Health care is confusing. Wisdom can help.

Sometimes, life is just unfair. My friend J is 32, works out at a gym three days a week, eats a heart-healthy diet, is losing weight, and takes Lipitor. Yet his LDL cholesterol level remains stuck at 560. (If you're not familiar with cholesterol, that translates as Way Too High.) I'm 10 years older and I don't work out, watch what I eat or try to lose any of my excess pounds, yet my cholesterol level is well within the normal range at 100, without any drugs needed.

The difference between us is based largely on heredity, and both of us can get a clear message from our numbers. But what if you're on the borderline? In its special section on medical testing, the New York Times profiles George Skouras, who got his cholesterol level down to 140 without taking drugs. Today's guidelines recommend statin drugs to get cholesterol below 125, but Skouras was concerned about the possibility of undiscovered long-term side effects. In the end, he realized, he was taking a gamble either way.

More and more, our health choices lie with us, the patients, and that means we need information. Of course we rely on our doctors and other medical professionals to advise us, even if it's only in 10-minute sound bites thanks to managed care. We pay attention to health news, even though it's often confusing and contradictory. Often, we talk to the people in our lives. My friends helped me know what to expect when I hit perimenopause. Your mom may have taught you what to do about a cold or an upset stomach. I've encouraged several friends to try an osteopathic doctor for back problems.

It's this social network of health information that OrganizedWisdom wants to gather and make available to everyone. As we say on our home page, "Health care is confusing. Wisdom can help."