Health

Health has now been defined by the World Health Organization as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

The two key aspects to maintaining human health are physical and mental.

Physical Health

Physical Health refers to body health or a need to keep our bodies active or physically fit along with the need to supply food or energy. This can be achieved by maintaining a proper diet and nutrition along with regular exercise. Sleep or a need to rest is also key to maintaining good body health to enable physical recovery.

Mental Health

Mental health describes a level of emotional well-being or the absence of any mental disorder. The World Health Organization defines mental health as "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. The question of whether or not an individual is mentally well and even the term mental health remains a subjective assessment.

It is reported that there are 4 general determinants that can affect your state of health including human biology, environment, lifestyle and healthcare services. Therefore it would seem that in order to maintain and/or improve your level of health this can be achieved not only through advancing understanding of health science and services but also through the choices and efforts made of the individual and society in general.

General Health

Maintaining and achieving health is a lifelong process, and effectives ways to stay and improves ones health involve a number of elements including social activity, nutrition, hygiene, stress management, healthcare, workplace wellness alongside other factors.

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals. It is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people or as large as all the inhabitants of several continents (for instance, in the case of a pandemic). Public health has many sub-fields, but is typically divided into the categories of epidemiology, biostatistics and health services. Environmental, social and behavioral health, and occupational health, are also important fields in public health.

The focus of public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities, in many cases treating a disease can be vital to preventing it in others, such as during an outbreak of an infectious disease. Vaccination programs and distribution of condoms are examples of public health measures.