Roberta Riportella, Kansas Health Foundation Professor of Community Health, shares a personal reflection on what health means to her.
Health is something many of us, including me, take for granted until we don’t have it. I think about this as health being part of the means to which I get to do all of the things I want to do: personally and professionally. That is, when I have my health I’m able to perform to the best of my abilities. When my health is compromised, I cannot. I’m usually miserable and just sulk away to lick my wounds until I feel better to face the world’s challenges. For someone who really is in excellent health, I measure changes in my health by minor inconveniences in living. I can be feeling unhealthy when I don’t have the energy to do what needs to get done. Any number of factors can affect my health: a grey sky can make me feel blue, a cold can be annoying, a fever is something more serious to be addressed, and stomach distress is particularly distracting. I don’t necessarily include injuries in my overall concept of health…those, while annoying, are time limited problems that I have learned will eventually heal and most of the time, I can still function around an injury. My evaluation of an injury has more to do with how much pain accompanies it. Significant pain causes mental distractions and then I’m back to feeling unhealthy.
