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People get confused between the two terms Health and Wellness. These two terms are not even synonyms of each other but still are used interchangeably.

Well, there is no one to blame for this misunderstanding as in the past years, health was being defined as the presence of no single disease, and now the same definition is given to wellness.

Apart from this, being healthy and being well are two whole different adjectives and still are assumed to be the same, which adds up to the confusion. Both of them are non-synonymous words and cannot be used in place of others.

Key Takeaways

  1. Health refers to an individual’s overall physical, mental, and social well-being.
  2. Wellness is the active pursuit of behaviors and activities promoting health and well-being, such as regular exercise, healthy eating, and stress management.
  3. While health is more general, wellness is a proactive approach to maintaining good health and preventing illness.

Health vs Wellness

The difference between health and wellness is that health is a state of being for a person, while wellness is also a state but of living healthy and having a healthy lifestyle. Wellness basically aims for just being well, but health refers to all mental, physical, emotional, etc.

Health vs Wellness

Health was previously defined as the absence of any disease in the body, as mentioned earlier. Although, later, the definition was rectified into- the perfect mental, physical, and emotional condition of an individual.]

This says that for someone to be called healthy, he/she should sound perfect from both mind and body, not just any one of these.

Wellness is totally different from being healthy. It is a state of living, more like a lifestyle adopted by an individual.

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Talking about what the experts say about it is- with these six different dimensions, wellness is concerned, and they are physical, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, and spiritual health.

It is quite a dynamic subject in itself only and has to be monitored during the lifetime.

Comparison Table

Parameters of ComparisonHealthWellness
DefinitionPerfect mental, physical and emotional condition of an individual.It is a state of living, more like a lifestyle adopted by an individual.
ConsiderationIt is considered when the person is perfect, not just physically but mentally and emotionally too.It is like a lifestyle adopted by an individual to get a healthy body.
AspectsThe main aspects of being healthy are physical, mental, and social too.It has six different aspects- physical, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, and spiritual health.
MedicineHealth is more and basically from western medicine.Wellness is very much a complementary and alternative form of medicine.
AimThe ultimate goal is to be perfect and free from any sort of disease.The goal here is to be healthy.

What is Health?

Health was previously defined as the absence of any disease in the body, as mentioned earlier. Although, later, the definition was rectified into- the perfect mental, physical, and emotional condition of an individual.

This says that for someone to be called healthy, he/she should sound perfect from both mind and body, not just any one of these.

As said before, health is a state of being well. It is more like a goal set to a particular aim by an individual who is working to achieve that goal.

Health is also concerned with the treatment of disease, and once that disease is cured, the person is again considered healthy. Health does not mean just being physically fit. Rather it refers to every state that is physical, mental, and emotional.

health

What is Wellness?

Wellness that is totally different from being healthy is a state of living, more like a lifestyle adopted by an individual.

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Talking about what the experts say about it is- with these six different dimensions, wellness is concerned and they are physical, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, and spiritual health.

 It is quite a dynamic subject in itself only and has to be monitored during the lifetime. Wellness has to be maintained during the whole period of a lifetime to attain the state of being healthy.

This says that you have to push yourself much more than you can and exert extra pressure on yourself to achieve a lifestyle of wellness. Thus, you are just being asked to undertake some serious actions while achieving a wellness state.

wellness

Main Differences Between Health and Wellness

  1. The main difference between Health and Wellness is that health is a state of being for a person, while wellness is also a state but of living healthy and having a healthy lifestyle.
  2. Health is the Perfect mental, physical and emotional condition of an individual, while wellness is a state of living, more like a lifestyle adopted by an individual.
  3. Wellness basically aims for just being well, but health refers to all mental, physical, emotional, etc.
  4. Health is considered when the person is perfect, not just physically but mentally and emotionally too, but Wellness is like a lifestyle adopted by an individual to get a healthy body.
  5. The main aspects of being healthy are physical, mental, and social too. Wellness has six different aspects- physical, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, and spiritual health.
  6. Health is more and basically from Western medicine, while Wellness is very much from a complementary and alternative form of medicine.
  7. The ultimate goal is to be perfect and free from any sort of disease, but the ultimate goal of having a good lifestyle is to be healthy.
Difference Between Health and Wellness
References
  1. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DrB6lZCo_AwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA2&dq=what+is+health&ots=jvD-o6RVF-&sig=Xt15r2XMY9d75CKxRjlnT3XdDsY
  2. https://puso.pw/0yofgatckgh.pdf

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By Piyush Yadav

Piyush Yadav has spent the past 25 years working as a physicist in the local community. He is a physicist passionate about making science more accessible to our readers. He holds a BSc in Natural Sciences and Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science. You can read more about him on his bio page.