What is an Excellent Health?
A situation of total mental and physical well-being is referred to as health. Healthcare exists to assist people in maintaining their optimal health.
As paraphrased by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), healthcare costs in the United States were $3.5 trillion in 2017. Despite this investment, Americans have a shorter life expectancy than those in other industrialized countries. This is attributable to many variables, including healthcare availability and lifestyle decisions.
Stress control and living a longer, more active life are both dependent on good health. We will discuss the concept of good health, the different forms of health that a person should consider, and how to maintain good health in this post.
What is Health?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in 1948 with a language still used today.
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Further explanations were given by the WHO in 1986:
“A resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities.”
This suggests that health is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, for an individual’s function in society. A healthy lifestyle furnishes you the strength to live a full, meaningful life.
Researchers writing in The Lancet in 2009 defined health as the body’s ability to adapt to new dangers and illnesses.
They base this concept on the idea that modern science has made substantial advances in illness awareness over the last few decades by knowing how diseases function, identifying novel strategies to delay or halt them and realizing that a pathology-free world may not be attainable.
Types of Health
The two forms of health that are most usually discussed are physical and mental health.
Overall wellness is influenced by spiritual, emotional, and financial well-being. These have been linked by medical experts to reduced stress and increased physical and mental well-being.
Personalities in better financial health, for example, may be less concerned about money and have the means to buy fresh food on a more routine basis. Those who have good spiritual health may have a sense of serenity and purpose, which can help them maintain good mental health.
Physical Health
A person in good physical health is more likely to have all of their body functions and processes running smoothly.
This is attributable to more than just a lack of sickness. Regular exercise, a well-balanced diet, and proper rest are all beneficial to one’s health. When medical therapy is expected to maintain the equilibrium, people obtain it.
To reduce the risk of disease, physical well-being entails leading a healthy lifestyle. Physical fitness, for example, can safeguard and improve a person’s breathing and cardiac function endurance, as well as muscular strength, body composition, and flexibility.
Taking care of one’s physical health and well-being also entails:
- lowering the chance of damage or illness, such as eliminating occupational dangers
- utilizing contraception when having sex
- maintaining proper hygiene
- abstaining from tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs
- when going, getting the appropriate immunizations for a given illness or country
Physical and mental health can work together to improve a person’s overall quality of life.
According to a 2008 study, mental illness, such as depression, may raise the likelihood of drug use problems. This can have a negative impact on one’s physical health.
Mental Well-being
Mental health refers to a person’s emotional, social, and psychological well-being, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. As part of a complete, active lifestyle, mental health is just as important as physical health.
Because many psychiatric diagnoses are based on an individual’s assessment of their experience, defining mental health is more difficult than defining physical health.
However, because of advancements in testing, doctors can now detect some physical indicators of mental illness in CT scans and genetic studies.
The absence of sadness, anxiety or another disorder is not the only criterion for good mental health. It also depends on a person’s capacity to:
- enjoy life
- bounce back after adversity
- adapt to change
- feel comfortable and secure
- accomplish their maximum potential balance in diverse aspects of life, such as family and finances
Physical and mental health are inextricably linked. For example, if a chronic condition makes it difficult for a person to fulfill daily duties, it can contribute to sadness and stress. These feelings could be a result of financial difficulties or a lack of mobility. Depression or anorexia, for example, might have an impact on body weight and overall function.
It’s critical to consider “health” as a whole rather than as a collection of disparate components. All aspects of health are interconnected, and people should strive for general well-being and balance as the foundations of good health.
Factors for Healthy Health
A variety of elements influence one’s health.
Genetic Factors
An individual is born with a number of different genes. An uncommon genetic pattern or change in certain persons can result in less-than-optimal health. People can acquire genes from their parents that put them at higher risk for certain ailments.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors have an impression on one’s health. It is sometimes enough for the surroundings to have an effect on one’s health. In some cases, an environmental trigger might cause illness in someone who has a hereditary predisposition to a disease.
Access to healthcare is important, but according to the WHO, the following factors may have a greater impact on health:
- Where a person lives
- condition of the surrounding environment
- their income
- their level of education
- their employment position
These can be pigeonholed into the following classes:
The social and economic environment might include a family’s or community’s financial situation, as well as social culture and relationship quality.
The physical environment includes things like how many germs are present in a certain location and how much pollution is present.
Characteristics and behaviors of an individual: An individual’s genetic makeup and lifestyle choices can have an impact on their overall health.
According to several research, the greater a person’s socioeconomic status (SES), the more likely they are to have good health, a decent education, well-paying employment, and the ability to finance good healthcare in the event of accident or illness.
They also challenge that those with low socioeconomic levels are more prone to experience stress as a result of everyday life stressors such as financial issues, marital problems, and unemployment.
Marginality and prejudice, for example, may have an impact on the likelihood of bad health for persons with lower SES.
A poor socioeconomic status frequently indicates limited access to healthcare. People in industrialized nations with universal healthcare have longer life expectancies than those in developed countries without universal healthcare, according to a 2018 study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Cultural concerns can have an impact on one’s health. A society’s traditions and norms, as well as a family’s reaction to them, can have a positive or negative impact on health.
According to the Seven Countries Study, researchers looked at people in a number of European countries and realized that those who ate a healthy diet had a reduced death rate after 20 years.
Persons who ate a healthy diet were more likely to consume a lot of fruits, veggies, and olives than people who ate fast food on a regular basis, according to the study.
People who ate a Mediterranean diet had a decreased 10-year all-cause death rate, according to the study. This diet, according to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, can help preserve a person’s heart and lower the risk of a variety of ailments, including type 2 diabetes, cancer, and diseases of the brain and nerves.
The way a person handles stress has an impact on their health. People who use nicotine, alcohol, or illicit drugs to cope with stressful situations are more likely to develop health problems, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, than those who use a healthy diet, relaxation techniques, and exercise to cope.
Best Ways to Keep Your Health
Rather than waiting until sickness or infirmity to address health issues, the greatest approach to retain health is to live a healthy lifestyle. Health and wellness are terms used to describe a continuous state of improved well-being.
The notion of peak health, as well as the activities a person may take to achieve it, are extremely personal. Everyone has various health goals and varied approaches to achieving them.
It’s possible that sickness cannot be completely avoided. A person should, however, do everything possible to build resilience and prepare the body and mind to deal with illnesses when they emerge.
