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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks AB.

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Speaker 2: It's this time on Saturdays that we catch up with

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Speaker 2: doctor Brian Betty to talk health. In this morning, we

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Speaker 2: are looking at abdominal hernias. Go to Brian. Good to

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Speaker 2: have you with us.

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Speaker 3: Oh cure, Jack gave to be here.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let's start off with the basics. So what exactly

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Speaker 2: is an abdominal hernia.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, it's where the abdominal cavity, which is where

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Speaker 3: the stomach or the tummy sits. It's an internal part

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Speaker 3: of the body which pushes through a weak part of

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Speaker 3: your abdominal muscle wall. So usually in a bit of

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Speaker 3: the intestine just pokes through where the muscle wall at

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Speaker 3: the front of your stomach becomes a bit weak. Now,

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Speaker 3: this creates a lump that you can often feel. Now,

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Speaker 3: they're really really common, very common in men. We think

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Speaker 3: up to twenty to twenty five percent a minute at

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Speaker 3: some point in their lives may have one. And they

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Speaker 3: can occur at any age, from sort of baby to

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Speaker 3: our adults and elderly. Now, there's several different kinds. There's

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Speaker 3: ones that are at the lower part of the abdomen.

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Speaker 3: They poke into the groin. So then testine pokes into

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Speaker 3: the groin and we call that an angwine or hernia,

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Speaker 3: and sometimes that actually pokes into the scrotum and it

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Speaker 3: can cause a lump. They can poke into the top

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Speaker 3: of the leg. We call that ephemeral or the front

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Speaker 3: of the abdomen or the stomach, and around the umbilical

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Speaker 3: umbilical or the belly button in particular, and we call

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Speaker 3: that a ventral hernia. So you will find a little

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Speaker 3: lump that starts to poke out there. So they really

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Speaker 3: really common occur around the abdomen and they cause these

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Speaker 3: little lumps of people start to.

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Speaker 2: Notice, Yeah, they sound really uncomfortable. Unfortunately, not of experience.

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Speaker 2: Fun I know plenty of people who have over the years.

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Speaker 2: What causes them?

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Speaker 3: Right, yeah, look, so lots of different things. So, look,

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Speaker 3: if you're carrying a bit of extra weight and you're overweight,

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Speaker 3: that tends to put extra pressure on the muscles around

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Speaker 3: the abdomen and that can weaken them and cause a

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Speaker 3: hernia to call call occur. You know, if you cough

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Speaker 3: or sneeze a lot again, that puts pressure on the

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Speaker 3: abdomin and can cause a weakness to develop, constipation, interestingly

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Speaker 3: enough can cause it. So if you're straining to pass

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Speaker 3: bowel motions, that can cause the stomach wall weakness. And

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Speaker 3: actually pregnancy is the other one. So look, if you're

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Speaker 3: pregnanty carrying baby, that puts a lot of pressure on

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Speaker 3: the abdomen. Now, the other big, big one is actually work,

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Speaker 3: so lifting the wrong way. So you suddenly lift something,

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Speaker 3: you suddenly tear the muscle wall and the hernia develops.

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Speaker 3: And that's a really very common way of these occurring.

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Speaker 3: And in those cases it's actually covered by accd AT treatments.

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Speaker 3: So lifting heavy things in the wrong way can be

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Speaker 3: a real real problem with hernia's developing.

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Speaker 2: I don't expect you to know this. This is a

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Speaker 2: random question, but I was watching have some weightlifting the

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Speaker 2: other day. You know how the weightlifters put on those

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Speaker 2: belts when they're about to lift a really heavy weight.

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Speaker 2: Is it for hernias?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's one of the reasons I do it.

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Speaker 3: So I give you extra protection around the walls things,

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Speaker 3: so that you know you're not really you're not pressuring yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: otherwise it pressure builds up and can pop out, and

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Speaker 3: that's a real problem for weightlifters.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, they're good. Sorry, little digression there, Look out,

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Speaker 2: and I mean are they serious?

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Speaker 3: Look? Look known most of them aren't serious. And the

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Speaker 3: commonest thing I say, we see this commonly in general

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Speaker 3: practice as GPS, and people will often come in and say, look,

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Speaker 3: I've just noticed this little lump in my stomach, and

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Speaker 3: I'll point to where it is, or the other thing

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Speaker 3: they complain of is, look, I've just noticed this uncomfortable

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Speaker 3: feeling or the slight pain, especially when I bend over

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Speaker 3: or sort of lift things. And again people can point

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Speaker 3: to where exactly it is. And so so generally we

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Speaker 3: have a look for them. And they're very small, and

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Speaker 3: if you can feel the lump, they often pop out

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Speaker 3: and you can push them back in so they can

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Speaker 3: come out. They call reducible they come out and then

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Speaker 3: but you can feel where they actually are. Now, over

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Speaker 3: time they can become bigger, and they can call more

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Speaker 3: discomfort and they can cause more pain, and in those

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Speaker 3: situations we need to get them treated. And very the

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Speaker 3: one serious thing which is quite uncommon, which can occur,

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Speaker 3: the intestine pops out and you suddenly can't push it

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Speaker 3: back in, and it becomes what we call irreducible Now,

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Speaker 3: in those situations, the vowel can twist of it suddenly

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Speaker 3: become very painful, can develop a temperature, and very tender

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Speaker 3: to touch. And in those situations you do need to

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Speaker 3: see a doctor straight away to get urgent treatment. So

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Speaker 3: that's the one complication that we do watch out for them.

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Speaker 2: And what do you do about Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So, look, if someone comes in to see me the surgery, Look,

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Speaker 3: we take a history and examination, We examine the patient,

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Speaker 3: look for the hernia. Occasionally we'll order an ultrasound which

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Speaker 3: shows up the hernia. It's like a little test we

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Speaker 3: do to see that it's there. Now, Look, if it's

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Speaker 3: very small and not causing any problems, we just watch

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Speaker 3: and wait. There's no point in doing anything if it's

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Speaker 3: not causing problems. However, if I over time it becomes bigger,

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Speaker 3: cause a bit more discomfort, a bit more pain, we

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Speaker 3: refer you to a general surgeon to get an operation. Now,

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Speaker 3: the operations are red good these days. They're often done

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Speaker 3: through keyholes, little laparoscopes, and they put in a number

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Speaker 3: of stitches to seal the muscle wall, or they put

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Speaker 3: in what we call a mesh to go over the

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Speaker 3: hern your and stop it happening, So look very easy

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Speaker 3: to ficture general surgery. Day surgery. You're in and out,

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Speaker 3: the problems fixed. I suppose. The other thing is if

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Speaker 3: they are there. We often advise people things like, look,

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Speaker 3: don't become constipated. Increases your risk. Try to keep the

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Speaker 3: weight off because that increases the risk. And actually be

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Speaker 3: really really careful with lifting heavy weights like a weightlifter. Yeah, real, carefully,

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Speaker 3: bend with your knees, not with your back.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Hey, thank you very much, Brian. I appreciate that,

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Speaker 2: as always, doctor Brian Betting. Jack weightlifters also use the

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Speaker 2: belt so they can embrace their abdominal muscles against something

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Speaker 2: like pushing out. You can tell that I don't do

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Speaker 2: a lot of weightlifting. I guess you've never bumped into

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Speaker 2: me on the street. There's not going to have a

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Speaker 2: huge surprise.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or

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