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Health

The World Health Organization recognizes that Health is the fundamental right of every man without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic and social conditions. While every effort is being made in attaining this conception, much remains to be done.

The WHO has defined “Health” as a “State of Physical, Mental and Social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”. It represents a balanced relationship of the body and mind and complete adjustment to the total environment.

Health signifies a soundness of body and mind but we are confronted with the difficulty of determining its relationship to disease. Health and disease must be intimately related for if disease did not exist it would be irrelevant to talk of health.

▲ Disease
Disease may be called as an abnormal state of body resulting from harmful effects of processes, injurious substances or accidents. In general, “disease is a state of body in which certain natural functions are so disturbed that the individual cannot meet the usual requirements of life”. On the other hand, “disease is maladjustment or maladaptation in an environment, a reaction for the worse between man and hazards or adverse influences in his external environment.” The response of the individual to these influences is conditioned by his genetic make-up or internal environment.

Environmental pollution may be described as the unfavorable alteration of our surroundings attributed to the anthropogenic activities of man. Environmental pollution takes place through changes in energy patterns, radiation levels, chemical and physical constitution and abundance of microorganisms. Pollution included release of materials into the atmosphere, which make the air unsuitable for breathing, harm the quality of water and soil, and give out substances which damage the health of human beings, plants and animals. Though the other environmental pollutants, odour and noise only disturb the cell function, they can also some times be a danger to health. The effects of pollution to our biosphere are numerous and are increasing alarmingly.

The pathway of impact of the environment in the human body evidently are the systems that are exposed to hazardous materials, covering the external skin and the internal respiratory and alimentary systems, each with an array of organs and functions, and with an ultimate bearing on the structures and organs of the body as a whole.

It was not until the middle of the 19th century that man’s understanding of nature grew that he could bring the major environmental health hazards to his control. Another half-century later achievements of sanitary engineering and preventive medicine in adapting the environment to man were complemented by the success of therapeutic medicine in helping man to conquer some of the diseases.

It is interesting to note that health has direct relation to environment. Several diseases have a direct relation to environmental management. The environmental components involved in communicable diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, filariasis and trypanosomiasis. Also many other ailments like asthma and allergy are known to be environment linked. The efforts to control these diseases through environmental interventions directed at the habitats of their vector have come in for considerable attention. But the large scale use particularly in developing countries, of growth promoting substances to increase concern about chronic toxic effects in human beings, which might ultimately be related to cancer with incidence affecting the skin, mouth, lungs, liver, kidney, breast, vascular systems, etc. Among these growth-promoting substances are antibiotics, hormones and vitamins.

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I believe in God even though He is silent.