The Meanings of Health and its Promotion

 The  World Health Organization, which came force on April 7, 1948, defined health as “the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” The authors of the Constitution were well aware of the tendency to view health as a state based on the presence or absence of disease: therefore they could add a person, if considered healthy, should not suffer from any disease (…. “Not just the absence of disease ”). Thus, the definition of the World Health Organization simply adds to the need for the past to allow a person to be declared healthy in the absence of a diagnosis: a further step that could be taken in health thinking as the magnitude of the potential for disease or disability is therefore not taken.

Today, three types of health definitions seem plausible and practical. The first is that life is the absence of any disease or disability. Second is that health is a condition that allows that person to adequately address all the needs of daily life (meaning the absence of disease and disability). The third explanation is that life is a state of balance, a balance that one has established within oneself and between oneself and one's social and physical environment.

The effects of adopting one or more of these definitions are visible. If health is defined as the absence of disease, only medical authorities can determine if a person is healthy. With the advent of medicine, people who are said to be healthy today may be found to be ill tomorrow because improved diagnostic methods can detect symptoms of a disease that was not previously diagnosed. How a person feels about their condition is not in line with this view of health. How people around them judge a person’s behavior and appearance only applies if their perception conforms to the conditions of the abnormality committed by the physician. Estimating people's health status is also simple and will involve more than counting people who, in testing, show defined symptoms and compare their numbers with those who do not.     

There are obvious difficulties with the first and second are mentioned above and their implications. There are people with abnormalities that can be counted as symptoms of the disease but do not feel sick. There are somebody tissues that do not show change but feel sick and dysfunctional. There are people who hear voices so they may be psychologically tested and possibly treated - but they are healthy in their community and do not ask for or receive medical care. There are many people with peptic ulcer and other diseases, who have no problems, do not know they have the disease and do not need treatment for it. Some of these people will also run away from the second type of health definition because they work as expected for their age and gender group in general.