Special Sections: Healthcare

LynleyShimat Lys, a 34-year-old student in Jerusalem, has fought since her college days to take off 50 extra pounds, only to see them slowly come back on.

Los Angeles writer Gordon Haber, 43, went on the South Beach diet after consuming too much beer, kielbasa and pierogi while on a Fulbright scholarship in Poland in 2002. He got down to down to 170 pounds from 195, but now he is back up to 183.

Perhaps doctor doesn’t know best.  In their new book, “Your Medical Mind: How To Decide What is Right For You” (Penguin Group), husband-wife physician team Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband lay the groundwork for making sound medical decisions.

None of our choices are completely independent, the authors say; rather, they are influenced by a set of values and history. Understanding what makes us tick is vital in making the correct medical decisions for ourselves.

Jerusalem — Naomi Ohayon, a 52-year-old mother of four, smoked for over 30 years until she quit the habit — hopefully for good — a month ago. “I’d tried just about every stop-smoking program out there,” Ohayon said from her home in the southern city of Beersheva. “Once, I quit for three days, the other times I couldn’t stop at all.”

Ohayon, who has asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), said she became increasingly motivated to kick the habit as her health deteriorated.

Ella Landesberg never thought she was the type of person to write a blog, but she changed her mind about that after recently being diagnosed with leukemia.