Social Well Being Is Part Of Good Health

An interesting question was raised on the KevinMD blog, as to what constitutes good health; what is the definition of the term? The answer was offered by Howard Koh, MD, assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who gave the definition of good health as “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

It is an excellent point that good heath is more than just an absence of infirmity of illness. Because what may appear to be good health may not translate to future good health!

A young person who is in good shape now, but has poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle is setting themselves up for bad health later in life. A smoker may be seemingly healthy now, but who knows what deadly diseases they may face in the future!

Social health is another important factor for all over good health. For instance the elderly who have an active social life and who keep themselves engaged are seen to delay cognitive decline quite significantly.

In fact one could aptly say that for good health, the state of mind is important. Good health and happiness may not always go hand-in-hand, but if you are happy, you are more likely to be healthy, and the other way around as well!