Many diseases and conditions can be prevented by eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, and avoiding bad habits like smoking. Physical activity is also important for health.
Some people may think that luck or family history determines their health, but the truth is that most people have more control over their own health than they realize.
Definition
Health impacts upon the ability of individuals to contribute to society in a variety of ways. It influences the functioning of economic systems, schools, workplaces and other social institutions. Whether this impact is beneficial or detrimental depends on how health is defined.
Defining health is a difficult task. It is important that definitions are not too broad and are able to distinguish between factors that cause better or worse health. A purely contextual definition of health could imply that all outcomes within a population are healthy, which is not a desirable goal. Instead, a definition should be able to distinguish between the experiences of individuals and the capacities that they have to cope with life events. This can be achieved by defining health as the balance of physical and mental well-being in adapting to life circumstances.
Causes
Many health problems are caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites. Infections cause illness and sometimes death, especially in people who already are sick or weak from another illness.
Other causes of ill-health are related to people’s physical environment, family structure, social support networks, education, work conditions, economic well-being, and living conditions. These factors are known as the determinants of health and disease.
Health promotion focuses on behavior change to improve health, often targeting specific risk behaviors such as smoking, diet, exercise, drug abuse control, and injury prevention. Yet behavior is a response to broader forces, and therefore interventions that directly target behavior may not achieve their desired results. Moreover, the biologic pathways through which poverty or low social class influence health remain unclear.
Symptoms
Many illnesses have obvious symptoms, such as a dangerously high fever or constant vomiting. But others are more subtle. They might include dramatic changes in your sleep or appetite, a drop in work or school performance and irritability. Symptoms help doctors understand what is happening inside your body and are vital tools in diagnosing illness.
Symptoms can be present at the time of diagnosis or may occur later. Some symptoms are recurrent or ongoing, like a persistent cough or diarrhea. Others appear and disappear, such as the flu or a cold.
Use this symptom checker to find out what could be causing your health problems. The symptom checker compares your symptoms to those in the Isabel database and suggests possible conditions. Symptoms are rated by severity.
Prevention
Many health problems can be prevented by taking action to decrease risk factors or increase protective factors. Examples include: taking HIV medications every day to prevent infection (PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis therapy); wearing a seatbelt in a car; following a healthy diet and exercising regularly; and having regular blood screening tests.
Changing the environment can also help to prevent some health problems. This includes making sure that children are immunized, and limiting exposure to substances that can lead to mental illness.
Several governing bodies make prevention recommendations, such as the US Preventive Services Task Force for vaccinations, and the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative for sexually transmitted infections. A framework based on Gordon’s classifying prevention into universal, selective and indicated has also been adopted. The latter focuses on interventions in subgroups identified as having elevated vulnerability, while the former aims to reduce the likelihood of disorder in everyone.