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Too Many Off-Track Beats Could Cause Symptoms, Heart Disease

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 77-year-old retired internal medicine physician. Last year I started to have asymptomatic PVCs. I also have prediabetes and mild high blood pressure. I am on 100 milligrams of Lopressor twice daily. I had a negative stress test. My cardiologist wants to reduce the frequency of the PVCs to less than 10%. Is there any good scientific rationale to this approach? — R.D. ANSWER: Premature ventricular contractions — PVCs — are early heartbeats. An average person might have 500 of them daily. You are having a great deal more than average: more than 10% of your ...

Older Boyfriend Considers Meeting In Person Too Risky

DEAR ABBY: I have a dilemma. My 33-year-old boyfriend keeps badgering me to see each other. We live 15 miles apart. I’m a 60-year-old man in pretty good health. Before this pandemic, I worked out every day at a gym, and I still do at home now. Every day he keeps asking me to either come visit or if he can come here. Because of this shelter-in-place advisory, I have been telling him I’m more at risk due to my age. He then tries to make me feel guilty by saying things like, “We are both fine; there’s no need to worry,” and, “OK. Fine! That’s the last time I’m going to ...

Chilly Cookies

Dear Heloise: When I bake cookies, I like to chill the dough first. So after mixing the dough, I put the dough into a gallon freezer bag with a zip-lock closure. I then roll the outside of the bag with a rolling pin so the dough is spread out inside the bag and evenly flat. I then chill the bag with the dough. When I’m ready to bake the cookies, I cut open the bag and use a cookie or biscuit cutter and place them on parchment paper on a pan. The cookies look very professional that way! I have started to use the freezer bag technique on pie crusts too. — Reader, via ...

Poolside Overexposure Gets Disapproval Of Grandparents

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are in our 60s and have a swimming pool that our kids and grandkids like to visit. Our issue is that our granddaughter wears a bathing suit that shows her bum. It isn’t a thong, but close to it. She’s 16 and starting her junior year of high school this year. It makes my husband and me uncomfortable, and we have told my daughter as much. Is this one of those situations where we either accept it or don’t allow her to swim with such a suit? I love my granddaughter and will put up with the way it makes us feel if that is where the line is drawn, but it ...

The ‘Z’ Factor

All the commotion — and rightly so — over the lack of in-person graduation ceremonies during the COVID-19 pandemic brought back a funny memory. My son graduated from Wheeling Park High School in 2004. The commencement ceremony was held at WesBanco Arena, an appropriate venue for his size class and all the relatives and friends who came to witness the event. It was a hot day in May and the arena was a bit on the warm side. As regular readers of this column know, my last name begins with the letter Z. On the day of our son’s graduation, we waited and waited and waited some more as ...

If Atrial Fibrillation Is On and Off, Why Are Meds Full Time?

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a male, 71, with a bovine aortic value that was installed 11 years ago. I went into atrial fibrillation six years ago and had an electric shock to stop it. That lasted a week, and was followed by an ablation, which kept me out of atrial fibrillation for five years. I went into atrial fibrillation again last year, and the shock I got is still working. I am now on Xarelto as before, but my cardiologist will not allow me to quit this time, even with electronic surveillance equipment. His only explanation is that the risk of stroke as a result of going back into ...