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7. Health and Illness

I try to lead a healthy way of life. I eat a lot of healthy foods, lots of vegetables and fruits. I try to avoid stress. Unfortunetly, I dont go to the gym and for swimming regularly. Im a little bit lazy, I go everywhere by car. I I know, I must change my approach. Last month I was ill, I coughed all day and night and I had a sore throat. he !" e#amined me thoroughly. $he told me to strip to the waist and sounded my lungs. $he looked at my throat and took my blood pressure. $he prescribed some antibiotics, antifebrile and vitamins. $he gave me some antiseptic gargle for my throat. I was put on the sick%list, because I couldnt to go to work. I was on sick leave & days and and got less pay for that period. I needed a doctors medical certificate to give a reason for my absence from work. he 'ational (ealth $ervice patient is treated free and has to pay only for the medicine. ) private patient payws for the treatment, too. he private surgeries and hospitals have more up%to%date e*uipment. +n the other hand, the treatment can be rather e#pensive. In%patients are people, who stay in a hospital, while treating. +ut%patients are people, who go to a hospital for treatment but dont stay there. ,hen I was -. years, I was an in%patient. I had a tumour. I had a horrible pain in my stomach. )n ambulance took me to the hospital, a paramedic dealed with me and gave me medical treatment. )n ambulance is a kind of vehicle with special e*uipment, used for taking sick or in/ured people to hospital. I was taken to the operation theatre and anaesthetized. I woke up in a ward, the nurses took my temperature and made my bed. 0y relatives visited me in the afternoon. )fter a month, the stiches were removed, and I was allowed to go home. I think people should go to the dentist twice a year. 1epending on the problem, the dentist drills and fills the tooth, or pulls it out. I had a very bad toothache a few months ago. I had a terrible pain, my dentist pulled this bad tooth out. 0y niece had braces, these are a set of wires you wear on your teeth to push them into the correct position. If you have problem with your eyesight, you should see the optician. (e e#amines your eyes thoroughly, and on occasion he prescribes glasses or contact lenses. here are dangerous epidemics, like flu or typhoid, which spread very *uickly one person to another , especially through the air, and infect many people. 2uthanasia is an illegal practice of killing a very old or very ill person who is suffering from disease that cant be cured without causing them pain. ) transplant is a medical operation in which an organ, skin is put into or onto someones body. he organ is taken from the donors body. $kin transplants are taken from the patient himself or herself. 3loning means creating an animal or plant in a laboratory using the 1') of another animal or plant. I dont agree with cloning humans. In my opinion in )frica the biggest problem is the spread of )I1$, which is due to ignorance, lack of education and money. In the developed countries the most serious issue is cancer which is not always incurable. here is some promising research but most of these remedies havent reached the phase of clinical testing.

2 I go to the chemists to buy medicines, where pharmacists prepare medicines and sell or give them to patients in pharmacies and hosptals. 4ut it is also possible to buy them at petrol stations. I dont take more medicines than I really need. I replace them with herbs and vitamins, and I provide a more natural treatment. 5or e#ample in my family we dont use shower gels and shampoos, instead of them we use natural soaps and I use natural creams. I drink a lot of herbs for drinking teas. his $ummer I go to spa to 6alakaros. 0ainly elderly go to spas, especially those who have rheumatism or suffer from problems with their /oints. I am almost constantly on a diet. I am not fat, but a little bit overweight. I love fatty foods and I dont do any sports. I think diets can be very useful. +n the other hand they can be very dangerous, if the food is too one%sided and people take it to e#tremes. )nore#ia and bulimia have become a very important problem especially for girls, is due to magazines, 7 and films, in which only e#tremely thin girls and women are presented. 8oung girls want to look like these glamorous creatures and are willing to do anything to achieve this. his is very risky. If I had an obese friend, I would tell him or her about the health risks, give him articles and book about the topic. I dont smoke. I dont like people, who smoke. (owever, my husband sales cigarettes, nobody smokes in our family. If I were the leader of my country, I would forbid smoking. $moking is very harmful, kill the people, cause a lot of illnesses, which are deadly. here are more e#pensive brands of cigarettes, a bo# costs about 9..%:.. 5orint. his is waste of money. he cigarette advertisements lie, they dont impress me. In (ungary it is forbidden to smoke in public places. ;ooms must be designated for smokers in offices, restaurats, institutions and so on. Unfortunetly, I drink a lot of coffee, three times a day, but usually white coffee. his is my bad habit, I<m trying to get rid of it, because drinking too much coffee is harmful, it is full with caffeine, which increases the blood pressure. 8oung people try drugs mostly because of curiosity. hey dont want to become outsiders. he famous pop stars, actors, actresses also take drugs and show a bad e#ample. aking drugs weakens the addicts immune system, makes them susceptible to strokes and causes anemia. !iving up drugs is very difficult because drugs are e#tremely addictive. I think it is almost impossible to give up drugs without professional help. 1ealers make a big profit with drugs, because addicts buy drugs from them regularly, and drugs are very e#pensive. he traffickers should be punished and sentenced to prisons, and the addicts should be sended to clinics to be treated. 0ore campaigns should be organised, parents, schools, health authorities should coperate to solve this problem, more drug centres should be set up, where young people could go for help. "eople can get addicted to almost everything= chocolate, candies, drug, alcohol, coffee and so on. he measurement is of the essence. In my opinion, it is impossible to stop people from smoking and drinking with laws or regulations. his is a very profitable business for the government, and workplace for many people. he drunken young people cause a lot of so%called disco accidents. )lcohol destroys their brain cells, weak their

2 refle#es, and many people die. "arents shouldnt let their children go to discos by car. a#i ranks should be placed near discos.