DEAR DR. ROACH: My 86-year-old mother has swollen ankles. Usually, her ankles will swell only in the summertime, but this year they have not deflated. A blood test this year indicated that she had low sodium, so her cardiologist told her to reduce her water/fluid intake and increase her salt intake (by drinking V-8 juice). […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Since I suffer from age-associated cognitive impairment, I read with interest an advertisement that claims that this condition may be caused by fish oil, which I have been taking regularly for many years. That ad says that “a highly-acclaimed MD” states that today’s low-grade supermarket fish oil is causing the surge in […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I switched from drinking caffeinated coffee to Swiss water process decaffeinated coffee about two years ago. The reason I switched to decaf is that I was experiencing dizziness when I would get out of bed at night to use the restroom. The dizziness lasted for only a few seconds, but it was […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am an 85-year-old male. I walk a mile every day, have a pacemaker and hearing aids, and use a CPAP machine. All in all, I feel pretty good, but there is something that bothers me and my doctor has no answer. Several times a day, or at night in bed, with […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have high blood pressure, and I hope that you can advise me. For 10 years, I have suffered with terrible leg cramps in one or both calves. I visited numerous doctors in order to learn what the cause was. Not one practitioner questioned the blood pressure medicine that I had been […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 77 years old and have a quite enlarged prostate, according to my doctor. Often, an hour or so after I drink a cup of coffee, I’ll feel like I have to urinate. If I’m in the middle of doing something trivial and try to put it off, it will become […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Would it be reasonable for me to ask the tech to aspirate the plunger when I go for a vaccine? I understand that the veins in the shoulder are rarely accessible to an IM needle, but still, I would not mind the extra 5 to 10 seconds of discomfort while the tech […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have a question in terms of people who are addicted to smoking cigarettes. How come there aren’t any rehabs for people addicted to cigarettes? I heard trying to quit smoking is much harder and more difficult than quitting heroin. Any ideas? — C.A.M. ANSWER: Tobacco smoking is incredibly difficult to quit. […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Recently, I’ve noted within the medical community a dramatic increase in resistance to prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines at the same time. I have been taking one 0.5 mg clonazepam at night for insomnia and one, or at the most two, 5 mg Percocet per day for pain as needed. Since the Percocet […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: When should a person have cataract surgery, and can you ever have them removed? I am concerned, as I am a 65-year-old male with cataracts. Can glasses be prescribed so I never need surgery? I ask because I know people who had surgery and had a special lens put in (may I […]