Health is Wealth

What is the use of having crores in one’s bank account and yet not being able to enjoy good health? A healthy man can enjoy the benefits of his wealth. But a wealthy man, if he is not healthy, will always be afflicted with physical complaints.

In fact, if you are ever asked to choose between the two, always opt for good health. Because health can give wealth, but wealth does not ensure good health. Very often the desperate search for wealth takes its toll on one’s health. It deprives a man of the necessary physical exercise. It makes the person follow unhealthy food habits in the name of saving time. It thus brings along with it stress, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, ulcers and diabetes. As a result a person may have to spend the later part of his or her life in and out of hospitals and undergo expensive operations in order to keep himself or herself alive. Finally he or she dies a stressful premature death. And all the wealth he or she has accumulated is distributed amongst the heirs. Rather, this person could have enjoyed his or her wealth while he or she had lived if only he or she had believed in the dictum, ‘Health is Wealth’.

Difficult Words:

Crores: (In the Indian numbering system) tens of millions; a very large amount of money.
Afflicted: Troubled or affected by something, usually a problem or illness.
Opt: To make a choice from a range of possibilities.
Ensure: To make certain that something will happen or be the case.
Desperate: Feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.
Takes its toll: Causes harm, damage, or suffering over a period of time.
Deprives: Prevents someone from having or using something.
Cholesterol: A waxy, fat-like substance found in all the cells in your body; high levels can lead to health problems.
Ulcers: Open sores on an external or internal surface of the body, caused by a break in the skin or mucous membrane that fails to heal.
Diabetes: A disease in which the body’s ability to produce or respond to the hormone insulin is impaired, resulting in abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and elevated levels of glucose in the blood and urine.
Undergo: To experience or be subjected to (something, typically something unpleasant or arduous).
Premature: Occurring or done before the usual or proper time; too early.
Accumulated: Gathered or collected, typically in gradual stages.
Heirs: People legally entitled to the property or rank of another on that person's death.
Dictum: A short statement that expresses a general truth or principle; a saying.