All medical doctrines can be divided into two parts: the doctrine of health and that of the nature and management of illnesses. There is certainly no sharp natural divisions between health and illness. The ancient physician noted this - yet as medicine has developed as a science. While prophylactic medicine is directed towards advanced notice (prevention) about a disease, and holistic management looks at the overall picture, including a person’s psychological state, income and social status, education, physical environmental factors such as safe water and clean air, social support networks, genetics, gender, etc, valeology studies the dynamic reserve systems of a person, of his compensative interactions (their harmonization). These rhythms determine the norms of stable realization and conservation of a person’s genetic, physiological, psychological, and generative functions. Thus, health is maintained and improved not only through the advancement and application of health science, but also through the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of an individual.
Valeological knowledge is necessary to those who want to be healthy, and more to those that suffer from different ailments; those that are not sure of tomorrow; those that do not want to be victims of circumstances and dangerous habits; those that want to be spiritually and morally richer, physically stronger; those that want to be happy and ready to address all problems towards the realization a healthy way of living. A happy and healthy person (in the 21st century) is the one that is valeologically literate; equipped with valeological methods of support and health re-establishment or improvement.
The History of Valeology as a Science
Valeology is a relatively new direction of knowledge that originated from anthropology, physiology, hygiene, ecology; sport and clinical medicine. It is one of the youngest and most prospective sciences that found its way into the system of education, and tends to explore problems and work out methods of health conservation, i.e. it is a multidimensional approach with multidisciplinary options in order to deliver adequate responses of the human organism to fast changing realities of life – healthy way of life and active longitivity.
It has since been clear that, employing only “clinical” methods in the management of chronic infectious diseases is ineffective. It is difficult to sufficiently foresee the effectiveness of clinical methods in the treatment of patients with polysyndrome conditions. At the same time, employing the strategy of prophylaxis on the bases of the concept of risk factors, were perhaps very successful in the first 3-4 decades. Results of recent researches have given the motive to doubt (on the bases of this concept and contemporary stages of human development) the successful addressing of the problem of prophylaxis of chronic infectious diseases. There is the need of a new strategy of prophylaxis, and this strategy – strategy of directing the health of an individual, is worked out by valeology.
The appearance of valeology as a science of healthy way of living relates to 1982, when Brechman, I. I published a methodological article that proved the need of excreting “Individual Health” as a subject of research. A little later, the main positions of the science were formulated, and they included subject, object theoretical bases, methods, aims.
Subject of Study of Valeology
Subject of study in valeology is always a typical phenomenon of a typical healthy individual in a normal (to him) environment.
Valeological Methods of Approach: They include the methods employed in anthropology, personal hygiene, physiology, ecology; sports and clinical medicine, namely:
Observation - natural, monitoring, indirect statement, etc.
Experiments - dependent and non-dependent experiments, control and experimental groups; modulation.
Dependence of people’s state of health on different factors
1. People’s way of living: Smoking, alcohol consumption, unbalanced diet, dangerous (unfavourable) labour conditions, stressful situations (distress), adynamia, Hypodynamia, bad material-domestic conditions, drug abuse, weak and unstable families, loneliness, low levels of education and culture, very high urbanization - 50-55%.
2. Genetics, human biology (Heredity): Predisposition to hereditary diseases - 15-20%.
3. Ecology (External environment, natural climatic conditions): polluted air, water, poor waste disposal programs, and sharp changes in atmospheric conditions; increased space, magnetic and other waves (rays) - 17-20%.
4. Public Health Care: Ineffective prophylactic services, low quality first aids, and rendering them not in time -10-15%.
The values above indicate that, large reserves in human health conservation are present or located in the organization of people’s way of life, which depends considerably on their valeological culture. Really, there are external influences that we can not control, but there is much that we can regulate by taking responsibility for ourselves and working to change our habits. Fasting is, therefore, not an end, but a means to an end. It is a passport to health. It includes working out individual program of re-establishing or improving one’s health status, and thus – healthy way of living.
The Truth about Health
Health is defined as the process of conserving and developing an individual’s biological as well as psychological efficiencies, and optimal social activity under maximum lifespan. It is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO, 1946). Healthy way of life is a pattern or mode of living, which is supported by qualitative and quantitative increases in health conditions. It includes psychosomatic stabilities such as emotion, mood, stability to stressful situations, motor (motility) activity, rhythm of life, security of life, etc.
The health status of a nation is nowadays considered as an index of the extent of that nation’s civilization. According to the 1997 United Nation’s resolution № 38/52, the health status of a population is the major criteria of expedient actions and effectiveness of all spheres of economic activities.
Not too long ago, medicine was a blend of art, science, magic and superstition. When modern technology came afterwards, it was so successful in wiping out the worst killer diseases that people started to believe all diseases could be cured with the correct magic missile. Older techniques were discarded (dismissed the good along with the bad), and western medicine did away with any approach that was not created and tested experimentally in a laboratory. Thus, medically, health is now termed homeostasis. In the field of alternative medicine, the term used to describe one’s overall state of being is wellness.
Recently, however, as people have become more interested in healthful eating, exercise, meditation and other self-help techniques, there has been a resurgence of interest in non-technological approaches to medicine and health. Holistic is the word generally employed to describe these recent changes of approach to medicine and health. It refers to a philosophy of medical care that fosters a cooperative relationship among the physical, mental, emotional, social, nutritional, environmental, and spiritual values of health; encompasses all stated modalities, including drugs and surgery, if no safe alternative exists. It emphasizes the need to look at each individual as a whole person. Holistic approach in medicine is mainly achieved through complementary or alternative therapies and medicine.
Determinants of Health
Many factors, nutrition, exercise, hygiene, health care delivery services combine together to affect the health of individuals and communities. General determinants of health include human biological efficiencies, environmental factors, lifestyle, and healthcare services (see above)
