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Clearing up confusion surrounding vitamin D and vitamin K

DEAR DR. ROACH: My blood work showed that I was slightly low in vitamin D, so my doctor recommended that I take a supplement. My pharmacist was concerned and told me that vitamin D does not get absorbed in people with dark complexions and tends to get deposited in the arteries. The pharmacist recommended that I take vitamin D with K2, which allows vitamin D to be absorbed more efficiently. My cardiologist told me that vitamin K wasn’t well-studied, but some studies showed that it can actually thicken in the blood. In any event, the cardiologist didn’t believe it was a big deal. So, ...

Why so much faith in politics?

It’s only February and other than the almost nonstop coverage of the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping story, especially cable networks are obsessed with the November election, though it is more than eight months away. So much can — and likely will — change before then. Why all the attention? When I was active on the lecture circuit my opening line was “I’m happy to be here tonight from Washington, D.C., where the only politicians with convictions are in prison.” Another laugh-getter was “Do you know the meaning of politics? Poly means many and ticks are blood-sucking ...

Plant in your own life and we all reap the rewards

There’s a 36-year-old song that talks about the value of hard work. “I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail,” the chorus goes, “Learn how to use my hands, not just my head. I think myself into jail. Now, I know a refuge never grows from a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose. Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.” I’ve been thinking a lot about farming lately, which is weird because the last time I tried to do any gardening, I pulled a random muscle in my back and limped for a week. But work, real work, goes back in my family for generations. My ...

Getting phased out of my friend group

Dear Annie: I am 52 and I have a good life on paper. I am married, I work full-time, and I have two teenagers who keep me busy. But lately I have felt oddly lonely, and I am not sure if I am being overly sensitive or finally noticing something I have ignored for years. I have a close group of friends from our kids’ elementary school days. We still do birthdays, group texts and the occasional dinner. Here is the issue: They have started doing a lot more without me, and I usually find out after the fact. It is never one big, obvious exclusion. It is the little things. A photo pops up ...

Physicians aren’t allowed to take part in state-sanctioned killing

DEAR DR. ROACH: I recall reading articles about prisoners who suffered horribly for minutes prior to dying, while undergoing a death sentence that was imposed on them for committing particularly serious crimes. Is there a medical reason as to why such prisoners can’t be put under a deep sleep before undergoing the death sentence procedure? — A.D.D. ANSWER: Although I have also read and been horrified by the reports of suffering among death-row inmates, it is unethical for physicians to take any part in state-sanctioned killing. A physician’s role is to heal. While I understand ...

Pam Bondi shows loyalty to her audience of one

Let’s hear a word of praise for the ordinary citizens who have called for an end to the too-often reckless invasions of American cities by federal agents carrying out President Trump’s crusade against undocumented immigrants. I am moved by the courage and patriotism of those who have come out on the streets, sometimes in awesome numbers, to demand investigations into and accountability for recent allegations of misconduct by officers of the Department of Homeland Security in Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere. These events were spotlighted last week in hearings in the House ...