Staying Healthy, Staying Vital is written to address the local health scene, local foods, and the prevalent alternative health practices in the country.

In recent time there has been a great explosion of interest in health, wellness and health supplements. There are now over 33,000 products registered with the Ministry of Health and a bulk of them is food supplements or traditional medicines.

Often promoters of these products will make many claims. For the average individual it is difficult to validate all these claims and decide what is really appropriate for their condition.

Far too often, these products offer a panacea or a cure-all promise. They tend to give people an idea that a pill or nutritional supplement will do wonders even without modifications to lifestyle such as diet and exercise. Of more serious concern is that large amounts of nutritional supplements and traditional medicines are being recommended and sold by people with little knowledge of health sciences, motivated only by commercial interests.

The explosion in health matters is legitimate, as it is estimated that over 80 percent of all illnesses have environmental and lifestyle causes. But the public should be given correct information.

The best medication is education and a good understanding of health principles will add life to years, and guard the consumers from spending unnecessarily on many products, or be a slave to them.