Fundamental principles of individual health: review

INTRODUCTION: Global challenges facing humanity make us take a fresh look at the problem of human health, first of all, in the context of forming a stable plan to maintain and increase health reserves. Such a plan does not appear by itself, it requires some person’s efforts to self-educate and to acquire special knowledge.

OBJECTIVE: Substantiate the principles and mechanisms of individual health based on the analysis of literature sources and results of own research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: There was analysis of articles, placed in the databases and information systems: scientific electronic library Elibrary.ru, RISC, CyberLeninka, Scopus, WoS with the study about the basic components of individual health for the last 20 years. Keywords were used, such as health, homeostasis, adaptation, principles of individual health, valeology. The results of the authors’ own long-term studies have been also used in developing principles of health, relating to the issues of ensuring health of power structure specialists.

RESULTS: High aerobic capacity does not only prevent the development of chronic somatic diseases, but also helps to resist different adverse environmental factors. In other words, high aerobic capacity can ensure overcoming extreme situations without activating anaerobic mechanism of energy supply. It is especially important as a part of valeological approach because, as a rule, in extreme conditions there is drastic reduction in adaptation reserves that leads to a risk of a disease.

DISCUSSION: Priority principle of health is the principle of shaping health. Its essence is systematic teaching to manage your own health based upon a number of factors: gender, age, the level of physical and intellectual activity, the presence of predisposition to certain diseases, professional employment, etc. Its following ensures a person implementation of other principles — preservation and strengthening of health on somatic, mental and social levels. Knowledge about individual health mechanisms may become the theoretical basis for practical activities of medical, educational and social services in improving quality and life expectancy in Russia.

CONCLUSION: In the structure of individual health pedagogical component is considered to be system-forming, the essence of which is to contribute to the formation of morality (positive personality traits and willingness to care for one’s own well-being and that of others) via continuing valeological education. Through morality an individual gets involved in activities of forming somatic, mental and social components of health, building and integration of which tend to happen over the whole period of their growth and development.