What is health?
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of conditions or diseases.
This definition is the result of a conceptual evolution, since it emerged as a replacement for a notion that was held for a long time, which presumed that health was simply the absence of biological diseases.
From the fifties, the WHO revised that definition and finally replaced it with this new one, in which the notion of human well-being transcends the merely physical. The Pan American Health Organization then contributed one more fact: health also has to do with the environment surrounding the person.
Dr. Floreal Ferrara took the WHO definition and tried to complement it, circumscribing health to three different areas:
Physical Health. It corresponds to the ability of a person to maintain the exchange and resolve the proposals that are proposed. This is explained by the history of adaptation to the environment that man has, so that his states of health or illness cannot be excluded from that interaction.
Mental health. The optimal performance within the capabilities it has, related to the surrounding environment. Health lies in the balance of the person with their environment in this way, which implies a possibility of resolving the conflicts that appear.
Social health It represents a combination of the previous two: to the extent that man can live with a psychodynamic balance, with satisfaction of his needs and also with his aspirations, he enjoys social health.