ArcaMax

DEAR DR. ROACH: My parents are both retired medical professionals who are in their early 70s. My father has diabetes that he manages with medication, and he also has a history of recurrent prostate cancer. My mother has had osteopenia for years. They want to remain in good cardiac health and have been exercising regularly in recent years to ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 66-year-old white male who is active and relatively healthy. I have recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer. One blood test showed a PSA level of 13 ng/mL, and a second was 17 ng/mL. So, I underwent a biopsy, which showed adenocarcinoma with a Gleason score of 6 (3+3), grade group 1. The tumor was measured to be 0.4...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have two bird feeders off of my back deck. They hang from tall poles as a vain attempt to keep the squirrels from eating all of the birdseed! But to refill them, I must take them down and handle them, and I recently wondered if I might be exposing myself to the new bird flu.

Is there any information about this possibility? ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 70-year-old male who is 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds. Other than having high blood pressure, I am healthy, eat a Mediterranean-style diet, and exercise most days. Since 2021, I have been taking one tab of amlodipine/valsartan daily with blood pressure readings of 125-135/70-80 mm Hg and a heart rate of 55-...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: When I was diagnosed with hemochromatosis, my doctor explained that a ferritin level of 380 ng/mL was too high. I am a male and would like to know if I need to continue getting phlebotomies. After several phlebotomies in three to four months, my level was 122 ng/mL.

Currently, I have a score of 97 ng/mL. I prefer to accept ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: My primary care physician has been using an AI-assisted device during our office visits that transcribes and records our visits. I receive an after-visit summary a few days later that contains minor errors at the least, but they're often blatant errors. For example, one problem was listed as "vasomotor symptoms due to surgical ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: My husband and I booked a cruise for March with stops in Singapore; Vietnam; Hong Kong; Taipei, Taiwan; and Japan. We are healthy 67 year-old Nevada residents with no medical problems. I've checked with my personal physician, our travel agent, and several websites, including the Centers for Disease Control and local health care...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I'm a 75-year-old woman who, for at least 10 years now, has been experiencing a rapid heart rate. My blood pressure, however, remains normal. In fact, doctors are usually surprised at how good my blood pressure is since I am borderline obese and slightly diabetic.

During this past physical, my doctor did mention my rapid heart...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: Would you please address the dangers of untreated sleep apnea? Also, what do people do when they are unable to tolerate a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine? I know that surgery is an option, but most times, it can be unsuccessful. -- Anon.

ANSWER: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is very common (15% to 30% of men...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: My wife was recently discharged after a lengthy hospital stay with multiple diagnoses. Most of her issues were treated medically and resulted in six new medications from four different medical disciplines, in addition to three other medications that were prescribed pre-hospitalization.

Finding drug interactions was fairly ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I've had muscle spasms and cramping in my lower legs and feet for quite some time. It almost always happens when I'm laying in bed and in the early morning hours. If I stand up and walk around, it stops, but if I lay back down, it usually starts up again.

I am 65 and exercise daily, usually 40-50 minutes on an arc trainer and ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 74-year-old woman who is active and healthy. I recently had an endoscopy, and the findings were a hiatal hernia of about 5 centimeters with some inflammation. I have been having almost daily acid reflux episodes.

The gastroenterologist put me on a regimen of 40 mg of omeprazole for six weeks. It worked perfectly for me,...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: Am I a doomed man? When I was 25, I survived a battle with testicular cancer. The good news is that 45 years later, after two kids and three grandkids, I'm in good health. The only medicine I take is gabapentin for peripheral neuropathy that was caused by the chemotherapy drugs I received during the cancer treatment. One or ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 89 and in good health. For six months, my systolic blood pressure was 113 mm Hg. Then, 10 days ago, it dropped to 88 mm Hg for a week. For today and the past week, it's been 187/93 mm Hg. I was on a blood pressure medication, but my doctor took me off of it when my blood pressure was low. I am currently off of all ...Read more