she should do.

**John Chute** (3:11)
Absolutely.

**Deirdre** (3:11)
A male in his mid fifties says he has pains in his ears for the last two months. He's gone through four lots of antibiotics, antibiotic drops, has had his ears cleaned in UHC, and still I'm in pain. I'm going back to Cork again next week, but I'm wondering if John has any idea what this could be.

**John Chute** (3:30)
Well, the first thing is that he should be scanned, which would be the first thing. There's one or two very, very rare things. One is called an acoustic neuroma. I've never seen it in nearly 30 years of practice, but we also have that at the back of our mind for recurrent ear pain. And then the other thing which would be talking to me here is that's actually a dental problem, which would be a thing called temperamentibular joint dysfunction or TMGA dysfunction. And it's where the jaw angle meets the skull, just in front of the earlobe, and people would be getting that condition after grinding their teeth at night. So the mouth goes side to side. It inflames the joint, it gives you ear pain. And then you need to see a dentist generally for dental x-ray to confirm it. And then often a mouth brace at night to wear a mouth guard at night to stop the grinding effect, which in turn will stop the inflammation, which in turn will stop the pain. That will be probably my two main things here, but I'd say it wouldn't necessarily be an ear problem per se.