DEAR DR. ROACH: My 11-year-old daughter suffered a stress fracture on her lower spine a couple of years ago from doing back handsprings in gymnastics. She wore a back brace for a while, and now has no more problems in that area. However, her upper back/shoulder area has never been the same. We went to […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 55 years old, take no medication and am in good health. However, I’m about 25 pounds overweight. Starting four months ago, I eliminated most carbohydrates from my diet — no pasta, potatoes, rice, flour, bread or sweets. I have always eaten many vegetables and fish, but have increased my vegetable, […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: My husband said I snore, so I went to a sleep lab and was diagnosed with borderline sleep apnea. The doctor said I could get the CPAP machine, but it was up to me. I chose to get it, and I use it every night. Now, when I nap, I wake myself […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Please, please help me. I’ve visited my allergist, the ear-nose-throat specialist and my own internist. None of them has ever heard of my problem and don’t know how to help me. Starting in 1990, every couple of months I would get an awful pain on one of my ears if I had […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Several of my friends developed breast cancer shortly after the death of their husband, child or someone else close. Your comments, please, regarding great stress and cancer. — M.W. ANSWER: I think there are two issues here. The first is that prolonged, severe stress predisposes us to illness — including cancer, heart […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 93-year-old male. In February 2012, I fell on a hospital sidewalk. Along with some other minor injuries, I cut my upper lip. The hospital’s emergency room put three sutures in my lip to close the wound. In a few weeks the cut had healed, but to this day a […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Is there any connection between extremely low vitamin D-3 level (mine was 15) and weight retention? I recently caught the tail end of some doctor’s show on TV and I counted back: Summer of 2010, I started losing weight. I was swimming a lot for exercise, and it kept coming off. By […]

DEAR DR ROACH: I am very concerned about my grandchild’s growth — or lack thereof. She is 6 years old and has not grown at all this past year. She is 42 inches tall and weighs 40 pounds. She is the smallest child in her first-grade class. When they have family activities, some of the […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: My mother is 81. In August of 2012, she went to the doctor for a physical. She had been taking no medication other than an albuterol inhaler as needed. They diagnosed her with hypothyroidism and prescribed 0.025 mg levothyroxine. Within 24 hours of taking this drug, her breathing became extremely labored and […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Although I’ve read that women should have an HDL cholesterol level of at least 60 to protect the heart, mine has always been higher than 100. The last time my cholesterol was checked, the total was 293, but the HDL was 108; the LDL was 171; and the triglycerides 72. My doctor […]