A concept of health that merely points to the absence of disease is not capable of encompassing all that true well-being, physical and mental, entails.
- To be well or not to be well in terms of health
- Being healthy: what is salutogenesis and pathogenesis
- Life habits to be well and enjoy health
- A life option
The WHO defines “health” as a state of physical, mental and social well-being, but who reaches that state?
Sometime someone in some orgasm or in the state of enlightenment, but sticking to this definition the rest of the time the rest of the people are sick. You just have to classify the disease so that it enters social security and retires by collecting a total or partial useless pay.
However, the concept of health can be very broad or narrow depending on the person, their culture, their possibilities or their social insurance. It’s relative, like the feeling of well-being.
TO BE WELL OR NOT TO BE WELL IN TERMS OF HEALTH
There are those who are well despite suffering from a serious and of course fatal illness (they die even being “healthy”) and there are those who live without well-being even if they have not been diagnosed with any disease.
Health is a state of adaptation, an ability to survive the vicissitudes of life until death comes, it is a balance to survive. Even the disease would only be a reaction in search of that balance.
The body always tends to survive as long as possible and in the best possible conditions.
There is a concept of “social security” health, of really sick people to whom no matter what happens they do not give them leave even for their burial, although there are also those who become sick so as not to work one day without another with a thousand excuses. And many times, the two terms are confused.
BEING HEALTHY: WHAT IS SALUTOGENESIS AND PATHOGENESIS
Today the term “salutogenesis” is beginning to be used, which means the opposite of “pathogenesis”.
Salutogenic is a health diagnosis according to which there are different types of health, just as there are different types of disease.
The overall diagnosis of health depends on heredity, on our good relationship with the environment and with others, on our degree of satisfaction with life, on our ability to adapt to the external and internal world, on our capacity for spirituality.
And there are types of health. Even many of the pathologies that we have defined as diseases would actually be the opposite: a healthy reaction of adaptation in order to recover and maintain health.
Health depends on the environment, behavior, culture and mental conditions to accept life.
And with all these definitions, there is only one that defines you as someone who is healthy: the perception you have about yourself.
LIFE HABITS TO BE WELL AND ENJOY HEALTH
The option of a long life is forged at every moment, preparing to live, as the Arabic proverb says, “as if it were the last day and as if it were going to live a thousand years“.
Wanting to live many years and healthy is a normal aspiration. Medical systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda are based on it. We know that we cannot be immortal, but there are those who manage to live healthy for more than a hundred years.
In genetics it has been observed that longevity is related to the length of telomeres, the distal part of chromosomes. These, with each cell division, shorten and there comes a time when they no longer divide or do poorly, which can cause tumors or other diseases.
Epigenetics studies the external situations that influence telomere lengthening.
And there are types of health. Even many of the pathologies that we have defined as diseases would actually be the opposite: a healthy reaction of adaptation in order to recover and maintain health.
Health depends on the environment, behavior, culture and mental conditions to accept life.
And with all these definitions, there is only one that defines you as someone who is healthy: the perception you have about yourself.
LIFE HABITS TO BE WELL AND ENJOY HEALTH
The option of a long life is forged at every moment, preparing to live, as the Arabic proverb says, “as if it were the last day and as if it were going to live a thousand years“.
Wanting to live many years and healthy is a normal aspiration. Medical systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda are based on it. We know that we cannot be immortal, but there are those who manage to live healthy for more than a hundred years.
In genetics it has been observed that longevity is related to the length of telomeres, the distal part of chromosomes. These, with each cell division, shorten and there comes a time when they no longer divide or do poorly, which can cause tumors or other diseases.
Epigenetics studies the external situations that influence telomere lengthening.
A LIFE OPTION
A long and happy life is the result of personal choice in matters such as food, exercise and how to cope with adversity.
I remember the end of Zorba’s novel, Kazantzakis’ Greek. The vital Zorba, about to die says: “Many things I did in my life; However, they have not been enough. Men like me should live a thousand years.” Then he gets up and leans out the window, attached to the frame, contemplates the mountains in the distance, opens his eyes inordinately, throws a laugh and neighs like a foal. A life full to the last breath, an instant of life, a spark of eternity in the infinite time of the universe.
