“My health advice is pray and pick up a Reader’s Digest.”

—G.P.B. of Ooltewah, Tennessee, who helped his mother’s doctors diagnose her ministrokes by showing them an article that prompted them to discover a congenital flaw in her heart and perform lifesaving surgery.

“WHEN MY HUSBAND and I first married, he started complaining of feeling foggy-headed and having a metallic taste in his mouth. Then I came across an article about ‘fish fog’—mercury

RD poisoning from too much fish. It clicked. His favorite snack was tuna salad. He cut out tuna and his fog lifted. I hate to think what might have happened if I hadn’t read that article.”

—Jennifer Messeder, Lee, New Hampshire