Health and disease are not opposite concepts, since there are individuals who carry an organic, anatomical or functional disease and who, therefore, according to what has been established, could be called ill, yet who work actively without feeling that way. For this reason, the concepts of health and disease cannot be reduced to such a simple formula; they represent only value judgments.
Within both concepts there is a certain gradation. Perfect health is a utopian conception. Human beings should aspire to enjoy a high degree of health, one capable of allowing them to carry out daily activity, look at life with joy and face tomorrow with optimism. Health is not only a physical attribute; it also requires a high degree of mental health, capable of driving human beings along the paths of the spirit, in the search for ideals and inner perfection.
Consider an individual with diabetes. If they apply the appropriate dose of insulin every day and follow the dietary rules imposed by their physician, they may live for many years, carry out their activities normally and enjoy an existence full of spiritual satisfaction, without ever feeling disabled, much less ill.
Consider, by contrast, another individual who suffers only from subjective disorders without an organic basis, small discomforts of any kind that force them to lead a withdrawn life, abandon their activities and feel ill. Although their organism functions normally, they react as if they were suffering from an organic disease.
This indicates that the concepts of health and disease are not strict and pure, but rather represent the individual valuation of multiple elements. Individual health is subordinated to biological, psychological and sociological factors.
Biological factors depend on an anatomical or functional alteration of the organism. A typist will feel ill if pain prevents them from moving the keys of the typewriter; an actor, if dizziness prevents them from moving across the stage. Depending on physical activity, each individual will value the organic factor of disease insofar as it deprives them of carrying out the activities they must perform as a healthy person.
The psychological aspect is the subjective valuation of the state of health. The anguish of death, fear of loneliness, predisposition to neurosis, the overvaluation of trivial matters, fear of ridicule and fear of suffering are factors that, depending on the individual, modify the meaning of illness.
The economic and social environment of the modern world causes sociological factors to create certain conditions capable of affecting the healthy person and turning them into an ill person. Economic anguish and housing problems determine that, despite enjoying good health and a fighting spirit, some communities may feel ill. It is difficult for an individual to preserve health if they live in communities that are economically and socially impoverished.
All of the above indicates that health depends not only on the absence of organic disorders, but also on mental characteristics and the social environment in which the individual acts. Each person will make a particular valuation of this concept according to their way of life.
Health is a precious gift that must be cared for permanently. The individual who, boasting of good health, submits to physical or intellectual excesses, or who, forgetting elementary dietary rules, exceeds the quantities of food and drink permitted according to their activities, shows profound ignorance.
An intelligent person regulates their life. They devote a certain number of hours to work, rest, sports, the enjoyment of nature and recreation, and avoid dietary excesses as well as the consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is as unhealthy to limit oneself only to working, eating and sleeping as it is to devote oneself exclusively to physical or sporting activity. Life can only be lived fully when the individual thinks about both body and mind.
In current times, the obligation to cover the economic needs of the family leads the individual to excessive activity. This causes failures in nutrition, since many times, between one job and another, the person consumes only a few foods of little caloric value. When they return home after a long day, with great physical and psychological fatigue, they become like a stranger to their children, whom they sometimes only see when they are asleep.
If existence is limited to work, forgetting rest and spiritual needs, health suffers, since life requires a fair proportion among the individual’s activities. In addition to caring for their physical health, the individual must also care for their mental health and that of their family members.
Parents are responsible not only for the physical health of their children, but also for their spiritual formation. Home life, sharing children’s problems and paying attention to their small concerns are the best means of preventing the creation of complexes and behavioral alterations that will result in poor mental health.
Even when one believes oneself to possess optimal health, it is advisable to undergo periodic medical examination. An annual checkup makes it possible, in many cases, to detect a considerable number of diseases that begin insidiously.
It is essential to be aware that preventive medicine constitutes a remarkable resource of current medical science for preventing or treating various diseases early. Health is a state of organic harmony that human beings have the obligation to preserve. As stated above, this depends to a large extent on the type of life they adopt. The foundation of medicine and therapeutics is to preserve it.
