Recent events and a conversation yesterday led me to thinking about the whole doctors, health, etc., Not about the abysmal health/medical costs in this country – well, that is perhaps tangential, but also a topic I won’t venture into.

At some point in our lives we all eventually make health and life style choices. Granted, there are households where healthy eating is not practiced and as I have posted before, growing up when I did in small towns, it was basic fare. Good and nutritious although I do have a friend who can’t comprehend those of us who used bacon grease as a prime ingredient. Anyway, once you reach a certain age or change in your environment, you can decide to also change the way you eat. Expand your tastes, become some variety of vegetarian – or whatever. The same with drinking, smoking, exercising; general factors that affect health. While there are people who genuinely don’t understand how these things are related, that is also a topic for another time (if ever).

In my case, as much as I disliked running, it was a requirement throughout my Army career. I’m fine with walking and once I retired, I swapped from one to the other. After an injury to my knee a number of years ago, I swapped from walking to a stationary recumbent bicycle. Like most women in my family, I struggle with my weight and I’m pretty sure I’ve posted about that before. I did start smoking during college and quit 6 or 7 years later when I was pregnant. I was never addicted and quitting wasn’t difficult. As for drinking, let’s say I definitely don’t agree with the medical profession’s general advice of only one drink a day. (I also suspect few of them adhere to that).

All right, barring genetic issues – and those cannot be discounted – as we get older, we will develop things we didn’t have to deal with in our younger years and taking medication is part of that. In some cases, making lifestyle changes can help, and in other cases, “better living through chemistry” is the answer – or the choice. I have issues with “Big Pharma”, but at the same time, there are simply things I enjoy that I don’t want to give up. And so, my follow-up to the doctor this morning means I will be taking yet another prescribed medication instead of continuing to rely on a supplement that no longer seems to be adequate. Sigh!!!