SOME ARTICLES RELATING TASK 1 & TASK 2

A CURE FOR THE FUTURE IN THE PAST?

For over fifty years, the people of Britain have relied on the welfare state to make sure they have adequate health service. But now the National Health Service is sick. Goverment

cutbacks and underfunding are forcing hospitals to close, and waiting lists for treatment are getting longer. Under such circumstances, it is no surprise that more people are turning to private (but expensive) healthcare.

For some, however, there are alternatives. They are turning their back on modern pills, tablets and other conventional medicines. It seems paradoxical, but in an age of microchips and high technology, traditional medicines (the old-fashioned cures that our grandparents relied on) is making a comeback. Consider these cases:

Maude is 76 and has been suffering from arthritis for almost ten years. "The inflammation in my joints was almost unbearable, and my doctor referred me to a consultant at the London Hospital. I was told that I needed surgery, but would need to wait for at least two years before I could have the operation. IN desperation, I started having massage sessions. To my surprise, these were very therapeutic, and while they didn't cure the disorder, they did relieve it to some extent"

Ron is 46. His high powered city job was responsible for a series of stress-related illness, and the drugs he took did little to relieve the nervous strain. "I read about treatments which involve the whole person rather than the individual symptoms, but I had always been sceptical about hoslitic medicine. However, my friend recommended a dietician who advised me that part of my problem was diet-related. Basically, the foods I was eating were contributing to my disorder. She gave me a list of foods that would provide the right vitamins and minerals to keep me in good health. At the same time, she recommended a more energetic lifestyle - running, swimming , that kind of thing. I'm a bit of a cough potato, and the sedentary lifestyle I had lived was coumpounding the problem. I feel great now!

So is there still a place in our lives for modern medicine? While it is true that some infections and viruses may be prevented by resorting to alternative medicine, more serious illnesses such as cancer need more drastic measures. We do need our health service at these times, and we shouldn't stop investing in its future. But we mustn't forget that for some commom illnesses, the cure may lie in the past.

FOOD & DIET

Most children enjoy eating fast food, but scientific tests have shown us that burgers and pizzas can lack essential minerals and vitamins, which are essential for health and growth, while simultaneously containing large amounts of fat and carbohydrates which can result in obesity and heart problems. Many children end up suffering from malnutrition, since they eat too much of the wrong sort of food. In fact, in many areas of the developed world, a lot of children show similar symptoms to those in poorer developing countries, where scarity of food causes thousands of deaths from starvation, especially in the wake of natural disasters which ruin crops and in some cases totally destroy the annual harvest.

Dieticians tell us that we must eat a balanced diet, as it is essential we consume sufficient quantities of the different food groups. They tell us that we should all eat more fibre which cannot be digested by the body, and fewer foods which are high in fat/cholesterol, as this can block the walls of arteries and lead to the heart problems. This is good advice, of course, but our lifestyles often make this difficult. Many of the ready-prepared foods we buy from supermarkets are high in calories, giving us more energy than we actually need. Genetically modified foods are appearing on our supermarket shelves, even though nobody is really sure if altering the composition of food cells is safe. We have the option, of course, of buying organic foods, but naturally cultivated fruits and vegetables are expensive. And to make matter worse, we are continually hearing about outbreaks of salmonella and listeria which put us off eating certain foods, as nobody wants to spend time in hospital suffering from food poisoning

A few things to watch out for next time you go shopping. If you have the time and the money, that is !!!