The Importance Of Health

What is Health?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

A healthy person therefore needs to maintain healthy habits such as taking regular exercises and adequate rest, adopting a high level of personal hygiene, eating a nutritionally balanced diet, abstaining from the abuse of drugs and alcohol, taking care of one’s mental well-being and developing social skills to interact in a positive manner within society. To be healthy is to be in a state of balance with one’s surroundings.

Health then vs. Health now

In today’s world, medical advancements and technology have led to an increase in life expectancy- most children now

There are many factors such as disease, old age, accidental death, etc. that influence life expectancy. To understand what causes disease, we must first understand the factors that may affect our health.

Factors affecting health and causing disease:

1. Inevitable factors:

• Age

• Ethnic origin – Example: Chinese non-smoking females have a high risk of lung cancer, which is thought to be related to the exposure to mutagens in fumes from oils used in wok cooking.

• Genetic makeup/ Inherited / Hereditary diseases– A persons genes sometimes increase the risk for a condition. Example: Families with a history of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. are more susceptible to the disease.

• Gender– Certain conditions occur only in males, some only in females. Some diseases are more common in males than in females or vice versa. Example: Ovarian or cervical cancer for females, prostate cancer for males and gall stones are three to four times more common in women than men.

2. Occupation:

• Example: lung cancer in asbestos workers.

• Also, in India many of the poor are forced to take up jobs which may harm their health as they are in need of

In the past, epidemics of sleeping sickness have been closely related with civil unrest in Uganda, Angola and the Congo.

7. Overpopulation – Over populated regions usually face scarcity of clean resources and health care facilities. Also, there is more chance of spreading of diseases due to more physical contact. The ones who can afford proper health care may be able to tackle this problem. However, the poor will be left to suffer.

One of the main causes of disease is environmental factors – water, exposure to UV rays/ air pollution etc. What would be the best way to reduce the risk of catching these diseases?

Generally, the focus of public health work has been concerned with local health hazards such as pollution of the urban atmosphere, water bodies, roads, cities, etc. However, in recent years there has been growing concern with a number of global hazards such as stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.

Concerns related to outdoor air pollution, contamination of water bodies, and radiation risks have increased. Most of these concerns have been brought to light after some serious pollution