Photo : Collected
Many people are in the habit of gulping down medicines regularly. The taking of medicine for them might be akin to the mentality of some people who seem to appreciate wearing glasses out of a feeling that the same improves their appearance intellectually or they look more dignified. People on medicines in this country, at least in some cases, cannot even think that they can probably stay well or get on without medicine. For some of them, taking of medicine might even appear like a status symbol.
The best ones in the realm of medicine also agree on the concept of the mind-body connection. They maintain that many diseases have an origin in the mind. Untreated, the physical symptoms from such illnesses like allergies show up. But once these mental problems are effectively treated, the physical manifestations of the same disappear. Thus, there is a point in keeping the mind well. Such well-being of the mind can be achieved through mental training and exercises.
In this respect, people’s perception regarding being ‘smart’ plays a critical role. For example, nowadays a person is regarded smart if s/he chooses burger over homemade foods. These junk foods cause people not to eat a proper balanced diet, instead, people consume large amounts of fats and calories.
Being inconsiderate about how to get proper vitamins and nutrition, people do not find a middle ground between the two extremes. Besides, as people do not realise and ignore or even overlook the health implications that over or undereating can cause for a person, many people suffer from severe health problems during older age like heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, obesity and fatigue, malnutrition and anorexia.
Another impact of globalisation, perhaps, is the proliferation of computers, televisions, video games and other various forms of electronic entertainment, which is making people devoid of physical activity.
Consequently, more and more children, adolescents and young people with every passing day suffer from obesity and other forms of chronic diseases. Furthermore, sleeping late at night has become a a regular phenomenon for the young generation of the country. This has become a practice as people remain busy browsing Internet and social networking sites, movies, video games, etc.
In this aspect of creating general awareness, mass media like television, newspapers, internet and radio can be powerful tools. To increase awareness of people, media outlets like radio, television, and newspapers may offer no-cost or low-cost slots for public health announcements. Thus, people can be made knowledgeable about the lifestyle that could act as measures for prevention of chronic diseases as well as ways to deal with such prolonged diseases as 80 percent of chronic diseases can be avoided through changing food habit – thereby increasing physical activity and ceasing tobacco use.
Messenger/Sun Yath
