19.1. Health and diseases of human beings
Both health and diseases belong to socially mediated phenomena, which harmonically integrate the biological and social qualities shaped under the influence of the factors of environmental medium. Human health rests on biological basis which determines the natural course of the processes underlying vital activity, i.e., the physiological mechanisms based on specific morphological and biological structures. It is important that these processes are going on under certain conditions which maintain harmony and balance both in organism (consistency of organs, systems, biochemical processes, etc. aimed to secure homeostasis) and in interaction with environmental medium. Such conditions are secured by a reliable performance of organismal control systems and adaptation to living conditions, which constitute vital activity within the biological norms. From the biological vantage point, health means the absence of somatic and psychic imperfections in the organism combined with adaptation disorders.
However, human health cannot be boiled down to the absence of imperfections coupled with the feelings of malaise and discomfort. In contrast, health should be characterized with its major property, which makes it possible to live full of life not limited in its freedom, adequately perform human functions (first of all, the working ones), and lead a regular healthy life, which means mental, physic, and social well-being. Namely this is the essence of health definition advanced by WHO on a broad medicosocial basis. As we mentioned in the above, the preamble to WHO Charter says that 'Health is a state of complete physical, menfal and social well-being and nof merely fhe absence of disease or infirmity.