Hello,

The WHO describes health as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.'

http://www.who.int/about/mission/en/

I think 'disease' is a bit harder to define; I found this paper that confirmed my thoughts and also quoted the WHO regarding health:

Scully, J. L. (2004). What is a disease?: disease, disability and their definitions. EMBO reports, 5(7), 650-653.

https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc1299105

ResearchGate link:

Article What is a disease?

The author discusses the historical perspective of what is seen as a disease and that new clinical diagnoses are being developed.

I feel that happiness is the presence of positive emotions over those that are negative; the cup half full, not half empty.

I then looked at:

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131.

https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt4v03h9gv/qt4v03h9gv.pdf

RG link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232480861

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?. Psychological bulletin, 131(6), 803.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7419311

I have met people who were definitely not healthy but were happy.

It will be interesting to read the thoughts of other members,

Mary

Dear Mary Wilson...

We had read this definition in college, but actually by this strict definition of health, that had been adopted by WHO, about 40 years ago, No one can be assigned as healthy.

Yes. I think this is too strict a definition. May be they have now added/or will add spiritual well being to the definition.

But let us see if we can discuss the relation between happiness and health.

Happiness promotes a range of life style habits that are important for health. Happy people eat healthier foods, with higher intake of fruits, vegetables. Happiness boosts the immune system of the body. It is assumed that happiness affects the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which regulates the immune system, hormones, digestion and stress levels. Happiness helps in combating stress, protect heart and reduce pain.

Please have a look at these useful links.

Article Happiness And Health: Lessons And Questions For Public Policy

Article Healthy Happiness: Effects of Happiness on Physical Health a...

Article A scientific review of the remarkable benefits of happiness ...

Article Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well‐Being Contributes ...

Article Happy People Live Longer

Article Is happiness a cause of health?

Article The immune system and happiness

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_role_of_Happiness_for_a_healthy_life

https://www.york.ac.uk/media/economics/documents/herc/wp/11_07.pdf

Nice discussion. I am following it. Surely I would like to contribute.

True hapiness is when we know that somebody or some people love and take care of us. This happiness makes our life stress-free. We all know that many of today's health problems are related to stress. If we all realize how much The Creator Loves all of us and Takes care of us; instead of wasting our time worrying about our life's problems ; we will spend it free of stress helping and loving others in return.

This is not my primary field, but I have noticed that the literature holds a lot of papers suggesting that the emotional state has effects on the immune system, and thus on a variety of aspects of physical health including cancer, autoimmunity, and reactions to infectious diseases. There are many examples to be found in PubMed, depending on how you search, with more than a thousand articles turning up from the search on the words "emotions" and "immune system." A few examples are: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30385251 and Article Affective immunology: Where emotions and the immune response converge

Article The immune system and happiness

Article Immunological variability associated with experimentally-ind...

Dear Prof. Richards,

Thank you for your answer and the relevant links. I have been particularly interested in how stress causes ocular diseases. We recently published some papers in which we demonstrated how eliciting relaxation response can lead to decrease in cortisol levels and consequent amelioration of microvascular dysregulation. We have emphasized on glaucoma. If you travelling to ARVO this year, then we can interact on this topic more (provided you have time).

Best

Muneeb