The notion that people without diseases are considered healthy people is undiscriminating, partial and incorrect.

Healthy people are those who pay attention to their own health and diet in daily life, who will make appropriate arrangements of their work, learning, rest, entertainment and physical exercise as well as social contacts. They are energetic, vigorous, having ease of mind and have a strong resistance to diseases, keeping a close eye on their own mental and physical state.

There is another group of people, called sub-healthy people by some scholars, who always feel weary, nervous, sleepless and palpitated. Although these symptoms disappear sometimes without medication but they can not be eliminated thoroughly. They are not considered diseased in the hospital. The state of these people' bodies is called sub-healthy state, or gray state by some scholars. It lies between illness and health: little harm seems to have been done to the body with only a decrease in physical functions; in fact, its potential threat can not be neglected,for it is often the prelude of some chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and cancer.

One main cause of this phenomenon is the lack of correct understanding of health and the lack of awareness to the factors threatening their own health, including the mental stress and working pressure caused by the complexity of different relationships in modern society, unreasonable diet and environmental pollution brought about by modern industrialization, etc. Therefore it is necessary to provide people with a good understanding of health and means of acquiring it through the promotion of health knowledge. Those who hold the notion that "out of illness means health" should change it so as to obtain a really healthy life, for "out of illness is not equal to health and "no sense of being sick is not equal to out of illness".

According to a report of WHO, health and longevity depend on the following factors: self-healthcare accounting for 60%, genetic factors 15%, social factors 10%, medical conditions 8% and climatic factors 7%.

In this report, great importance is attached to the enforcement of health education, health protection and health promotion with a recommendation on self-healthcare. This new notion brings up a shift of attention from treatment to active prevention and healthcare, from the dependence on doctors to the self-control of health.

3. Why is "prevention better than cure"?

"Prevention is better than cure" means that diseases should be prevented before they occur. It fully illustrates the two important aspects of medicine: treatment of disease and prevention of disease, with an emphasis on the latter.

In the past decades, with the increase of the chronic non-infectious diseases, (such as malignant tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes), the death rate is increasing dramatically, which has become a great threat to health. The medical studies on chronic diseases show that dangerous factors have existed from adolescence although the diseases mentioned above mostly occur among the elderly in clinical practice. Although these diseases are associated with high rates of death and deformity, there is a limit for the treatment of these diseases and the expenses can be extremely high. Hence, preventive measures should be taken from adolescence.

4. What is drug-induced disease?

5. What is the best approach to taking trace element?

Trace element is classified by nutritionist as the nutrients whose amount is less than 10 milligram, among all the nutrients absorbed daily by the body. It accounts for a small percentage in the body but is indispensable. Either over or under taken, it could cause physiological abnormality or diseases.

Taking trace element from food is encouraged by experts. Although, in the short term, it can be effective to take trace element preparation (or medicine) at trace element deficiency, trace element can only be digested and absorbed in the body through chelation reaction, which joins the inorganic mineral elements and the amino acid in the body into chelating compounds. Besides, there is some constrains on taking trace element preparations such as zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, sodium sulfate, sodium sulfite because these chemical preparations possess stimulant properties and low absorption rate. However the organic mineral trace element compounds (such as ferrous gluconate, zinc glutamate, cupric citrate) and trace element bioforms (such as zinic yeast, selenium yeast, zinc mushroom powder and pollen) are much easier to be absorbed and work more effectively with a low side effect.

The trace elements in pine pollen, existing in plant cells, are regarded best for their bioactivity, poisonlessness, long term edibility without side effect, which confirms the saying that it is better to take trace element through food than through medicine.

6. What are health foods?

Health foods are those that have a specific healthcare function, that is to say, suitable for certain group of people with a body-regulating function rather than a therapeutic purpose.

7. What is pollen?

Pollen is the sperm cell of flower-bearing plant which contains the genetic information of plants and rich nutrients. According to different ways of pollination, pollen can be classified as insect pollinated (pollinated by insect) and wind pollinated. About 90% of the pollen exploited by people is those from insect pollination and angiosperm pollen.

Pine pollen is a kind of wind pollinated pollen gathered from Masson pine (Pinus Massoniana Lamb.) and Chinese pine (Pinus Tabulaeformis Carr.)-two kinds of gymnosperm. First utilized and taken in China, pine pollen was initially called "Pine Yellow" in the past. Listed in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, pine pollen has been regarded as a treasure of food therapy since ancient times and is the traditional medicinal material in the treasury of Chinese medicine.