John Roberts

Summer is almost here and a lot of folks are finally getting out in the yard to play with their plants. This will probably result in a lot of rashes showing up in doctors’ offices. Most of the rashes we see in the summer are caused by poison ivy, one of three plants in the…

Summer sports will be beginning soon and gardening and other outdoor chores are well underway. If they haven’t already, weekend warriors will soon be doing all sorts of things to keep doctors who treat musculoskeletal injuries busy. I want to give everyone some pointers in how to take care of the inevitable sprains and strains…

Welcome back to my two-part series on shoulder pain. First, I want to do a quick review of shoulder anatomy (see the diagram the right shoulder looking from the front). The upper arm bone (humerus) joins to the scapula at the glenoid and is held in place by two structures: (1) a rim of cartilage…

The next two weeks, I’d like to address shoulder pain and injuries. Most people experience shoulder pain at some point in their lives. Doctors see it in athletes, people who overuse their shoulders, and others who may have fallen or received a blow directly to their shoulder, or fallen on their outstretched arm. To understand…

Jill wants to know, “what’s a thyroid and what does it do?” We take care of a lot of problems in family medicine practices. For those like Jill who don’t know what the thyroid gland is or does, read on! The thyroid is an endocrine gland found in the front part of the neck below…

We are definitely living in a post-truth world. It’s not just in the political sphere that we have to be careful of facts and “alternative facts”; it also extends to the scientific and medical worlds as well. The public is being constantly bombarded with scientific information via mainstream media, social media and other internet sources.…

Sometimes I get asked questions in unusual places. A few months ago at church I was pulled aside and asked if I could write my column on the menopausal malady of hot flashes. Hot flashes are usually described as a feeling of intense heat, usually with sweating and a rapid heartbeat. They can last a…

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, Nettle) in Indiana have been high recently. Spring allergy symptoms can make it even more difficult to differentiate who might have lingering COVID-19 symptoms or just…

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 issues. Sleep apnea is a condition where people have pauses in their breathing while sleeping. Most people have pauses to some degree, but people…

I’ve been seeing a lot of news lately about stem cell treatments. This week I want to focus what they are, where they come from, how they might be used to treat disease and finally, the social and ethical challenges surrounding their use. Stem cells are cells that have the potential to change into other…