Greetings To Your Health!

For many, the holiday season is filled with parties, lights, joy and hope and everyone (or almost everyone) plans to enjoy in the company of friends and family, sharing gifts, food and drinks that sometimes are in excess, which later bring regrets due to the consequences, known beforehand, of gaining weight or even getting chronic illness complications.

Since the main health problem during the winter season are viral respiratory illnesses, their complications and spread, we try to answer the most common questions on this and we give you guidance on caring for your health and that of those around you.

For people who do not have someone with whom to share their burdens or joys, this time of year can be sadder than any other. In your SALUD magazine, our goal is to help you! In this issue of SALUD+HEALTH Info, this group of people can find several articles that will help them with good options and tips for seeing life in a different way and fill that void positive and joyfully.

On the other hand, those who are not alone, but rather very busy, stressed and overburdened with tasks, will also find some suggestions from known health organizations to energize themselves positively and enjoy to the fullest without missing out on any party or gathering.

With planning ahead, prevention and everyone doing their part, we can make this a season full of beautiful memories and hope to start the new year on the right track.

We are pleased to be able to help you avoid setbacks and we wish you a very Merry Christmas. Our best wishes for a 2006 filled with HEALTH and success!

A SEASON OF JOY, CELEBRATION AND HOPE

December-January is a time of great festivities in the Western World in which family, fellowship, joy, hope, and the desire for peace are celebrated. There are historically two main focal points in the Western World during this festive season: Christmas and New Year's Day. Both give us many things to contemplate. Christmas is the time which Christians have decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The reason for December 25th is that it was the Christian counter-celebration to the joyous activities of the Romans during the festival of the Saturnalia, in which Saturn would be honored, families gathered together, prayers for a reign of peace, and the sharing of gifts among loved ones. Since the Christians did not honor the god Saturn, they were left out of such joyous celebrations, and finally decided to counter the Roman holiday with a holy day of their own, the celebration of birth of Jesus, in which they then too could gather together in families, share gifts, and hope for world peace. We can learn from both of these events to appreciate family and loved ones, the sharing of oneself with others, and the deep desire for peaceful and happy lives.

The second focal point was the worldwide celebration among peoples for the New Year. The Roman god, Janus, was a two-faced god, one looking to the past and one looking to the future. It was a time for men and women both to look back at the past year in gratitude and for the lessons they had learned, and also to look forward to the New Year when they could made adjustments to their weaknesses of the past and have the hopes that come with new beginnings; and such looking forward to the future often involved making "New Year's Resolutions". Thus the first month of the year is named for this god, Janus, i.e. January. From this tradition modern man can also be encouraged to learn from his past year and to look forward in resolution to the future year; being grateful for the good of the past and being liberated from the hindrances of the past to start a new venture of self improvement for the future.

SALUD+HEALTH Info Magazine would like to wish you all a very merry and spiritual Christmas and also a New Year in which you will be successful in the other matters that count most: happiness, health, friendship, economics, and family. Salud's contribution to you is the information that will help to take care of and improve your health, which is the greatest of personal blessings. Salud makes a New Year's toast to you saying: "Here's to Your Health, both physical and spiritual, Salud!".