Health Studies: Lifestyle

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Lifestyle plays a key role in influencing health and in the development of disease. Discuss. Lifestyle is the way in which an individual or group lives their life. One could be said to have a healthy lifestyle and another could have a poor lifestyle. In relation to health studies, when the term lifestyle is used it is often used to describe how healthy a person is. The question that then needs to be asked is what is healthy? The following essay will attempt to define what health is and what it means to be healthy; taking into consideration the holistic aspect as well as individual experiences and views on the topic. It will then go on to describe what a disease is and explain in great detail the different ways in which these diseases can be classified. Before talking about the different lifestyle factors that affect health, the essay will first discuss and evaluate the role of epidemiology in identifying the contribution lifestyle factors have in the maintenance of health. The essay will then give a detailed explanation on the role that smoking and cannabis have on an individual, and how they can affect one’s lifestyle. Being healthy means different things to different people; this is because many people have different experiences in life which makes them have different views on what being actually is. There are also many dimensions of health, known as the holistic aspect of health. Health can be a combination of physical, emotional and environmental factors and to some may be just either of the three. Depending on the individual in question, being healthy will have a specific meaning which applies to them. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 1946). However this definition is widely criticised as being vague and

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