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Dear Dr. Roach: I am a 66-year-old white male. About 15 years ago, I was diagnosed with adult-onset indolent systemic mastocytosis. I probably contracted it at least 10 years before that. Few doctors even know what mastocytosis is.

Could the life of one of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s great ministers of finance have been saved by medical treatment? You did not have to be a doctor to see the change in his facial appearance and realize he was not well.

Dear Dr. Roach: I’m 87 and have an enlarged prostate. When I get the urge to urinate, which is often, I have to go at once.

Dear Dr. Roach: I am 82 and recently have been diagnosed with inclusion body myositis. I have been on Zocor for more than 15 years. Do you think the statin could be a cause of this disease? I don’t know whether to continue taking it.

Dear Dr. Roach: I am an 86-year-old male in good health. I take a 40-mg simvastatin and a 150-mcg levothyroxine. I exercise three times a week — one hour with weights and one hour of aerobics (elliptical and treadmill).

Dear Dr. Roach: My mother-in-law is 95 and lives in a nursing home. Sometimes when we visit, I can barely stand to be in her presence because she savagely grinds her teeth, making an awful grating, creaking noise.

Dear Dr. Roach: In your February column on atrial fibrillation, you did not address a procedure that can be done to cure the condition rather than taking medication. Could you discuss this, and whether medication would be necessary afterward? C.G.

Dear Dr. Roach: I have a very close relative who has ulcerative colitis and who was very ill a few years ago. She is now in partial remission but still has bouts of colitis. She found a doctor who (she thinks) is the smartest person in the world.

Dear Dr. Roach: Could you please explain what makes a pheochromocytoma cancerous, what the symptoms are, what the protocol for treatment is and where the best places for treatment might be, as very little is known about this kind of cancer? P.L.

Dear Dr. Roach: I have read that whether stools float or sink could be an indication of one’s health, even to the point of being an early sign of pancreatic cancer.