Physical Health

Public Health Practice Shifts Gears

Personal health services exist to treat existing illness. Public health services seek to create and maintain systems to prevent injury and disease. Some of the greatest advances in life expectancy have come as a result of public health discoveries and interventions. Microbiology applied to water systems and food safety, vaccines to prevent deadly diseases and identification of associations between personal behaviors and illness and injury are some of the notable achievements in this field of medicine.These are the broad goals of public health practice:

• 1. Create systems to prevent illness and injury
• 2. Promote good health practices
• 3. Provide health education
• 4. Protect the environment

      Public health departments work cooperatively with many individuals and organizations to ensure good health and maximum potential for all people. Public Health interventions resulted in an increase of life expectancy from 47 years in 1900 to 76 years in 1995. The leading causes of death in 1900 were infectious diseases of the lungs (pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis) and gut (gastritis, enteritis and colitis). Currently the leading three causes of death are heart disease, cancers and stroke. These three account for two thirds of all deaths. To address these changes in the leading causes of death, public health practice has shifted from a primary emphasis on microbiologic investigation of infectious diseases to a focus on the role of behavioral and environmental risk factors and methods for preventing disease, disability and death in the population.

Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases are also known as chronic illnesses, non-communicable diseases and degenerative diseases. Chronic diseases are characterized by

• uncertain cause
• multiple risk factors
• a long latency period
• a prolonged course of illness
• non-contageous origin
• functional impairment or disability and
• incurability.

Chronic disease is defined as a disease that has a prolonged course, that does not resolve spontaneously and for which a complete cure is rarely achieved. The categories of chronic illness that will be addressed on this website are: cardiovascular diseases, cancers, lung diseases, arthritis and certain neurologic disorders The information is distilled from clinical experience and many print sources. The information is meant to stimulate interest in staying well and learning more.