A holistic approach to health say we should take other aspects of a person’s life into account when we’re looking at their health. So taking in things like: physical health, intellectual well-being, social well-being and emotional well-being meaning someone’s bodily health e.g. weight. Thinking and learning e.g. reading and writing. Relationships e.g. a good social life and feelings e.g. if your feeling happy or sad.
Health and well-being can change over time and between cultures. In the prehistoric times it was said that people had their skulls drilled with holes because they thought this would release the spirit when they died, but many of the skulls show evidence that the person was alive when this happened. This was called trepanning.
In other times when people got ill they would send for a religious leader or traditional healer to banish the ‘evil spirit’ from them and return them to health.
In other cultures people use Chinese herbal medicine, which is supposed to deal with physical and mental health problems. Also it provides ways of strengthening a person’s recovery power, their immunity and capacity for well-being. Chinese medicine consists mainly of different herbs.
Things that affect health are:
Social wellbeing- your relationship with other people.
Emotional wellbeing- your ability to recognise your feelings and being able to express them appropriately.
Intellectual wellbeing- your ability to learn, think and make judgements
Physical wellbeing- the efficient working of your body
The positive and negative affects on health and well being generally, starting with:
Drugs-drugs affect the way someone acts and thinks so this is an important factor on well-being. Their physical health wont be very good as there could be damage to the liver or the lungs. A positive affect from drugs would be if you had a condition like diabetes the drugs help to keep you from illness. A negative affect from drugs would be if you were taking an illegal drug like ecstasy that is harming your body and you don’t need it. Intellectual well-being wouldn’t be good as drugs affect the way your mind works and emotional well-being as drugs make you depressed. The positive view is you could be more sociable.
Diet- this could affect your emotional well being as you can’t have your normal comfort foods and it may affect your social wellbeing if everybody around you is eating a lot and your not. The positive affects would be on your physical well being as you’d feel healthier and you would be much healthier. It may also be positive on your emotional wellbeing as you are feeling healthier and can also be good on your social wellbeing as you wont feel conscious of how healthy you are.
Alcohol- Negative affects on physical wellbeing as it is destroying your liver and will make you unhealthier anyway because of the ingredients it has in it, emotional well being as it makes you depressed and may make you start feeling dependent on it and intellectual wellbeing as it is slowing your reactions and your brain down. The only positive effect would be that you could socialise more as it gives you confidence.
Poverty- your emotional well-being would probably be at a low if your housing is poor then it could be damp. There could be no heating e.t.c. Your social wellbeing may be boosted very slightly as friends may help to get through the hard times.
Unemployment- Emotional well-being would be at a low. No social well being as you are not communicating with anyone in every day work.
