Should I have a jab to improve my tan?

Question: I'm going on a sunshine holiday in April with a friend, and she suggests we get a tan beforehand. She swears by her sunbed, and says there's now an injection you can get from the internet that makes you tan faster. She is a lovely nut-brown colour now. I'm fair-skinned. What do you think of sunbeds and injections for the likes of me?

Answer: One word: don't. Tans in a fair-skinned person are a sign of skin damage, and increase the risk of skin cancer later. There's plenty of evidence against the use of sunbeds, and those injections are in a different league of risk altogether. They are not licensed for medical use anywhere in the world, and have not been subjected to reliable clinical trials. There are reports that they have been followed, very quickly in some patients, by suspicious changes in moles. So any suggestion on the internet that they are safe is wrong and dangerous. Nut-brown is lovely in people who were born with that skin tint, but it's a dangerous aim for someone with a fair complexion.

Must I accept this loss of hearing

Question: I've always had some difficulty hearing but, at 67, it is worsening. Is this type of hearing loss typical of the ageing process? And what can I do, short of wearing a hearing aid?

Answer: Hearing loss can be simply a matter of wax accumulating in the ear canals - something that does worsen when we age - but you may also be developing stiffening of the joints between the bones of the middle ear, or losing the acuity in your inner ear. See your doctor, who should be able to define the type of hearing loss you have and treat it accordingly. It is not old age - you are still young.

Can I get rid of dark circles under my eyes

Question: I'm a vegetarian woman in my early 20s who suffers from dark circles under the eyes. I get plenty of sleep, but they just won't shift.

Answer: Folds under the lower eyelids are usually an inherited feature, and there is little that can be done to improve them (without plastic surgery - which is a bit drastic). However, it may be an idea to ask your doctor about the ducts that carry the tears from the inner half of your lower eyelids into the nose - if they are blocked, they could be exaggerating the folds, and that can give the appearance of dark circles. You could use expert make-up to camouflage them. I don't think your vegetarian lifestyle makes a difference, unless you're very thin, leaving you with less fat under the skin.

Shingles has left me super-sensitive. Help!

Question: I've had shingles for nine months, and cannot bear to wear anything above the waist. I am on gabapentin. Do you recommend anything?

Answer: You have post-herpetic neuralgia, which means that the nerve endings in the affected skin have altered so that even light touch gives you pain. I have two suggestions. One is to buy an extra broad roll of lint, so that its width covers the area of skin affected. Fix this over the whole of the affected area, taping it to the skin on the unaffected side of your body. Wear this band of lint night and day for a month or more, so that clothing never comes into contact with it. You should gradually lose the extra-sensitivity. If it is really painful, capsaicin cream has been found to help this type of post-shingles pain. Your pharmacist will advise you how to use it.

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