What even is Health?

Health is a multidimensional topic that we all need constantly to be aware of. The state of our health is ever-changing and can be viewed as a sort of continuum rather than as a steady state. Think of this way, a contribution of many factors or so-called 'determinants of health,' play an intricate role in determining the health outcome of an individual or a population's overall health.

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What is extremely interesting to note; however, is that this phenomenon can vary from place to place, person to person, and by how we identify ourselves. Not everyone is the same. Our biological makeups differ from each other and you may be predisposed to a certain condition based on genetic factors which may result in the progression of a specific disease or particular health-related event.

Biological and genetic factors are a large contributor to our overall health, but numerous factors play an intricate role in determining the health of an individual or an entire population. The biggest factor in determining health is our lifestyle tendencies.

These behaviors are essentially the choices we make such as what we decide to eat, how much or how little we exercise, choosing smoke, drink, or utilize explicit drugs, among several other lifestyle choices we are constantly faced with.

Then we must also consider social conditions in the health matrix. Social conditions are merely anything outside the realm of medical care. Things such as family support, educational attainment, employment opportunities, transportation, childhood experiences, among several others.

All of these aspects of our life course play an elaborate role in determining the overall quality of life we live. Many times life creeps in and introduces things that are completely out of our control, altering the way we work, live, and play. Other times, we are granted with a choice, and we can either choose between making a healthy decision or the inverse of this, which may detrimentally impact our health.

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Health, as a multifactoral spectrum of factors, determinants, and outcomes, should be viewed along a continuum such that health promotion programs and interventions can be implemented to help combat the worst risk factors associated with the worst effects. Health is an immense topic that is always under constant review and investigation.

It remains pertinent to study health in this manner so that new innovations can be developed to help improve health on all levels. Targeting one aspect of health, but forgetting about the others would be like only watering the grass when it rains. It doesn't make sense because there are a number of pathways or mechanisms by which a specific health outcome can be attained. Some outcomes may be quite rapid and others may be a slow manifestation which chronically develop over time.

Regardless of the pathway, it is important to know what factors play a role in determining health. Now, we must consider how to connects the dots by building upon knowledge in the field and incrementally linking series of distinct case studies to pinpoint the intermediates of pathways across the varying disciplines of health.