What is it all the same – health? How to imagine it? There are many definitions – from children’s “Health is when nothing hurts” to the scientific formulated by the World Health Organization: “Health is not only the absence of disease and infirmity, but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.”
For most people, health is a normal state that we are usually not aware of or do not pay attention to, no matter how we think about our breathing, about how our heart beats. Someone wisely said: “The feeling of health is acquired only after an illness.” This “invisibility” of his can cause a thoughtless attitude to his own health, which turns out to be fatal for many.
The most primitive and widespread understanding of health is the state of the body when there is no disease. Even doctors often act on it: “No disease – healthy, we have nothing to do with you. When you get sick, come. ” But health is not something permanent and unchanging. It also needs attention and control. Health must be maintained and strengthened. I think that in the future, when the main concern of medicine will be to prevent the disease, and not to cure it, the doctor will keep not a “medical history”, but a “health history”.
Diseases have been studied to the genetic-molecular level, and many even doctors know little about health and do not want to deal with them: “There is no time for health, there is no time and energy to cope with diseases.” In addition, healthy people do not go to doctors. Therefore, doctors at all times mainly dealt with the sick and studied diseases. Another academician of medicine N.M. Amosov admitted: “All doctors are specialists in diseases, not health.” Although in the word “health care” the main meaning is indicated: health protection, not the treatment of diseases.
There are international health ratings, which are compiled annually based on the following indicators: life expectancy, infant mortality rate, the number of cigarettes and alcohol consumed, physical activity and the environment. The first three places in this rating in 2012 were taken by Singapore, Italy and Australia. Russia was in 97th place in the list of 145 countries and regions.
An interesting tablet was published in one of the magazines showing the results of an international survey of groups of people comparable in age and social status from different European countries. All respondents were asked to assess their health. The details and conditions of the survey were not disclosed, so it is difficult to judge their objectivity, but according to the results presented, the share of people assessing their health as good was in different countries:
I think these numbers reflect certain differences between people from different countries, both in health status and in the understanding of what it means, as well as differences in health culture and lifestyle.
Sad data were obtained during the recent medical examination (preventive examinations) of the population of Russia, which covered about 17 million people. The results showed that only slightly more than 30% of the examined persons are practically healthy.
Today, based on the generalization of numerous studies in the field of epidemiology and etiology of most human diseases, it can be argued that more than 80% of opportunities to maintain health depend on your own will and behavior, 15 – on the society and environment in which you live, and only 5% – from a doctor. Therefore, the preservation of health should be ensured primarily by their own knowledge and efforts, the role of doctors is secondary here.
And it is also very important to understand that health given to us from nature, from birth, cannot be preserved, it must be developed and maintained constantly. Lack of attention and care for him is one of the most common initial causes of many diseases.
And one more important pattern: many diseases and ailments of old age arise in youth. At the initial stages, within 10-30 years, they can proceed without noticeable symptoms, inconveniences and sensations (atherosclerosis, many tumors, etc.). At the same time, with attention to their health, they could be timely prevented or stopped their development.