Health is recognised as an essential component of human development. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being and not only or merely the absence of disease.
A question that comes to mind is “Who is healthy?” How does one know who satisfies this definition of health? Or can individuals assume that anyone who has not sought help from any health care service provider is healthy?
Many people suffer from one kind of ailment or the other in silence partly because they do not know that they are sick. Unfortunately “there is a subtle difference between health and ill-health that cannot be seen by the naked eyes.
Africa faces a double burden of infectious and chronic diseases. These diseases include heart diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases like asthma and diabetes. Although diabetes is currently ranked number four killer in the world, many people thought to be healthy walk on the street with undiagnosed diseases such as diabetes.
Professor Alebiosu while corroborating the fact that many people are sick without even being aware stated that “in sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of people with undiagnosed diabetes can reach up to 90 per cent in some countries compared to about one-third undiagnosed people in high income countries,”
According to him, “people can often be without symptoms in the early stages of diabetes. However, the earlier diabetes is diagnosed, the greater the chances that serious complications, which can result from diabetes, can be avoided.”
Moreover, Professor Alebiosu stated that many supposedly healthy people on Nigeria streets have developed high blood pressure unknown to them. He declared, “approximately 30 per cent of adults are still aware of their hypertension; up to 40 per cent of people with hypertension are not receiving treatment; and, of those treated, up to 67 per cent do not have their blood pressure controlled to less than 140/90 mmHg.”
But Professor Olayemi Omotade, a consultant paediatrician, Institute of Child Health, Department of Paediatrics, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State stated that the answer to who is healthy is a very subjective and objective one.
“If you say you are healthy, it is a very subjective thing. If the medical doctor says you are healthy and you do not feel within you that you are healthy, then no matter what any doctor or anybody says, you are not healthy.
“This comes from the fact that a man is not just flesh and blood. He is more than this. There is the mind and spiritual components, otherwise why will a man who is asleep see himself doing other things. Really for a person to say he is healthy, he must be healthy on all those fronts–body, mind and spirit.”
The vagrant psychotic who walks on the street, for example, Professor Omotade would feel that there is absolutely nothing wrong with them and yet his mind is off.
Professor Omotade, making reference to the definition of health as stated by the WHO, stated that it refers not just to a man being without any disease, but also in a state of mind that ensures he is at rest and relaxed.
“When there is a disease, then there is no ease. So many things can cause a disease and as such when talking about health, all its components must be taking into consideration,” he stated.
Hardly will a child with headache hide such. It might be easier to guess a child that is unwell unlike adults that try to hide what may be ailing them for various reasons. “Children will yell, cry and may even stop eating and playing because they are unlike adults who had learnt to live with their infirmities,” said Professor Omotade.
So, is sound health measurable? “Health is both subjective and objective and within these two extremes, it is measurable. It is just like light, there are some aspects of light that we can seen with the naked eye. There are some that cannot be seeing with the naked eye. So also are diseases. There are unseen component of diseases and specific equipment need to be designed to measure them.”
“May be we have not been able to design equipments that can actually measure feelings of ill health and disease, but we will get their by and by. Now, we have functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment that can show what a person is thinking in his or her mind.
“Now, this is being used for people in coma and in some people with some syndromes to know what exactly they are thinking about. Science is evolving, so also is medicine.”
Dr Oladimeji Olayinka, Zonal Coordinator, South West National Primary Health Care Development Agency, who remarked that mere facial look cannot identify a person who is healthy, stated “the only person that can be said to be healthy is one who has sound mind, body and soul.”
Dr Olayinka who stated that some medical tests can be used to judge a person’s state of health, explained that the inefficiency of Nigeria’s health care system and the overburden of hospitals with cases that ordinarily should be taken at the primary health care centre is not supportive of many Nigerians fitting into the group of people that can be said to be healthy.
“If you want regular checkups, including such things as measurement of the blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, which are mandatory for people above the age of 40, such services individuals should be able to easily access in a primary health care centre. But, that system has virtually collapsed.
“Even the statutory function of taking care of pregnant women and minor ailments are not being adequately provided at the primary health care centre, not to talk of medical checkups. But medical checkups are necessary because you can never know whether you have develop a health problem or if a disease is developing in you.”
Dr Olayinka stated that infectious diseases have incubation period. This is a period before the manifestation of the disease’s signs and symptoms.
“Virtually all diseases when detected early can be controlled. Mere taking more time to know about one’s health can ensure one qualifies as being healthy.”
Dr Olayinka, stating that medical checkups does not exempt health workers, including medical doctors, declared “It was an occasion at work where we were conducting free eye care services. After every other person had been tested, the eye experts insisted that my eyes also be checked. I ended up walking away with a pair of glasses. Before then, I never realised I had poor sight, too”
Dr Olayinka declared that individuals can ensure that they are healthy by doing all things in moderation. He stated: “You want to eat, it must be in moderation. You should avoid things that are generally known not to be healthy. We know that excessive alcohol intake is very dangerous. Not only does alcohol inatke affects our thinking, it also affects the body, makes the body to age as well as expose to other behaviours that expose to diseases such as sexually transmitted infections.”
“A state of mind that is healthy helps to keep the body healthy. But of course, you have to check periodically particularly as you reach middle age, around 40 years, when the body is more at risk of being attacked by diseases and infections and the body’s ability to recover has reduced due to ageing.
Source:tribune
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