Health in nutshell refers to the psycho-somatic condition of living organism. The word ‘health’ refers to the organic balance and fully efficient functions of mind-body continuum and on the opposite side the negative adjectives and prefixes like ‘ill’, ‘bad’ or ‘poor’ used beside the word ‘health’ refer to a derogatory condition of this organic balance and living efficiency. Thus health means efficient, operational, balanced, proactive and energetic condition of mind and body and on the other hand illness refers to an absence of such condition. Illness can be of various natures according to the severity, types and gravity on health condition but health refers to a totality of balance and well being in both mind and body. World Health Organization (WHO) confirms to this broader definition of health saying that health is a state of complete well being and do not just refer to the absence of any disease. Similarly in many ancient texts concerning the definition of health this totality of well being and health is referred.

How Health is Determined?

Determination of health depends not only physical well being or efficient and operative organic functions but also on our mental well being and diverse factors pertaining to living conditions and surroundings. There are mainly two broader categories of determinants, respectively as environmental or outside aspects and internal or organic aspects. The first category again can be discussed in two different segments, socio economic condition and physical environment. Though socio economic condition of a person and his surrounding condition can influence his health condition to a great extent the internal qualities a person is born with determines his gross physical and psychological makeup and determines the very basis of his health condition. According to Indian holistic science of Ayurveda this internal character of organic constituents are called ‘Doshas’ that a person is born with and in the further process with exposure to environmental conditions get aggravated and cause disruption in health. So, though we all are born with different level of incoherence in mind-body continuum they only pose challenges to health when they are exposed to environment. 

Key Factors that Determine Health

Some of the common determining factors of health include age, gender, genetics, organic characteristics, living condition and environment, food habit, lifestyle attributes, socio economic condition, psychological support, social support, economic status, access to healthcare and health education. Let us discuss on each of these aspects briefly in relation to their influence on health.

Age: As people grow older the efficiency of organic functions and mental faculties begin to decrease and thus ageing remains a constant challenge to health.

Gender: Certain diseases are common to females while males are more susceptible to some diseases. The average life span and physical efficiency and fitness also vary from men to women. 

Ethnicity: Certain ethnic groups among human race are immune to certain disorders while some other ethnicities over the course of history has been seen as more susceptible to heart disorders or such serious life threats. Thus ethnicity in the broader scale is also a determinant of gross health.

Genetics: Ethnicity is also one aspect of the broader aspect of genetics. The other aspect of genetics is obviously the hereditary influence. There are array of health problems that tend to transfer between generations and so is grossly an important factor to determine health.

Organic characteristics: Our organic characteristics or inherent organic makeup we are born with can already have an array of incoherence that further make us more vulnerable to environmental attacks or derogatory living conditions, affecting our health.

Living condition: The living condition in all its attributes corresponding to climate, livelihood challenges, support system around us, goodness of nature around us, presence and absence of harmful substances in our surrounding all put together determine how better our mind and body will gain its natural strength and grow or on the other side how it will replace health with illness and disorderly state.

Food habit: What we eat or our food habit influences our health in multiple ways. Food as the source of fuel for our organic metabolism is crucial for overall health condition and lack of balanced nutritional elements in our food habit can disrupt the organic balance.

Lifestyle: Lifestyle comprises of diverse aspects of living including sleep, physical exercise, living habits, etc. and these all have significant influences in keeping our psycho-somatic balance or doing otherwise.

Socio economic condition: Economic affluence and corresponding social status guarantees optimized living condition for health but economic affluence in many cases play detrimental role to health as well, especially among up market affluent people in today’s metropolitans. On the other hand people with so called low economic status in many cases can be found healthy with their close to nature living habits and organic lifestyle.

Access to healthcare: Access to healthcare and organized health support system is definitely a factor that helped to increase life expectancy in many countries, but as far as total well being or health is concerned contradictory instances are also numerous. In many remote parts of the world including upper Himalaya or jungle ridden Amazon basin there are many aboriginal people, tribes or farming communities who irrespective of their remoteness from modern healthcare belong to healthiest group of people in the world.

Health education: In many parts of the world thanks to widespread urbanization and consequent pollution and overall cultural and environmental degradation of living condition it is extremely important to remain alert of viral diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and lifestyle affected health hazards. Health education let people take appropriate measure in a hostile living condition to stay healthy.

Social support: Human is a social animal and naturally social support makes an important part of our well being in mind and body. A society with support mechanism to foster equality and fellow-feeling and without any rift or unrest between its members is a place where physical and mental unrest will be rare assuring health or well being for everyone.

Psychological support: Finally our mind has the key to our well being more than any other contributory factors. As soon as mind conceives the body as its physical extension and nature as the greater expression of our psycho somatic reality our will can pave the way to follow organic coherence of nature as its own inseparable part and thus we through altering the mental state from disorder we can step towards order and health – our original state of well being. 

The Impossibility of Division into Mental and Physical

Is it at all possible to consider such a thing as ‘mental health’ for separate scientific enquiry? Yes, it obviously seems a contradiction to coin such a term if we conform to the definition of health as overall psycho-somatic balance and well being. According to most of the ancient accounts on health we human have an inseparable mind-body continuum that at every moment function as a coherent single entity in all living conditions. Thus in all physical functions, efficiency level mental state plays so intricate a role that you cannot judge the bodily functions simply on the merit of organic functions without reference to the mind. Similarly in all mental states organic conditions and their state of function play a similarly influencing role. So, separate consideration of mental and physical health of the same person will be synonymous to considering the health of left and right limb of a person in separation. Any scientific enquiry into the question of health the mind body continuum is to be taken as a whole rather than separately.

Health Science and Healthcare – Coherent and Opposing Perspectives

Health science is the specific knowledge of health and functions of living organism. Healthcare is the science of diagnosis, treatment, prevention and management of illnesses or disorderly conditions. The knowledge about the health functions and organic state of well being ultimately guide the healthcare practitioners to prevent or treat the disorder to restore order or health.  In modern healthcare practices segregation of diverse disorderly functions as subject of clinical study is an indication of the shift of focus from the holistic well being of mind-body continuum to the focus on curing an organic disorder. Thus medicines effective for one disorderly condition with side effects for the rest of the body are prescribed as standard healthcare practice.

Health Science and Holistic Traditions

ssn contrast to the clinical practices in modern healthcare the holistic traditions of Far East proclaims a naturally validated health science. These traditions instead of focusing on separate disorderly conditions or symptoms address the core issues responsible for any incoherent manifestation of disorder. Ancient Indian tradition of Ayurveda which means ‘Knowledge of Life’, health is the original order of our psycho-somatic reality we are born with and diseases or disorders refers to disruption in the characteristic of this whole body-mind continuum. Ancient Indian tradition of Yoga which means ‘addition’ proclaims our mind and body as a whole is inseparable part of the universe and its consciousness. According to yoga through focused practice we can go beyond this separation and find balance and then only we can exercise control on our mental and organic conditions and can restore ourselves to original order or well being.