Dear Doctor...
Patients sometimes ask the weirdest questions. JUDITH TAN gets doctors to confess what has fazed them during consultations
1 Tiger mum: "Did I develop my thyroid disorder because I scream at my kids too much?"
Medical fact: Stress may be harmful for the thyroid gland but not constant screaming.
2 Young man's family members to a neurologist: "Please give him a neurological examination. We want to know why he still doesn't have a girlfriend."
Medical fact: A neurological examination only looks at a person's nervous system, brain and spinal cord.
3 Woman: "I love chicken and I eat it all the time. Can chicken cause fibroids?"
Medical fact: There is no scientific evidence that consuming chicken can cause uterine fibroids.
4 Expectant mother: "I drink a lot of cold drinks. Will my foetus catch a cold from that?"
Medical fact: It is a myth that pregnant women stand the risk of giving birth to babies with asthma and other respiratory diseases if they consistently drink cold water.
5 Male cancer patient: "Can we not do a biopsy on my lungs? I was told it will make my cancer spread."
Medical fact: A recent study of more than 2,000 patients has dispelled the myth that cancer biopsies cause cancer to spread. Instead, patients who received a biopsy had a better outcome and longer survival than those who did not.
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