News tagged with human health

The environment and pharmaceuticals and personal care products: What are the big questions?

Researchers at the University of York headed a major international review aimed at enhancing efforts to better understand the impacts of chemicals used in pharmaceuticals or in personal care products, such as cosmetics, soaps, ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Pivotal role for proteins -- from helping turn carbs into energy to causing devastating disease

Research into how carbohydrates are converted into energy has led to a surprising discovery with implications for the treatment of a perplexing and potentially fatal neuromuscular disorder and possibly even cancer and heart ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Robotics: Gesturing for control

New intelligent algorithms could help robots to quickly recognize and respond to human gestures. Researchers at A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore have created a computer program which recognises ...

Electronics / Robotics

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Mercury in dolphins: Study compares toxin levels in captive and wild sea mammals

Amid growing concerns about the spread of harmful mercury in plants and animals, a new study by researchers from The Johns Hopkins University and The National Aquarium has compared levels of the chemical in ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0

EU food agency rejects France ban on Monsanto GM maize

Europe's food safety agency EFSA on Monday rejected the grounds for a temporary French ban on a genetically modified strain of maize made by US company Monsanto.

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 21, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Study of biomarker development in mice provides a roadmap for a similar approach in humans

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have demonstrated in mice that the performance of a novel biomarker-development pipeline using targeted mass spectrometry is robust enough to support the use of an analogous ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jun 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Genetic variation in human gut viruses could be raw material for inner evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- A growing body of evidence underscores the importance of human gut bacteria in modulating human health, metabolism, and disease. Yet bacteria are only part of the story. Viruses that infect ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New measuring techniques can improve efficiency, safety of nanoparticles

Using high-precision microscopy and X-ray scattering techniques, University of Oregon researchers have gained eye-opening insights into the process of applying green chemistry to nanotechnology that results in high yields, ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Feb 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Predicting the microbial 'weather'

New computer models are letting scientists forecast changes in the population of microbes in the English Channel up to a week in advance.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists find H1N1 flu virus prevalent in animals in Africa

(PhysOrg.com) -- UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have discovered the first evidence of the H1N1 virus in animals in Africa. In one village in northern Cameroon, a staggering 89 percent of the pigs ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Cells are crawling all over our bodies, but how?

(PhysOrg.com) -- For better and for worse, human health depends on a cell's motility -- the ability to crawl from place to place. In every human body, millions of cells –are crawling around doing mostly ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 18, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

How do green algae react to carbon nanotubes?

Nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes (CNT), which are found in an ever-increasing number of products, are ending up more and more frequently in our surroundings. If and how they affect aquatic ecosystems ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 04, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Dangerous laser printer particles identified

The identity and origin of tiny, potentially hazardous particles emitted from common laser printers have been revealed by a new study at Queensland University of Technology.

Medicine & Health / Health

created Feb 11, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (14) | comments 2

Study: 'E-waste pollution' a threat to human health

In addition to its damaging effect on the environment and its illegal smuggling into developing countries, researchers have now linked e-waste to adverse effects on human health, such as inflammation and oxidative stress ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Poisonous toxins a risk to African food security

A staple crop, known as cassava, in southeast Africa contains levels of toxins above those recommended safe for human consumption, a new study has found.

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 02, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Health

At the time of the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1948, Health was defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".

This definition invited nations to expand the conceptual framework of their health systems beyond issues related to the physical condition of individuals and their diseases, and it motivated us to focus our attention on what we now call social determinants of health. Consequently, WHO challenged political, academic, community, and professional organisations devoted to improving or preserving health to make the scope of their work explicit, including their rationale for allocating resources. This opened the door for public accountability [3].

Only a handful of publications have focused specifically on the definition of health and its evolution in the first 6 decades. Some of them highlight its lack of operational value and the problem created by use of the word "complete." Others declare the definition, which has not been modified since 1948, "simply a bad one." [4]. More recently, Smith suggested that it is "a ludicrous definition that would leave most of us unhealthy most of the time." [5].

In 1986, the WHO, in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, said that health is "a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities." Classification systems such as the WHO Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC), which is composed of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) also define health.

Overall health is achieved through a combination of physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being, which, together is commonly referred to as the Health Triangle.

For more information about Health, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.