ArcaMax

DEAR DR. ROACH: Why is it that when one sees the doctor, the nurse will take their weight and blood pressure but neglect to take their height? I find this very interesting as height is asked on medical forms when receiving a bone density test, MRI, scan, etc. How is one to know what their height is if it's never taken? Any information you ...Read more

In 2019, around 92 million Americans reported that they'd taken a statin at one time or another. And today, according to the American Medical Association, more than 46 million Americans could cut their risk of cardiovascular disease by taking a statin -- but only about half of them are doing that regularly! That's a shame, because anyone with ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: How is "wet brain" (or Wernicke encephalopathy, WE) diagnosed? My son has been in the hospital, a rehab facility, and now an assisted living facility. Is there hope that he may walk again? He does not have any motivation and stays in bed most days playing on his phone. He hates being at a retirement home because he is 45, but he ...Read more

You may walk more than 100,000 miles in a lifetime -- maybe double that if you get 10,000 steps a day. No wonder your feet feel sore sometimes. Foot woes, from ingrown toenails to plantar fasciitis, osteoarthritis, fallen arches and bunions, are incredibly common, but only about 25% of folks have seen a doctor about their discomfort or pain, and...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: Why do people still die of pneumonia? With all the advances that we have seen in modern medicine, losing anyone to this ailment seems like such a waste. Is it a question of pneumonia being difficult to pin down because of the root cause, whether it's bacterial, viral or fungal? Is it due to a delayed diagnosis and/or delayed ...Read more

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In one of your recent columns, you touched upon the long-term use of tamsolusin. I, too, tried tamsolusin, and after several months, I saw no significant improvement to my symptoms. My primary care physician switched me to finasteride, and after three months on this new medication, I ...Read more

Tina Turner may have thought love was not good for her heart when she declared, "What's love got to do with it? Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?" But a new study in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology confirms previous findings: When folks are recovering from a broken heart, AKA heart attack or stroke, or working to manage ...Read more

New research shows that hair can capture a chemical record of human exposure across days, week and even months. Writing in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, scientists at the University of Texas analyzed snippets of hair and found that for at least one chemical -- a class of common endocrine-disrupting plasticizer called phthalates ...Read more

There's a reason "health" and "wealth" rhyme. They may be the same thing.

The personal finance company WalletHub issued its latest survey of cities where people spend the most and least on health care. The company analyzed prices of five key health care components -- average cost of a doctor, dentist and optometrist visits, plus price of ...Read more

When men and women are given exercise routines to reduce coronary heart disease risk, one group does better. It's not men.

Women had a 22% lower risk of coronary heart disease if they logged 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous exercise. Men doing the same amount of exercise had a 17% lower risk.

The caveat: As in previous similar ...Read more

Researchers are now advising folks who get a flu shot to consider refraining from taking a pain reliever like aspirin, Advil or Aleve after inoculation because it can dampen production of necessary antibodies that protect against viral illness.

Many over-the-counter pain and fever reducers are classified as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,...Read more

Even with modern medicine, vaccines and artificial intelligence helping to diagnose diseases early, the risk of dying before age 70 -- called probability of premature death, or PPD -- still varies widely around the world.

In 2019, 12% of people in the world's healthiest countries died before age 70. In sub-Saharan Africa, that number was 52%;...Read more

The so-called "California sober" trend involves swapping alcohol in favor of cannabis consumption in the belief that it's less harmful to the body and reduces the danger of using more potent drugs like opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine.

A small published study suggests the approach actually does reduce alcohol consumption, at least in the ...Read more

Let's look at some converging lines of population numbers. The United States appears to be trending toward a new club of nations: those in which annual deaths routinely outnumber births. Some countries in Europe and Asia, such as Japan, Italy, South Korea and Germany, already have more deaths each year than births.

The biggest driver appears ...Read more

Apart from their widely celebrated effect at weight loss and diabetes management, GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy might also reduce alcohol use.

In a pilot study published in Scientific Reports, researchers found that GLP-1 agonists (which mimic the effects of GLP-1 compounds) slowed the speed at which alcohol enters the bloodstream, ...Read more