My husband's knee and back pain are both improving with physical therapy. He is taking the instructions very seriously and doing his exercises at home the way the therapists have asked him to do. He has also had some interesting conversations with them about physical fitness.

One day they put ankle weights on him for some leg lifts. He mentioned that I wore ankle weights and carried hand weights when I walked. The therapists told him to discourage me from walking with ankle weights. The hand weights they said were ok, but the ankle weights, they said, would damage my knees.

I shrugged off the advice. I've never felt any ill effects from walking with ankle weights. I've blogged about mowing the yard wearing them. When one of you wrote that she vacuumed the house with them, I tried that as well.

On his next visit the therapist brought up the subject again. She said that ankle weights were good for exercises like leg lifts, but not for walking. "You have no idea," she said to my husband, "the problems we see. People come in here with damaged knees from those weights, and we have to try to put them back together." She urged me to stop in the strongest terms.

I've decided to follow her advice. I've never had a problem, but if the physical therapists have seen that many patients with damage, I don't want to take a chance.

Sometimes you have to trust the experts. It's like people who write in to this website saying, "I eat oranges all the time and have never felt any ill effects." Or "I just can't give up potatoes, I've eaten them all my life."

Some avoids, like peanuts, wheat, and dairy, cause me immediate problems. Dr. D'Adamo says that other avoids are doing damage to my body on the inside where I can't see it until it becomes a crisis. I've decided to follow his advice. I don't want to take a chance.