91原创

Dear Dr. Roach: A reader recently asked you about taking niacin for lowering cholesterol and what side-effects might be expected. Your reply did not include the very serious side-effect of diabetes.

Dear Dr. Roach: About eight years ago, I was diagnosed with CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy). After several tests, it was diagnosed by a spinal tap.

Dear Dr. Roach: I am an 85-year-old man in pretty good health. I recently had a stool test by the Veterans Affairs hospital.

Dear Dr. Roach: My newspaper recently ran an article on the pros and cons of a daily Aspirin for protection against both heart disease and colon cancer.

Dear Dr. Roach: Can your cholesterol count be too low? I am 72, and my normal LDL level is 100 to 102. My doctor thinks that is high because he classes me as 鈥減rediabetic,鈥� and he put me on pravastatin. My LDL level is now 68.

Dear Dr. Roach: I am a 75-year-old man in excellent overall health. Routine blood work recently showed an elevated potassium level of 5.6.

Fads in clothing come and go. Women鈥檚 skirts go up and then get longer. Men鈥檚 pants get wide and then narrower. Fads also occur in medicine. In the 1980s, it was 鈥渓ow fat鈥� for packaged foods and weight-loss diets.

Dear Dr. Roach: Will you write about orthostatic hypotension? I鈥檝e been told I have this disorder. I鈥檓 a retired 86-year-old man in fairly good medical shape. I want to regain my regular activities. My regular doctor put me on labetalol.

Dear Dr. Roach: Several years ago, I started going to a new doctor, who said that the way to get the correct cholesterol number is to divide the HDL into the LDL, and if the answer is not 2.

Dear Dr. Roach: I read your response to the 67-year-old woman whose insurance wanted her to have a routine urinalysis, which you felt was unnecessary.