ArcaMax

DEAR DR. ROACH: Why aren't people able to see an allergist to be desensitized to a peanut allergy? As a child, I was allergic to dust, pet hair, milk and other things, but I received treatments. I am not bothered by any of these now. It would seem prudent to desensitize people who have allergies that are life-threatening, like peanut allergies...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have a question that I hope you can help me with. My 1-year-old grandniece (my brother's granddaughter) was recently diagnosed with Van der Knaap disease after suffering seizures and getting an MRI. An internet search described it as a rare inherited disorder with walking difficulties and a progressive decline in brain ...Read more

DEAR DOCTOR ROACH: I have recently learned that my sibling, age 70, has rare cancer of the thymus. She will be getting chemotherapy and perhaps radiation treatment. I have heard of immunotherapy. Is this an option?

Would you know what could have caused this type of cancer? When she was younger, she had bouts of rosacea; could there be a ...Read more

In the early 2000s, hormonal treatments for menopause fell out of favor, but they appear to be rebounding with a notable focus.

People think of hormonal treatments as replacing diminished levels of estrogen, but in premenopausal women, there's actually more testosterone than estrogen.

Like estrogen, testosterone levels fall over time, and ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: Your recent column about treating diabetes left me wondering. Diabetes, as I understand it, is usually a result of too much sugar being consumed. But consuming carbohydrates is not that much different because they are quickly converted to sugar through the human chemical processes. So, why are you promoting a plant-based diet ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am an 86-year-old male in relatively good health. I developed pain in my lower back, buttocks and upper legs that started a couple of months ago. It is particularly painful in the morning when I arise and subsides some as I work through the pain and get going through my day.

My primary care doctor sent me to a physical ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have a friend who has had an extremely bad cough, especially when she gets a cold. (It sounds like she is coughing up a lung.) She is a breast cancer survivor and has had this cough for a number of years. She has only had a chest X-ray done and was informed that she has asthma. She was given an inhaler.

I suggested that she ...Read more

Since the 1920s, a visit to the dentist involving X-rays has meant both patients and staff being draped with a lead vest or apron to shield against the harmful effects of radiation.

New safety guidelines from the American Dental Association say the practice can stop because X-ray technologies has evolved significantly and there are better ...Read more

A new study finds that high school football students already have differences in their brains compared to swimmers, cross-country runners and tennis players, contrary to thinking that suggested it takes years of head impacts to change brain structure.

Football players had cortical thinning and changes in brain folding as well as lower brain ...Read more

New research suggests that in up to 10% of cases where a patient is diagnosed with dementia, the problem is actually undetected liver disease, which can cause similar neurological symptoms, such as cognitive impairment and changes in mood and motor skills.

The condition is called hepatic encephalopathy, a complication of cirrhosis. There are ...Read more

Potatoes cannot be grown year-round, but the makers of potato chips and similar snacks nonetheless require a constant supply of fresh spuds to meet demand. They cannot preserve potatoes in cold storage because low temperatures trigger a process called cold-induced sweetening, which converts starches into sugars.

Processing CIS-affected tubers...Read more

It's not time to go grocery shopping yet, but a new published study suggests that a plant-based diet might protect people against COVID-19 infections.

The authors surveyed 702 adults, nearly half of whom has previously had COVID. Those who ate an omnivore's diet (meat, plants, everything) were more likely to have caught COVID (52%) than ...Read more