DEAR DR. ROACH: I recently had a CT scan, and my score was 184. My cardiologist put me on 40 mg of Lipitor, which I reluctantly took for three weeks until I developed severe pain in my feet and hands. I stopped taking it, and the pain went away. I'm a 64-year-old male in excellent shape. I'm ...
Dear Annie: I’m at a crossroads in my marriage, and I don’t know what to do. My husband and I barely talk anymore unless it’s about the kids or logistics. There’s no connection, no affection -- just a quiet tension that lingers in the background of everything. We’ve tried counseling, and while it helped us communicate better for a while, nothing has really changed. I’ve thought about divorce more times than I can count, but every time I get close to making a decision, I freeze — because our children are so young. They’re just 3 and 5 years old. They still crawl into our ...
DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 65-year-old male. On my recent semiannual checkup, my labs showed an AST level of 53 U/L and an ALT level of 62 U/L. I am concerned about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In addition to losing weight, is 800 IU of vitamin E potentially beneficial? — H.C. ANSWER: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, the newer and more correct name for fatty liver disease) is an increasingly common cause of abnormal liver function tests. But it can progress to steatohepatitis (MASH), which can cause fibrosis, inflammation, and ultimately cirrhosis of ...
DEAR DR. ROACH: Could you offer any general advice on how patients should weigh the risks versus benefits when they are prescribed a drug that lists many potentially serious side effects? I once had a specialist suggest that I do a trial of a drug for a noncardiac issue, but my cardiologist cautioned me not to chance it because both my heart status and age put me in a higher risk category for the specific drug. So, I declined to use it, figuring the risk was too great. The drug in question was also very new to the market. This leads me to ask: Do recently approved drugs pose more of a ...
Dear Heloise: In a recent column of yours in the Marshall Independent, a reader wrote that when they get an call from an unknown person, they pick up, then immediately hang up. It may save time, but it signals to the caller that the number they called is active. It might be better to waste a bit of time and request that the caller put your number on their “Do Not Call” list. — Harold S., in Minneota, Minnesota Harold, these scam callers have no sense of guilt or shame. They’ll keep calling even if you ask them not to call. It’s best to simply not answer the phone if you ...
Dear Annie: I’ve always been a people-pleaser, and it’s wearing me down. My boss, “Mark,” constantly asks me to take on extra tasks because he knows I won’t say no. Last week, I stayed late three nights in a row to finish a project that wasn’t even mine. And it’s not just at work, either. My roommate “Rachel” is constantly asking for favors (walking her dog, picking her up something from the store), and I always say yes even when it’s pretty inconvenient. I feel guilty saying no to any of this, but I also feel the resentment beginning to grow. I want to be a good ...
