9781422273876

What Is Health, Anyway?

The concept of health has historically been understood to mean “a lack of disease or injury.” Consequently, societies have generally viewed medicine as a process of removal— ending illnesses, repairing injured body parts, and so on— generally getting rid of whatever obstacles are standing in the way of a person’s health. But in the past generation or so, our understanding of health has expanded. Rather than only viewing health in terms of the negative (not negative in the sense of “bad,” but in the sense of “absence”), we’ve also started talking about health in a positive sense. In addition to asking how we can eliminate disease, we’ve begun asking new questions: What can we add to our lives to improve health? What proactive steps can we take? This is why experts argue that societies need to put more focus on preventive care. Whether it’s vaccinations or nutrition, oftentimes the best way to stay healthy is to take action before illness is present. Being in good health is understood to mean more than “not feeling bad.”

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