Health care in Spain is of a very high standard with good local health centres or Centros de Salud and here on the Costa del Sol we have an excellent central hospital, the "Costa del Sol", at Marbella. In addition to which there are of course many other hospitals both private and public but most ex-pats tend to gravitate towards the "Costa del Sol" and you hear very good reports of the treatment people have received there. Certainly my own experiences through attending the A & E, or "Urgencias" when the children were little were very positive. On one occasion my son broke his foot and we were in and out within and hour having had the offending foot, x-rayed and plastered.

The staff there are kind and caring and there are translators on hand if your Spanish is limited. They have a very positive attitude to relatives and in fact are quite happy for one to be present at the hospital 24 hours a day.

When my other son of 15 was in with a broken leg he shared a room with a younger boy and they pushed the beds together so that the boys father could sleep there. A bit unorthodox by some standards perhaps but the Spanish are extremely family oriented and they made every effort to include my son in their visits.

Your E111, or European Health Card as it is now called, will suffice for many of your needs in relation to your health care in Spain and in fact both the incidents sited above were taken care of by my E111 even though the latter involved quite a complex operation with my son's leg being pinned. Follow up treatment needs to be paid for however so private health insurance is advisable if you are living in Spain or if you are just visiting. You can apply for your European Health Card at www.ehic.org.uk.

If you are living and working in Spain and therefore paying social security then you will be entitled to the same health care in Spain as Spanish nationals. If you are in receipt of a U.K. pension and intend to live in Spain then you need to get a form E121 and this should be taken to your nearest Instituto Nacional de Seguridad Social (INSS) office for registration. You will then be issued with a medical card which you must produce if you require treatment anywhere and you will then receive this free of charge.

Spanish chemists, or Farmacias, are a great part of health care in Spain and are a good port of call if your symptoms are not serious enough to worry your doctor or take you to the A&E department of the hospital. You will always receive good advice there and probably be recommended something for whatever ails you. If you are receiving prescription drugs at home then bring the packet with you and you will probably find that you will be able to buy your medicines over the counter without the need of a further prescription. I must say however that I think their rather free practise of dishing out antibiotics to anyone who asks is not really to be condoned.

In conclusion the level of health care in Spain for both residents and non- residents is of the highest standard and waiting lists are probably shorter than in the U.K. Accident and emergency treatment is provided free for anyone with a European Health card and the full medical services are available for pensioners who have registered with the appropriate authority and for anyone paying into the social security system.

Article submitted by Ruth Polak the owner of http://www.costadelsol-vacationrentals.com A web site specializing in holiday villas and apartments on the Costa del Sol and in Rural Andalucia. You will also find lots of information about Spain and Andalucia, in particular.

The Mediterranean Diet is now recognized as one of the healthiest in the world consisting as it does of large amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables, salads, nuts, seeds, omega-3 rich oily fish, olives, and olive oil and being comparatively low in dairy products and red meats.

The people of the Mediterranean region, particularly Greece and Spain, are very fortunate to live in an area where naturally healthy food is readily and cheaply available. The incidence of heart disease and cancer are lower here than anywhere else in the western world and experts now believe this is due in great part to what has become known as the Mediterranean diet.

Modern farming techniques and world wide transport has changed most peoples diets dramatically in the past century and it is now widely believed that such changes have had an extremely detrimental effect on our health. Fortunately the impact of these developments has not had such a catastrophic effect in Mediterranean regions where to a large extent traditional diets are still followed. Of course with the advent of Globalization and MacDonald's! this is sadly changing. However we can all learn a lot from what has become known as the Mediterranean diet and by adopting it,vastly improve our health and longevity.

The foods that grow naturally and abundantly in that region and have always formed a part of the local diet are as follows:

Olives, avocados, oranges, lemons, garlic, wild asparagus, walnuts, almonds, tomatoes, artichokes, figs, pomegranates, cherries, strawberries, grapes, plums, spinach, broad beans, peppers along with many other of the more common fruits and vegetables.

These provide large amounts of vitamins, minerals and fibre along with a wide variety of antioxidants and photochemical, the importance of which scientists are only now beginning to recognize as they discover more and more healthful benefits of including these elements in our diet.

Historically a lot of the milk was produced from goats and cheese made from goats and ewes milk. Very little red meat is eaten and a large majority of the protein is supplied by oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, tuna, sword fish, boquerones and anchovies.

The main oil used is olive, traditionally cold pressed virgin, and this is used not only for cooking and in salads but also for putting on bread in place of butter.

All these foods provide a wide variety of nutriments which have an astonishing array of claims for improving our health such as lowering cholesterol, improving our immune system which thus not only fights infections but also helps to prevent cancer, increasing our metabolism, improving insulin sensitivity and thus lessening the risk of diabetes. It really has never been so true that you are what you eat. Certainly since moving to Andalucia and adopting the Mediterranean diet myself I have never been so healthy or managed to maintain my ideal weight so easily.

Of course in addition to all the healthy components of this diet there is the added fact that honey is often used in place of sugar and little refined carbohydrates are eaten.

All in all most experts now agree that the Mediterranean diet is the optimum diet

Article submitted by Ruth Polak the owner of http://www.costadelsol-vacationrentals.com a web site that specializes in holiday properties on the Costa del Sol and in Rural Andalucia. In addition you will find lots of information about Spain and Andalucia, in particular.