Preserve and Maintain Your Good Health

What is Health?

The typical dictionary's definition of health is:

The condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit
especially: freedom from physical disease or pain Merriam Webster

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as: "State of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

So health is not only being free of disease but being in an overall state of wellbeing.

Health is dynamic it changes as the body adapts and adjusts to the internal and external environmental changes.

Types of Health

The WHO definition mentions three kinds of health: physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

Physical health

This is pretty straightforward: our body works in harmony, efficiently, free of pain, and distress.

There are many factors involved in maintaining good health; genetics is one, but a balanced diet with adequate intake of nutrients, regular exercise, and proper rest are the key elements (safe sex, healthy lifestyles - avoiding alcohol, drugs and not smoking are other factors that promote great physical health).

External aspects interplay with these factors and may alter the physical health balance: virus, germs, accidents and injuries, fungal infections can create tensions on our physical health.

This is when we may require treatment to maintain this balance.

So access to decent medical care is also important in maintaining good health.

Mental health

Our psychological well-being is paramount in our internal balance, our social interactions, and our emotional balance. Mental health is as important as physical health.

One usually associates mental health with conditions such as mental disorders, depression, anxiety, emotional distress, but mental health isn't the absence of mental disorders, to the contrary, it is the presence of positive elements such as those listed below all of which contribute to good mental health:

• The ability to adapt to changes and deal with stress.
• Feeling safe, centered, and secure.
• Confidence, self-esteem.
• Build and maintain healthy relationships.
• Resilience: bounce back and recover from life's adversity.
• The capacity to live, laugh, enjoy, and have fun.
• Good balance between work and play.
• Having a purpose in life, emotional ties, and fulfilling activities.

Mental and physical health are intimately linked, one can affect the other. A Holistic (considering the "whole" instead of the "parts" separately) approach to health must consider both aspects, the body, and the mind.