What is Health ad Hygiene

INTRODUCTION

The Constitution of the World Health Organization, which came into force on April 7, 1948, defined health “as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” The writers of the Constitution were clearly aware of the tendency of seeing health as a state-dependent on the presence or absence of diseases: so they added to that definition that an individual, if he is to be considered healthy, should not suffer from any disease “and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”)

In that way, the definition of the World Health Organization simply added a requirement to the previous position that allowed to declare someone healthy if no disease could be found: the step forward that could have been taken in the conceptualization of health as a dimension of existence which can co-exist with the presence of a disease or impairment was thus not taken.

What is health?

Health is a positive state of well-being, where every part of the body and mind is in harmony and in proper functioning balance with every other part. In other words, when every organ of the body is functioning normally, the state of physical well-being is known as health. It has been well said that only that person can be called really healthy who has a sound mind in a sound body. Health is the characteristic of life that enables a person to live longer. According to World Health Organisation (WHO): “Health is the state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being and not merely absence of disease”. If a person is disease-free or in a good physical state, but under stress, tension, anger, greed, etc. than that person is not considered as a healthy person. Hence, in addition to physical health, we must consider  mental and emotional health also, only then spiritual and social health can be achieved and man can progress forward for the well-being of society. Let us understand the various aspects of health-

·         Physical health – When the body is free from any physical ailment or abnormal condition, it is physical health.

·         Mental health – The state of absence of stress, tension, worry, negative thoughts, etc. is mental health.

·         Emotional health – A balanced state of absence of anger, greed, pride, hatred, etc. is emotional health

·          Spiritual health – To live in yourself with uniformity and harmony is spiritual health. Also, to have faith in your religion and respect & view other’s religion with equal harmony is known as spiritual health.

Community health is the art and science of maintaining, protecting and improving the health of people through organized community efforts.

What is Hygiene

·         Hygiene is defined as the science and art of preserving and improving health. The purpose of hygiene is to allow a man to live in a healthy relationship with his environment.

·          It deals both with an individual and a community as a whole. To be healthy one must realize that hygiene and sanitation play a very important role.

·         Hygiene can be outlined as the practice of a few habits to maintain good health, overall. Maintenance of hygiene can be at the community level (social hygiene) or personal level (personal hygiene).

Personal hygiene: It covers physical exercise, cleanliness, sleep, proper rest, and other related practices such as keeping away from consuming alcohol, smoking, drugs, etc. Many diseases can be prevented to a great extent just by maintaining good personal hygiene.

Social hygiene: The surrounding and other public places around us is our society. An individual’s mental and physical condition is greatly influenced by a good environment. Improper, unkempt, and untidy surroundings and inappropriate ways of waste disposal in public places resulting in an unhealthy surrounding. Such practices cause an alarming growth of rodents, pathogens, and other microbes and make us unwell. Consequently, both social and personal hygiene are vital aspects.

Changing the concept of health over the period of ages

In ancient times, health fell largely under the influence of religion and was equivalent to gaining favor with deities. Religious healers believed that to achieve health, it was necessary for individuals to pray and sacrifice to the gods to propitiate them 

In several medical papyri of ancient Egypt, headaches were attributed to the actions of demons and supernatural forces that had to be appeased to be cured

In the 11th to 12th century BCE, in ancient Greece, those seeking healing would make pilgrimages to the temples of offended deities in order to appease their wrath. Some would go directly to the temple of the healing god Asclepius, where prayers and sacrifices were performed in exchange for dream cures that came while patients slept.

The rod of Asclepius, an international symbol of medicine, is a reminder of humanity’s ancient belief that health was endowed by deities of medicine and healing

The Hippocratic concept of health

The first major break from supernatural concepts of health came from the school of Hippocrates around the fifth century BCE. Considered the “Father of Modern Medicine,” Hippocrates was the first to separate Greek medicine from magical and religious beliefs and establish the relationship between environmental/personal cleanliness and the origin of diseases

Hippocrates believed that disease resulted from imbalances between four bodily fluids - black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Thus, Hippocratic medicine considered health to be a state of bodily balance that could be achieved through behavioral and medicinal actions.

While some eastern medical practices still retain elements of spirituality in medicine, all modern health practices in the developed world, including eastern medicine, rely on the Hippocratic concept of health as a product of environmental and behavioral factors.

Holistic and societal health in the Roman Empire and pre-WHO era

The scientific progress made during the era of the Roman Empire in the first century BCE to fifth century CE further transformed humanity’s understanding of health. The most prominent physician of the Roman Empire, Galen, expanded upon the Hippocratic definition of health by stating that the balance between the four bodily fluids also determined temperament and personality. Keeping with the architectural fervor of the Roman Empire, Galen also felt that a physician needed to study the whole body just as an architect needed to follow a plan 

Thus, Galen contributed to the development of a more holistic idea of health that considered the whole patient, including mental and emotional states. Moreover, the construction of freshwater aqueducts, sewer systems, and public bathing houses during the time of the Roman Empire was the first organized effort to maintain health on a population scale. Through Roman innovations in sanitation and public health, the focus of healthcare began to shift from a single individual to an entire society 

Moving towards value-based healthcare and a new definition of health

After centuries of medical advances, healthcare today is limited more by its systems of delivery and implementation than by the borders of scientific knowledge.

In other words, the underlying problem with modern healthcare in the United States is that the costs are high but the quality attained for that cost is unacceptably low. Renowned Harvard economist, Michael Porter, noting these rising costs and the uneven quality of healthcare, observed that the problem is not a lack of diligence, skill, or scientific progress, but the structure of the healthcare delivery system itself. Porter observed that healthcare providers are trying to deliver 21st-century medicine with a 19th century market-based delivery system