6.0.3 Physical Well Being - Overview

Version 1.2 December 2013                                                        (Previous Version)

We need to attend to our daily physical needs to live: food, water, shelter, clothing, and medical treatment when required.  Many of us are denied these basic rights, even in affluent nations.

Our physical wellbeing requires that we maintain physical fitness, eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly, so that we are neither under nor overweight, and avoid excessive use of harmful recreational drugs and other excessively risky behaviour.

Obesity is becoming a major global health problem for the affluent, not just in “the West� but in the rising global middle class, who have sedentary lifestyles and eat too much meat, fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fibre.  It is fixed by regular exercise and eating properly.

Recreational drug use has been a problem since the dawn of history – even chimpanzees like to get intoxicated on fermenting fruit – but the problem may be getting worse as societies become more affluent.  The biggest drug problem by far is cigarette smoking, and the second biggest is alcohol. Other drugs, such as marijuana, LSD, opium, cocaine, heroin, speed and ecstasy are less deadly, on a societal scale, but can still have a devastating impact on the individual user.  Some recreational drugs may be socially acceptable when used in moderation but many can become psychologically or physically addictive and destroy lives and families.  Recreational drug use is more effectively managed as a public health or medical concern rather than as a criminal matter.

The global population is aging: we are, overall, living longer.  We face the challenge of keeping ourselves healthy so that we can enjoy a more productive and satisfying old age.  We need to deal with our mortality, and when nothing can be done, accept our fate (Insha'Allah).

Our physical wellbeing is dependent not just on our own efforts (or the efforts of those who support us) but on social conditions and public health, such as the availability of clean water, sanitation, physical security, social stability, disease control, and effective local markets for produce and jobs.  Personally we must appreciate how these impact on us.  Politically, area governments are responsible for establishing, improving and maintaining public health.

Poverty prevents many from having access to effective medical treatment.  Many medical procedures and therapeutic drugs are expensive.  In many regions there are few trained doctors and nurses.  In Australasia and many parts of Europe excellent medical treatment is widely available, individually affordable, and the social costs are managed.  But poverty is a health issue not only in developing countries, but also amongst the poor in affluent societies such as the USA.

We must be wary of pseudoscience, unjustified treatments, and outright fraud in medical matters.

  more                                                                             Statement 30

To value our physical health, to choose well to look after our bodies, we must value truth, life and responsibility.