In the beginning, I would like to talk about history of health care. In the past, there were some women who knew how to prepare some special kinds of herbal tea, which treated people who were ill. They prepared also various kinds of salves and they used very strange ingredients, for example frog’s slime, therefore they were considered to be witches. But nowadays we know that frog’s slime contains antibiotics or other healing substances. Human body consists of interior and exterior organs. The main exterior organs and parts of body are head with hair, forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, chin, teeth and ears; neck, arms, elbows, wrists, fingers; chest, hipps, legs, knees, calfs, heels... The most important interior organs are brain, heart, lungs, stomach, pancreas, liver, kidneys. There is also a net of veins and arteries in our body, in which blood streams. The shape of the body is by skeleton. The main parts of skeleton are skull, spine, thorax and skeleton of limbs. On the skeleton are fixed muscles. We know red muscles, which are dedicated (designated) for longer work, because muscles contain more myoglobin; and white muscles, which get tired faster than red muscles.

Encyclopaedias define a medicine as any science or practice concerned with sickness and health. There are several types of medicines. Classical (conventional) medicine offers treatment with painkillers. However, taking a lot of medicine can destroy some organs of our body - mostly liver or kidneys. That is why many people prefer other kinds of treatment, which are sometimes called as traditional or alternative medicine. Treatments with long tradition come under the traditional medicine and these are mainly herbalism or acupuncture. Alternative medicine looks at the whole person, not just the illness. This includes your age, your family background, eating habits, sleeping habits, doing regular exercises, job conditions, bad habits like drinking or smoking and problems you have to face in your everyday life. There are different types of alternative medicine like acupuncture, homeopathy and osteopathy. Acupuncturists use needles to damp down various kinds of pain. Homeopathy uses natural plants and flowers to beat the illness. Osteopaths push, pull and twist the body with their hands and put all the bones or muscles in the right place.

The main advantage of alternative medicine is that therapists give a patient more time than conventional doctors. The doctors see a new patient every ten minutes and they haven’t got very long time for the patient to talk about his problems. Therefore, many symptoms as overwork or stress are omitted. However, conventional medicine is very important in accidents and emergencies, so the best solution is when conventional and alternative medicine work hand in hand.
Accident injury is very important to know the first aid. Every injury needs different help. If someone has hurt a leg, we shouldn’t move the leg. If we have to move the patient, we must carry him on a stretcher and don’t give him anything to drink. We should cover him with a blanket and phone the doctor or ambulance. If someone has an injured arm, wrist or hand, we ought to support the arm in a sling and then make sure the bandage isn’t too tight. We should put a blanket around the patient’s shoulders and take him to a doctor or to a hospital. It is difficult to tell a fracture from a sprain, so the patient ought to have an X-ray. If someone has a cut, we should try to stop the bleeding and hold the edges of the cut together. We have to make sure, that our hands are clean. If it’s possible, we should put a bandage or a plaster on the wound. If the wound is dirty, the patient might need an anti-tetanus injection.

Every illnes has different symptoms. For example, when we get the flue, we have headache, muscle ache, running nose, sore throat and temperature (It is temperature from 37 degrees Celsia to 39 degrees C.). We must sleep and sweat, drink hot herbal tee and relax. When we have a fever, (It is temperature up 39 degrees Celsia.) or when the ilness hold over, it is necessary to see a doctor in a surgery. The best-known modern civilisation diseases are AIDS, cancer or pneumonia. They are very dangerous for people and they usually end with death. In the world, exist much more dangerous illnesses, with which people can infect themselves and they don’t have to know how. That’s why it is necessary for the state policies to pay more attention to the fatal diseases. Politicians should inform the public about those diseases, because prevention is better than treatment of the illness. People can prevent becoming ill if they make their body strong and healthy by eating healthy food, doing exercises regularly and getting a lot of relaxation. However, nowadays it’s very difficult to escape from everyday stress and stress is one of reasons for breaking out the illnesses. We know many kinds of illnesses, according to our symptoms we choose from various kinds of doctors. We can go to a psychiatrist, a dentist, a dermatologist, an ear and throat specialist or a surgeon. However, the most frequently we go to our pediatrician, who should examine the patient, take the temperature, check the blood pressure or take a blood count. After that, he can prescribe a medicine, vaccinate us or send us to another specialist. When you go to the doctor, you need your insurance card and for the medicine, you have to pay in the chemist.

Medical doctors are called doctors in GB. However, surgeons and dentists are called Mr., Miss or Mrs. followed by their family name. In the US, all of them are called just doctors. We also know family doctors. They provide primary care of patients – usually of all members of the family - from the cradle to the grave.
It is well known, that our public health is out of condition and needs more money. With paying for general health services, many states try to solve this problem. The insurance companies also have an important role in that they pay for our treatment. However, we can choose a private hospital, which has higher quality of services, but is much more expensive too. Ecology is for health very important too. Ozone hole is one of reason of skin cancer and bacterias and viruses spread in pollution environment much faster. Therefore, if we want to reduce world illnesses and diseases, we should take care of our enviroment and other people, not just us.