.Dr. Gott : Castor oil works well as lubricant

Dear Dr. Gott: You recently advised a woman going through menopause to look for water-based lubricant to alleviate her dry vagina. From practical experience, my wife and I would like to suggest an alternative.

When we reached that stage of life, we started using castor oil, a super lubricant that the body absorbs readily and therapeutically. A quarter-century later, we are still using it, and we are both achieving orgasms regularly.

Dear Reader: This is a new one on me, but if it works, fine.

To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my health report “Menopause.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.

Dear Dr. Gott: My son has frequent middle-ear infections. His pediatrician has suggested something called WASP therapy. What gives?

Dear Reader: The standard treatment for middle-ear infections (otitis media) has been, in the past, a course of antibiotics. Now, however, the experts have discovered that most cases of otitis will clear up on their own in a matter of days.

Therefore they recommend “wait and see prescriptions” (WASP). Under this new approach, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, parents are given prescription antibiotics that are obtained only if the children have symptoms that persist or worsen after 48 hours.

In the University of Oregon study, involving 289 children with otitis, 62 percent of parents in the WASP group did not need to fill their children’s prescriptions, while only 13 percent of parents in the standard therapy group did not fill theirs. This approach (delayed prescribing) appears to be effective and safe. More important, it reduces the risk of antibiotic resistance.

To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my health report “Ear Infections and Disorders.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.

Dear Dr. Gott: I am writing about my legs. If I walk for five minutes, they start to hurt in the calf. If I stop for a while, I can go for another five minutes.

I had a test on them, and the doctor said I should take two aspirin in the morning, which I do. He said new veins would grow around the others.

Do you have any suggestions for this?

Dear Reader: In my experience, exercise-induced calf pain that disappears with rest is often a symptom of an arterial blockage that prevents the legs from receiving adequate circulation, thereby depriving the muscles of oxygen when it is most needed during exercise.

Such arterial blockage can be diagnosed through screening studies, such as ultrasound testing or MRA evaluation.

Exercise-induced leg cramps do not reflect a problem with veins; rather, the cause is in the arteries, which do not “grow around the others” but often can bridge the legs.

In my view, you should be tested, preferably by a vascular specialist, for arterial plaque (sludge in the arterial linings), which might have to be removed surgically. Ask your doctor to make the referral.

The aspirin you are taking will slow the rate of blood coagulation, but it is not particularly helpful in treating the arterial blockage in the legs.