What Is Health?

Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by in Blog

Friends,

Health seeking behavior plays a pivotal role in our general well being. Many people think that health is merely the absence of disease but that is just the starting point. That it is enough not to be admitted in hospital. Beyond that, we must strive to build physical, psychological and social wellbeing to be truly and wholly healthy.

For example, it is not enough just not to be obese. One must ensure one is getting enough exercise in one’s week to ensure one’s heart is in good physiological order. In simpler terms, a car owner mustn’t wait for his car to break down to do some maintenance work. He/she must always check the oil, tire pressure and what have you to make sure it will not embarrass him/her in Kenyatta Avenue in a billow of smoke.

A case comes to mind. Some women often use the pregnant state as an excuse to eat all sorts of greasy unhealthy foods under the guise of ‘feeding’ the unborn infant. Many do not realize the adverse effect these foods, smoking or drinking have on the unborn child. Proper diet and nutrition is indispensable in carrying a pregnancy uneventfully to term.

On the other hand, we have the perfect models of health seeking behavior such as Wilfrida Kwamboka, a Kenyan athlete who won gold in a distance competition in Hong Kong earlier in the year while four months pregnant! Of course I am not implying that one has give Caster Semenya a run for her money to be termed healthy but making small lifestyle changes like limiting the how much salt one puts in food can go a long way in getting there.

We must, across the board develop and maintain attitudes that promote our health. It could be as simple as visiting a health professional when sick instead of self – medicating, a common practice that results in disease resistance to drug treatment making it harder to treat. I would like to urge everybody out there to give some serious thought today not only to their lack of illness (if they would be so fortunate) but also what they need to adjust in their lives to stay that way.

Regards,
Oduwo Noah Akala,
Chairman,
Afya Kenya Foundation.

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