What is health definition. Definition of health general meaning and concept
Health– a complex concept characterizing the human condition. Health needs to be viewed broadly, broadly and holistically. According to the World Health Organization, “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being,” and is not merely defined by the absence of disease or infirmity. This expanded understanding of health is very important and helps to see cause and effect relationships.
Health is the natural state of man, the norm of life. And this state is achieved simply by observing the laws of nature. After all, if we comply with the regulations for the operation of a technical device, then its service life will be maximum. Proper use of your body will help you not to be distracted by repair work. The main thing is to understand the body’s capabilities and determine a feasible load.
“Medicine is the art of imitating the healing effects of nature »
/Hippocrates/
Each of us is encoded by Mother Nature for impeccable health, but violation of natural biorhythms and laws leads to a failure of adaptive capabilities. It is very important to enable, support and train adaptation and self-regulation mechanisms in a timely manner. A baby is born with a colossal reserve of vitality. Russian physiologist I.A. Arshavsky wrote: “Physiologically mature newborns cannot not only die, but also get sick.” Then why, according to statistics, do we have no more than 5% of healthy children? The answer is simple: because we violate the laws of physiology even at the stage of planning a child and conceiving it. The culture of a healthy lifestyle is not widespread enough among the population. Parents are more concerned about their children’s performance at school than about a properly organized daily routine, nutrition, and time for rest. Due to the large number of lessons, clubs, due to lack of time, in pursuit of grades, parents neglect the basic needs of the child. Children skip meals, eat fast food, have late dinners, and go to bed late. As a result, children develop problems with the gastrointestinal tract, frequent colds, vegetative-vascular dystonia, and neurotic disorders. However, this situation does not mean that there is no need to study or attend educational clubs. It is important for parents to learn not to choose the lesser of two evils, but to create the best for their child, to qualitatively plan both the daily routine and the educational program, realizing the needs of the child’s body and taking into account the interests of the young person. Remember the words of I.A. more often. Arshavsky: “Remember: your baby may not be sick. Which means it shouldn’t hurt. And it depends primarily on you".
By returning to a natural rhythm, eating healthy, exercising, and controlling your thoughts and emotions, everyone can regain wholeness and health.
“The disease itself is the fact of a person’s removal from natural mechanisms designed to monitor his health and life support... The benefit that a person who has established informational contact can derive by bringing himself closer to a small area of the natural world is much greater than the fight against diseases.”
/V.N. Maigret "Anastasia"/
What does health depend on?
According to statistics, the health of any person depends 50-60% on lifestyle and only 10% on medicine and 10-15% on the genome, i.e. heredity. It turns out that our lifestyle, our daily habits largely determine our level of health. So think about which fund you need to invest resources and investments in: a medical project that provides 10% of income, or a healthy lifestyle project with 60% income?
Please note that the quality of medical services improves every year, new technologies appear, but at the same time there is an intensive increase in morbidity, diseases are becoming younger. Where is the logic? If the level of medicine increases, then the incidence of diseases must decrease. What if the incidence increases? Obviously, the main reason is modern lifestyle and the lack of primary prevention in the healthcare system.
The main reasons for the increase in morbidity due to high technologies in modern medicine:
- Unhealthy lifestyle, bad habits, illiteracy of the population in the field of health. Gradual self-poisoning of the body at your own expense with alcohol, smoking, refined and canned food.
- Lack of primary prevention in medical institutions. There is a substitution: instead of real prevention and promotion of a healthy lifestyle, people are offered to take tests for HIV, hepatitis, etc. in order to identify the disease in the early stages. The task is correct and necessary. But it’s even better to prevent the emergence and spread of these diseases, and here tests alone will not help. We need information work, improving the culture and morality of society, and responsibility. Reasonable promotion of a healthy lifestyle should be in clinics, in movies, TV shows, and magazines. It is necessary to resume free physical education sections, disseminate information on hardening and hygiene. The main task is to prevent pathology from forming, and not to treat an already existing disease.
- Symptomatic orientation of medicine. The causes of many diseases are not known, so the main task of the doctor is to suppress the symptoms of the disease, and not to cure it. However, the reasons are not known if you look at the disease superficially, but if you evaluate the body holistically, then many processes become understandable and natural.
- There is no desire of people to change something in their lives, to work for the benefit of their own health. All hope lies in the “magic pill”.
- Violation of the ecology of the environment, which again depends on the lifestyle and our awareness.
What about heredity?
We often attribute bad habits passed down from generation to generation to heredity, for example: the way of preparing food, eating at night, the predominance of refined and salty foods in the diet, meals prepared in advance for a week in advance, as well as stereotypical emotional reactions, negative thinking. All of the above does not relate to information transmitted through genes, but concerns issues of upbringing and self-education of a person.
According to scientific data in the field of genetic research, it has been established that not every pathological gene will immediately trigger a disease; in most cases, activation of the pathological gene by unfavorable environmental and internal environmental factors is necessary. Those. a person who is a carrier of pathological genetic information must try himself to trigger a hereditary disease. Bad habits, refined food, excess medications - these are the trigger factors that pull the trigger on the onset of the disease.
If we summarize the causes of all diseases, we will see that any disease, regardless of the name, is a consequence of clogging the internal environment of the body and negative thinking. Without thinking, we overload the body with inorganic salts, sodium nitrite (added to sausages and cheeses), monosodium glutamate, other carcinogenic additives, chemicals, refined sugar, salt, starches, gluten, animal products, overeating. The body spends enormous efforts on digestion, breakdown of incoming substances, absorption, storage, packaging, neutralization and elimination of excess. Up to 70% of the energy obtained from the food eaten is spent on ensuring the digestion process and eliminating waste. As you can see, the efficiency is very low. A lot of effort is wasted if the diet is not balanced and contains a lot of harmful ballast substances. Over time, the body's strength is depleted, there is not enough power for detoxification and excretion, and the natural filter systems are overloaded and clogged. Then toxins and metabolic by-products are stored in the tissues, reducing the level of metabolism, provoking chronic inflammation, or simply lie there for the time being like a time bomb. Basically, the process of pollution of the internal environment is ensured by the supply of low-quality, non-species food, its incorrect combination and overeating.
"We are what we eat"
/Hippocrates/
Despite the importance of the internal purity of the body, the determining factor in the formation and maintenance of health is the internal emotional and spiritual state of a person, purity of thoughts, the ability to live in joy and love, and the level of harmony in relationships with others.
The disease always begins at the energy-informational level and is initially generated by the negative thoughts and emotions of the person himself. It is self-doubt, lack of understanding of the meaning of one’s life, conflicts, resentment and anger that force people to harm themselves by drinking alcohol, overeating and cultivating other bad habits that lead to pollution of the body not only mentally, but now also physically. Pain and muscle spasms reveal deeply hidden emotions of melancholy, irritation, resentment, and fear. Pain signals the wrong path, loss of joy in life, blocking of love. Thus, allergic manifestations reflect an internal protest against stereotyped attitudes, responsibilities, against living from the mind, blocking love and feelings. By controlling our thoughts and emotions, we block the appearance and development of the disease. Therefore, it is so necessary to find inner peace, acceptance, feel your soul, and be able to enjoy every day. Joy is the vitamin that prevents “psora” (the seed of pathology) from germinating.
The relationship between emotions and diseases has been known since ancient times. Hippocrates was once asked what health is, and the great physician answered: “Deepest relaxation.” Marvelous! Neither nutrition, nor physical education, nor winter swimming, nor medical examinations... but the deepest relaxation. Raw food diet, diets, movement practices, fasting, herbs are powerful tools, they help, but for some reason they do not always give 100% results and complete healing. Disbelief, old grievances, claims, pride, and the created and maintained image of “ill health” interfere. Deepest relaxation calms the mind, enhances clarity of consciousness, awareness, eliminates spasms and fuss. In a relaxed state, brain function is normalized, the harmonious interaction of organs is restored, hidden internal forces are activated, and self-healing processes are launched.
Health is an ideal balance of internal processes, the result of deepest relaxation, self-control and positive thinking.
HEALTH BASICS
1. Positive thinking and internal work on yourself.
Psycho-emotional hygiene, emotional detox (monitoring your emotional state and choosing positive thoughts), control and study of the work of your consciousness,formation of spiritual and moral internal support;
Relaxation practices, qigong;
- a state of responsibility for one’s own life and health.
Pay attention to the books by Anastasia Novykh “Sensei I, II, III, IV” and p editions on Allatra TV “What is consciousness? "
2. Maintaining a harmonious balance of the body's functional systems.
In other words, maintaining your instrument - your body - in working condition. This process can be compared to the periodic tuning of a musical instrument, for example, a violin or piano, which no longer stays in tune due to environmental factors. If a musician confines himself to only wiping (cleaning) a musical instrument, he will receive false sounds. And we, in turn, discoordinate metabolic processes.
Isolated, overly intense cleansing practices may not produce the desired results if the body is severely imbalanced. The body's resources may not be enough to compensate for the overload of existing dysfunction, which will lead to a worsening of the condition and even greater failure. Therefore, you should never rush and exaggerate your capabilities. Dosed loads increase internal reserves and help the body restore balance.
The balance of the body's functional systems strongly depends on our psycho-emotional state, goals, and motivation. As they say, “all diseases come from nerves,” and nerves come from the inability to control oneself.
Example from life:
Since childhood, the girl has had digestive problems, biliary dyskinesia, and gastritis. To improve her health, she decides to cleanse her intestines with magnesium sulfate three times a week, and then spend three fasting days on apple juice. As a result of this cleansing, nausea, abdominal pain, and rash appear.
What was done wrong?
The fact is that frequent intake of magnesia and sour apple juice provoked irritation of the gastrointestinal mucosa and disruption of the pancreas. This load is not acceptable for a weakened gastrointestinal tract.
We will talk in more detail about what leads to exacerbation of the gastrointestinal tract in the section on nutrition.
3. Maintaining the cleanliness of the internal environment and cleansing the body.
It is ensured by compliance with the “instructions for the use of the body,” which prevents the processes of autointoxication, and, if necessary, by periodic courses of cleansing in a selected mode. Please note, these are not endless “cleansing”, but more careful and reasonable human behavior.
Selected individual nutrition corresponding to the enzymatic and functional capabilities of the body;
Normalization of digestive and enzymatic processes in the body, which reduces the likelihood of chronic autointoxication, i.e. self-poisoning with tissue toxins and other metabolic products.
Cleansing practices in an individual mode (bath, massage, physical education, normalization of intestinal function, liver tubing, leeches, fasting days, herbal preparations).
Remember: more is not better! Everything is good in moderation and this measure is different for everyone!
4. Healthy eating.
Intake into the body of the optimal amount of nutrients, protein, vitamins and minerals;
Correspondence of incoming food to the enzymatic and functional characteristics of the body;
Diet.
5. High functional activity of the capillary bed (microcirculation) and metabolic processes.
Physical education, walking on an individual basis;
Contrast procedures (bath, turpentine baths, hardening procedures);
Herbal remedies;
Hirudotherapy;
Wraps, massage.
6. Compliance with natural biorhythms. Co-tuning with the rhythm of nature.
Going to bed from 21.30-22h;
Adjustment of activities taking into account seasonal biorhythms, timely reduction of load;
No late night snacking.
7. Healthy (clean) environment. Helping nature.
Figuratively, the state of health is constantly in a moving balance, like a scale. On one side of the scale we put habits that promote health, on the other - habits that lead to ill health. Unfavorable factors accumulate, and one day the body’s adaptation system cannot cope with the load, first a functional failure occurs, and later anatomical changes occur. Whatever factors outweigh, such are the consequences.
|
Health promotion |
Destruction of health |
|
Positive thinking, thought control. Good and sincere relationships with loved ones. Healthy eating. Regular exercise. Hardening (sun, water, earth, air). Caring for nature, improving the environment. Stay in nature. Daily regime. |
Tense psycho-emotional atmosphere in the family, family conflicts, pride, resentment, irritation. Unhealthy eating. Sedentary lifestyle Lack of stimulation of adaptive processes by natural factors, hardening. The artificial environment of the room turns off the ability to thermoregulate. Disturbed sleep patterns, late going to bed Unfavorable environmental conditions. Unfavorable home environment (artificial materials, formaldehyde fumes, etc.) |
« It is foolish to strive to cure the body without curing the Soul. »
/Plato/
Illness is a consequence of bad habits, passions, and lack of understanding of one’s essence. Illness is a conversation between a person and God, a signal about the need for internal work on oneself. Therefore, thoughtless healing, without repentance and awareness of the root cause, without the participation of the person himself, can cause harm. Now a physically healthy person will continue to move away from his purpose and knowledge of the world, plunging into material desires and inflating his Ego, emptying his Soul more and more. Professor V.A. Savinov writes about this: “It is permissible to treat those who have suffered through their illnesses and have been cleansed in the process of illness. And if one of the patients could not do this on his own, the doctor is obliged to engage in his spiritual cleansing, reorientation in society...” It is important to restore spirituality, awareness, good attitude towards the world and people, and only then begin treatment.
Natural healing methods usually give good results because the person himself is involved in them. On the path to health, you have to limit yourself, control your behavior and mood, spend more time in nature, which increases the level of responsibility, awareness and inner harmony, and strengthens the will. However, in my practice, I often observe people’s fixation on a healthy lifestyle, a narrowed understanding of health and ignorance of spiritual reasons. The need for spiritual work is relegated to the background or the appearance of such is created. Few people want to change, forgive, love unconditionally, trust the World and believe God.
The path to health is very simple, and it is because of simplicity that people pass by. Just loving, just being happy, just following the natural rhythm, doing simple physical exercises, just dousing yourself with cold water, just being happy here and now is too simple for our minds. A person will have more impressions and hopes if during a consultation you put him against the wall and start throwing daggers nearby, perform some complex ritual, give him an expensive pill, rather than just recommend a simple diet, contrast dousing, and the formation of positive thinking. It's too simple for our minds. And besides, you will have to do it yourself. Nobody wants to wash away the dirt, rake away mental garbage and clean the temple of the soul - the body. But until you do this, health will be a ghostly shadow. You take a step forward, and health also quickly moves away from you.
It is possible to eradicate any disease! The effect depends primarily on your faith, sincere desire and understanding of why you need health.
Health for the sake of health does not bring happiness and satisfaction. A physically healthy person can gradually destroy himself with resentment and pride, and attract accidents into his destiny. And most importantly, at the turn of life, at that last moment, your health, your healthy lifestyle, a nice house and an expensive car, or a successful business will not have any value or meaning. Don't take anything material with you. The true value will be your good feelings in every day you live, your love for your neighbor, your kind and sincere deeds. Think, decide, do...
“If a person has no malice, then he has no evil diseases. If there is no fear, then there are no terrible diseases. If there is no feeling of guilt, then he is in a state of mental peace."
/Luule Viilma/
Stories from life.
Health Tools
Nature is generous. There are many factors and tools in nature that have a positive effect on health. It is only important to use them correctly and follow the instructions, by the way, also written by nature and tested by people over thousands of years.
Try to use health-improving practices comprehensively, evenly affecting all systems of the body. You should not be overly carried away by any one method, ignoring the others. For example, a person can actively jog, but at the same time eat everything in a row, constantly worry, and be in an irritable state. In this case, running will help overcome chronic stress and promote the burning of harmful food substances, however, as the load increases, the adaptation reserves may not work, and the disease will begin. A person must develop harmoniously. Another example. Imagine a car that needs general repairs, but the owner decided to change only the tires and chose the most expensive and prestigious one. There is little sense in such a decision. Likewise, the human body needs to be dealt with comprehensively.
Watch yourself carefully. In the human body, any local symptom, like the tip of an iceberg, tells about a general organism problem. It is important to perceive the body holistically, without narrowing down to one symptom.
A person always takes care of his car, fills it with high-quality gasoline, but at the same time treats his own body irresponsibly. However, when taking care of the body, it is important to remember that the body is a biomachine given to us for temporary use in order to reach the goal of becoming a Human.
New or well forgotten old?
I'm not reinventing the wheel in the book. Many effective ways to improve health have been known since ancient times. Knowledge was preserved in folk wisdom, in the works of Hippocrates and Avicen, in the books of the last century. However, I had to beat around the bush for a long time, wandering around in dogma, making mistakes, before I began to get acquainted with interesting works of the past and present. And this journey, despite the presence of a shorter route, was not in vain; personal experience and a more comprehensive perception were formed. Thus, having identified patterns in nutrition from my own experience, having collected statistics from the experiences of others, I suddenly opened the 1931 book “Raw Food and Recipes for Its Preparation,” and in this book by Professor V.V. Markov concisely wrote the basic principles on nutrition, which I have been looking for for more than ten years and with which I completely agree. The paradox is that if the book had come across earlier, there would have been no trust in its conclusions, the postulates of time are so strong, it is difficult to take off the green glasses and look at the real world.
The methodology of health has been worked out and verified over centuries, but valuable knowledge has reached our time in a divided and often encrypted form, mixed with false attitudes. The time has come to unite specialists from different areas of medicine, integrate knowledge and form a holistic approach to human health.
Topic 2. Health as an integral characteristic of an individual’s state.
Questions:
1. The concept of health, types of health.
2. Health criteria.
Sources of information for health assessment.
The concept of health, types of health.
The concept of health is defined differently by different specialists.
The term " health“implies complete, absolute health. But an absolutely healthy person does not exist in nature. There is considerable diversity in ideas about what health is and how it is measured, as evidenced by the presence of more than one hundred definitions of this concept.
Definitions of health can be divided into functional, adaptive, integrative, etc. On the other hand, medical-biological, social, and other aspects of health can be distinguished.
Functional Definitions relate health to the ability of a person and his body to perform various functions. First of all, we are talking about biological, physiological and social functions.
IN medical and biological aspect under health is understood the state of any living organism in which it as a whole and all its organs are capable of fully performing their functions; absence of illness or disease.
Health also defined as:
Dynamic balance of the functions of all internal organs and their adequate response to environmental influences.
A specific, qualitatively specific state of a person, which is characterized by the normal course of physiological processes that ensure his optimal life activity.
According to V.P. Kaznacheev (1978), health is the process of maintaining and developing physiological, biological and mental functions, optimal labor and social activity with the maximum duration of an active creative life. The author presents human health as a dynamically changing natural phenomenon, the joint action of which, under special conditions, can ensure long life.
Along with functional ones, there are adaptation definitions of health. Thus, health in general terms can be defined as: a person’s ability to adapt to the environment and one’s own capabilities, to resist external and internal negative factors, diseases and injuries, to preserve oneself, to expand one’s capabilities for full life, that is, to ensure one’s well-being.
Along with medical and biological ones, there are social, environmental and other aspects of health. Overstrain of protective-adaptive mechanisms when the body is exposed to extreme irritants can lead to the development of the disease.
Thus, health is not only the absence of disease. The concept of “health” should include factors social well-being.
In particular, health is usually understood as a complex, holistic, dynamic state of the body, developing in the process of realizing genetic potential in a specific socio-economic environment. In this understanding, health is a person’s ability for optimal social activity with maximum life expectancy.
Also, human health is significantly influenced by the environment and ecological living conditions.
Some general outcome of many years of discussion regarding the conceptual aspects of health was the definition adopted in the documents World Health Organization (WHO). In the constitution of the World Health Organization 1948 health defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Thus, health is:
– the process of preservation and development of a person’s physical functions, his mental and social potentials;
– the ability of a person and, in general, a living organism to adapt to the environment and its own capabilities, to resist external and internal negative factors;
– the process of maximum healthy life expectancy with optimal working capacity and social activity.
world health day celebrated annually on April 7, World Mental Health Day– October 10.
A person's health changes with age from birth to adulthood. A person's best health is between 20 and 25 years old.
There is a distinction between “health” and “state of health”.
Health status– this is the degree of proximity to absolute health. There are a number of transitional states between the concepts of illness and health.
The state of human health can be in three states: health, pre-illness, disease.
The concept of health has undergone a significant evolution associated with shifts in the development of the epidemiological situation, called epidemiological revolutions. The main achievements of the second epidemiological revolution in the developed countries of the world are the reduction to a minimum (at the current level of development of society) of mortality from major chronic diseases, which has led to an increase in life expectancy.
The sciences that study health include: nutrition, pharmacology, biology, epidemiology, psychology (health psychology, developmental psychology, experimental and clinical psychology, social psychology), psychophysiology, psychiatry, pediatrics, medical sociology and medical anthropology, mental hygiene, defectology and others. .
Types of health.
The concept of health can refer to both an individual and a population, human society.
Individual health Human life is considered as a natural state of the organism, characterized by complete balance with the biosphere and the absence of any pronounced painful changes.
Population (public) health is considered by most researchers as a socio-economic category that characterizes the viability of society as a social organism. Accordingly, the assessment of the health status of the population is based on a set of characteristics of its reproduction, duration and quality of life.
The following components of individual health are distinguished:
1. Physical health:
– the current state of the functional capabilities of organs and systems of the body; perfection of self-regulation in the body, harmony of physiological processes; the ability to withstand external and internal negative factors, diseases and injuries; maximum adaptation to the environment.
2. Mental health:
– a state of the mental sphere and general mental comfort that provides an adequate behavioral response. Normal mental health also means the harmonious development of the psyche, corresponding to the age, the age norm of a given person. High mental performance is one of the main indicators of mental health and an important indicator of the favorable functional state of the body as a whole.
3. Moral health:
– a set of moral values, attitudes and motivations that characterize a healthy personality; a system of values, attitudes and motives for an individual’s behavior in society.
Moral health is a moral force that encourages creative activity. Distinctive signs of a person’s moral health are, first of all, a conscious attitude to work, mastery of cultural treasures, and active rejection of morals and habits that contradict the normal way of life.
Moral health is achieved by the ability to live in harmony with oneself, with family, friends and society, the ability to predict and model events and draw up a program of one’s actions.
4. Spiritual health:
– a system of spiritual values and beliefs. To a large extent, spiritual health is ensured by faith. What to believe and how to believe is a matter of everyone’s conscience.
5. Social health:
– reflects the level of professional and social well-being, socio-economic conditions of a person’s life.
In the characteristics of the concept "social health" Both individual and social characteristics are used.
6. Reproductive health:
– reflects the level of functioning of the reproductive system (the number of conceptions of born children), as well as the health status of born children.
Individual health can be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. A qualitative assessment determines the level of health status. Quantitative assessment is carried out using a set of indicators that characterize physical, mental and social health.
Currently, there are over 100 definitions of the concept of health and at least 300 normative parameters detailing this concept. Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician and doctor, defined health as harmony, balance, and disease as their violation. Hippocrates considered a healthy person to have a balanced relationship between all organs of the body, and G. Spencer defines health as the result of an established balance of internal relations to external ones.
Health is the physiological norm of the functioning of the body. In medical practice, a diagnosis of “healthy” is usually made if, after the results of the study, no deviations from the norm are found using all available methods. At the same time, the physiological norm for many functions is largely determined by the individual abilities of people: constitution, age, gender, physical fitness, etc. Therefore, certain changes may be pathological for some, and corresponding to the physiological norm for others.
“In physiology there is such a concept - homeostasis. It means maintaining the constancy of various indicators of the functions of organs and the whole organism. There are many of them, these indicators: temperature, blood pressure, hemoglobin percentage and leukocyte count, blood sugar and many, many others, there is no point in listing them. It is customary to associate health with normal indicators, and illness with their deviations. Of course, in addition to these objective measurable manifestations of health or illness, there is also subjective well-being - healthy or sick. Normal indicator numbers and good health are only the quality of health. There is also quantity. It is measured by the maximum values of organ functions, their “reserve capacities”. (N.M. Amosov, 2005). For a whole organism, the amount of health can be characterized by the degree of deviation of external conditions under which health is still maintained, or by the magnitude of the maximum loads performed by a person.
Health is homeostasis, balance with the environment. “The concept of health is usually associated with “the state of the human body when the functions of all its organs and systems are balanced with the external environment and there are no painful changes.” (Arshavsky I.A., 2000)
Health is the body’s ability to adapt to constantly changing conditions of existence in the environment, the ability to maintain the constancy of the body’s internal environment, ensuring normal and diverse life activities, and the preservation of the living principle in the body. (G.S. Nikiforov). Academician V.P. Kaznacheev defines health as “a dynamic state, the process of maintaining and developing its biological, physiological and mental functions, optimal working capacity and social activity with maximum life expectancy.”
Health is the ability to adapt. “Health as the absence of diseases and injuries, harmonious physical and mental development, normal formation of organs and systems, high performance, resistance to adverse effects and sufficient ability to adapt to various stresses and environmental conditions is the basis for successful diverse human activities and longevity” ( N. M. Amosov, 2005).
“The main sign of health is the level of adaptation of the body to environmental conditions, physical and psycho-emotional stress” (V.I. Dubrovsky, 2005).
Sports doctors often tend to define health not only by the absence of disturbances in the normal structure and functions of various organs and systems, but also by the level of physical development and functional capabilities of the body, the range of its adaptation to changing environmental conditions, which actually determines a person’s fulfillment of his social and, first of all, labor functions.
So, what health is is not clear. The scientific literature is dominated by the definition of health through synonymous words that do not have an information basis. In a certain sense, scientific literature has not yet been able to emerge from the state of idealism. Now it is important for us to find out the health perceptions of leading international organizations.
A healthy lifestyle - it is probably difficult to find a person who would not come across this well-established phrase. And in general, each of us roughly understands what is meant by this concept, but nevertheless, sometimes you can come across diametrically opposed points of view about what a healthy lifestyle actually is. Athletes who spend hours kicking dust out of punching bags (and then out of each other) sincerely believe that they are leading a healthy lifestyle. For them, sport is a healthy lifestyle. For some, a healthy lifestyle is primarily about information purity. And a person, having thrown the TV out of the house, believes that he is leading a healthy lifestyle. Some people think that morning jogging is a completely healthy lifestyle. Although sometimes it happens that, having covered 10 kilometers in the morning, in the evening a person compensates for this with a portion of not the most healthy food while watching the next TV series. And everyone leads a healthy lifestyle to some extent, and everyone is right to some extent. But what is a healthy lifestyle in all its aspects, and what form of it leads to what this lifestyle is actually practiced for - health.
Human health and healthy lifestyle
Before we consider in detail what a healthy lifestyle is, we should first understand what health actually is? If we try to find the definition of this word in various dictionaries, we will come across many abstruse formulations that boil down to a rather simple and paradoxical thesis: health is the absence of disease. And if we try to define for ourselves what a disease is, then again, taking the quintessence of many abstruse definitions, we get the thesis that disease is a lack of health. Thus, it becomes quite obvious that neither health nor its absence - illness - in our society has a specific understanding and clear definition. Therefore, there is no general understanding of what a healthy lifestyle is. After all, no one can really say anything about the very purpose of this way of life, except that it is the absence of diseases.
So what is health? For each person this concept will contain its own meaning. For some, health means at least getting out of bed without problems, and for others it means climbing Everest. If you look at it objectively, then health is the ability to exist harmoniously in this world. After all, physical health (which is most often understood as such a thing as health itself) does not guarantee a person that he will exist harmoniously in this world. There are plenty of examples around. Moreover, it happens that a physically healthy person, due to the fact that he is not limited by anything, does not live quite adequately. Therefore, physical health and spiritual health are closely related. And if a person lacks one thing, then most likely he will also lack another. And even if at some stage a person is physically healthy, but does not have spiritual health, then, most likely, physical health will also end very quickly.
Thus, human health is an opportunity for a harmonious life. If there is no harmony in a person’s life, first of all with himself and with the world around him, then such a person is clearly not healthy. And it is the desire for harmony that is the goal of a healthy lifestyle in its absolute understanding. And neither medicine, nor drugs, nor any miraculous procedures or pills can give such harmony to a person. Harmony is something that a person must find within himself. And these searches, the search for answers to questions, overcoming obstacles, giving up everything that does not lead to development, improving the qualities of your soul and the capabilities of your body - this is a healthy lifestyle. And all this should be combined.
Why is a healthy lifestyle important?
Why is it so important to lead a healthy lifestyle and what is needed for this? One way or another, all people strive for happiness, and it would be strange if this were not so. But the problem with most people is that they want happiness, but through their actions they strive for suffering. And this is the main paradox of our time. We desire happiness, but we do not create reasons for this happiness, but on the contrary, we create reasons for our suffering. And a healthy lifestyle is the ability to create reasons specifically for happiness and eradicate the causes of suffering. But, as mentioned above, the opposite is often the case.
This world is designed in such a way that a person always gets what he strives for. But we are not talking here about the fact that all wishes come true in this world. The trouble is that a person wants one thing, but strives for the completely opposite. This happens often. For example, a person wants to be healthy, but his morning begins not with a run, but with a cup of strong coffee. And this is a vivid example of how a person’s desires do not coincide with his aspirations. He wants to be healthy, but through his actions he strives for illness. And when this disease manifests itself, everyone around him will be to blame, but not himself. After all, he himself wanted to be healthy, and only this unjust world will be to blame for the fact that his desire did not come true. And this is how, in fact, many people argue. And until such a person changes his worldview, it is unlikely that anything will change at all in his life. He will still want to be healthy, but create reasons for the opposite.
At various kinds of personal growth trainings and in similar books, you can hear and read advice that, they say, you need to clearly formulate your desires, remember them more often, think, and visualize them. And this, as a rule, is all that is limited. “Remember, think, visualize.” And, in fact, this is exactly what people often do. They are just dreaming. No, no one is saying that dreaming is bad. This is very good. Only in this case, you need to somehow synchronize your actions with your dreams. Otherwise, it will turn out like with the person from the example above: I wanted to be healthy, but in the end I got a heart attack.
So, a healthy lifestyle is, first of all, synchronizing your actions with your desires. However, the issue of desires should also be considered in detail. We are not talking about those desires that, like bubbles in a puddle, pop up in our mind 100 times a day, it could be the desire to eat tasty but unhealthy food or the desire for entertainment, and so on. This is not about these desires. We are talking about our deepest desires, our aspirations, that is, about what is valuable to us in this life. For some it is creativity, for others it is spiritual realization, for others it is simply a state of happiness. And the task of each person is to recognize in himself that deepest desire, which will determine the vector of his development. An important sign of such a desire is that it always leads a person to development. If our desires lead us to suffering or degradation, then these are those desires that are imposed on us from the outside by the environment and have nothing to do with the true aspirations of our soul.
Why is a healthy lifestyle so important? Each of us is born on this planet for a reason. In life there is no such thing as “chance”. Forget this word, erase it from your vocabulary. Everything that happens has a reason and will have consequences. Therefore, if a person was born, then he has some kind of purpose. You can often see how a person suffers because he has not found his path, has not realized his destiny. Such people, as a rule, begin to abuse alcohol, drugs, lead an unhealthy lifestyle and are generally unhappy. Therefore, following a healthy lifestyle means, first of all, following your destiny, and if it is still unknown to you, then being in a state of search and not giving up until success is achieved. Pay attention to creative people or those who truly love what they do, be it work or some kind of social activity. Such people almost never get tired, they are always in a state of inspiration, and no difficulties in life can break their will. And perhaps not everything is ideal for such people in terms of proper nutrition or daily routine, but for happiness this, in general, is not the most important thing. Such people are happy only because they live in harmony with themselves and the world around them. And those who exhaust themselves with strict diets, jogging and calorie counting are not always happy. They strive for some illusory perfection of the body, and meanwhile life passes by.
Therefore, when it comes to following a healthy lifestyle, it is important to separate the main and the secondary. Many people do not see the essence behind the form. And the essence of a healthy lifestyle is not to ideally pump up all the muscles and eat what you’re supposed to eat a day (it’s unclear by whom and why). The essence of a healthy lifestyle is to find harmony with yourself and the outside world, and to be in a state of unchanging happiness independent of external causes. Will ideal body shapes and some perverted diets give us such a state of happiness? Temporary is possible. It is important to understand that the health of the physical body is only a tool for achieving happiness, but not an end in itself. And only those who can be happy regardless of external circumstances truly follow a healthy lifestyle. Health is a state of mind. And no external attributes can replace it.
Reasons to lead a healthy lifestyle
What motivation can there be to start leading a healthy lifestyle? Agree, no one in this world wants suffering. Well, with the exception of people with mental disabilities and some adherents of certain religious movements that promote such ideas. And for the most part, no one wants suffering. This is the nature not only of people, but of all living beings - we run away from suffering and strive for happiness. And only a healthy lifestyle can lead us to happiness. In any other case, it is only a matter of time before we are overtaken by illness and suffering, the reasons for which we have created through an unhealthy lifestyle, be it nutrition, improper daily routine, careless attitude towards our health, incorrect behavior, immoral acts, and so on. All this, one way or another, will lead to suffering, and since we do not want suffering, then leading a healthy lifestyle is the only true path. And sooner or later everyone will understand this. There are simply no exceptions. So, is there any point in making unnecessary mistakes and stepping on the rake that hundreds and thousands of people have already stepped on before us? The question is rhetorical.
Health– the natural state of the body, characterized by its balance with the environment and the absence of any painful changes.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Health is a state of complete physical, spiritual and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease and physical defects.
Constitution of the World Health Organization
- Health is the constant availability of energy necessary to ensure the harmonious functioning of the body.
- Health is the basis of human well-being; health allows one to reveal all his physical and spiritual capabilities.
- Health is not only a physical concept, but also a moral one; a morally healthy person is generous, noble, friendly and optimistic.
- Health is the absence of reasons and incentives for illness in a person.
- Physical health is a construction tool in the hands of a highly moral person and a destructive hammer in the hands of a scoundrel.
Health Benefits
- Health provides opportunities - physical adaptation to various conditions; personal growth.
- Health gives strength - for work, study, communication and building relationships.
- Health gives freedom – physical actions and movement around the world.
- Health gives interest in life.
- Health brings joy - from the awareness of the limitlessness of one’s own capabilities.
- Health creates a platform for human self-realization.
Manifestations of health in everyday life
- Physical exercise. Physical activity brings many benefits to a person, strengthening the body and character.
- Military service. A sick person is a weak warrior, which is why there are diseases whose carriers are not called up for military service.
- Labor activity. The more physically healthy and strong a person is, the longer period of time he is able to work with full dedication.
- No “chemical dependence”. A person who constantly takes medications is similar to someone who is addicted to alcohol. The absence of such vices as addiction, including drug addiction, characterizes a healthy person.
- Life A healthy person does not need excessive comfort and luxury, but does need conditions that ensure hygiene.
- Parenting. Hardening children from an early age helps raise them to be healthy people, physically strong and mentally strong.
How to achieve health
- Health is not a character trait of a person, but a set of physical and moral qualities that are developed through systematic exercise. Becoming healthy is the main duty of every person to himself.
- Hardening. Any procedures to harden the body - be it dousing with cold water or long walks in the fresh air - are a contribution to the “piggy bank” of one’s own health.
- Physical education classes. Moderate physical activity (not “peak”, as in professional sports) gradually strengthens the human body.
- Refusal of excesses. The simpler a person’s food, the healthier he is; The simpler life is, the more resilient it is.
- Control over emotions. Strong negative emotions weaken the human body, taking away the energy necessary for the body to function properly. By controlling their emotions (anger, rage, resentment), a person takes care of his health.
- Inner harmony. Achieving inner harmony is the result of spiritual work on oneself; this work also brings physical benefits in the form of improved health.
Golden mean
Soreness | lack of health
Health
Suspiciousness is an excess of attention to the state of one’s own body.