Like many of the other age old sayings "Health is Wealth", is also true and everyone wants to abide by it. Since good health is God's gift, so people are giving utmost importance to increase the quality of healthcare. In today's definition, comprehensive healthcare includes managing chronic conditions throughout life besides prevention and treatment of various ailments. It is provided by various strata of disciplines such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and allied sciences. It also involves the ethnomedicine and alternative system of medicine such as ayurveda, homeopathy, Chinese traditional medicine, naturopathy etc. Thus, it is a holistic approach to the treatment and prevention of diseases or in other words, towards improving the quality of human life.

As discussed above, the delivery of modern healthcare is not a single man's effort but comes from a multidisciplinary team of trained professionals including doctors, naturotherapists, dieticians, nutritionists, etc., also encompasses equipments, services from biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and life sciences in order to meet the needs of target population. Keeping good health is dependent on the lifestyle and the food habits which one person adopts in his / her life. A healthy lifestyle includes diet, distressing or employing relaxation techniques, exercise, which when put together, go a long way towards maintaining an overall optimum state of health.

In order to be physically fit, one has to get into exercises, like doing Yoga, Aerobics, etc. because these are one of the best exercises to lose weight and keep obesity at bay. Besides, meditation, spirituality and prayer has been acknowledged throughout the world helping us to enhance our mental acuity, induce a state of relaxation and all these in turn, prove to be mentally and physically beneficial. With an aim to gain more benefit, these days, both physical as well as mental exercises are coupled with the complementary and alternative system of medicine to stimulate the body's natural healing potential. The qualified and well-trained doctors are also employing the traditional methods of medicines (herbal medicines), which have been known since years ago along with the modern system of medicine to heal the disease or illness. There are many governments worldwide who are promoting the alternative systems of medicine such as homeopathy, ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine Unani and Siddha to promote the standard of healthcare. Research and development institutions, pharmaceutical companies are trying to find the key therapeutic molecules present in the different kinds of medicinal plants often practiced by the people of the ancient time. Eventually, with the passage of time, these ethnic practices are gaining popularity and the research institutions all over the world have paid significance to these.

The increasing incidence of chronic diseases and the aging are the two interrelated factors imposing a heavy burden on health systems. Besides, there always remains a vast fragmentary burden in the avoidance, control and eradication of major communicable diseases, as a consequence of this, the mortality and morbidity rate increases in maternal and prenatal conditions. In the light of all the reasons mentioned above and many other, the healthcare services have been evolved in the prevention and treatment of illness. There is always a need for advanced and quality healthcare system. The governments worldwide have launched large-scale projects to cope up with different chronic and devastating diseases like cancer, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, asthma and to search for effective, safer and better remedies. Treatment of diseases now includes improvement in regular checkup by qualified doctors and providing medicines to cure the ailments. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions are giving comprehensive treatment packages. Also, the insurance institutions have designed many schemes in the form of "Mediclaim" for the benefit of people, which includes the health care of the family members as well as the near and dear ones of the person insured.

At the end, it can be reasonably suggested that the approach to get a healthy state of well-being free from disease should be holistic. In simpler terms, it is a combination of allopathy with naturopathy, complementary and alternative system of medicine targeted to the physical, social, mental and spiritual well being of people. Above all, I think a healthy state can be achieved through the conscious and concerted efforts of an individual by making a slight change in the lifestyle and dietary habits.

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Written by Debasis Sahu and Shikha Sharma