Language can be a funny thing. Sometimes answers to the most perplexing questions are hidden in words we use everyday.

Take health for example. There is great disagreement about what is healthy and what makes you healthy. Probably the most commonly held belief about health is that the best way to keep it is to prevent illness or disease before it happens. In his Poor Richard's Almanac Benjamin Franklin tells us 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.'

But old Ben still put the cart before the horse and ends up driving backwards. Prevention does not lead toward anything; it leads away. Does it make any sense that the way toward health is by spending our efforts on avoiding disease? It's like putting your car in reverse and trying to drive to California.

This is where language gives us a clue. What does our language say about health and disease?