What is to be healthy?

What is meant by genuine health?  We believe that being healthy is not having any disease, but health encompasses a much broader concept.

The word health comes from the Latin "salus-ICU" and means the state in which the organic being normally carries all its vital functions.  The meaning of health has evolved in terms of historical time, of different cultures, the social system and level of knowledge achieved.

However, the fundamental conceptual shift came recently when the World Health Organization in Magna Carta (1946), defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.  That is, being healthy does not mean absence of disease.  In 1992 a researcher added to the WHO definition: "and in harmony with the environment", expanding the concept.

Historical approach to the concept of health
 

The sense of health hygienist was introduced by the Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture, which made items of personal hygiene and public health.

In the nineteenth century with advances in bacteriology, and in the first half of the twentieth century with the discovery of penicillin by Fleming, marketing of antibiotics, creating centers of the Social Security and vaccination campaigns, opened new optimistic outlook about the risk of communicable diseases. 

 However, it was found the multi factorial nature of disease, because, poor sanitary conditions, nutritional deficiencies, and a number of psychosocial factors, had great influence on the occurrence and severity of conditions.  These events prompted a major conceptual change, from a concept of health in a negative to a positive consideration.

Today, health is not understood as the absence of disease and WHO (1946), although this definition has been the subject of numerous controversies however, has brought a revolution in the health system.

The regional office for Europe (1986) defined health as "the ability of personal fulfillment and to respond positively to the challenges of the environment."  This new definition in the same plane integrates the individual and society.

Therefore, we can define being healthy as the set of conditions and quality of life that allows the person to develop and exercise any powers in harmony and relationship with their environment.

Determinants of Health
 

Known as some basics, we should also ask about what are the factors that determine to be healthy.  There are several classifications; the most widespread is made by Lalonde (1974), which identifies four determinants of health:

•  Biology.
•  Environment.
•  Lifestyle.
•  Health care system.

The quantification (percentages) performed by Denver (1977) on these variables, based on an epidemiological analysis of mortality in the U.S., reached the following conclusions:

•  Lifestyle (behaviors in relation to health) 43%.
•  Human biology (genetics) 27%.
•  Environmental conditioning factor 19%.
•  Health care system, 11%.

What does it really means be healthy?
 

For many theorists of medical sciences, the concept of "healthy" is relative; mean a thing in the case of a clerk who works in a quiet place without physical exertion, and quite another in the case of a worker who work outdoors in a noisy construction.

In other words, to believe that we are healthy have no need to measure ourselves based on absolute standards, just that we can meet the demands of our lifestyle.

Lifestyle, i.e. the set of behaviors that develops a person, can be beneficial or detrimental to health.  For example, a person who maintains a balanced diet and exercise regularly is more likely to be in good health.

In general, the health can be classified into physical and mental health, although in reality the two are closely interrelated.  Mental health refers to the emotional and psychological functioning in society and meets the demands of everyday life. 

 Health is a right, the laws do not guarantee the "healthy" but the right to enjoy a range of services that serve to maintain an optimal level of health (physical and mental) However, this right is not the same in all countries.

Health is a way of being in the world and, being healthy means having a vital project, plans and attainable goals to complete. 

 Being healthy is not static, but a process whose result comes from something we think, feel and do, is

something we are not aware until we lose, better known as the mechanisms of how sick you sound, is hard to understand that the disease is the exception not the rule. 

 There is no universal formula, any practice or method of positive thinking that works for all people equally and for all occasions, but each one if you can learn from their health status and enhance their resources to be healthy is your philosophy of life.



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