Health as Balance: A Conceptual Study

Abstract

The notion of health as balance has influenced health care for long. It is not known in what ways, if any, this notion has influenced health research, and whether such influence is helpful. I conduct here a conceptual (rather than an empirical) study to address the unsolved problem whether the notion of health as balance (rather than balance restoring health), specified in various established ways, such as balance between internal and external forces, may be helpful when used in health research. I find that the notion of health as balance has challenges, such as when it focuses on homeostasis, as norms of health are not specified by such a notion. Yet the notion of self-organization has promise as a helpful specification of the notion of health as balance. Health research may benefit from the innovation of use of the notion of health as self-organization, such as by prioritizing host and person (rather than agent) in physical and mental health research and using complexity theory and related methods in relation to self-organization.