By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
HERE is some new and very interesting information on the health of people. Professor Richard Wilkinson, an expert in public health and a social epidemiologist, has analyzed widespread public health data from the sociological angle to determine the physical and mental wellbeing of people.
His findings? “However rich a country is, it will still be more dysfunctional, violent, sick and sad if the gap between the social classes grows too wide. Poorer countries with fairer wealth distribution are healthier and happier than richer, more unequal nations.”
This seems quite plausible. Medical science has irrefutably established that many diseases with physical symptoms and also organic causes are rooted in the mental make-up of a person. These are, what psychiatrists term as, psychosomatic illnesses. Stress, which is one most important single factor affecting a person’s physical as well as mental health, is created by psychological factors. It is known to exacerbate nearly every illness and breaks down a person’s resistance to infections.
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