Holistic Health for Well Being of Everyone

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      A holistic health considers the wellbeing of the whole body such as physical, mental, and social well-being as well as how he/she interacts with his/her environment. It emphasizes the connection of mind, body, and spirit rather than focusing on illness only, Simply, holistic health is not only concerned with the absence of disease but with a positive state of being (New York College of Health Professions, n.d.).

b.       Importance of holistic approach to health

A holistic approach is important to health, for it provides long-lasting wellbeing of general body. It teaches patients to be active recipients of health care because its philosophy is each person has responsibility for his/her own health and must be an active participant in his/her own healing. It encourages patients to be accountable for the daily care of their health through diet, exercise, lifestyle, and attitudes about what constitutes wellness. The holistic approach treats the causes rather than symptoms using natural and preventive approaches to health (New York College of Health Professions, n.d.).

c.        Effect of environment on individuals' health

The natural environment like plants, water, air, and soil are great contributors to individuals’ health. Unfortunately, the toxic substances in air, water, and soil harm the lives of people especially in big cities with many industries. Also, the economic, social, urban or rural transportation affect the lives of Americans to cause different non-communicable and communicable disease especially respiratory illness and cancers (NCBI, 2013). 

d.       Relationship of social factors and healthcare

Social factors refer to economic as well as psychosocial determinants which affect health of Americans positively or negatively. The factors can be upstream and downstream factors.  The Upstream social determinants are those which increase important health outcomes in American community include healthy diet, income, accumulated wealth, educational attainment, and experiences based on racial or ethnic identification. Whereas, downstream social factors decrease the health outcomes like unhealthy diets, lack of exercises, and smoking. Therefore, social factors matter a lot to influence the health of Americans and other people globally (NCBI, 2013).

e.       Link of cultural factors and healthcare

Culture in the context of health behavior means unique shared values, beliefs, and practices that are directly associated with a health-related behavior, indirectly associated with a behavior, or influence acceptance and adoption of the health education message. All of these factors influence health outcomes in the world (Egede, 2006). For instance, many Asians are used to practice holistic health approach for prevention and control of disease, and this resulted in long life expectancy.

f.         Effects of social and cultural factors to people’s healthcare

There is a close relationship between social determinants and cultural factors to health. That means social and cultural factors affect health either harmfully or positively. It is more factual after understanding WHO’s definition of health. WHO defines health as not just the absence of disease, but rather in the broad sense of physical, economic, emotional, and social well-being at an individual, family, and community level. Health is thus affected not only by individual risk factors and behaviors but also by a range of cultural and social conditions. These social determinants of health the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age as well as how they are shaped by a variety of economic factors (Swain, 2016). Therefore, it is a fact that better social determinants because of race, ethnicity, class, and gender can lead to effective health outcomes. Also, economic stability can increase practicing healthy habits such as good nutrition, well living house, and exercise. 

 

Reference

Egede, R. E. (2006, June 21). Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Disparities in Healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1924616/

NCBI. (2013). Social Factors - U.S. Health in International Perspective. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154474/

Swain, G. R. (2016). How does economic and social disadvantage affect health?. Retrieved from https://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc331a.pdf

New York College of Health Professions. (n.d.). Our Holistic Approach - Holistic Health Care Center. Retrieved from https://www.nycollege.edu/health-care-clinics/our-holistic-approach.php