Preksha Dhyana Human Body Part 2

Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 93

to it with organic wastes, detergents and other chemicals that are washed and flushed down our drains everyday. These wastes do not conveniently disappear but may find their way in the human diet.
Yet another growing area of pollution is noise pollution. Deleterious psychologial and physiological effects have been found to result from prolonged exposure to high noise levels. Little do those who attend the discotheques and listen to rock and roll music realise the dangers to which they are exposing themselves. Exposure to high noise levels triggers a general stress reaction involving the adrenal hormones and their effects on blood-pressure, heart-rate as well as on other organs and systems of our body. It is known in some cases, to develop permanent constriction of the blood-vessels.
Drinking and Smoking
The body is the machine which enables us to progress through life. It is good sense not to abuse it but to maintain it in good health. This is simple logic; but we are not particularly logical as far as our life is concerned. We fear death, and yet hasten it in almost every conceivable way by the very life that we have created, by ignorance, by inaction, by tension and by a thousand abuses, through dangerous bad habits cultivated by us as part of our way of life. Drinking and smoking have become a part of our culture. There are constant social pressures to drink and/or smoke and one often hesitates to take a personal stand for fear of ridicule. But basically, most drinkers like to drink and enjoy the effects produced by alchohol without realizing that they are heading towards psychological dependence and physical addition. By a phenomenon of 'tolerance', one must take progressively larger doses to achieve the same effect. It is estimated that drinking is a problem for at least ten percent of drinkers. After heart disease and cancer, alchoholism is considered the third ranking health problem. It can cause irreparable damage to the tissue of the brain
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