Ok we have heard enough number of times that exercise is good for overall health. But whether we do it regularly? If not, NOW is the time to start. Remember we all need to give some time to the body which is just like any other sophisticated and wonderful system which keeps on running day after day without any interruption. Is asking for spending 1 hour a day out of 24 too much? Do not take your body for granted. Your health is in your hands and regular exercise is one good tool to ensure that. Remember it is never too late really to make a beginning. And if you are still waiting, better put on your loose clothes, exercise shoes and hit the gym, which you have been postponing for so long. Better still, just hit the road and start running for 30-45 minutes a day. You will feel the difference that is a promise and difference will be for a better that is also a promise.

Benefits of exercise:
We all know the benefits of exercise. This is something which we know since our childhood and we just need to put it into practice. It is as simple as that.
• Exercise increases the blood circulation and leads to increased flow of oxygen to brain. This keeps brain active and agile.
• Exercise helps tone up the body and keeps the system running efficiently.
• This strengthens the bones and muscles and tones up the skin.
• Exercise builds stamina and energy level
• Protects us from a lot of common ailments.

• Helps keep under control a lot of common ailments as diabetes, high cholesterol, blood pressure, body ache etc.
• Refreshes our mind and soul.
• Research has proved that exercise slows down the aging process and keeps the mind alive and kicking even in old age.

THE most recent trend in privatisation of health services is medical tourism, which is gaining prominence in developing countries. Globalisation has promoted a consumerist culture, thereby promoting goods and services that can feed the aspirations arising from this culture. This has had its effect in the health sector too, with the emergence of a private sector that thrives by servicing a small percentage of the population that has the ability to “buy” medical care at the rates at which the “high end” of the private medical sector provides such care. This has changed the character of the medical care sector, with the entry of the corporate sector. Corporate run institutions are seized with the necessity to maximise profits and expand their coverage. These objectives face a constraint in the form of the relatively small size of the population in developing countries that can afford services offered by such institutions. In this background, corporate interests in the Medical Care sector are looking for opportunities that go beyond the limited domestic “market” for high cost medical care. This is the genesis of the “medical tourism” industry.

Medical Tourism As An Industry Medical tourism can be broadly defined as provision of ‘cost effective’ private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients needing surgical and other forms of specialized treatment. This process is being facilitated by the corporate sector involved in medical care as well as the tourism industry – both private and public. In many developing countries it is being actively promoted by the government’s official policy. India’s National Health policy 2002, for example, says: “To capitalise on the comparative cost advantage enjoyed by domestic health facilities in the secondary and tertiary sector, the policy will encourage the supply of services to patients of foreign origin on payment. The rendering of such services on payment in foreign exchange will be treated as ‘deemed exports’ and will be made eligible for all fiscal incentives extended to export earnings”. The formulation draws from recommendations that the corporate sector has been making in India and specifically from the “Policy Framework for Reforms in Health Care”, drafted by the prime minister’s Advisory Council on Trade and Industry, headed by Mukesh Ambani and Kumaramangalam Birla.