If you want to be healthier, it's pretty important you know what that means.

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Know thy self, know thy enemy, 100 battles, 100 victories - Sun Tzu

The word health is thrown around so much I think it's time we remind ourselves of its definition and origin. If you are pursuing a healthier life, it's pretty important you know what that means.

The 'Health and Fitness' industry is growing at an incredible rate at the moment. Even though obesity rates are high, more people are becoming aware of how important being healthy is...

But what exactly does health mean?
Am I healthy because I exercise 5 times a week?
Or because I eat brocolli?
And how much brocolli do I have to eat to be scientifically labelled as healthy?

In a time when we are being told to "live a healthy lifestyle" it's concerning how many people don't actually know what that means, so I'm going to shed some light on the topic.

All of the information I am sharing was taught to me at Newcastle University in Australia, where I did a 'Introduction to Wellness' course. I got a lot out of it and recommend it to anyone working in the public health sectors.

What is health?

Prior to World War 2, the world was a very different place. The issues that face us today like obesity and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) were far less prevalent back then. They were instead replaced with issues of malnutrition at the opposite end of the spectrum. A lack of food and nutrients.

Prior to WW2 the definition of healthy was, "The lack of disease or infirmity"...

I'm not one who thinks bigger is better, but you have to admit it is a bit small.

An obese person who smokes daily and drinks alcohol is, by this definition, still healthy because he has no obvious disease that ales him.

Obviously this wouldn't be considered the case today.

So what changed?

Society evolved rapidly after WW2. The atrocities that had occurred could never be allowed to happen again so once the war had ended many organisations were started to keep the world on track. The most popular being the United Nations (UN). Another popular one is the World Health Organisation (WHO) who was responsible for, you guessed it, the worlds health.

At this time the increase in modern 'creature comforts' increased time spent sitting with less physical work/exercise, and walking was swapped out for driving in a car. Not only this but manufactured food production went through the roof!

I'm not sure if this is a real poster or just someone having a joke (I hope it's the latter), but it captures the issue perfectly

As we look at these factors now, it's no surprise the western world is so overweight. Back then we didn't know any better.

But as the world changed after WW2 governments and the WHO (world health organisation) realised that people where getting more diseases, many of them preventable through correct diet and exercise.

It became obvious that the old definition of healthy,

The lack of disease or infirmity

wouldn't quite cut it anymore.

People who lacked disease were acquiring it through negative lifestyle choices!

So a new definition was needed and it was given to the world by Rene Dubos, a microbiologist, in 1968. He had just recently published a book titles "So Human and Animal" covering the state of human 'health' and how it would evolve as society and technology evolved.

In this book was the following line...

“Health is a quality of life, involving social,

emotional, mental, spiritual and biological fitness on

the part of the individual, which results from

adaptations to the environment”.

This elegant little beauty would later be used by the WHO to replace the existing meaning of health.

So lets break it down!

The definition breaks health down into characturistics found in those who are 'healthy':

• Social - Having healthy relationships with others
• Emotional - Being happy and feeling fulfilled from your life
• Mental - Being able to learn new things, as well as having a healthy world view and career goals
• Spiritual - This one is hard to define, but feeling at one with your place in the universe
• Biological fitness - This covers the physical body, so having well conditioned muscles and a strong, properly working heart

Health evolved from a simple physical state, to one encompassing all the different aspects of life. It's also worth noting that a lot of these are hard to measure... How do you measure how spiritually healthy someone is? Is it because they believe in a god? This is where the definition requires personal evaluation on the part of the individual.

Well, that all seems pretty straight forward, but what about that part on the end...

“Health is a quality of life, involving social,
emotional, mental, spiritual and biological fitness on
the part of the individual, which results from
adaptations to the environment”.

Health is not a passive process

This definition shows health as an active process, on the part of the individual to uphold. And this active process takes place in the form of adaptations to the environment.

Let's have a look at an example.

You aren't one to normally take much food in to work, and as a result when you finish you are often starving and craving a sugary treat which you give in to more often than not.

Is this 'healthy'? It isn't the worst thing you could do for your body, but it certainly isn't making an adaptation to the environment that improves your biological fitness.

I hope this post has cleared up what health is defined as today. And how exercise alone doesn't make you healthy, but a combination of good social, emotional, mental, spiritual and physical lifestyle practices do.

Thank you for reading my post! If anyone has any questions or would like to add to the conversation in the comments please do. Upvote, follow and resteem to show support, I appreciate it more than you know!

If you would like to see my introduction to vlogging, and My Mission on Steemit you can find it here

Much love, harrynewman