A supermarket loudspeaker announced, “Try vinegar and baking soda for your household cleaning needs. For more information, see the Green Guide Web site.” I wondered if there would be an announcement at the drugstore, “Drink tap water and try cinnamon and ginger instead of over-the-counter or prescription drugs.”

Then I read Dr. Gott#'s column in The Citizen#'s “Lake Life” section, “Cinnamon worth try for diabetes,” and I passed along copies to a few people who have diabetes.

There is a definite trend to try simpler approaches to ailments, apparently due both to nostalgia and to dissatisfaction with Big Pharm, as the pharmaceutical industry is often called. Side effects, once claimed to be rare, have become anything but, and a leading newsletter, “Worst Pills, Best Pills,” also available online, has recommended that no new medicine should be taken for seven years after it arrives on the market.

Medical schools are adding nutrition courses; many doctors follow work-out regimens themselves, and the ones least influenced by Big Pharm money may be most likely to recommend lifestyle changes instead of medicine.

Meanwhile, the consumer-patient must make the important decisions as to whether or not to see a primary care physician or specialist, whether or not to accept the diagnosis, and whether to take any prescribed substance or to seek an alternative first.

Byrna Weir

Rochester