Health and disease

        

What is meant by health and disease?

                                                                                                                        The world health organization has defined health as 'a state of complete physical,mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'.Note that there dimension to this definition ,namely physical,mental and social. Ill health may not necessarily involve disease,and the term  disease is rather more difficult to define than health. one possible definition is that it is a 'bodily disorder',or a 'disordered state of an organ or organism'.This may be suitable when describing a person with tuberculosis,a liver affected by alcohol,or a lung with a tumour, but what of a broken arm? The arm is certainly in a'disordered state ',but it would not normally be described as diseased. In fact,it is arguable that the term 'disorder' is some time to be preferred to disease, as perhaps in the case of genetic disorders/diseases.A better understanding of what we mean by disease can be obtain by considering how disease may be classified.