Exploring Health Definitions and Theoretical Foundations of Illness

This essay delves into the definition of health, framing it as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and explores the theoretical underpinnings of various interpretations of health and illness. It emphasizes that health extends beyond mere physical fitness to encompass emotional and financial well-being, highlighting the importance of mental health and stress management. The essay further examines how individual behaviors, such as alcohol consumption, eating habits, exercise, and smoking, significantly impact health, detailing the consequences of both healthy and unhealthy practices. It also considers the role of social practices, including socialization and the influence of one's surroundings, in shaping health outcomes, discussing how these practices are interconnected through materials, competences, and meanings. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of understanding these factors in promoting overall health and well-being.

How do we define health?
And what are the theoretical
underpinnings of different
interpretation of health and
illness

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Heath is said to be the physical condition of an individual in which they are in complete
physical, mental and social wellness. This excludes the times in which they are suffering from a
disease due to infirmity and absence. This essay will explain the theoretical underpinnings of the
different state of health and illness. In explains how the behaviour of the individual effects their
health.
MAIN BODY
Health is one of the most important thing. Health is the wide subject and it does not only
refers to physical health but it also includes emotional well being. If an individual is physically
healthy and not mentally then they cannot be said as the healthy person. There are healthcare
people which are there to help people so that they can become healthy (Williams and et.al.,
2019). Health is the condition when an individual feels that he or she is mentally, physically or
socially fit and is also not suffering from any disease. Being healthy is not the one time process
but is the continuous process. When an individual have healthy lifestyle then they can easily
achieve their health related goals like getting physical fitness, cacheing mental peace etc. mental
health is more important then physical health. If the person is mentally unfit then it will also
reflect on his or her physical fitness. Mental health is associated with mind. So an individual
should make sure that they should have not take stress or tension which disturbs their mental
fitness. There is also the new term which means financial health. It is observed that people who
have good finances have less stress because they do not worry about money. With the help of
money they can buy anything they want. At least they do not have to rush for regular necessities.
When it comes to physical health then the person who exercises daily, takes balanced meal or do
not take stress will have good health.
There are always medical staff which can help individual to achieve physical fitness if they has
lost it. Physical wellness means getting healthy lifestyle so that risks of diseases can be reduced.
It is well said that good health will start within. If an individual will eat nutritious or healthy food
then they will remain healthy. It is very important that one takes care of their health. After that
mental health which has become the subject to discuss nowadays. Attaining mental health is as
necessary as attaining physical health is. Depression is the main reason of an individual to get
mentally sick. To come out from depression one should do exercise or can do fun activity which

can release their stress. In these competitive world getting depression is very easy. It has found
that there are many youngsters which are fighting with depression. Youngsters should enjoy their
life and work with their full potential rather getting depressed all the time (Alvidrez and et.al.,
20190. To preserve mental health one should always think positive and not negative and to
preserve physical health one should start eating healthy and avoid unhealthy food.
The health of an individual gets affected a lot due to certain behaviour of the
individuals which involve drinking alcohol, eating, taking exercises and also smoking. These are
generally not human behaviour rather they are some broad domain which affects the activities of
that can be reproduced or transformed with the help of re-enactment of the performances of
specific social practices, coordination and synchronization across the space and time. For
example those individuals which consume alcohol (Nettleton, 2020). That is the consumption of
ethanol, the amount of ethanol taken by the individual determines the level of drunk they are,
which can cause different affects on the people. Drinking too much alcohol is considered to be
very harmful for the Liver of humans. The different eating habits of the individuals also affect
the health as, excessive eating of fat can cause obesity, the cases of which has increased a lot in
the last decade. Obesity that happens due to taking excessive fat containing food affects the
individual's health in many ways. It is considered to be the reason for cardiac arrest which is
commonly known as heart attack. The obese patients also suffer from diabetes and many other
diseases. Smoking which is common in the new generation in the current times is also
responsible for effecting the health of many individuals. Smoking is considered to be one of the
main threat to the lung cancer. Health is not always physical some health practices are also the
part of mental aspects of the individual. For the mental health the practices which are important
for an individual are the socialization, involvement in social activities, fulfilling their basic needs
and also their surrounding people (Ibeneme and et.al., 2017).
The theories of practices which affects the human health have been described by many
experts of the field. The analysis of these experts explain the consequences for the characteristics
of the everyday practices of the individuals. Some ordinary habits which are discussed are
smoking, eating, commuting and watching TV. The social practices of the individuals like
cycling to the work has a symbolic meaning to it, this generates generic elements into the
symbolic meaning in the form of competence and practical ways of improving health. An
activity like that is considered very healthy because it helps the individual to stay fit even

without having to give additional time to the activities which they have to do otherwise in order
to achieve the level of fitness. This behaviour improves the health of the individuals whereas
there are other scenarios were the health of the individuals get effected negatively. For example
eating junk food in daily basis. The junk food which is generally food which contains high level
of fat is not healthy for an individual as it is responsible for growing the level of fat. Increased
body fat is bad for the health of the individuals and can cause different issues including diabetes
and cardiac arrest. In some scenarios it has been seen that the health of an individual is effected
by the surrounding people. The support some people get is good for the health for example, those
who can cook. Cooking healthy food results in healthy eating. Some individuals get influenced
into fitness due to the people which surround them and some can start learning bad habits like
smoking and drinking due to their surroundings (Kuang and Wilson, 2017).
Some elements of social practices which affects the health of the individual are
interconnected with one another. Their ongoing integration depend on the three basic elements
which are, materials, competences and meanings. The material elements can be explained by the
example of smoking as how the due to the regular integration of cigarettes, matches and lighters
affect the health of an individual. Consideration of this on a broader scale includes the tobacco
crops and factories, the transportation system that is used for the logistics of tobacco and the
economy that allows the sale of such product (US Department of Health and Human Services,
2018). The element of competence explains how the individuals learn the practice of smoking or
generate the habit of smoking which affects their health in the long run. This happens mostly due
to the surrounding of the individuals which influences them to develop this kind of habit.
Fashion trends also influences the individuals to start smoking as in today's generation most
people try to copy their role models. Meaning element affects the individual's habit as some
people who believe that smoking is a socially accepted phenomenon start to believe that smoking
is a normal habit and socially accepted. This is the general culture of those people who believe
that it represents relaxation, sociability, masculinity and glamour. These trends in the fashion
influences young people generally for getting involved such activities (Mjøsund and Eriksson,
2021).
Drinking habits of individual and excessive junk food eating habits of the people effect
their health very poorly. Their ongoing interactive also depends on the three basic elements. The
material elements for this drinking can be explained as the availability of the alcoholic products

to it consumers. The health of the individual is affected because people can drink only in places
were it is available. In the larger scale the companies which produce these products are also
responsible for the increasing the intake of alcoholic products. The surrounding of the individual
plays an important role in their habit which include drinking. Some individuals which considers
drinking as a fashion trends are the ones which generally gets influenced by the drinking habits.
For some individuals eating a lot of junk food or food containing high fat is also affecting their
health. The material element of the individual which eat a lot of fat is influenced by the
availability of the high fat food which is available in their society. The resources which the
people have also influences their eating habits. For some individuals eating habits are effected
due to their profession. For example and individual which is into sports and athletic activities is
less likely to have an unhealthy diet. Some individuals which have the habit of doing exercises
for their own health benefits are also influenced due to some reasons. The material elements for
exercising would be the availability of equipment and resources which are required by an
individual for doing exercises. These individuals when have the required resources are then able
to do exercises. In some scenarios the surrounding of these individuals or their profession also
plays a very strong role in their motivation for exercising. Sports are also very effective ways of
maintaining fitness which is good for the health of an individual in more ways than one (Critical
Public health, 2016).
Speaking about the health, the important things for an individual to know and consider
are the unhealthy activities. Not having enough water for a given period is also considered to be
unhealthy as water is one of the most important element required by human body. The human
body is made 70% out of water. For the functions of the human body to work properly it is very
important that the individuals stay hydrated as it helps them to keep sharp memory and stable
mind. Dehydration can result in many diseases as water helps in cleaning the toxic elements to
flush out of the human body. Late night eating is not good for the health because it gives the
body less time to process the food taken. The longer the lapse between the meals more is the
efficiency of food taken. Not enough exercises affects the health of the individual as their body
does not find reason to lose weight (De Vries, 2017). It is considered to be important for the
human heart. Improper sleep is also very bad for the health of an individual as it can compromise
the immunity of the individual and also decrease their power of making judgement and
decisions. Proper sleeping provides the individual's strength to fight depression. Taking too

much sodium which generally is the part of many people diet. Salt which adds taste to the food is
considered to be unhealthy when taken more than 1000 mg in a day. Too much oily food is very
bad for the health of the individual as it consists of mono-unsaturated fats which is not good for
the human heart (Hagger and Orbell, 2021).
CONCLUSION
With the help of this project it can be concluded that the health of an individual depends
on factors or activities which are done by them that affects their health and well-being. This
project was successful in explaining the different theoretical behavioural. Certain factors which
influences the health of the individual are also discussed.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alvidrez, J. and et.al., 2019. The national institute on minority health and health disparities
research framework. American Journal of Public Health. 109(S1). pp.S16-S20.
De Vries, H., 2017. An integrated approach for understanding health behavior; the I-change
model as an example. Psychol Behav Sci Int J. 2(2). pp.555-585.
Hagger, M.S. and Orbell, S., 2021. The common sense model of illness self-regulation: A
conceptual review and proposed extended model. Health Psychology Review, pp.1-31.
Ibeneme, S., and et.al., 2017. Roads to health in developing countries: understanding the
intersection of culture and healing. Current Therapeutic Research. 86. pp.13-18.
Kuang, K. and Wilson, S.R., 2017. A meta-analysis of uncertainty and information management
in illness contexts. Journal of Communication. 67(3). pp.378-401.
Mjøsund, N.H. and Eriksson, M., 2021. Salutogenic-Oriented Mental Health Nursing:
Strengthening Mental Health Among Adults with Mental Illness. Health Promotion in
Health Care–Vital Theories and Research, p.185.
Nettleton, S., 2020. The sociology of health and illness. John Wiley & Sons.
US Department of Health and Human Services, 2018. Theory at a glance: A guide for health
promotion practice. Lulu. Com.
Williams, D.R. and et.al., 2019. Understanding how discrimination can affect health. Health
services research. 54. pp.1374-1388.
Online
Critical Public health., 2016.theories of practice and public health. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09581596.2014.980396>