John Roberts

It’s once again time to run my annual column on allergies. Some of our readers may already cursing the annual return of allergy symptoms. Tree pollen levels (Oak, Cedar/Juniper and Birch) in Indiana have been high recently. Spring allergy symptoms can make it even more difficult to differentiate who might have an upper respiratory infection,…

Snoring can certainly be annoying, but it doesn’t always indicate a serious medical problem. However, sometimes snoring can be due to sleep apnea, a condition that can lead to significant medical problems. Sleep apnea is a condition when people have pauses in their breathing while sleeping. Most people have pauses to some degree but people…

I’ve been seeing some news stories recently describing stem cell therapy. This week I will describe what they are, where they come from, how they might be used to treat disease and finally, touch briefly on the social and ethical challenges surrounding their use. Stem cells are critical to our development and tissue repair. They…

Last week I tried to explain the very complex non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). This week I want to cover Hodgkin lymphoma, more commonly known as Hodgkin’s Disease (HD). It gets its eponymous name from Dr. Thomas Hodgkin who first described it in 1832. Hodgkin’s is a potentially curable malignant lymphoma that carries a much better prognosis…

Someone recently asked me what lymphoma is. My knowledge of the subject was a bit dusty before I started doing some research for this column. Medical knowledge of non-Hodgkin lymphoma has rapidly evolved over the last decade or so. It is a very interesting disease and a type of cancer that is illustrative of recent…

Insomnia is a huge problem in the United States. We spend over $10 billion a year on sleep-related treatments and it’s estimated the economy loses over $40 billion in worker productivity due to sleeplessness. Insomnia is a very complex subject that I can address only briefly in this column. This week I’ll focus on some…

I’m running through my list of suggested topics from readers, and this one goes out to a reader from Sheridan. It’s a common problem, but one of those topics that doesn’t usually come up in casual conversation – constipation. There are three usual times in a person’s life when constipation can become a problem. The…

This week I want to address dizziness, a condition I have seen more times than I can count throughout my career. Primary Care doctors in the U.S. see about six million patients a year who complain of being “dizzy.” Dizziness means different things to different people and can be a symptom of many medical conditions.…

I left you hanging last week wondering about the treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). First, a quick review. Recall that acid from the stomach (gastro) is found in the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach (esophagus) and goes in a backward direction (reflux). When I see someone complaining of GERD symptoms, I…

I’ve been asked to re-run my columns about Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, more commonly known as GERD. That long name describes acid from the stomach (gastro) is found in the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach (esophagus) and goes in a backward direction (reflux). Once again, it’s helpful to know the anatomy when trying…