The Meaning of "Health": Western Medicine

I'm taking my disappointment in the lack of clarity of "what health is", and turning lemons into lemonade.  It's really forcing me to look at my own philosophy of health, and making a decision about how to approach it, and I'm finding myself thinking about health in a completely different way than I ever have.  I'm being forced to not just do told what I'm told to do, but to discover for myself what I believe to be right.  Learning how to fish, right?  I just get nervous about it because I'm bound to get some things wrong.  Sigh.

Hopefully by the end of all this research I will have a Cut-Through-The-Bullshit List of Criteria for Determining Health.  (Something that is more than just my friggin weight.)

Anyway, I figure what I need to do is start with Western Medicine, and what they tell me is healthy (however noncommittal or ambiguous that may be). 

World Health Organization

So let's start from the very tippy top.  The World Health Organization defines health as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."  Pretty much every other health organization just copies that statement.  Not particularly helpful to me.

American Medical Association

According to the AMA, there are four main factors in determining whether or not someone is healthy.  They are tobacco usage, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and healthy eating habits. Okay, now we're getting a little more specific, but that's not saying much.  When I go further into the information on their website, it once again gets disappointingly vague and unhelpful.  Below is their advice.

1) Eat 1.5 to 2.5 cup-size servings of fruit a day

2) Eat 2 to 4 cup-size servings of vegetables a day

3) Eat mostly whole grains

4) Avoid unhealthy trans fats and saturated fats

5) Limit salty and sugary foods

6) Keep total calories to an amount that is right for height and weight

7) Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic (endurance) physical activity five days a week OR 20 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity three days a week

8) Do not use any tobacco products at all

9) Drink not more than one alcoholic drink per day

10) On any day, limit oneself to never more than three drinks

11) In a typical week, limit oneself to no more than seven drinks

12) Don't drink while pregnant, before driving, or while taking certain medications, etc, etc

--I will need some clarification as to what "moderate-intensity" and "vigorous-intensity" means.  And "cup-sized servings" is still too much of an unknown to me.  I mean, I cup of salad greens is very different in density from a cup of broccoli.  Does that matter?

Other Articles/Websites (aka Dr. Google)

Other Criteria I was able to glean from multiple websites and articles (all credible, I swear), that seems to be a little more helpful to me:

1) Can walk a mile in 15 minutes

2) Can carry two bags of groceries from the store to car without getting winded

3) Can climb 2 flights of stairs without getting breathless

4) Blood Pressure is under 140/90

5) Resting pulse is around 70 beats per minute

6) Respiratory rate of about 16-20 breaths per minute

7) Eat five servings of fruits and veggies a day

8) Have a BMI between 18 and 25

9) Get 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 times a week

10) Have a waist smaller than 35 inches

11) Gums do not bleed after a good brushing

12) Lips are not constantly chapped (revealing dehydration)

13) Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day

14) Avoid all cigarette smoke (including second hand)

15) Takes a week or longer to finish a bottle of wine

16) Don't eat fast food often

17) Get around 8 hours of sleep a night
18) Avoid environmentally bad things, like allergens and pollution

Other things mentioned that are way less easy to actually track in a quantitative way are:

1) Limit the amount of daily/chronic stress

2) Participate in an appropriate level of sexual activity for health (what is "appropriate"?)

Also, there is advice my nurse-midwife gave me when I first was thinking of getting pregnant.  These pre-conception checklists are sort of close, in that you want to be as healthy as possible before getting pregnant in order to have a healthy child.  Those things include:
1) Stop smoking
2) Stop drinking alcohol
3) Start taking vitamins
4) Psychological readiness
5) Reach optimal weight
6) Be updated on vaccines
7) Get checked for any chronic illnesses
8) Be "in shape" or "fit" or "active"

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All of this information makes total sense, but I can't help but feel that there is something missing.  It seems too simple.  Not that reaching those steps would be necessarily easy--I know I have difficulty doing all these things all the time--but, I can also easily see that there are people who have all of these qualities and yet still are unhealthy.  Like reaching all of these things means you CAN be considered healthy, but not necessarily that you ARE.  So what are those missing criteria? 

In my experience, I don't think I'm going to get a truly quantitative answer, which is frustrating.  I was really hoping for the sure thing.   But, in reality, I think I'm going to have to learn what my body's particular cues are, and train myself to hone in a little better.  I think it will be a consciousness thing.

Maybe I will be able to come up with something a little better than "I feel healthy" or "I don't".