Download What Is Health?

What Is Health?
Defining Health
 Health – combination of your physical,
mental/emotional, and social well-being.
 Your personal level of health affects
everything about you.
 Your health affects:
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How you look
How you feel
How you act
Affects your attitudes and performance
Affects how you feel about yourself
How successful you are in your relationships
Help determine some of your goals and how
you accomplish them
 Health is not an absolute state.
 Being healthy means striving to be the
best you can be at any given time.
Three Elements of Your
Health
 Physical Health
 Is the way the parts and systems of your
body work together.
 How your body has the ability to cope with
the stresses of normal daily life.
 Having strength and energy to pursue
physical, mental, emotional, and social
challenges and changes.
 To gain or maintain physical health, you
need to have proper:
 Nutrition
 Regular physical activity
 Enough rest and sleep
 Need to practice good hygiene to prevent
disease.
 Getting regular medical and dental
checkups.
 Resisting harmful substances.
Mental and Emotional
Health
 Includes your feelings about yourself
about your self.
 How well you relate to others.
 How well you meet the demands of daily
life.
 Mental health also calls for a person to
use his or her mind to develop thinking
skills.
 Individuals with good mental health enjoy
learning and strive for understanding.
 See mistakes as opportunities to learn,
grow, and change.
 Accept responsibility for their actions and
stand up for their beliefs and values.
 A person with good emotional health is in
touch with their feelings and expresses
them in appropriate healthful ways.
 Avoid dwelling on negative thoughts, but
instead consider their situation and then
use positive thoughts and actions.
Social Health
 Involves the way you get along with
others.
 It includes an individuals ability to:
 Make and keep friends
 Work and play in cooperative ways
 Seeking and lending support when
necessary
 It involves:
 Communicating
 Showing respect and care for yourself and
others.
Your Health Triangle
 The three elements of health are
interconnected like the sides of a triangle.
 When one side receives too much or too
little attention, the other sides change as
well.
 The triangle can become lopsided and
unbalanced.
 To be truly healthy you need to try to
keep all three sides of your health
triangle in balance.
The Health Continuum
 A person with a balanced life is said to
have a high degree of wellness.
 Wellness – an overall state of well-being,
or total health.
 It comes from a way of living each day
that includes making decisions and
practicing behaviors that are based on
sound health knowledge and healthful
attitudes.
 It is an ongoing, lifelong commitment to
physical, mental/emotional, and social
health.
 Your health is dynamic.
 Advertising and television
 Pressures from friends
 Fluctuates along a continuum.
 Like a yardstick
 Many different points along this continuum.
 From day to day, year to year you
experience different levels of total health.
 Sudden or gradual changes.
Lifestyle Factors
 Lifestyle factors are personal behaviors
and habits related to the way a person
lives, that help determine his or her level
of health.
 The following are important lifestyle
factors:
 1. Get between seven and eight hours of
sleep per night.
 2. Eat nutritious foods from various food
groups each day.
 3. Refrain from smoking and using
tobacco products.
 4. Do 20 to 30 minutes of nonstop
vigorous activity a minimum of three
times a week.
 5. Do not use alcohol or other drugs.
 6. Maintain your recommended weight.
Your Attitudes, Your
Health
 Your attitude also affects how well you
take care of yourself.
 You also need to become aware of your
overall attitude, or outlook, on life since
this can play a major roe in both your
quality of life and your health.
 Optimists are less likely to suffer illness
and die young than pessimists.
Wellness and Prevention
 Prevention – practicing healthy habits to
keep a person well and free from disease
and other ailments.
The Importance of Health
Education
 Health Education – is providing of
accurate health information in such a way
as to influence people to change
attitudes so that they take positive action
about their health.
 NOT JUST LEARNING HEALTH
FACTS!!
Being Health Literate
 Health Literacy – describes an
individual’s capacity to obtain, interpret,
and understand basic health information
and services and use such information
and services in ways that promote his or
her health and wellness.
 To be health literate a person must be:
 1. A critical thinker and problem solver.
 2. A responsible, productive citizen.
 3. A self-directed learner.
 4. An effective communicator.