Accepted Answer

Date:Dec / 2011

Thank you for your question.

 I respond to your query with the understanding that you do have your friend's agreement to discuss this matter. 

I understand that your friend who is 43 years of age has severe abdominal pains on and off - there can be many causes for intermittent sever abdominal pains and this requires proper medical history taking in detail followed by clinical examination and possibly blood tests. A few examples of intermittent abdominal pain are: 1) Gall stones which may intermittently 'block' the common bile duct, resulting in pain. 2) Gastritis or peptic ulcer disease. 3) Pancreatic inflammation, also known as Pancreatitis. 4) Kidney Stones. 5) Bowel spasma which may result from constipation or 'diverticulitis'.  6) increased 'wind' due to dietary causes (such as a very high fibre diet or at other times, constipation etc.)To be able to determine the underlying cause, a doctor needs to examine your friend and do tests - therefore I suggest that your friend arrange to see their GP and discuss above symptoms.

Heavy smoking is a well known cause of raised Hb and increased red cell count. This is also called 'secondary polycythemia' where the bone marrow makes more red cells to try and cope with reduced oxygen intake from a heavy smokers' Lungs (a 'compensatory' mechanism) and this usually does not mean they have a cancer but the blood film and result need to be reviewed by a doctor (there are other vlaues in the Full Blood Count result such as 'MCV', Haematocrit, 'RDW' etc. that need professional assessment to look at the whole picture rather than a single value.

In summary, these symptoms require a discussion with your friend's doctor. I hope above information has been helpful. Best Wishes.

Thank you for using ThanksDr. I do hope this information is of use to you.
Yours faithfully,
The ThanksDr Team