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Its our desire to be healthy
We all desire to be healthy, but often remain unaware of this desire unless we experience illness ourselves or encounter someone around us who is unwell. Health is more of a perception, feeling, or conformity than a clearly defined state. The modern definition of health is tricky and is often contested. It is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity” by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1948. However, this definition has been controversial, especially with the advent of so many chronic conditions over the last 75 years.
Is perfect health a utopia
No human being is perfect, yet health aspires to be in a “complete” or “perfect” state. Currently, approximately 40% of all adults are either overweight or obese, 30% use tobacco, 25% have hypertension, 15% have fatty liver disease, and 8% have diabetes. About 80% of all individuals over the age of 60 will develop osteoarthritis, and 75% of those over 75 are likely to experience at least one stroke event. With each advance in medical science, the achievement of perfect health becomes more aspirational. Chronic conditions and their risk factors are abundant and we will continue identify them. Thus, health is at risk of being overwhelmed by disease.
Mental and social wellbeing is even more tricky. It depends on factors such as community involvement, livelihood, employment, education, peace, fulfilment, and recreation. These factors are beyond medical science. Yet, provision of health is often considered as a deliverable outcome of medical sciences. This is rather strange. Entire medical system has a focus on identification of disease, and by some magic we expect that it will deliver a “complete” health. In this context, we must ask ourselves meaning of rhetorics such as “health-for-all” or “universal-health-coverage”. Nonetheless, we will always want ourselves, societies, environment, economies and even governance to be in a state of perfect health.
Heath, and Well-being
Various terms are used to denote health. These include “happiness”, “wellness”, “wellbeing”, and “quality of life”. While happiness is an emotional state, wellbeing refers to individuals, and wellness to societal measures. Quality of life is a matrix of physical health, psychological state, personal beliefs, social relationships and their relation to environment. Societies have portrayed behaviours, that are most likely to improve wellbeing. In context of chronic disease prevention, wellness behaviours revolve around what we eat, how active we are, and how we can avoid addictions.
Healthy eating
Healthy foods of today, are natural and fresh fruits and vegetables, devoid of preservatives and chemicals, and rich in vitamins and minerals. Fresh fruits and vegetables, bring us close to nature, are also a rich source of anti-oxidants. There is enough scientific evidence about their health benefits. Some postage stamp identify such fruits and vegetables as an essential ingredient on our road to health.
Regular physical activity
History of mankind was always about food security, and driving off malnutrition. In last fifty years, we are more concerned about sedentariness and a gain in weight. Regular leisure time physical activity, for at least 150 minutes in a week, provides agility, increases muscle strength, and helps prevent as well as control our blood pressures and blood sugars. Postage stamps have often emphasised on both physical activity, and fitness in our journey on road to health.
Health and Nature
Physical activity and exposure to sunlight, and being close to nature is another important aspect off health. Being close to nature, helps our minds as well as bodies. Before advent of antibiotics, and many other medicines – this was the only remedy against most diseases. Healthy geography (or a scenic place, at a high altitude, or with a healing water) is a dominant concept in many countries.
Since ancient times, some places are attributed with healing powers. In India many pilgrimages have a health-outcome focus. In Europe, many people visit hot-water or sulphur springs – for health and for cure from various ailments. Both naturopathy and thermal medicine have both current as well as historic importance in our pathway to health.
Healthy communities
We desire health, not only at the level of an individual, but also at the level of communities. Individuals who are part of healthy communities, are healthy themselves. Community health postage stamps have a focus on community wide actions. Better health indices in a community, contribute to such indices for individuals.
As we seek health, and attempt to keep illnesses at bay, we need to remember that disease is a rare event. As we strive to attain a perfect health, we must remember that all human beings have inherent imperfections. We live with and continue to resolve all these contradictions, as we progress in our journey on road to health.