Concept of Health

we are all familiar with the term "Health". What does it mean  to you? You may recall studying abut health and its dimensions. 

World Health Organisation. (WHO) defined  Health as: "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and  not  merely the absence of disease. Thus, it incorporates three dimensions of health;  physical, mental and social which are closely related. In our country a fourth  dimension namely spiritual health has also been added. 

The definition  given  above reveals that  health is a state of complete well-being and not just  the absence of disease.  There are many times, when we suffer with some infection, pain, stress, strain etc. At such times we are not enjoying complete well-being. This. means no person enjoys, complete health all the time. However we can call a healthy-who  doesn't fall sick often and enjoys good health most  of the time. Let us now  examine each of these  four  dimensions of health.

Physical health 

It is  the dimension with  which  most of us are familiar. When we state a person is healthy we generally refer  to  this  aspect. Physical health is easy to detect. Physical healthy person looks alert, active, energetic and  is responsive. Precise tests are available to measure physical  health. Using  these tests may need some training, but  there some external clinical symptoms through  which you can detect whether a person is healthy or not.  They are given here. 

Signs of physical health are: 

• clear smooth skin
• bright lustrous eyes and hair 
• firm muscles, not too fat 
• good  pink colour and no lesions on the tongue 
• firm, good and pink colour gums 
• straight teeth, no discoloration 
• erect posture 
• good appetite 
• regular habits 
• good and sound sleep 
• smooth and easy coordinated movements 

All functions are normal for  the individual's age and sex. In the young, there is steady growth and development and in he mature, weight is maintained. 

Mental health 

The concept of mental health is comparatively more complex than physical health to perceive.  Mental health connotes freedom from  internal conflicts, good control over one's own emotions like fear, anger, jealousy, etc., capacity to deal with others and to adjust  to situations and people and sensitivity to  the emotional needs of others. 

Unlike physical  health, it is difficult to measure. Though we can easily recognize the extreme eases of mental ill-health, it is difficult to categorize individuals who are normal otherwise, but may have a problem understanding another person's view point. If such problems are persistent would definitely be indicative of poor mental  health. Poor mental health may affect physical  health and vice  versa. For instance, high blood pleasure (physical ill-health) can be and by constant stress and  poor ability to handle difficult situations. Thus mental ill-health can cause physical ill-health. 

Social health 

Do you know  what is ill-health? Again like mental health, our knowledge of social health is imprecise, many factors a social well-being are yet to  be identified. But still, an effort has ken made to give a meaning to social  health. That is, if  an  individual recognizes hisher belongingness to a family, the first stage of social health has  been achieved. An individual  who recognizes his/her relation to others in a society is the next stage of social health, If an individual achieves both these stages, he/she can be described as socially healthy. 

It is impossible to maintain social health if  an individual is not keeping up hisher mental health or physical health. Any individual suffering with either mental health or physical health would find it difficult to maintain hisher relations with others in the family as well as in a wider community. 

Spiritual health 

As you are aware, spiritual health is the newer dimension of health in the  Indian context initially. Now-a-days it is gaining momentum even in  the west. One must be aware that blindly following religious practice? and customs does nor necessarily make a person spiritually  healthy. Spiritual health is more a matter of attitudes and away of looking at situations and people.  What is important is concern for other and a genuine desire to help and be of assistance. Commitment, duty and obligation are characteristics of a spiritually well person. Spiritual health is certainly not that easy to attain. Yoga and meditation have been advocated to attairi spiritual health which inner peace and supreme happiness. 

All  these three stages of health. namely physical, mental and  social are focussed in W.H.O. definition of health and a person who enjoys such a health  is said to be in a slate of positive health. One of the major contributors to this state of positive  health is food.