People are overly reliant on modern medicine. It’s true that doctors are able to treat and cure diseases that were previously fatal and provide care that simply was not possible in the past — even the notion of what constitutes being dead is fluid. An unwanted side-effect of all this is the perception that people don’t need to take care of themselves because medicine will be there to help them if they fall ill.

Pills are an excellent example; today’s culture is heavily dependent on pills. There are pills for headaches, pills for contraception and pills for vitamin deficiencies, which most people would agree are useful and sensible. However, there are also pills for weight loss, pills for depression, pills for everything under the sun it seems — and the efficacy and indeed morality of society’s reliance on pills to solve its problems is a matter of great controversy.

It’s simply too easy to get lazy. Take fitness as an example. Obesity has become a serious and prevalent problem. Part of that is a more sedentary life style, and part of that is certainly the wide availability and low cost of unhealthy food. But part of that is also people’s belief that they don’t have to watch out for themselves because there’s a hospital just down the street.

Of course, there are those who question commercial medicine as it’s practiced today, but whether they prefer alternative treatments or just despair of an overly-costly and bloated medical system, the fact remains that people should not discount the value of healthy activity. Sleeping well and exercising frequently can prevent many issues that might otherwise require pills or a hospital visit, and sleep and exercise are free. Sometimes people do need treatment — alcoholics should seek out an alcohol rehab center, for example — but people can avoid many health problems if they just change their lifestyles.