There's a pill for everything, well, except for what really ills you...

      "Got a pill?"

      "Yea. What colour?"

      "It's for my head."

      "Oh...well, we've got red ones and yellows ones and then there's this brownish one that does wonders, they say..."

      Got a headache? Take a pill. Your back killing you' Take a pill. Feel like your belly is a tidal wave? Take a pill. A running nose? Take a pill. Depressed because your wife took off with your neighbor? Take a pill.  Paranoic about terrorist hiding in trash cans? Take a pill. Convinced doomsday is right around the corner? Take a pill...

     There seems to be a pill for any malady. In fact, in the United States purchase of pills churned out by the leading brands of pain killers increased by...90% between 1997 and 2005 (The data comes from AP, August 21, 2007)

     Oh, it might be interesting to point out that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the leading profit makers in the world.

    Have a pain? Ask your friendly drugist for a pill. Uptieght about your sexual endurance? Take a pill. Lost your job, thrown into the street, wonder if love has passed you by forever, unable to compete,  under the weather, a splitting headache...? Go to your doctor: he'll glance at you and then begin writing the prescription.

     Business is business, as they say. Sure, those pills are fabulous discoveries of modern science. But what about good old-fashioned preventive medicine? Herbs. Exercise. A jog around the block. Substituting naturally grown food products for the junk food you gulp down at lunch time...why not do deep breathing, stretch, watching the stars at night, ask your room-mate for a back rub...