Health, according to the World Health Organization, is “a state of total physical, mental and social wellness and not simply the absence of sickness and disease.” Various definitions have been applied over the years for various purposes. One of these purposes is to evaluate the state of health in populations. For instance, a definition of health may be defined as the optimum level of health that a person can attain through their life experience. It may also be defined in terms of morbidity.
Many definitions of health are indeed relative to situations and circumstances. Some experts believed that health is the absence of disease or disability. In fact, this absence of disease or disability is also termed as morbidity. However, the definitions of health vary among medical communities. Different definitions of health also denote degrees of severity or its components.
For the public health evaluation, different definitions of health are applied. These include the definitions used by the United Nations Statistics Division, the Agency for National Cancer under the Department of Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some other international organizations also use similar definitions. Each of these different definitions of health to assume that there is a distinction between diseases and their causes and life-conditions and mortality.
The WHO defined health in its most general sense as “excess of all normal body rate elements in persons of average age.” In this definition, the absence of diseases or their causes does not necessarily imply complete health. For instance, the absence of heart disease does not necessarily mean that a person has no risk of heart attacks, but it also does not mean that he has no risk of strokes or any other kinds of diseases. On the other hand, the definition of morbidity assumes that the life course risk of a disease or its causes is very high.
On the other hand, the third definition of good health is relative to a person’s expectancy. This third definition is a bit more complicated because it tries to evaluate the relative value of life against death. This evaluation uses the mortality, morbidity, rates of disability, access to health services, life expectancy, economic position and quality-of-life measures.
Achieving the goal of good health requires a lot of effort and investment, but it can have great benefits. Healthy people are more productive. Healthy people are happier. And healthy people live longer. By spending time to improve your physical fitness and your mental health, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.