DEAR DR. ROACH: I have been having colonoscopies regularly since 1990. I was due for one last year, but postponed due to COVID-19. My previous doctor had retired, and I found another physician who I thought would be excellent. While on the bed, waiting to be moved to the procedure, the doctor came and sat […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 79 years old, male and in good shape. The only medication I take is 20 mg of Lipitor daily. Approximately five years ago, I fell off a small ladder. The fall was caused because I lost my balance. From that time on, my balance has worsened. I notice that when […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 85 and in good health despite having had open heart surgery 10 years ago. I have been using a catheter three times a day for two years to drain urine, because my enlarged prostate distorts my bladder. It looks like I will use an intermittent catheter for the rest of […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: Recently I was diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency after symptoms of unexpected and sustained diarrhea for three months. I was also diagnosed with NAFLD (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) last November. A year ago, I first noticed slight weight loss (5 pounds) and decreased energy. I am 69 years old, 6 foot, 2 […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: My hairdresser is being evasive about whether she has been vaccinated for COVID. She does not wear a mask. I am vaccinated, and I want everyone else to be as well, to avoid more harmful strains of the disease. I’m 67 and have underlying conditions. Should I find a new hairdresser? — […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: About a year ago, my 77-year-old wife started to have some trouble speaking, and in some cases remembering or forming words. It’s not so bad that you don’t understand her and it’s not constant. But it’s there just the same. The family thought she may have had a TIA, as at the […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: I need help with my mother’s question (she’s 86). She reports hearing glass breaking or being smashed. It’s so loud that it wakes her out of her sleep. She looks around and never is there a glass broken. She says it’s also a loud crashing noise, like something slamming up against a […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: What could precipitate a need to check an 83-year-old man’s carotid arteries for blockage? What percentage of blockage would necessitate surgery? — W.M. ANSWER: There are two carotid arteries, running on either side of the neck, bringing blood to the head. They provide a great deal of the blood flow to the […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: How do you choose your own doctors? The old advice to interview doctors can’t be done within insurance constraints. I am an old Hispanic woman with a low income. I have Ph.D. in cell biology from a widely respected university, but I am treated just as I witnessed my own mother treated: […]

DEAR DR. ROACH: If levothyroxine (the T4 hormone) has a long half-life (seven days), how does the pituitary gland provide fine control of the thyroid’s T4 hormone during a short time period (minutes, hours)? If there is such fine control between the pituitary and thyroid, manually trying to simulate that feedback mechanism by taking one […]