Let’s start with Sue Palmer, a lawyer in Nashville who wrote for us about waking up one January morning feeling a little strange, cold, clammy, pale. She threw up. She was sure she had a virus and in 24 hours would be fine.

Her husband, Tim, insisted on taking her to the emergency room. Even though she was only 46, he feared she might be having a heart attack. He turned out to be right. Doctors quickly discovered her right coronary artery was 100 percent blocked, and the center artery was 70 percent blocked (the most frequent cause of sudden death).

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“Plaque had ruptured in the wall of my right coronary artery, which caused the clot to form and can produce the sort of nausea that made me throw up,” she wrote. “That was my only warning sign. If I had gone back to sleep that morning, as I had wanted to, I may not have awakened, and if I did, there probably would have been devastating damage to my heart.”

The heart attack had been stopped as it was occurring. Sue Palmer is alive today because her husband was paying attention, and she went to the hospital. Here is her account.

Doctors thought Brad Chesivoir, a 60-year-old commercial property manager in Montgomery County, Md., was having migraines when he reported lightheadedness and headaches. Eventually he developed double vision and worried he was going blind.

He — and his wife — persisted in finding out what was wrong. When they finally found the right doctor, Chesivoir was told he needed prompt brain surgery. People with his condition who don’t get surgery, the doctor said, “are the people who go to sleep one night and don’t wake up.”

His story was told by Sandra G. Boodman as part of the Medical Mysteries series she writes for The Post, and you can read it here.

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When Kathy Mitchell was a teenager and pregnant more than 40 years ago, she drank. She talked with writer Alexandra Rockey Fleming in hopes that others would learn from her terrible mistake. Her daughter Karli Schrider is now 43. Karli has fetal alcohol syndrome — and the developmental age of a first-grader.

“In middle age, Karli has none of the awareness, self-determination and independence that most of us take for granted.” Fleming detailed. “She can’t recognize social cues, is easily led and manipulated, and can’t predict dangerous behaviors. She can only follow one rule at a time and doesn’t understand sequence. She can cross a street at a lighted crosswalk, but if the light is out, she’ll step in front of a car. She likes to wear pretty clothes, but she can’t remember to brush her teeth.”

Mitchell loves her daughter but asks herself every day what would have happened if she hadn’t been drinking. She wants you to read her story — and take warning.

Of course, you’ve heard you need to exercise. Exercise will help you live longer. David Brown, a physician and longtime science writer, explains why: “Although many organs, and the body as a whole, are helped by exercise, the cardiovascular system — the heart and blood vessels — is helped the most.”

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And he offers meticulous evidence, which you can find here.

Finally, Boodman — who has been writing the Medical Mystery column for a decade — passes on what she has learned from the 115 cases she has pursued. She sums up five simple steps that will help ensure that she is never writing about you.

“No one wants to be a medical mystery,” Boodman notes. “But it’s easy to become one.” You can find her article here.

And here’s to good health.