The definition of health as stated by the World Health Organization is that Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Subsequently, several components such as Physical, Intellectual, Spiritual, Emotional, and Environmental factors have been considered under the umbrella of health. United Nations emphasizes Positive Health, which is a broader view of health, encompassing having a positive attitude while facing challenges in life suitably and being in charge of their affairs, whenever and whenever possible.
Holistic Medicare has a close association with the philosophy of health. The mirror image of one’s thinking and perception of the environment and international outlook joined with own self imagination plant together manifest as the health of a particular individual. Health is measured as the supreme value of Human life. Several Philosophers of high order regarded the state of synchronization of both bodily and intellectual health as the ultimate of human life. Coming to a close analysis of the philosophy of health that is centered on the foundation of positive and practical movement towards our existence and wellbeing.
Ethics plays a major role in the philosophical study of health. We are aware that ethics in broader perceptive points towards principles of moral right and wrong and moral good and bad and concerned system of code of moral rules, doctrines or ideals. However, the majority part, of the philosophy of healthcare is best move toward as an ineradicable component of human social configuration. Human civilization is based on the fundamental truth of that individuals continuously strive to improve physically, socially, psychologically, financially, and otherwise to develop the quality of health care. It is a necessary trend travelling hand in hand with political tolerance, wherein health has been implied to initiate groundwork that is essential for community living.
Glorious Public Health
Our country began with a glorious tradition of public health, as seen in the references to the descriptions of the Indus valley civilization (5500–1300 BCE) which mention “Arogya” as reflecting “holistic well-being.” The Chinese traveler Fa-Hien (tr.AD 399–414) takes this further, commenting on the excellent facilities for curative care at the time. According to Aristotle an Ancient Greek philosopher, Healthy living includes to live wisely and rationally. He regarded a state of holiness and harmonic excellence as logic of human mannerism. He further stated that a combination of well-being, happiness, and flourishing is the ultimate goal of a human being.
Health and Human Rights
Philosophy of health has a strong influence on Human rights. The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that India is fulfilling 80.5% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income. When looking at the right to health concerning children, India achieves 92.1% of what is expected based on its current income. In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 85.6% of what is expected based on the nation’s level of income. India falls into the “very bad” category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling only 63.7% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources available.
In India particularly many patients irrespective of their financial status consult a specialist or a super-specialist like a neurologist, nephrologist etc., even for minor ailments like headaches, burning sensation of the urine, or low backache thereby incurring heavy expenses and tunneled into a financial burden. I narrate a case study here for the benefit of readers. A labourer or a rickshaw puller when he gets a headache will directly go to a medical shop or a corporate hospital or consult a neuro physician or a neurosurgeon, who normally recommends a CT scan or MRI brain which costs a few thousand. Rickshaw puller whose earnings may be a few hundred dailies with which he has to maintain his family, but out of fear and psychological stress he goes for an MRI taking a loan on heavy interest or selling ornaments of his wife or some items in the house. This trend is hampering the serenity of health.
Expensive Laboratory Tests
Well! Instead had the rickshaw puller consult a family physician he would have treated the headache by his clinical skills without spending more than hundred or two hundred rupees most of the time. As reported in the International Medical Journal of “Ther Adv Neurol Discord, 2013 Nov; 6(6): 369–374, therapeutic advances in Neurological disorders”, headache is a common clinical feature in neurological patients5. Patients with classic episodic migraine and TTH (tension-type headache) need no further neuroimaging (MRI or CT scan) as part of their diagnostic workup. These patients do not have a higher rate of relevant cerebral pathology than anyone else in the general population. Sometimes, however, it might be reasonable to perform neuroimaging in patients frightened that they are suffering from severe illness or who present with uncommon clinical features. Distinct ‘red flags’ in clinical neurological examination point to a secondary cause of the headache and require further neuroimaging to detect treatable causes and severe disease of this secondary headache. But in practice, it is noticed many poor people consulting directly super specialists, and trespassing family physicians are landing into severe financial crisis. (To be concluded).