In keeping with the biomedical perspective, early definitions of health focused on the theme of the body’s ability to function; health was seen as a state of normal function that could be disrupted from time to time by disease.

An example of such a definition of health is: “a state characterized by anatomical, physiological, and psychological integrity; ability to perform personally valued family, work, and community roles; ability to deal with physical, biological, psychological, and social stress”.

Then, in a move that was at the time seen as progressive, the world Health Organization (WHO) proposed a definition that aimed higher than just lacking health — not merely the absence of diseases and infirmity.

A lifestyle for a better life and better by name is being in motion. It says we can feel good as being vague, consistently broad and was not considered as too narrow.

More long time, it would serve as an inspirational text, and more discussions of health focused on the practicality of the biomedical model.

Just as there was a shift from infirmary disease to a multi-condition notion of illness in the previous century, the same shift is to reveal the limitations of health. Again, the WHO proved a moving that it would facilitate the development of the health promotion movement in the 1980s.

This brought to a new conception of health, not as a value, but as a dynamic source of usefulness — a resource that allows people to live an individual, socially and economically productive life.

Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of life. It is a positive concept, empowering social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities.