We often hear this pronouncement: Health is wealth. For a long time, I didn’t understand the significance of this statement. Or I should say that I had only a superficial understanding of this message. Recently, I had been to a doctor’s clinic for a consultation. This doctor had displayed several interesting statements about health. One of them said: Wealth can’t buy you health. But health can buy wealth. How true! It is in this context that health can be compared to wealth. We can say good health is the foundation on which our life is built. Obviously, if the foundation is weak, the building will collapse.
Looking at another way, health can be considered an asset we possess. We may have many assets like a house, a car, investments etc. But health is the most precious of all of them. The other assets will be useful to us only if the asset called health is sound. There is a proverb in Tamil, one of the ancient languages of India (and of the world) which says that you can do a painting only if there is a wall (to paint on). We have millionaires and billionaires in this world whose state of health will not permit them to taste the food they love or to travel to the places they would love to visit. On the other hand, a poor man with a limited income will be able to savor his favorite dishes if he keeps well.
But the surprising thing is many people neglect to take care of their health. We have a tendency to take things for granted as long as the going is good. We will pay attention to anything only when there is a problem. Maintaining health is very important and if you fail to do so, you may end up with some problem. Getting treatment for curing an illness is something forced on us when we fail to do things for maintaining our health. The proverb ‘Prevention is better than cure’ is more appropriate for health than for any other situation.
What can you do to maintain good health? Doing three things will make living easy for you.
1) Control your diet: Controlling diet does not mean restricting eating. It simply means to apply your mind to what you eat. It is possible to choose a healthy diet and still eat well. Take care to include certain items of food and limit certain other items. You can consult a nutritionist or a diet consultant or you can get information from a lot of books and websites on this subject.
2) Keep fit: You can keep fit by doing some exercises regularly. Making exercises a part of your life will obviate the need for getting forced to do some specific exercises after you encounter a problem.
3) Have periodical check ups: A system of periodical medical check ups will keep you informed of your state of health. You can take preventive steps depending on your health condition. Any incipient problem can be detected early and treated easily by choosing to go for regular medical check ups.d easily by choosing to go for regular medical check ups.