Art and Health

Havana, Jul 13. -Art, according to the dictionary, is all of the precepts and rules necessary for making something well; it is the power, disposition or diligence in doing something.Health is the normal state of organic and intellectual functions.While health is not everything, EVERYTHING is nothing without health. The unquestionable basis of our dreams, achievements and success is and always has been health.

Often, too often, we human beings resoundingly shatter that balance of good habits, the art of knowing how to live, causing ourselves – often unconsciously – enough damage to debilitate a body that could be vigorous and healthy, and making it into a ruinous accumulation of imbalance.

If we maintain equilibrium and a focus on the art of knowing how to live, many problems of human health can be eliminated, such as obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, all types of addictions and sexually transmitted diseases.

Is it logical for somebody to consciously break that equilibrium in any area of his or her life, including health, and try to recuperate it later?

Is that ignorance or a case of forgetting all of the precepts and rules, the necessary art of preserving our health?

It is true that every human being can be on this planet for more than 100 useful years, but in exchange for maintaining his or her physical and mental health.

Health is the art of maintaining these precepts and rules every day. Once learned, they must be at the forefront of our minds every second of our lives, but it is also a great social responsibility to ensure that these rules and precepts reach each and every one of our citizens on an ongoing, constant basis.

Every family should be a school of art – of the art of knowing how to live healthily and happily.

We would like to quote Lizette Vila, an outstanding Cuban documentary maker and director of the Palomas Project, about this fascinating subject:

"The combination of art and health promotes alliances among different manifestations of the arts and the far-reaching mission carried out by doctors who prevent and cure diseases of the body and the soul."

"Spreading information about healthier lifestyles, marked by profound respect for diversity, where all of us of us fit, and with the exercise of a cultured, necessary vocation for achieving sustainable models of human development.

"With the urgent communion of these two disciplines, art and health, which reflect knowledge, devotion, skill, experience and dedication, we would like to encourage and help make changes to lifestyles so that they are viable, comprehensible and harmonious, and can be part of the dynamic of citizen culture.

"All of these ideas, feelings and emotions express the power of human existence indicated by the vigor of the processes of socialization and observation of our realities, which are called to realize this unity for human progress."

Art is an invaluable part of life. Preserving our health, the golden dream of all human beings, is more than a science – it is also an art.

* Consulting profesor and Chief of Endocrinology Services, Dr. Salvador Allende Teaching Hospital, Havana, Cuba. Email: alberto.quirantes@infomed.sld.ci(Prensa Latina)