Holistic Health
Aging myths, hmmm, let’s see, … is this about some very old myths? Well, yes and no. All a bit cryptic isn’t it. I’ve noticed that a lot of information about aging is rather difficult to decipher. Why is that, I wonder?
I think part of the problem is that many theories abound about aging but the truth is no one really understands it. That is hard enough to understand for some people. Many hold the view that since one can see evidence of aging all around us, surely medical scientists have a good understanding of it even if they can’t quite figure out how to stop it.
Again, the truth is, no one really understands it. So the first myth is that aging is understood and that scientists know all the secrets to stoping the clock. The reality is that a great deal is known but that doesn’t always help. Sounds strange doesn’t it? Let me explain.
Well here we are at Part 5 of this series on the dimensions of health. We ended Part 4 with a promise to explore the very determinants of physical health. So that is what we shall do.
Recall that last time we noted that physical health related quite simply to the body and that a state of health was akin to being normal. We further noted that normal could be understood in both statistical and functional terms. It is worth knowing that normal doesn’t mean perfect.
I want to remind everyone following this series that we are deliberately taking a western, and therefore somewhat unavoidably, reductionist approach at this stage. This means that over time we will establish a catalog of related and explored concepts and have a view of health that details several dimensions largely in isolation from one another. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to stitch the dimensions into one whole again later.
Here we are at Part 4 where we’ll begin to consider the physical dimension of health. I have waited almost a week since Part 3 to allow plenty of time for you to think through the concepts covered so far. Recall that in the last installment we considered health as something we could consider as occupying various places on a continuum.
Essentially, I wanted to achieve two things. I wanted you to see a way that we could conceptualize varying degrees or levels or even amounts of health and I wanted to make crystal clear that health and disease are entirely separate concepts and not actually opposites of one another.
Sometimes I do laugh at media reports about health and medicine. More frequently these days they are too disturbing and ludicrous to laught at. A media report about medical research in India finding value in the use of vitamin C to combat the effects of smoking, provides a classic illustration of just how far from holistic understandings of health medical thinking can go.
The article, by Kounteya Sinha, appeared in the health section of the India Times. It reported on research findings at Calcutta University’s Dr B C Guha Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. You can find the article here http://health.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1231855.cms
Have you completed your assigned reading? Relax, just kidding. I do hope that you have at least read the first and second Parts to this series. If you haven’t, why not do it now? It will cost some of the most valuable thing you "have", namely time, but nothing else, so go ahead.
Ready to move on? Good; here we go then with Part 3 of this series exploring the dimensions of health.
Recall that we concluded Part 2 with mention of a continuum as a concept we could apply to health. Or is it that we apply health to the continuum? No matter, let’s just see how we may use the ideas together.