George Muntingh

• PhD
• Professor (Adjunct) at University of the Westerncape

It is known that not all red eyes are caused by infections. Furthermore, not all eye infections will react to antibiotic eye drops. Most cases of conjunctivitis are due to viral causes, do not require antibiotic eye drops and are usually self-limiting. Serious ophthalmic conditions such as infectious keratitis can lead to blindness; it is an emerge...

Insomnia is perhaps the most common type of sleep disorder in the family medicine population. It is best described as a persistent difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or a report of non-restorative sleep, accompanied by related daytime impairment. There is increasing evidence of a strong association between insomnia and various medical and...

Probiotics are being used and perhaps more often than not as a treatment for a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. With increasing frequency, it is also being advocated as a treatment for several medical conditions, such as allergic diseases (atopic dermatitis, possibly allergic rhinitis), bacterial vaginosis, urinary tract infections, and...

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a primary complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and a direct manifestation of vitamin B12 deficiency. Examining the effects of metformin use on PN status became imperative following clinical studies that showed the vitamin B12-lowering effect of the medication. The complexity of the topic and the inconsistenc...

Despite some modest improvements described recently, anaemia remains a significant global public health concern affecting both developed and developing countries. It affects a quarter of the global population, including 293 million (47%) children who are younger than five years of age. A prevalence of 42% and 30% has been described in pregnant and...

Background The association between long-term metformin use and low vitamin B12 levels has been proven. However, the prevalence estimates of metformin-induced vitamin B12 deficiency showed considerable variation among the studies. The potential of the deficiency to cause or worsen peripheral neuropathy in type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients has...

In the past 10 years or so, many alternatives to warfarin have been developed the first being the novel oral anticoagulants (NOAC) or better referred to as direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) or target-specific oral anticoagulants (TSOAC). These drugs have some definite advantages and disadvantages that should be clear to physicians before prescribin...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by chronically poor air flow. Typically, it worsens over time. The main symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing and sputum production. Most people with chronic bronchitis have COPD. Tobacco smoking is the most common cause of COPD. A number of other factors, such as air pollution...

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in bone metabolism and seems to have some anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties. For most people sunlight is the most important source of vitamin D. The time required to make sufficient vitamin D varies according to a number of environmental, physical and personal factors,...

Aloe vera gel is widely used in the treatment of an array of disturbances, especially skin disorders. The wound-healing effects have been attributed to its moisturizing and anti-inflammatory effects as well as its beneficial effect on the maturation of collagen. The aim of the present study is to compare the effects of topically applied extracts of...

The Aviation Medicine Department of the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), Aviation Medical Examiners (AME), and Institute for Aviation Medicine (IAM) receive numerous inquiries regarding the use of medication in the aviation environment. Flying an aircraft or controlling aircraft on the ground are highly demanding cognitive and psycho...

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) typically develops in patients with a history of allergic ailments, and is characterised by an itchy, inflammatory skin condition with scaling, lichenification, papules, excoriations and pruritus. In AD patients a chronic relapsing inflammatory condition is seen, associated with IgE hyper production. AD flares are...

Because grapefruit contains fibre, vitamin C, antioxidants and phytochemicals, the fruit and its juice are consumed widely to help meet daily nutritional requirements. However, in the past 15 years, studies have shown that grapefruit juice can induce a several-fold increase in the plasma levels of particular drugs that can result in increased thera...

The professional information leaflets of three locally available specific cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors indicate that these drugs are contraindicated in persons with a known allergy to sulfonamides. There are many concerns about cross-allergenicity between sulfonamide antibiotics and non-antibiotic sulfonamide-containing drugs including the sulfones,...

SA Fam Pract 2004;47(8): 24-28) Introduction "A patient who damages or loses his or her expensive hydrophilic contact lens will be annoyed -but the complaint will be much louder if the damage is caused by drugs without appropriate warning". This opening sentence from a short article by DV Ingram from the Sussex Eye Hospital, is indicative of a pote...

Apart from the optimal use of drugs, various supplementary methods have been tested to decrease asthma morbidity, usually in patients from relatively affluent socio-economic backgrounds. A study of additional measures taken in a group of moderate to severe adult asthmatics from very poor socio-economic backgrounds who had had on average only 5 year...

A large percentage of acute poisonings in black South Africans is due to traditional medicines and plants. The combination of isocratic high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with on line UV spectrum detection via a diode array configuration has been applied to the detection and identification of traditional medicines (and plants) in poisone...

In this study eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were given in a cumulative manner, every 6 weeks, starting with 10 mg, then 100 mg, 1000 mg and 10,000 mg EPA daily to mild to moderate essential hypertensive black patients. The corresponding DHA doses were 3, 33, 333 and 3333 mg. A control group was given olive oil as placeb...

A double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with a parallel design was conducted on 35 black patients with mild to moderate hypertension. After a 4-week run-in on placebo, baseline values were recorded and only patients with diastolic pressures of 95 - 115 mmHg were admitted to the trial, which lasted 10 weeks. These patients were randomised...

The antihypertensive effects of penbutolol, a nonselective beta-adrenoceptor antagonist with intrinsic sympathomimetic activity, was assessed in nonobese black South Africans aged 25 to 65 years with uncomplicated mild to moderate essential hypertension. After a 4-week placebo run-in period 50 patients entered a randomized placebo-controlled study...