Health vs. Wellness
What is whole person health?
Whole person health involves looking at the whole person—not just separate organs or body systems—and considering multiple factors that promote either health or disease. It means helping and empowering individuals, families, communities, and populations to improve their health in multiple interconnected biological, behavioral, social, and environmental areas. Instead of treating a specific disease, whole person health focuses on restoring health, promoting resilience, and preventing diseases across a lifespan.
Why is whole person health important?
Health refers to the physical, mental, and social well-being of an individual. It is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity.
Wellness, on the other hand, is a state of optimal well-being. It is more proactive and involves taking steps to maintain and improve one's health and well-being, rather than simply reacting to illness or disease. Wellness is concerned with the overall balance and functioning of the mind, body, and spirit, and involves making choices that contribute to a healthy and fulfilling life.
In summary, health is a state of being, while wellness is the process of striving towards a state of optimal well-being.
Health and disease are not separate, disconnected states but instead occur on a path that can move in two different directions, either toward health or toward disease.
On this path, many factors, including one’s biological makeup; some unhealthy behaviors, such as poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress, and poor sleep; as well as social aspects of life—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age—can lead to chronic diseases of more than one organ system. On the other hand, self-care, lifestyle, and behavioral interventions may help with the return to health.
Chronic lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and degenerative joint disease, can also occur with chronic pain, depression, and substance misuse—all conditions exacerbated by chronic stress. Understanding the condition in which a person has lived, addressing behaviors at an early stage, and managing stress can prevent multiple diseases and also help restore health and make progression to wellness across a person’s lifespan.
