“Doctor, I exercise regularly. I eat healthy food. I don’t smoke. I hardly drink. I try to sleep on time and take care of myself.
Yet I still have health problems.
And then I look at some of my friends—they eat whatever they want, drink, hardly exercise, sleep at odd hours…and they seem perfectly healthy!
Why me?”
It is a question I hear surprisingly often.
And the first thing I tell such patients is:
Health is not an examination where everyone is given the same question paper.
Every Body Has a Different Story
Two people can follow exactly the same lifestyle and still have very different health outcomes.
Why?
Because we don’t begin from the same starting point.
Our genetics, constitution, metabolism, hormones, immune responses, childhood experiences, emotional patterns, environment and previous illnesses are all different.
Think of two plants growing in the same garden.
One flourishes in strong sunlight. Another needs shade and more water.
We would never say that the second plant is weaker simply because it requires different conditions.
Its nature is different.
Human beings are no different.
“But My Friend Does Everything Wrong and Is Still Healthy!”
Perhaps.
But you are seeing only what is visible today.
You don’t know their genetic vulnerabilities, metabolic health, emotional burden or what their present lifestyle may produce ten or twenty years from now.
More importantly, someone else’s body should never become the measuring scale for your own.
Interestingly, the Bhagavad Gita gives us a beautiful philosophical perspective on precisely this tendency to compare our path with another person’s.
Krishna tells Arjuna:
श्रेयान् स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् ।
स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥ ३.३५ ॥
“Better one’s own path, even imperfectly followed, than another’s path perfectly followed.”
The Gita is speaking here about svadharma—one’s own nature, duty and path—not specifically about health.
But the principle translates beautifully.
Your body has its own path too.
Instead of asking:
“Why can he eat this and I cannot?”
“Why can she sleep for five hours and still feel energetic?”
“Why did I develop this illness despite doing everything correctly?”
Perhaps we should ask:
“Given the body I have been given, what does my body need from me?”
That is a very different relationship with health.
Healthy Living Is Not a Guarantee
There is another important misunderstanding.
Sometimes we unconsciously make a bargain with our body:
“I exercise, eat properly and live well—therefore I should never become ill.”
Unfortunately, biology does not work like that.
A healthy lifestyle can reduce risk, improve metabolic health, support immunity and increase resilience.
But it cannot guarantee that disease will never occur.
And here another teaching of the Gita becomes remarkably relevant:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥ २.४७ ॥
“Your responsibility is towards your actions; you do not have complete control over their results.”
Again, Krishna was not giving medical advice.
But the philosophical principle is powerful.
You can control how you care for your body.
You cannot control every biological outcome.
You can exercise.
You can nourish yourself well.
You can sleep adequately.
You can manage stress.
You can avoid harmful habits.
You can seek appropriate medical care.
But you cannot completely control your genetics, aging, environmental exposures, infections, hormonal changes or every event life places before you.
Perhaps Your Healthy Lifestyle Is Already Working
There is another possibility we rarely consider.
Instead of asking:
“If I am doing everything right, why do I still have this illness?”
Ask:
“If I had not been doing all these things, where might my health have been today?”
Perhaps your exercise is the reason your diabetes is better controlled.
Perhaps your nutrition has prevented your metabolic problem from progressing.
Perhaps meditation, counselling or emotional work has prevented stress from expressing itself more severely through the body.
We usually notice the disease that occurred.
We rarely notice the disease that never occurred.
Stop Competing With Someone Else’s Body
Your friend’s ability to tolerate late nights, alcohol, sugar or stress is not evidence that these things are healthy.
And your body’s sensitivity to them is not evidence that something is wrong with you.
Sometimes the body that complains early is simply the body that warns early.
Listen to it.
The goal of healthy living should therefore not be:
“If I do everything perfectly, nothing bad should ever happen to me.”
That expectation itself creates anxiety.
A healthier philosophy is:
“I will give my body the best possible conditions to remain balanced, resilient and capable of healing.”
And then perhaps the two teachings of the Gita come together beautifully:
Do not compare your path with another person’s.
And:
Do what is right without demanding complete control over the result.
Your responsibility is not to have somebody else’s body.
Your responsibility is to understand the body you have been given—and care for it well.
Perhaps that is a more realistic definition of health:
Not a body that never struggles,
but a body and mind that repeatedly find their way back towards balance.
Dr Abhay Talwalkar
