Preksha Dhyana : Human Body Part-II (Health Care)

In the previous part, we have already dealt with the structures and the functions of the important systems of the body. In this part we shall mainly deal with the conditions of the human body, both in health and in disease. Modern life-style has created a revolution in our way of life, dramatically increasing mobility and bringing with them a host of new problems affecting the health sciences. The clothes we wear and the foods we eat contain chemical substances that did not exist a century ago.

With the knowledge of the functions of pure internal organs, we must become aware of their disfunctions and the abuses to which we subject them. We must, for example, think of our diet and its effect on our digestive system and, in particular, on liver. Cramming our stomach with fatty foods and alcohol is detrimental to our liver and gall bladder. Then again, just as we value the normal civilized practices of external cleanliness - bathing, tooth-cleaning, etc. -  as a measure of self-respect, so must we value the proper cleaning of our internal organs as a monitor of our good health. We often resort to laxatives and liver pills to offset the vague ill-health of indigestion, constipation and biliousness. But these off-the-shelf remedies, while providing temporary relief by cathartic action, create a repetition of the conditions they are supposed to cure. We must, therefore, learn to prevent constipation etc. by a sensible diet, physical exercises and natural rhythm of the bowel movement rather than try to cure it by laxatives. Prevent the erosion of your liver, decay of your teeth, inflammation of your stomach and filling of your lungs with tar deposits.