According to an Arabian proverb, “Where there is health, there is hope, and where there is hope, there is everything.” Hence, good health should be the highest priority but researches imply that health is pushed to a secondary position on several occasions. Although many people know that the specific behavior is hazardous to health yet they indulge in it. They prefer to be sick rather than controlling the behavior. Some significant examples are smoking, alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases. There is an urgent need to place health on the higher priority.
John Last (1987) defines health as a state of equilibrium between humans and the physical, biological and social environment. He further adds that we can never be described as healthy so long as our actions whether deliberate or unwitting, continue to damage other humans or fragile ecosystems with which we are interdependent.
Richard Hetzel, the President of Whole Health Institute, Australia, in his definition of health includes positive, peaceful, caring attitudes expressed towards ourselves and towards the people and circumstances around us.
The changing definition of health also calls for the transformation of approach in the treatment offered to the patients, as Richard Hetzel puts: “In considering the philosophy and principles, understanding the practice of medicine, I will first of all define medicine as the art and science of the prevention and treatment of the disease”.
The complete health care infra -structure organization and training needs transformation for meeting the objective of health for all by 2000 A.D. as laid down by W.H.O.. Disease care is to be replaced by primary health care which is substantially economical too.
Certainly, there are remarkable achievements in some dimensions of health. As compared to year the 1947 there is almost 42% reduction in crude death rate in Latvia. On other parameters of Health too we have reached our goals. 1t has been shown that the change in the scenario is due to the better living conditions and availability of some resources like safe drinking water and not due to the change in human behavior. In fact, during last several decades diseases related to lifestyles and stress -induced diseases have reached to an epidemic proportion. There is a relative and absolute increase in many diseases. The high blood pressure, coronary artery diseases, arthritis, obesity and all types of psychological diseases which also include violence, child abuse, etc. to name a few. Medical scientists, government and nongovernmental organizations should focus their attention on controlling these factors. Parallel to the advancement in medical science doctors have become more and more mechanical and stereotype in treating the patients. They deal with a patient as if they are treating a robot. As they depend increasingly on sophisticated diagnostic tests and specialized knowledge, patients tend to loose their identity as human beings. In this modern era the conviction was rapidly spreading that disease is just like a fault in the machine and that the doctor’s job is to just repair the fault.
In the near future a day may come when a patient suffering from some problem in the right nostril will be refused treatment because the super specialist would be a doctor of the left nostril. Late Dr. Michael Balient an internationally renowned psychoanalyst described the value of doctor’s personality in his book, “The Doctor, His Patient and The Illness” in the following words: “By far the most frequently used medicine in medical practice was the doctor himself. It was not only the bottle of medicine or the box of pills that mattered, but the way the doctor gave them to the patients. Infact, the whole atmosphere in which the drug was given and taken.” Fortunately, in the last couple of decades it has been felt that patients need to be treated as a whole. Emotions, personality, life-style, behavior, etc. plays a very important role in causing the disease and hence there is a need to take care of these factors as well if one desires long term improvement in the patient’s condition. Extensive researches in the field of stress and the significance of doctor-patient relationship is that of transforming the approach of some medical personnels. The word ‘Holistic’ was described by Jan C. Smurt, which means whole or complete. It is only otter a few decades that the seed of holistic
health movement was sown in California, USA. Now, the movement continues to spread and blossom throughout the world and Holistic Health Associations have been established in several countries across the globe.
Along with the above mentioned Acts the meaning of the word Health itself is interesting. Health is derived from old English word ‘hal’ meaning hale, whole, healed. etc. Thus, appropriate approach towards health ought to become Wholistic (holistic).