Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

eolecki's picture

Health is individual

Health is actually a pretty complicated concept. Most people would just think of it as being in shape, not getting sick, eating healthy, basically just being alive and being able to function. Really health is totally an individual thing. In the articles we read about the test being done and how certain drugs affect people differently shows how individualized health really is. Different things make different people healthy, but we try to zero in on the things that make most people healthy, like eating vegetables and exercising. I can’t really think of a situation where those would be unhealthy for someone, but those are pretty broad. Eating vegetables can be narrowed down to eating mushrooms and it certainly wouldn’t be healthy for someone allergic to mushrooms to eat them even if it makes everyone else healthier. So really, when we try to define health and healthy habits we are focusing on generalized health, what is good for most people. But health isn’t what is good for most people, it is about what is good for every individual.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
12 + 4 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.