When we think about the determinants of health, it is important to remember that there
is no single factor which causes people to be healthy or not.
Not everyone gets the flu when exposed to a flu virus in the air. People do not stay
healthy only because they are physically active. And they do not get sick only because
they inherited specific genes from their ancestors. The reasons that people get sick or
stay healthy are more complicated than this. Any or all of these and other determinants can interact to influence health.
What effect do other determinants have?
For example, pollution affects the quality of our water and air, which in turn affects our health. Also, the way people feel and behave affects their biology. And the
environments that people live in – social, physical and even cultural – influence
both their behaviour and their biology, and in turn their health. This means that things like
can all influence your life choices, your body’s responses, and of course, your
overall health and well-being.
All of this seems to follow a biological pathway. For children, we see how early childhood experiences influence brain development and mental and
physical health. In adults, feelings such as fear, loneliness, depression, powerlessness and frustration are translated by complex body systems – like the nervous system and
the immune system – into chemicals and hormones that flow throughout the body. Strong
negative emotions can trigger floods of stress hormones (the "fight or flight"
phenomenon). This in turn hinders the body’s ability to defend itself against
disease.
Therefore, while germs, viruses and the environment can all affect health, our health
is also determined by a complex relationship of factors, across the entire lifespan.
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