Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Knowledge has Changed, But Has Your Habits?

There are many things today that used to be quite common but have either been banned or strongly discouraged on health and Mental grounds as more knowledge about their side effects or long term effects.

Many of our current banned drugs like opium, (previously used in some cough medications) ecstasy, (for couples with relationship problems) and Heroin (used for patients with cancer), used to be legal and used for medical reasons, but of course are no longer so.

Would it shock you if I were to tell you that if you were born before 1953, then your mother could have used Heroin? Particularly In the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne who used it regularly for women in childbirth, right up to it’s Banning in 1953.

Now these are just some of the more notable things that were once commonly used but as our knowledge of the side effects and there misuse has grown, we have changed our usage of them for safer things. Some other things we are still working through that process with, like, Smoking and drinking strong alcohol to excess. Both of which are currently coming under more and more scrutiny for those very reasons aren’t they? Maybe one day they will be like some other Drugs and habits of the past to be rejected from normal usage on health grounds.

But moving away from the drugs for the moment, what about some other “normal” things in your life today?

When it comes to the drugs mentioned above, none of them were harmful when used for the right purpose and in the right proportions. Most drugs have essentially not changed, but our use and abuse of them has altered, hasn’t it? And the same can be said about many other things including many of the foods we eat.

If we eat a well balanced and varied diet along with reasonable exercise, we will largely have no major problems, but if we “Pig out" Constantly on one or two types of food only, we will end up either starving ourselves to death or becoming so obese that people will have to dismantle parts of the walls just to get you out of your house to the hospital, as has happened recently.

So this is just a simple word of encouragement to you to eat and live healthily and happily by using everything for the proper purpose and in the proper way and not to do anything to excess, but to do all things in moderation. What say you?

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