What is health?

What is Health?

The World Health Organization's definition of health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

So, what does that actually mean? 

Does health mean we never feel anything that is uncomfortable? Or does it have to do with all your body systems functioning properly?

Let's look at some examples:

A fever, is it a bad thing?

A fever is one of the ways your body combats illness.  A fever raises the temperature in your body making the environment inhospitable to invading bacteria or viruses.  The increased temperature will either kill or slow down the invader, thus giving the other components of your immune system time to kill and get rid them.  There has also been some research into how interferon, a product of a fever, can kill cancer cells.  Something to think about the next time you are tempted to reach for that fever reducer. 
 

 

What about a cough?

A cough is your bodies way of removing debris from your lungs.  Sometimes this debris is from the air we breathe or it could be from your body's immune system getting rid of invaders.  Without coughing, debris would gather in your lungs and make breathing quite difficult.

 

Can Pain be a good thing?

Pain is your body's way of saying, "I need help." 

When your body senses that something is not working properly, it sends signals to the brain that it needs help.  If the problem is too big for the body to fix itself or you are not listening to the cues to stop or slow down, your brain creates a pain signal.  Typically when something begins to hurt, you stop what you are doing and give the body a chance to rest and heal.  When we reach for pain relievers instead of rest, we actually can injure the body more.  Just because you can't feel the pain does not mean the injury has healed.

 

So you see, true health is about so much more than simply feeling good.