In 1948, in its constitution, the
World Health Organization (WHO) defined
health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"
[1]. In more recent years, this statement has been modified to include the ability to lead a "socially and economically productive life."
In the medical field, the technical term for health is
homeostasis, an
organism's ability to efficiently respond to challenges (stressors) and effectively restore and sustain a "state of balance". In the field of
alternative medicine the term used to describe one's overall state of being is
wellness.
Determinants of health
The
LaLonde report suggested that there are four general determinants of health including
human biology,
environment,
lifestyle, and
healthcare services.[2] Thus, health is maintained and improved not only through the advancement and application of
health science, but also through the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of the individual.
Physical fitness
Mental health
Mental health is a concept that refers to a human individual's emotional and psychological well-being.
Merriam-Webster defines mental health as "A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life."
According to the World Health Organization, there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. In general, most experts agree that "mental health" and "
mental illness" are not opposites. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not necessarily an indicator of mental health.
One way to think about mental health is by looking at how effectively and successfully a person functions. Feeling capable and competent; being able to handle normal levels of stress, maintain satisfying relationships, and lead an independent life; and being able to "bounce back," or recover from difficult situations, are all signs of mental health.
Encompassing your emotional, social, and—most importantly—your mental well-being; All these aspects—emotional, physical, and social—must function together to achieve overall health.
Height
A strong indicator of the health of populations is
height, which is generally increased by improving nutrition and health care, and is also influenced by standard of living and quality of life matters. The study of human growth, its regulators, and its implications is known as
auxology.
Health maintenance
Achieving health and remaining healthy is an active process. Effective strategies for staying healthy and improving one's health to an optimum level include the following elements:
Nutrition
Nutrition is the
science that studies how
what people eat affects their health and performance, such as foods or food components that cause diseases or deteriorate health (such as eating too many calories, which is a major contributing factor to
obesity,
diabetes, and
heart disease). The field of nutrition also studies foods and dietary supplements that improve performance, promote health, and cure or prevent disease, such as eating fiberous foods to reduce the risk of colon cancer, or supplementing with vitamin C to strengthen teeth and gums and to improve the immune system.
Between extremes of optimal health and death from
starvation or
malnutrition, there is an array of disease states that can be caused or alleviated by changes in diet. Deficiencies, excesses and imbalances in diet can produce negative impacts on health, which may lead to diseases such as
scurvy, obesity or
osteoporosis, as well as psychological and behavioral problems. Moreover, excessive ingestion of elements that have no apparent role in health, (e.g.
lead,
mercury,
PCBs,
dioxins), may incur
toxic and potentially lethal effects, depending on the dose. The science of nutrition attempts to understand how and why specific dietary aspects influence health.
Sports nutrition
Sports nutrition focuses on how food and dietary supplements affect athletic performance (during events), improvement (from training), and recovery (after events and training). One goal of sports nutrition is to maintain glycogen levels and prevent
glycogen depletion. Another is to optimize energy levels and muscle tone. An athlete's strategy for winning an event may include a schedule for the entire season of what to eat, when to eat it, and in what precise quantities (before, during, after, and between workouts and events). Participants in endurance sports such as the
full-distance triathlon actually eat
during their races. Sports nutrition works hand-in-hand with
sports medicine.
Exercise
Exercise is the performance of some activity in order to develop or maintain
physical fitness and overall health. It is often directed toward also honing athletic ability or skill. Frequent and regular physical exercise is an important component in the prevention of some of the
diseases of affluence such as
cancer,
heart disease,
cardiovascular disease,
Type 2 diabetes,
obesity and
back pain.
Exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body:
Physical exercise is considered important for maintaining physical fitness including healthy weight; building and maintaining healthy bones, muscles, and joints; promoting physiological well-being; reducing surgical risks; and strengthening the immune system.
Proper nutrition is just as, if not more, important to health as exercise. When exercising it becomes even more important to have good diet to ensure the body has the correct ratio of macronutrients whilst providing ample micronutrients; this is to aid the body with the recovery process following strenuous exercise. When the body falls short of proper nutrition, it gets into starvation mode developed through evolution and depends onto fat content for survival. Research suggest that the production of thyroid hormones can be negatively affected by repeated bouts of dieting and calorie restriction
[3]. Proper rest and recovery is also as important to health as exercise, otherwise the body exists in a permanently injured state and will not improve or adapt adequately to the exercise.
The above two factors can be compromised by psychological compulsions (
eating disorders such as
exercise bulimia,
anorexia, and other
bulimias), misinformation, a lack of organization, or a lack of motivation. These all lead to a decreased state of health.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness can occur after any exercise, particularly if the body is in an unconditioned state relative to that exercise and the exercise involves repetitive eccentric contractions.
Hygiene
Hygiene is the practice of keeping the body clean to prevent infection and illness, and the avoidance of contact with infectious agents. Hygiene practices include
bathing,
brushing and flossing teeth,
washing hands especially before eating, washing food before it is eaten, sterilizing food preparation utensiles and surfaces before and after preparing meals, and many others.
See personal hygiene, dental hygiene, and food hygiene.
Health care
- Main article: Health care. See also Public health, below
Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the
medical,
nursing, and
allied health professions. According to the
World Health Organisation, health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.
[4] The organized provision of such services may constitute a
health care system. This can include a specific governmental organization such as the
National Health Service in the UK, or a cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in
Shared Care.
Natural health
In
alternative medicine,
natural health is an eclectic self-care system of natural therapies concerned with building and restoring health and
wellness via prevention and healthy lifestyles. Natural health includes
diet,
exercise,
naturopathy,
herbalism,
natural hygiene,
homeopathy,
massage therapy,
relaxation techniques (e.g.
Yoga,
Tai Chi),
accupuncture,
sauna,
aromatherapy,
ayurveda medicine, and
Kneipp therapy.
Workplace wellness programs
Workplace wellness programs are recognized by an increasingly large number of companies for their value in improving the health and well-being of their employees, and for increasing morale, loyalty, and productivity. Workplace wellness programs can include things like onsite fitness centers, health presentations, wellness newsletters, access to health coaching, tobacco cessation programs and training related to
nutrition,
weight and stress management. Other programs may include health risk assessments, health screenings and
body mass index monitoring. Mostly overseen or not mentioned is a group of determinants of health which could be called
coincidence,
hazard,
luck or bad luck. These factors are quite important determinants of health but difficult to calculate.
Role of science in health
Health science is the branch of science focused on
health, and it includes many subdisciplines. There are two approaches to health science: the study and
research of the human body and health-related issues to understand how humans (and animals) function, and the application of that knowledge to improve health and to prevent and cure
diseases.
Where health knowledge comes from
Health research builds primarily on the basic sciences of
biology,
chemistry, and
physics as well as a variety of multidisciplinary fields (for example
medical sociology). Some of the other primarily research-oriented fields that make exceptionally significant contributions to health science are
biochemistry,
epidemiology, and
genetics.
Putting health knowledge to use
Applied health sciences also endeavor to better understand health, but in addition they try to directly improve it. Some of these are:
biomedical engineering,
biotechnology,
nursing,
nutrition,
pharmacology,
pharmacy,
public health (
see below),
psychology,
physical therapy, and
medicine. The provision of services to maintain or improve people's health is referred to as health care (see above).
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts and informed choices of society, organisations, public and private, communities and individuals." It is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on
population health analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people or as large as all the inhabitants of several continents (for instance, in the case of a
pandemic). Public health has many sub-fields, but is typically divided into the categories of
epidemiology,
biostatistics and health
services.
Environmental, social and behavioral health, and
occupational health, are also important fields in public health.
The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities, in many cases treating a disease can be vital to preventing it in others, such as during an outbreak of an
infectious disease.
Vaccination programs and distribution of
condoms are examples of public health measures.
See also
References
- WHO (1979) Health for All, Sr. Nos. 1, 2
External links
World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of
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Homeostasis is the property of either an open system or a closed system, especially a living organism, to regulate the state of its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition.
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Plantae
Chromalveolata Heterokontophyta Haptophyta Cryptophyta Alveolata
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See alsoComplementary and alternative medicine Complementary medicine Alternative medicine
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Wellness is generally used to mean a healthy balance of the mind-body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being. It has been used in the context of alternative medicine since Halbert L.
..... Click the link for more information. The LaLonde report is a 1974 report produced in Canada entitled A new perspective on the health of Canadians. It is considered the first report acknowledged by a major industrialised nation to state that health is determined by more than just biological factors.
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lifestyle is the way a person lives. This includes patterns of social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview.
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Health care, or healthcare, is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions.
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Health science is the applied science dealing with health, and it includes many subdisciplines. See also health science academic disciplines.
There are two approaches to health science: the study and research of the human body and health-related issues to understand
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Physical fitness is used in two close meanings - general fitness (a state of health and well-being) and specific fitness (a task-oriented definition based on the ability to perform specific aspects of sports or occupations).
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Merriam-Webster, originally known as the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is a United States company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language
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MeSH D001523 Mental disorder or mental illness are terms used to refer a psychological or physiological pattern that occurs in an individual and is usually associated with distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture.
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Human height, or how tall people become, generally varies little between people compared to other anthropometric measures. Exceptional height variation (around 20% deviation from average) is usually due to gigantism or dwarfism.
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Human height, or how tall people become, generally varies little between people compared to other anthropometric measures. Exceptional height variation (around 20% deviation from average) is usually due to gigantism or dwarfism.
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Auxology is a meta-term covering the study of all aspects of human physical growth; though it is also a fundamental of biology, generally. Auxology is a highly multi-disciplinary science involving health sciences / medicine (pediatrics, general practice, endocrinology,
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Nutrition is a science that examines the relationship between diet and health. Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in this area of study, and are trained to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice and interventions.
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Science (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge'), in the broadest sense, refers to any systematic knowledge or practice.[1] Examples of the broader use included political science and computer science, which are not incorrectly named, but rather named according to
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In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat.
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Obesity
Classification & external resources
Silhouettes representing healthy, overweight, and obese.
ICD-10 E 66.
ICD-9 278
DiseasesDB 9099
MedlinePlus 003101
eMedicine med/1653
MeSH C23.888.144.699.
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Diabetes mellitus
Classification & external resources
ICD-10 E 10. –E 14.
ICD-9 250
MedlinePlus 001214
eMedicine med/546 emerg/134
MeSH C18.452.394.
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Atherosclerosis
Classification & external resources
Changes in endothelial dysfunction in atherosclerosis (note text comments about geometry error)
ICD-10 I 70.
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MeSH D013217 Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy intake, and is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation (in excess of 1-2 months) causes permanent organ damage and, eventually, death.
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Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient. over nutrition is also called malnutrition diet. It most often refers to undernutrition
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Scurvy
Classification & external resources
Scorbutic gums, a symptom of scurvy
ICD-10 E 54.
ICD-9 267
OMIM 240400
DiseasesDB 13930
MedlinePlus 000355
eMedicine med/2086 derm/521 ped/2073 radio/628
MeSH D012614 Scurvy
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Osteoporosis
Classification & external resources
ICD-10 M 80. -M 82.
ICD-9 733.0
DiseasesDB 9385
eMedicine med/1693 ped/1683
MeSH D010024 Osteoporosis is a disease of bone leading to an increased risk of fracture.
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2
(Amphoteric oxide)
Electronegativity 2.33 (scale Pauling)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 715.6 kJmol−1
2nd: 1450.5 kJmol−1
3rd: 3081.
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2, 1
(mildly basic oxide)
Electronegativity 2.00 (scale Pauling)
Ionization energies 1st: 1007.1 kJ/mol
2nd: 1810 kJ/mol
3rd: 3300 kJ/mol
Atomic radius 150 pm
Atomic radius (calc.
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Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of organic compounds with 1 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl and a general chemical formula of C12H10-xClx.
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Dioxin in its original usage denoted the organochemical heterocyclic compound with the general chemical formula C4H4O2 in which two CH groups of a benzene ring were replaced (endocyclic substitution) by oxygen atoms, of which two isomers were
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Toxicity is the degree to which something is able to produce illness or damage to an exposed organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as a human or a bacterium or a plant, or to a substructure, such as a cell (cytotoxicity) or an organ (organotoxicity
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