Most of us are used to the idea that ill health is a disability or deformity. So the absence of such disability or deformity describes what good health is to the person but that is not completely true because there are instances when there is an absence of deformity and disability, yet, people are not in good health.
So the question which keeps popping up every time is; what is good health? Good health is described or explained as the synergy between the physical self, the social self, the cultural self, the political self and the spiritual self.
What does this mean? Remember that we all come from somewhere and that the human being has been described as a political animal, so, that condition of health that allows one to participate fully, adequately in one’s cultural activities, social activities, economic activities, political activities and religious activities is what is referred to as good health.
Let us for emphasis, make the following points; imagine that a couple live together and every day they keep quarrelling, it means both of them cannot find a common ground for peaceful coexistence, such persons cannot be said to be in good health but funnily enough, this never occurs to many of us. Also, imagine that you work in an office and every time you come late to work, you are told that resumption time is 8 am yet you find a reason to come to work by 9 am every day. You cannot be said to be in good health.
There is a saying that says ‘if every time people meet, and you are the only person complaining or being complained about, then check, there must be something wrong with you’.
Again, that tells you how culturally and socially, we must be seen to be properly integrated, otherwise, we cannot be said to be in good health and this is what makes you understand that anti-social behaviour such as lying, backbiting, thievery, vandalism, stealing, thuggery, poor hygienic condition also show a lack of good health.
It is when we look at health from these perspectives that we will come to understand that there is more to health than just disability or dysfunction.
Having explained these, we need to know that there are certain determinant traits that can help us to remain in good health. The two major factors that can account for these are the food we eat and the lifestyle we live.
With these factors, it is obvious that we are the ones that can largely determine whether we will be in good health or bad health because we determine what we eat and the lifestyle we live.
Apart from these two points, we also need to take into consideration things like genetics, hereditary. There are certain things we inherit from our parents such as the colour of our eyes, hair, skin, height, body size.
Some of these inherited traits are actually not good for good health. This means that if we inherit bad traits, we will have to struggle with those genes and do a lot to overcome the ill health conditions that connect with such issues.
For example; people who are naturally on the big size can have serious health issues. This is because excess weight is prone to cardiovascular diseases and also diseases of the joint.
Another thing that determines good or bad health is the health system that is in place at any given point in time. For example, if there is immunization for children, such kids will definitely fare better than those ones that are in a place where such facilities are not available.
If you have a good functional health facility where you live, it means you will be prevented from getting ill because education will be there and you will also be treated on time, therefore, there will be less money and fewer complications. Even if you approach the health facility at a later stage, they will be able to make the problem connected to your health less bothersome.
So, when you take these factors into play, you will come to appreciate the fact that our health is in our hands.
We must try as much as possible to take advantage of preventive medicine, don’t wait until you are down before you do the right thing when it comes to your health.
There are a lot of preventive activities going on all over the place, for instance immunization is there, and there is virtually immunization for all the things we want. Another thing we must do when it comes to prevention, is to find out what are the things that can lead one to having health problems so that one can avoid them.
Let us use diseases of the heart and the vessels referred to as cardiovascular diseases, there are things we refer to as risk factors, some of them depend on us while some are independent of our own actions. The ones that are independent of our actions are things like age, gender, genetics and race. For instance, the older we become, the more frequent it is to find people who have hypertension, ischemic heart disease, stroke, rheumatism, rheumatoid problems and the rest of them.
This means that quite early in life, we should take steps to ensure that we don’t get into trouble because whether we like it or not we must age because aging does not depend on us, it is a natural process. Men are more prone because of their risky behaviours to getting into accidents or alcoholism. We also do not determine whether we are going to be born male or female or what kind of parents we will get or what these parents will bequeath to us in terms of health risks. The same thing for race, because we do not determine whether we will be born black or white. Blacks for instance exhibit serious tendency when it comes to stroke, hypertension or other heart related diseases. This simply means that some health issues do not depend on us, they only thing we can do is to attenuate them.
There are some risk factors which we should be cognizant with, that can prevent them from leading us to the real health issues include the following;
Lack of physical activity; this is very rampant with the females particularly the married ones. Once a lady gets married, gives birth to one or three kids, before one knows it, the weight becomes excessive and the abdomen becomes very big, she does not move around much again and all these are what lead to heart problems. Women must learn to be physically active, not necessarily doing stressful workouts but should rather reduce what they take into their body particularly soluble carbohydrates. Simple workouts such as jogging, rope skipping can go a long way in helping them to keep fit.
Excessive consumption of alcohol should be put in check because this can only increase your blood sugar thereby making one diabetic. Also tobacco smoking should be stopped because it can only destroy your kidney and liver. There is no aspect of smoking that is useful to the body.
We must also remember that that excess cholesterol can clog the blood vessels and once they are clogged, blood pressures will go up and the blood vessels become brittle, then comes heart attacks, strokes, blindness and kidney problems. Preventing these on our own will help us a lot because acquiring negative traits depends on how we handle it.
It is important that we take preventive measures, things like the clothes we wear can be bad for our health, for example, tight clothes makes respiration difficult or putting on thick clothes when the weather is hot can make one sweat excessively and as a result, there is no proper gaseous exchange and it can expose one to diseases like lung problem or pneumonia.
These must be put into consideration in order to achieve good health because it is only when we look at health in this manner, that we can be able to appreciate prevention. We should also visit health facilities at least twice every year where we can check our blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, height, weight and learn how to manage these figures properly.
