Doctor's Diary: Homoeopathy plays a useful role in today's NHS Strong words - though there is more to this than is readily apparent. The three homoeopathic hospitals in Britain fulfil the broader function of being centres for a range of complementary practices, such as acupuncture, herbal and nutritional medicine and osteopathy, at an annual cost of £4 million - a drop in the ocean of total health service expenditure. Over the past 20 years each of these, though originally dismissed by the "mainstream," has gained much wider acceptance, particularly for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine and diverse allergic conditions. Close down the homoeopathic hospital, and this vital element of pluralism will be lost, as will the important challenges it poses to escalating polypharmacy. The curious affliction, as featured last week, of a gentleman whose tongue becomes "stuck" behind his cheek at night, "requiring a conscious effort to return it to its normal position," has prompted a reader to report that his tongue, too, becomes so firmly lodged in this position as to become ridged and painful. This may be, it is suggested, a variant of tongue dystonia characterised by involuntary movements most marked when speaking or eating. This can be very disconcerting and used to be untreatable, until the introduction of Botox injections that paralyse the powerful genioglossus muscle, thus abolishing the unwanted movements. Weekend malady This week's problem comes courtesy of Mrs HH, from Sutton Coldfield, who finds that whenever she has a lie-in at weekends, she invariably develops a crashing headache requiring a couple of paracetamols to clear. "On a weekday, when I have to rise promptly, I am headache-free," she writes. What, she wonders, could account for this? Giving ulcers a pasting Next, my thanks to a couple of readers for passing on their cures for the misery of recurrent mouth ulcers. "They have been a constant feature of my life and certainly get me down," writes a gentleman from Reading. His son, similarly afflicted, stumbled on research implicating a common ingredient of toothpaste, sodium lauryl sulphate. Since switching to the only brand he found that does not contain this chemical, Superdrug Enamel, they have both been ulcer-free. "It is worth its weight in gold," he comments. And finally... Sally Williams from Pembroke reports on the pleasing situation where the remedy for one condition alleviates another. In her case, the remedy was her decision to abstain from strong cheeses, tomatoes and acidic fruit in the hope, as she had read, that this might relieve the pain and loss of mobility of her joints due to rheumatoid arthritis. And so indeed it has; but, also, the "terrible" mouth ulcers she had endured since childhood have almost completely disappeared. Worried about a medical condition? Email your questions confidentially to Dr Le Fanu at drjames@telegraph.co.uk. Answers will be published in the health section of the Telegraph website every Friday