Healts and diseases

25. Health and diseases

„All the best, a lot of successes in your work, but most important of all, good health!“, „A lot of happiness in the New Year and strong health!“, „I wish you a lot of love and health!“ At just about every occasion when people meet, enjoy themselves or celebrate something they wish one another mainly a lot health. We all know well why health is that longed-for thing that we all wish to have. When a person is not in a state of good health or another member of the family is ill, we lose our good humour. We’re no longer happy. Money will not cure a person with an incurable illness. What’s the good of our earlier successes?

All that I am trying to say is that if somebody is not healthy, he can hardly be happy and full of stamina. Health, together with love, is the most precious gift that people have. That’s why we should not trifle with it or tempt our fate needlessly. Chance may sometimes lead us into situations from which there is no escape. Only then, when a person is really ill, he finds out what great fortune it is to be healthy.

The human body is permanently being attacked by many different kinds of bacteria, microorganisms, and viruses. Most diseases can be prevented or at least controlled. What’s important is healthy nutrition, a well-adjusted mind, good sleeping habits, and activity in the fresh air and, last but not least, contact with nature as well.

Our contemporary world is bringing new discoveries, inventions, and progress in science. Together with all this, however, new diseases are making their appearance as well. We are talking in particular of a group of illnesses that we call diseases of civilization. These are, for example, allergies, migraines, asthma, etc. Unfortunately, new diseases keep appearing. Some people say that diseases are the retribution for human sins. Who knows? Of the gruesome new diseases let’s mention at least leukaemia, AIDS, heart attack or notorious cancer.

Let’s not dwell anymore on such serious illnesses. Sometimes we succumb to the common cold, cough, angina, tonsillitis, toothache, headache, or flu. These illnesses can make our life pretty miserable too. The symptoms may be a temperature, perspiration, torpidity, pains, and a bad mood. Among more serious illnesses are measles, German measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever, mumps, diphtheria, rabies, whooping cough, pneumonia, polio, and diabetes. The best thing to do is to visit our practitioner right away. In case of serious illness as ambulance takes us to the hospital.

When we decide to see our physician in his surgery we must take with us health insurance company’s card and in some cases also our vaccination certificate. Only seldom we are going to need our birth certificate. We can either make an appointment for our medical examination or go directly. It’s important to know the surgery hours. If there are other patients waiting, we tear off a numbered ticket and wait in the waiting room. As soon as our turn comes the nurse calls us.