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What Is Illness Natural Healing.
WHAT IS ILLNESS?
The World Health Organization considers the state of good health as one of total physical, mental and social well-being, rather than just being the lack of infirmity or disease. One is believed to be ill or suffering from an illness when one does not have physical, mental and social well-being. Is illness different from disease? The two terms are often used interchangeably so that their meanings are intertwined. There are various types of known diseases today (such as AIDS and the different kinds of cancer like breast cancer.) Some diseases are deemed curable while others are not. When one is ill from a disease, one displays symptoms that help physicians to create a diagnosis of what is afflicting the patient. To eliminate the symptoms of disease, a patient is often given medication. For this, the physician relies heavily on the science of pharmacology. A person is believed to be ill when there are irregularities in the function of the mind or body which create dysfunction, discomfort or distress in the patient. The word illness may also be used to cover other conditions such as deviant behaviors, infections, syndromes, disabilities and injury. What causes illness? Physical illness Aside from infectious diseases, commonly thought to be caused by pathogens, mainstream medicine does not overly concern itself with the question of the root causes of disease, but rather is very adept at describing the malfunctioning that occurs in the body once the disease is present. Many of the alternative methods, however, stem from a particular view of what causes disease in the first place. For example, homeopaths speak of the importance of the "terrain" or genetic background. Mind-body proponents will say that everything starts in the mind, and the physical illness is a symbolic manifestation of a particular mental attitude. Mental illness The term is broadly applied to various illnesses that could cover cognitive impairment, behavioral dysregulation, and emotional or affective instability. Mental illness is also known under other generic labels: “behavioral problem”, “emotional problems”, “emotional disability”, “abnormal psychology”, ”psychological disorder”, “psychiatric disorder”, and “mental disorder”. Mental illness may be traced to biological causes (such as genetic, chemical, and anatomical factors) or psychological causes (such as conflict or trauma.) The word insanity is generally applied as a legal term rather than a medical term. Also, brain damage, caused by various injuries, illnesses, or conditions, may be a cause of mental illness. How does one recover from an illness? A patient in the mainstream medical system has to rely on health care to get better. Health care is defined as the avoidance of illness, and its treatment and management when one is ill. The maintenance of the patient’s mental and physical well being (as provided by nurses, doctors and members of the allied health professions) also falls under the umbrella term “health care”. Any individual who has to undergo medical treatment is dubbed a patient. Frequently, the patient has an injury or illness which necessitates receiving medical treatment from a health care professional (such as a doctor.) Natural healing has a different view, which we shall see in the following chapter.
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