Medisense

(PANORAMA)
BY REBECCA AKINMOLAYAN
OVER the ages, man has battled disease. In fact, early men depended solely on herbs and animal parts to make potions, poultice, and other means, to fight diseases. Any affliction that man did not understand, the victim was quickly ostracised so as not to infect others.
With modernisation, came orthodox medicine, which believes that diseases are caused by germs and must be combated with drugs, surgery, and other schemes.
This idea is what the pharmaceutical industry is founded on. The herbal practitioners, however, maintain that there is a herb for every disease.
It is possible that one gets confused on what side to choose when one is in need of treatment. When I am down with fever, I am to decide between taking panadol and agbo iba.

Before choosing however, it is best to understand what drugs truly are. It can be traced back to Paraclesus, the father of toxicology, who said that all substances .are either medicines or toxins. Those that cure are medicines while the ones that are harmful are toxins. The word ‘drug’ is a new coinage for an old thing.
While herbs are natural, the orthodox drugs, which include tablets, injections, syrups, ointments are chemically processed.
But the orthodox drugs most times are derived from plant extracts, hormones and so on. They are just chemically synthesized and formulated.
For example, chloroquine and quinine tablets used for treating malaria were derived from the quinine tree, even the injections given to infertility patients are from animals.
They both have their side effects (i.e. effects that occur later on while or after using a drug even if the diseases is treated).
The natural herb, if not prescribed by a trained herbal practitioner, pose a problem because they do not have a particular dosage.
Those who drink scent-leaf (effirin, nchaanwu) juice, beware because excess wipes off red blood cells! Pharmaceutical drugs especially when abused and lead to a host of problems too.

CHOOSING between orthodox and herbal medicine is actually something you have to do. Nonetheless, understand that the body has an in-built mechanism to heal itself (check out when you cut yourself) and to protect yourself itself from the ever-present germs.
When the germs overpower, it succumbs to the disease giving out symptoms caused by the poisons of these germs.
But before you take any drug, except in severe cases, remember that most diseases have an underlying cause.
Unfortunately, because of the mindset of taking something (thanks to adverts) once we feel pains, headache or weakness, we rush to buy over-the- counter drugs or agbo. These drugs whether orthodox or herbal are non-living so taking them without purpose would land you into other health problems.

Most people are experts in manipulating and suppressing their body systems. Check your lifestyle and health habits: Do you eat well? Do you sleep well? Are you fit? Do you drink clean water? If you answer no to any of these questions, then the body cannot be blamed for the SOS signals it sends for its unjust treatment.
Even when you fall ill, take responsibility when you seek medical help. There are many options of treatment today, find out the root cause of the disease, read the directions of the drugs given, be free to ask questions. I remember one time when I was down with typhoid fever, the doctor prescribed the usual, antibiotics (ciporfloxacine) and iron(blood) tablets. But on reading the manual I found out that the particular brand of ciprofloxacine I bought warned that it should not be used with any iron tablet. Imagine!
Finally, take time to rest and allow the body to repair itself. Nature does her work slowly but she does it well.
rubystar2004@yahoo.com






Need to expand your means
(Biz tool Kids)
MANY investment literature pieces advise that we should save more and reduce our lifestyle if we want to be rich. While this is good and commendable, my mentor, Robert Kiyosaki says it differently. To be wealthy, you can still save and invest more while not living below your means. You do this by expanding your means. By expanding your means, you can still save and invest, while living your dreams.
This brings us to two vital concepts: Budget Deficit and Budget Surplus. A budget simply is a plan for the coordination of resources and expenditure. Your budget as a plan can make you become poor or middle class or it can make you rich and wealthy.
Most people operate their lives on a budget deficit rather than a budget surplus. Instead of working to create a budget surplus, many people work to live below their means, which often means creating a budget deficit.

Budget Deficit: This is excess of spending over income, for a government, corporation or individual. Spending more than you make is the cause of a budget deficit. The reason many people operate on a budget deficit is because it’s so much easier to spend money than to make it. When faced with a crippling budget deficit, most people choose to cut back on their spending. But instead of that, the smart thing to do would be to increase income. This is hard for many businesses and individuals .

Budget Surplus: This is excess of income over spending for a government, corporation or individual over a particular period of time.
This is where I want to push a new argument in this financial intelligence series. Many people are living below their means because they don’t have excess income over spending. But if the guy who earns N20,000 a month, gets a side business that fetches him another N10,000, his income has increased to N30,000. His spending can also increase. If this same guy manages to increase his passive income to N20,000 or N30,000 a month, that would place his total monthly earnings between N40 and N50,000. However, the mistake people make when they experience budget surplus or increase in income is that they increase spending and debt and reduce investment.

Now, in order to maximise your budget surplus, you need to consider the following:

Treat your budget surplus as an expense. In your expense, make savings, tithing (or charity) and investing your first priority. For instance, if you make more money, then put the excess into income-yielding assets, tithes (or charity) and savings while maintaining your current level of obligations. You know why? By the time you maintain this process for a long time, your assets would have multiplied so much to produce streams of income that can deliver much more money and quality of life to you.

Treat your expense statement as a crystal ball. What you spend your money on will define your financial future. If you want to have budget surplus and for a long time, watch what you spend your money on. Make sure they enhance your financial and lifestyle objectives.

Get assets that can pay for your liabilities. Never think I am asking you to live cheap. I don’t live cheap either. But what my mentor tells me and I urge you too to consider is that whenever you want a necessary or luxurious liability, get assets that can give you the income to acquire that liability. For instance, my mentor wanted a Bentley car worth $200,000. So he called up his broker, who converted his gold and silver shares into $200,000 cash for him and invested it for 8 months to generate $450,000 out of which $200,000 was used to buy the Bentley; $50,000 was used to offset taxes on the capital gains and the Commission paid to the broker, while he still had his cash of $200,000.
Now, how do we make that happen in Nigeria? It’s going to be hard work. This is why you have to grow your financial intelligence by coming up with a side business or investment that you are comfortable with and that can help you meet your financial objectives. There is nothing wrong with enjoying liabilities as long as you continue to pay yourself first and purchase them through the income generated by your assets.

Spend to get rich. When the going gets tough, most people cut back on spending. This is one reason so many people fail to acquire and maintain wealth. For instance, in the world of business, when a company’s sales begin to drop, accountants cut back on spending on advertising and promotion. With less advertising and promotion, sales further drop and the problem gets worse. One sign of financial intelligence is knowing when to spend and when to cut back. When you know you need to make more money, you need to spend more time, money and energy increasing your income.
If you will sincerely work at creating a budget surplus, your life will become richer. That is what budgeting is about – using what you have, even if what you have is no money, to make you better, stronger and richer.
Olotu is the CEO/Lead Consultant, DEAIM Innovative Resources Ltd., bridgetolotu@gmail.com