People with dry and flaky skin should be able to treat it over-the-counter, but older people may require different treatments.
That’s according to Dr Niall Breen in this week's 'Ask the GP' on Lunchtime Live.
One listener asked what they should do about very dry and flaky skin around the nose and forehead area.
"The straight forward answer is that skin is very dry [and] you need to make it moist, so you'd use an emollient of some sort," Dr Breen said.
"Common over-the-counter things, you can take and use those.
"Where I'd want to know a little bit of information for this person is their age.
"If this was an older person what somebody might label 'dry, flaky skin' might actually be something that we would want to zap off with cryotherapy or to take a closer look at.
"But for your average person who has a bit of dry skin around the nose, around the forehead area you can use an emollient... and they work very well."
Dr Breen said people should be using any such over-the-counter solutions "two, three, four times a day on an ongoing basis".
Post-COVID advice
Another listener over-60 asked is there is a good vitamin to take post-COVID to help with a sore throat and sinuses.
"There was early evidence...that vitamin D was helpful, I think the jury is still a little bit out on that," he said.
"But that probably is a good vitamin that somebody over-60 should be taking.
"Having your throat and sinuses playing up that's probably a bit of a different thing.
"It that playing up since the person had COVID or are they someone who had this before COVID arrived?
"That would be important to clarify as well... if it's more than a few days it might be something worth going along to your doctor and getting looked at".
IVF and Ozempic
Another listener undergoing IVF and seeing their weight increase asked if they could use Ozempic to reduce their weight before the next round of treatment.
"The teaching on weight and weight gain has really changed since I started in university and hospitals prior to becoming a GP," Dr Breen said.
"Now we know that it's not just a simple matter of somebody who has maybe got bad eating habits or doesn't have the best exercise regime.
"It's more complicated than that... there's a whole spectrum of things underpinning overweight".
Dr Breen said it is not something he would advise people to do.
"I would say it's probably not advised - the current understanding on Ozempic is that if you start taking it to maintain the benefit from it you need to continue taking it," he said.
"I would imagine given the amount of supplements people generally need to take, as well as often injectable medicines and things like that, I'd say it probably wouldn't be advised".
Dr Breen suggested the person should ask the doctor overseeing her IVF treatment.
