Readers of newspapers, both broadsheets and tabloids, publishing informative and illuminating articles on health issues and also valuable guidelines in capsule form hinting which diet protects wellness of the body and what hurts the proper functioning of its different organs are beholden to the periodicals. If only a minuscule fraction of the reader mass take note of this Good Samaritan act by the print media while the rest are devouring the printed matter in abundance about the goings on in the worlds of vote-seekers and criminals with popping eyes, it only testifies the sad slide of society from enjoying sound health to suffering illnesses of both body and mind. The number of diseases afflicting the human kind is learnt to have exceeded 1,600 and counting. The doctor fraternity seem to be at their wits end in their daunting work of diagnosing the afflictions and their underlying causes despite advances in diagnostics aided by tools and procedures.
According to Charaka (3rd century BC), who provided the foundation of the practice of medicine, health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort and attention to lifestyle. He averred that a Physician who fails to enter the body of a patient with the lamp of knowledge and understanding can never treat diseases. It is more important to prevent the occurrence of disease than to seek a cure, he postulated. That is the heart of the matter of health.
