So tomorrow I'm heading to my first-ever appointment for acupuncture. This comes after six years of fighting allergies that leave me feeling fatigued and so fog-headed, I feel like I've had a few very stiff drinks. I'm told that my allergies may be attributed to an imbalance in my spleen and that I need to avoid dairy and sugar, which tax the little thing and keep it from helping me fight my body's foes. I'm excited about the process of maybe treating the problem rather than the symptoms, which I've been doing with various OTC medications.

In a new book, a doctor says that family and friends of the elderly need to rescue their loved ones from traditional medical care. He points out that instead of a yearly mammogram, a manual breast exam may suffice for the very old, and home tests for blood in the stool may replace the draining routine of a colonoscopy. In other words, the pace of care should be slowed to a crawl. Do you agree with this thinking? Shouldn’t medical procedures become more aggressive with age considering the accompanying maladies?

Have you found an alternative or complementary treatment that works better than conventional treatments? Share your stories.

Does your grandmother swear by a magical elixir? Heard stories from friends about an unlikely cure? Share it here.