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Explaining microscopic colitis and what causes the condition

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 64-year-old female who is in moderate health. After a monthslong bout of diarrhea, blood work, and a colonoscopy, I’ve been diagnosed with microscopic colitis. After a round of budesonide, my symptoms subsided, and I had a normal few months. Can you explain what microscopic colitis is, what causes it, and how to avoid flares? — K.G. ANSWER: Microscopic colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon. It comes in two pathologic forms — collagenous colitis and lymphocytic colitis — but diarrhea is the main symptom of both. It is most common in women, ...

Trump’s outrageous threats get practical results

Think about it. Heads of government do not normally reveal the texts of private communications from other heads of state. Yet that is what Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway did Sunday, on the first weekend of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the international press would have no difficulty finding appalled foreign leaders to comment. You could think of this as a hostile act of a statesman appalled that the American head of government does not know that the government of Norway does not decide who gets the Nobel Peace Prize. It is probably better to think of it ...

Humphrey Bogart reminds us there comes a time to choose sides

Sunday night I went to the local cinema to catch the 83-year-old film “Casablanca” starring screen legends Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. I’ve seen it many times, but on this occasion, it seemed to be sending me a message across the decades. The movie opens with a random roundup of the “usual suspects” in Casablanca, Morocco. Someone runs. The armed authorities shoot him in the back. It’s as though what happens in an African city in 1941 foreshadows moments we are seeing in American cities today: armed authority, fear and the casual use of violence. The film’s ...

Dear Annie: Abusive 20-year relationship must come to an end

Dear Annie: I see that you often answer questions pertaining to families trapped in addiction. I grew up in that special hell with all of the complex trauma issues that go along with that lifestyle. I am a card-carrying member of Alcoholics Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics. I have found ACA the most helpful. You never mention it, so I thought I might bring it to your attention. The Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families goes beyond Al-Anon. Sometimes, these addictions were in the previous generation, and while our parents didn’t drink, all of the emotional ...

Two-toned glass where one color shades into the other was fashionable in the late 19th to early 20th century. It started with amberina, which shades from red to amber and was made by reheating part of a piece of amber glass. Many companies made it, but usually under different names, since amberina was patented for the New England Glass Company. Other color combinations were made by adding a thin layer of flashed glass to the interior of a piece of transparent colored glass. Bluerina, a blue-shaded glass whose name is influenced by amberina, was made this way. Collectors use the ...

Trump isn’t interested in being honorable — he’d rather be feared

A decade ago, a famous and successful investor told me that “integrity lowers the cost of capital.” We were talking about Donald Trump at the time, and this Wall Street wizard was explaining why then-candidate Trump had so much trouble borrowing money from domestic capital markets. His point was that the people who knew Trump best had been screwed, cheated or misled by him so many times, they didn’t think he was a good credit risk. If you’re honest and straightforward in business, my friend explained, you earn trust and that trust has real value. I think about that point often. ...