What is health?

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." At the first look this definition seems to be slightly simplified. However it does cover several levels of being human, namely our physical, mental and social well-being. After all, humans are made up of body, mind and soul. A person with perfect health conditions may not be considered as healthy if he is lacking in other aspects, for instance he has no healthy social interaction. So to be considered healthy, one must achieve well-being in all these levels.

Moreover, it states that health is not merely about the absence of disease or infirmity. It is more than just living without disease, illness or pain. In my opinion, to be healthy means to have the ease in using our body to do our activities that we want. Some of us may be more active physically and when they can perform accordingly, they are considered as healthy. On the other hand, there will be people who like to be involved in intellectual activities, when they could peform they would be considered as healthy too. This difference in desire for different activities and purpose leads to different understanding of being healthy. I guess everyone can be healthy in his own way and in the end health is associated with well-being, happiness and the feeling of contentment. Health is an objective of achieving an ideal state of perfect conditions of all aspects as a human being in order to be happy. Health is ease in living your life according to your desire and intention. It is an ideal state whereby a person is happy with his conditions in body, mind and soul. So when a person loses this ease in his life, he is considered to have a dis-ease.

There is a Chinese saying: Health is wealth. Health is as important as wealth or money if not more important. This is true as without health, wealth alone cannot bring us happiness. With health, we can be productive and this affects the future of our lives and our society. Therefore, it is said that our health is our country's wealth too.