Health and its meaning

What does "healthy" mean?

Ask a friend if they are healthy. They may say, "Yes, I am not ill." That is a start, but it is not the whole answer.

Health is a state of being well enough to function well, in three ways:

• Physically: the body works well. You can run, study, eat and sleep without trouble.
• Mentally: the mind is at ease. You can think clearly, learn and deal with worry.
• Socially: you get on with the people around you, and you can take part in the life of your family and your community.

A person who has all three is healthy. A person who is short of one of them is not fully healthy, even if no doctor has found a disease.

Health is more than no disease

Think of Gopal. He has no fever and no pain. But he is lonely, worried all day, and cannot sleep. He is not physically ill, yet he is not healthy.

So health is not just the absence of disease. It means a good state of body, mind and social life together.

This is why a teacher, a doctor, a neighbour and a friend can all help to keep a person healthy. Each one looks after a different part.

Personal health and community health

Your health depends on you. You wash your hands, eat well and sleep enough. This is personal health.

But it also depends on the people and the place around you. Think of a village with a blocked drain. Dirty water collects, and children living near it fall ill again and again. Washing their own hands will not be enough. The whole village has to clear the drain. This is community health.

Here are the things around us that decide how healthy we are.

• Clean water. Water that is free of harmful microbes keeps people well.
• Clean surroundings. Public cleanliness, with drains that work and rubbish that is removed, matters for every house.
• Food. Enough food, and the right kind, is needed to stay strong. Food that is available only to some people leaves others weak.
• Work and money. A person who has a job and an income can buy food, pay for a doctor and live in a better house. A person who cannot find work is more likely to fall ill.
• Social equality and harmony. People who are treated fairly, and who live in peace with their neighbours, are less worried and healthier. Quarrels and unfair treatment harm health.

Because these things are shared, a community can improve the health of everyone at once. A new tap that gives clean water helps every family in a street.

A health score game

The game below turns these ideas into a number. Rate four parts of a person's life, and see the score. It is only an invented game to show that several things add up. It is not a medical test.

Try it in Python

The program rates four parts of life and finds the score as a percentage of the best possible.

Practise with new numbers

Common mistakes

• "If I have no disease, I am healthy." Health also means a good state of mind and a good social life.
• "Health is only my own business." Clean water, drains and public cleanliness are shared, so the community matters too.
• "A person with money cannot be unhealthy." Money helps, but one needs good food, clean surroundings and a peaceful mind as well.
• "Mental health is not real health." It is one of the three parts of health, with physical and social health.

Remember these

• Health is being well enough to function well physically, mentally and socially.
• Health is more than the absence of disease.
• Personal health depends on what a person does. Community health depends on the place and the people.
• Clean water, clean surroundings, enough food, work and money, and social equality and harmony all affect health.
• A community can improve everyone's health together, for example with a clean water supply.

Check yourself

Try each one on your own first. If you are stuck, open a hint. Then check with Show the answer.

1. Name the three parts of health.

2. Meena has no disease, but she is always anxious and she has no friends. Is she fully healthy?

3. Why is washing your own hands not enough to keep children living beside a blocked drain well?

4. How can a person's job affect their health?

5. Give two things in a community that help everyone to stay healthy.