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The ‘easy way out’ may not be so easy after all

Columns

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how it’s “taking the easy way out” to use GLP-1s to lose weight. That may be true. But then again, you might be able to say the same thing about virtually every medical advancement. When you boil it down, chemotherapy is “taking the easy way out” of testicular cancer. Penicillin is “taking the easy way out” of a bacterial infection. The MMR shot is “taking the easy way out” of getting the measles. You could be suffering and dying along with everyone else who’s had the problem since the beginning of time but, instead, you’re ...

Sending St. Patrick’s Day blessings

Columns

Dear Readers: Wishing you all a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today has a funny way of sneaking past the noise and landing somewhere tender. Yes, there are parades and pints and an impressive amount of green, but underneath all that is something quieter: a tradition of wishing one another well. That might sound small, but it isn’t. A good wish, offered sincerely, is one of the simplest forms of care. It says, “I see you,” without asking for a long explanation. And in a world where so many people are carrying private worries, that kind of gentleness matters. Irish blessings ...

Oil isn’t just fuel: Iran conflict could disrupt markets for everything from plastics to fertilizers

Columns

Tensions in the Middle East often trigger concerns about rising gasoline prices. But disruptions to oil supplies could affect much more than the cost of filling up a car. That’s because crude oil is not only burned as fuel. It is also the raw material for thousands of products that modern societies depend on, including plastics, fertilizers, clothing fibers, medicines and electronics. As a biochemist, I’m interested in how certain chemicals can shape society, and oil is a prime example. The stakes become clearer when looking at the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran ...

Getting valve replacement surgery for a case of calcification

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 79-year-old female. Recently, I was diagnosed with moderate calcification of leaflets on my mitral valve. I have no symptoms but heard from a recent talk that even moderate calcification could indicate surgery. I was taking a D3 supplement but have now stopped. Would taking a K2 supplement have prevented my condition? My doctor did not suggest it. Could taking a K2 supplement possibly slow down the progress of calcium buildup? Do I need a calcium score test? I am hoping not to have the invasive open-heart surgery since it requires taking a blood thinner ...

A true statement about cancer causes intense worry in reader

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I read your column every day. In a recent column. you wrote: “Since age is the major risk factor in getting cancer, it is likely that some people who were cured of their original cancer will later succumb to a different one.” This statement terrified me as I fall into this category. I had a lobectomy in 2009 to remove a stage IA lung cancer that had not spread and for which I was not prescribed chemo or radiation. Annual CT scans since then have all been negative except for a pulmonary embolism in 2014, which resulted in a blood-thinner prescription. I’m told ...

President’s Day has become King’s Day in America

Letters to the editor

Kimball Shinkoskey Woods Cross, Utah I am writing this commentary on the holiday we traditionally honor past presidents who served our country without overmuch tomfoolery or outright tyranny. Abigail Adams told her husband John, our second President, that “All men would be tyrants if they could.” In America, we tied the hands of our presidents with a strongly worded constitutional law so those administrators of the will of the Congress could not become what human beings always want to become when they get into positions of power. In the 21st century, our once well-educated ...