How to preserve your health capital ?

In France, very many devices are put in place to help each and everyone to take care of their health: they are as varied as the compulsory physical education courses at school, free support for stopping the Cigarette, reimbursement of many drugs and medical consultations by health insurance, or even the installation of cycle paths and bodybuilding infrastructure in the city.

All these measures are part of public health. They are very different from each other, but are all there to help each citizen preserve this famous health capital. But then, what is it, health capital ? And how we take care of it on a daily basis ?

VS’What is health capital ?

You may have heard of ” Health capital “, But by looking for what it meant, surprised: difficult to find a clear definition, even though everyone has one.

First, in Capital Health, there is “capital”: it is an initially economic concept, which designates a stock of goods or wealth that make it possible to produce and make a profit. In the field of the company, we speak for example of share capital. The concept has however been applied to many other areas: we can speak of a person’s economic capital (all of their income and possessions), but also human capital (the sum of skills, experiences and a person’s knowledge, and the examples are very numerous.

To return to the field of health, we sometimes speak of solar or sun capital: it designates the total quantity (the “stock” of sun rays that a person can receive on his skin during his life, without taking the risk of developing skin cancer.

Health capital is therefore in a way our health “stock”. Schematically, it is maximum at the beginning of life (when you are young, you are – in theory – in great shape) but it continues to decrease with time (it makes sense: the more we age And we tire our body, the more diseases we develop, the less we are in physically fit). Health capital being a “stock”, it sometimes decreases in jolts (when you have an appendicitis or you break a leg, for example) but it can also be almost reconstructed (once the appendix removed by a operation or that the bones have repaired over time, for example): almost, because the broken leg will never be as solid as before.

In addition, logically, we have only one health capital: if it is “burned” too quickly (for example by consuming a large amount of toxic substances, starting with alcohol and cigarettes), our overall state of health decreases – Our bodies attacked by substances work less well- and health capital cannot be reconstructed- and health capital decreases, without being able to be reconstructed.

How to preserve it ?

You have understood: it is important to preserve your one and only health capital. The idea is simple: we must avoid what reduces health capital, and on the contrary adopt behaviors that preserve our health stock. We must therefore know the factors that influence health capital. And for that, it’s simple: follow the recommendations you hear from a very young age !