Insomnia

...ba href=/insomnia/a/b, tremors and the rest.

You have two options: One is to take a smaller dose of Synthroid; the other is to take no medicine and wait until the signs of hypothyroidism (sluggish thyroid gland) appear.

People with a gland that's not making enough thyroid hormone eventually develop chronic tiredness, dry skin, brittle hair, constipation, menstrual irregularities, memory lapses and a feeling of being cold all the time.

The symptoms don't come on suddenly.

You'll know when they start, and then you will know it's time to take Synthroid.

DEAR DR.

DONOHUE: Something strange happened to me last week.

All of a sudden, I found it impossible to get words out of my mouth.

I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn't say it.

At the same time, I was unstable — I couldn't keep my balance.

My husband says it was a faint.

What's your opinion?

- G.K.

You make a good case for a TIA, a transient ischemic attack.

It's a temporary interruption of blood flow to the brain.

The symptoms disappear when blood flow resumes.

The danger of a TIA is that it can be an omen that a stroke is about to happen.

About 10 percent of people who have had a TIA will have a stroke within three months.

With a stroke, the damage is permanent.

You definitely don't want that to happen.

There are medicines you can take to prevent one.

See your doctor quickly.

If I'm wrong, the visit is overkill.

If I'm right, you can avoid a tragedy.

DEAR DR.

DONOHUE: What is trichotillomania?

- S.N.

Trichotillomania (TRICK-oh...

...ba href=/insomnia/a/b, poor appetite, constipation and diarrhea.

Undetected lead poisoning can cause death.

Mary Ellen Loughran knows all about it.

Her adopted 6-year-old twins, Anastasia and Katya, had high levels of lead in their blood when Loughran brought them home from Russia in 2003.

"I'm not going to take any guesses about where it came from.

They seemed to be in a fairly safe and stable environment," she said.

The girls' pediatrician found the lead toxicity a month after they arrived in Tucson, in a routine blood screening, and they were treated with a medication that removed the lead from their blood.

The girls' blood tested normal and then abnormal again, after lead stored in their bones leached into their blood.

The girls were treated again and have tested normal since.

"They have no signs of long-term exposure to lead.

We just make sure they eat healthy," Loughran said.

Christine Cervantez Young is the Tucson-based health specialist for Arizona's Child Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and works for the state's Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control.

It's her job to get the word out about lead poisoning risks and do home visits with families whose children test positive for lead.

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...ba href=/insomnia/a/b, Mullins said.

One way people are battling back and coping with the loss of sleep is by using Ambien.

Mullins describes Ambien "as a hypnotic agent — a medicine that induces sleep," he said.

"ba href=/insomnia/a/b is a major health problem in the U.S.," said Frank Steinberg, a medical consultant for Sanofi-aventis, the maker of Ambien.

It can be associated with medical and psychiatric disorders.

Not to mention that lack of sleep can effect one's family, social life and work productivity.

Dr.

Damon Broyles, a family medicine specialist at St.

Anthony's Medical Center who also has a private practice at Fenton Family Medicine, 714 Gravois Road, sees patients who have ba href=/insomnia/a/b because of anxiety and depression, as well as those that develop the condition for no reason at all.

ba href=/insomnia/a/b can occur for just one night or last for years.

Some people never seek out a doctor for help while others experience severe problems and visit the doctor's office for prescription sleep medication.

The most popular sleep prescription drug is Ambien, which has received some negative media attention recently for allegedly bizarre side effects, such as sleepwalking, raiding the refrigerator while asleep and even driving while asleep.

In the U.S., about 4 percent of the general population has experienced sleepwalking.

"Based on all the clinical studies we have conducted with Ambien and reports received to date, we believe the incidence of the somnambulism (sleepwalking) is rare," Steinberg said.

"I th...