I. What is health?

Google search.  Results Definitions of health on the Web:. Related phrases:   health care   home health care   health insurance   world health organization   public health   mental health   health promotion   health plan   health care provider   health professional. Results reorganized below.

  A. Conditions

1.      the general condition of body and mind; "his delicate health"; "in poor health"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

2.      The overall condition of an organism at a given time in regard to soundness of body or mind and freedom from disease or abnormality.
www.adipex-phentermine-diet-pills.com/diet-pills-glossary.asp

3.      Health is a dynamic state on the wellness-illness continuum, ranging from high-level wellness, to states of illness/premature death.
www.frc.mass.edu/sconrad/conceptual_terms.htm

4.      Mortality measures are used as a proxy for population health, since they are easily measured, allowing comparisons among populations, common ones include:
depts.washington.edu/eqhlth/pages/glossary.html

  B. Values

Health can be defined (1) negatively, as the absence of illness, (2) functionally, as the ability to cope with everyday activities, (3) or positively, as fitness and well-being. [growth = increasing capacity]. In any organism, health is a form of homeostasis. This is a state of balance, with inputs and outputs of energy and matter in equilibrium (allowing for growth). Health also implies good prospects for continued survival. In sentient creatures such as humans, health is a broader concept. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health

• a healthy state of wellbeing free from disease; "physicians should be held responsible for the health of their patients"
• A state of physical and emotional well-being; the absence of disease or ailment.
  highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070294267/student_view0/glossary_e-l.html
• The absence of disease or injury along with physical, mental, and social well-being.
  www.loseweightafterpregnancy.com/glossary.html
• a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not just the absence of disease or infirmity.
  www.jhsph.edu/publichealthexperts/Glossary.htm
• A state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Health is a resource for everyday life, not the object of living. It is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources as well as physical capabilities.
  www.wfmh.org/wmhday/sec3_pt3_4_glossary.html
• … health is viewed holistically as an interacting system with mental, emotional and physical components. We define health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO 1994). We also consider health as a basic and dynamic force in our daily lives, influenced by our circumstances, beliefs, culture and social, economic and physical environments. ...
  www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/pubs/pubspr/0662334035/200303_0662334035_3_e.html
• A dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (WHO'S New Proposed Definition. 101st Session of the WHO Executive Board, Geneva, January 1998. Resolution EB101.R2)
  mapp.naccho.org/MAPP_Glossary.asp

  C. Public/Private ... diverse cultural orientations ...

Public health is community health. It has been said that: "Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time."
www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp

Health is a unity and harmony within the mind, body and spirit which is unique to each person, and is as defined by that person. The level of wellness or health is, in part, determined by the ability to deal with and defend against stress. Health is on a continuum with movements between a state of optimum well-being and illness which is defined as degrees of disharmony. It is determined by physiological, psychological, socio-cultural, spiritual, and developmental stage variables.
www.ptc.edu/department_nursing/Philosophy.htm