The term "valeology" was introduced in the early 80s of the 20th century by II Brekhman. But at present, not everyone knows what valeology is. Let's try to understand this issue.

Valeology is the science of a healthy lifestyle that studies the level, reserves and potential of a person's mental and physical health, as well as ways and methods of strengthening and preserving it. A healthy lifestyle presupposes giving up bad habits, proper nutrition, playing sports, and a rationally organized rest and work regime.

Valeology is closely related to other sciences. She is on the border with physiology, psychology, pedagogy, hygiene, anatomy, sociology.

What does valeology study

The subject of valeology research is the individual health of a person, its mechanisms and their management.

The object of valeology is individuals who are in the range of health. In other words, we can say that the object of valeology is considered to be a practically healthy person and a person who is in a pre-painful state.

Valeology analyzes individual health as a separate medical and social group, the essence of which can be characterized using qualitative and quantitative indicators.

The goal of valeology is to realize the inherited mechanisms and reserves of human vital activity, to support its adaptation to the conditions of the external and internal environment at a high level.

The main tasks of valeology

1. Quantitative assessment and study of the state of human health and its reserves.
2. Creation of installations aimed at a healthy lifestyle.
3. Strengthening and maintaining human health by introducing a healthy lifestyle.

Valeology also solves the problems of training and problems of a health-improving, educational and educational nature.

Valeology develops methods and methods of health promotion, provides disease prevention.

The main methods of studying valeology are health level diagnostics, forecasting, and individual health management.

The following areas of valeology are distinguished:

• medical valeology;
• general valeology;
• pedagogical valeology;
• professional valeology;
• social valeology;
• family valeology;
• age-related valeology;
• ecological valeology.

Valeology (from the Greek "valeo" - health) is the science of health and a healthy lifestyle. The object of interest of this science is man, as an integral, self-regulating system, and not a set of organs. The human body is a unity of physicochemical, energetic and emotional components. And health is the most expensive treasure that a person can possess. As you know, health is not only the absence of disease, but a state of physical and emotional comfort. Valeology combines methods and techniques that prevent diseases and restore health without the use of chemicals.

The human phenomenon that arose in the process of evolution of the organic world has become the subject of research in a huge variety of natural (biology, genetics, anthropology, chemistry, etc.) and social (history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, economics, etc.) sciences. However, until now, a person cannot give final answers to many questions concerning not only his essence, but also his being. This fully applies to one of the fundamental aspects of his life and activity - health. At the same time, the very idea of ​​health in recent decades has acquired particular relevance due to the fact that the quality of health is experiencing a steady tendency to deteriorate. At the same time, it is increasingly becoming clear that going "from the opposite", from illness to ensuring health - and in fact, this is the principle, despite the declared idea of ​​prevention, that medicine professes - is both wrong and pernicious. The difficulty, however, is that a health methodology does not yet exist. This is not surprising, since until very recently there was no health science itself, paradoxically!

Russian scientist I.I. Brekhman was one of the first in recent times to sharpen the problem of the need to develop the foundations of a new science and in 1980 introduced the term "valeology" (as a derivative of the Latin valeo - "health", "to be healthy"). Since then, the term has become generally accepted, and valeology as a science and as an academic discipline is gaining more and more wide recognition not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Its fundamental positions can be summarized as follows:

Valeology is an inter-scientific direction of knowledge about human health, about ways to ensure it, form and preserve it in specific conditions of life. As an academic discipline, it is a body of knowledge about health and a healthy lifestyle.

The central problem of valeology is the attitude towards individual health and the cultivation of a culture of health in the process of individual development of the personality.

The subject of valeology is individual health and human health reserves, as well as a healthy lifestyle. This is one of the most important differences between valeology and preventive medical disciplines, the recommendations of which are aimed at preventing diseases.

The object of valeology is a practically healthy person, as well as a person in a state of pre-illness in all the limitless diversity of his psychophysiological, socio-cultural and other aspects of existence. It is such a person who is outside the sphere of public health interests until he becomes a sick person. When dealing with a healthy or at-risk person, valeology uses the functional reserves of the human body to maintain health, mainly through familiarization with a healthy lifestyle.

The method of valeology is the study of ways to increase the reserves of human health, which includes the search for means, methods and technologies for the formation of motivation for health, introduction to a healthy lifestyle, etc. Here, an important role is played by the qualitative and quantitative assessment of human health and reserves, as well as the study of ways to increase them. If the qualitative assessment of health is traditionally used in its practice by medicine, then the quantitative assessment of the health of each individual person is purely specific for valeology and successfully develops and complements the qualitative analysis. Thanks to this, the specialist and the person himself acquire the ability to dynamically assess their health level and make appropriate adjustments to their lifestyle.

Homeostasis, or homeostasis, is the property of the body to maintain its parameters and physiological functions in a certain range, based on the stability of the internal environment.

It is this indicator - the ability to homeostasis - that is often viewed as the biological basis of health.

To preserve the biochemical and functional constants of the body, it is necessary to maintain a constant temperature of the entire body, its parts and systems and even organs, glucose content, pH and other physicochemical properties of blood, stability of the cellular composition, etc.

The constants of the organism are quite rigid, but there are also relatively mobile constants with wide adaptive values. Rigid constants are a necessary condition for preserving life, and movable constants ensure the maintenance of the first, rigid constants.

However, the conditions in which the organism exists are constantly changing, which will certainly lead to changes in homeostasis indicators. This feature is called "the law of deviation of homeostasis as a condition for development" and asserts the need for constant training loads as an obligatory way to improve the mechanisms of homeostasis and to ensure health. That is why one should strive to expand the limits of these indicators of homeostasis, which can be compensated without disrupting the normal activity of the organism, which should mean a transition to a new, higher level of health.

Mapping the defining attributes of the human health sciences

Defining signs of science 1. Medicine (clinical, preventive, theoretical, experimental).

2. Hygiene (general, communal, social, radiation, food, labor, adolescent).

3. Valeology (medical, pedagogical, psychological, ecological, biological)

Main directions of science Main concept, doctrine Object of study

Getting rid of a person from diseases, their diagnosis, treatment and prevention;

Research and maintenance of healthy conditions of human life and environment;

Formation, strengthening and preservation of human health.

Adaptation (adaptation, adaptive reactions) is the development of new biological properties in the organism, which ensure the vital activity of the biosystem when the external environment or the parameters of the biosystem itself changes.

The adaptive nature of life is one of its essential features: the entire vital activity of the organism proceeds in accordance with the events of the external environment, changes in which also determine changes in vital activity. The purpose and meaning of these changes in the body is to ensure the preservation and maintenance of the life of an individual and a species, their development. Adaptation allows you to maintain the constancy of the internal environment, increases the power of homeostatic mechanisms, communicates with the external environment and, ultimately, allows you to keep the essential parameters of the body within the physiological limits that ensure the stability of the system. According to academician P.K. AnokhinY, each organism is a dynamic combination of stability and variability, in which adaptive reactions protect its hereditarily fixed vital constants.

The beneficial effect of adaptation also consists in increasing the body's ability to withstand the destructive influence of environmental factors, its resistance. The latter is based on the mechanisms fixed in evolution, and determines the adaptive rate of reaction of an individual or a species as a whole. It is clear that resistance is a very important indicator of an organism. There are three types of adaptive changes - urgent, cumulative and evolutionary.

Urgent adaptation is characterized by continuously occurring adaptive changes that arise in response to continuously changing environmental conditions.

The characteristic properties of urgent adaptation are:

Their occurrence only with direct external influence, therefore, urgent reactions are not fixed in the body and disappear immediately after the elimination of this influence;

The nature and intensity of the urgent adaptive reaction exactly correspond to the nature and strength of the external stimulus;

The body can respond with urgent reactions only to influences that do not exceed the physiological capabilities of the body in terms of their strength, nature and time.

Cumulative adaptation is characterized by such changes that occur in response to long-term repetitive external or internal influences. At the same time, the body becomes able to respond with faster, more accurate and adequate responses at the level of its functional reserves. If the repetitive effects correspond to certain patterns of irritating changes (in strength, duration, frequency, etc.), then the body acquires the ability to perform large (in volume, intensity, frequency of repetitions, etc.) work, that is, a transition of adapted systems of the body into a qualitatively different state.

The essence of evolutionary adaptation is that if the changed environmental conditions persist long enough (at least 10 generations are assumed), then this leads to adaptive changes in the gene structure, as a result of which for subsequent generations such conditions become “their own”, natural.

Adaptive protective-adaptive reactions are divided into specific and non-specific. The first of them provide the body's stability and resistance only against a given stimulus (typical examples are adaptation to these physical loads in training and the body's immunity to certain types of pathogens of infectious diseases in the form of immunity). Nonspecific adaptive reactions contribute to an increase in the stability and general resistance of the organism to any disturbing factors of the external environment. In humans, the nonspecific adaptation mechanism has received a noticeable development through purposeful volitional training, which ensures the growth of the body's reserve capabilities.

Adaptation should not always be viewed as a positive development. Depending on the type and characteristics of the stimulus, it can be accompanied by varying degrees of stimulation of the functional systems of the body, because in the process of adaptation they can not only be activated, but also depleted.

In the health problem, the concept of adaptation should be considered central. The essence of their interdependence can be formulated as follows: health is a state of balance between the adaptive capabilities of the organism (human potential) and constantly changing environmental conditions. This is especially clearly manifested in the nature of age-related changes in adaptation. Thus, a newborn does not have rigid adaptation mechanisms, due to which the adaptation range is wide enough, which allows him to survive within a fairly large range of changes in living conditions. In the future, the formation of rigid adaptation mechanisms is accompanied, however, not by a decrease, but by an increase - mainly due to socio-psychological factors - of the number of disturbing factors. That is why, with age, the number of people with a breakdown in adaptation grows and fewer and fewer have a satisfactory adaptation to environmental conditions.

In addition to the age limitation of the limits and rigidity of adaptation, this is largely due to two more interdependent circumstances: on the one hand, the fact that instead of training adaptation mechanisms by natural factors of existence, a person changes the very conditions of existence, and on the other hand, the lack of demand for adaptation reserves by comfortable living conditions. Therefore, the reserves of adaptive capabilities in the body are always higher than their implementation.

Genotype and phenotype. Genotype is understood as the hereditary basis of an organism, a set of genes localized in chromosomes. In a broader sense, it is the totality of all hereditary factors of the organism. The genotype is formed as a natural consequence of genetic development, due to the improvement of adaptive mechanisms to relatively constant and changing environmental conditions.

The phenotype is understood as the totality of all the characteristics and properties of an organism, formed in the process of its individual development. The phenotype is determined by the interaction of the genotype, that is, the hereditary basis of the organism, with the environmental conditions in which it develops.

Belonging to the species Homo sapiens does not mean at all that all its representatives are genotypically identical. In this respect, all people differ in a number of geno- and phenotypic features:

Adaptive character, determined by climatic and geographical factors; therefore, the adaptation of the Eskimo to the conditions of Central Africa (like the Ethiopian to the conditions of the tundra) will be rather inadequate;

Historical and evolutionary in the form of an ethnos, distinguished by its specific religious, national, cultural, etc. features, therefore, for example, the Scandinavian ethnos differs from the Mongoloid;

Social character, leading to differences in lifestyle, culture, social aspirations, etc., between an intellectual and a peasant, a city dweller and a villager;

Economic character, due to belonging *: to one or another socio-economic group (banker and worker, businessman and clerk).

Thus, the nature of the organism's vital activity presupposes that it is determined by the genotypic program and living conditions. This means that the development of an individual at any given moment and in the future is a single process of life, by no means predetermined completely by its genotype, but determined by its internal program, in which the genetic component is included only as an initial basis, which is corrected in the course of life. Such self-development, self-programming of an individual is carried out under the influence of the external environment.

It should be noted that in ensuring health, in organizing a healthy lifestyle, until now, the genotypic component has not been given due attention. That is why, most often, practical recommendations for the formation of health are universal and do not take into account individual genotypic characteristics. The latter should be understood as: body type, nature of blood coagulation, type of higher nervous activity, features of gastric secretion, the predominant type of autonomic nervous regulation, and much more. On the other hand, a person himself, in choosing the trajectory of his individual development, must know (or learn) the features of his genetic nature - without the implementation of this condition, one cannot speak of his valeological literacy and valeological culture. In particular, in such an important aspect of human life as professional activity, in the Russian Federation, only less than 3% of people have chosen a profession corresponding to their genotype. Therefore, it is natural to say that in 97% of cases professional activity comes into conflict with the individual characteristics characteristic of its bearer, which often results in a breakdown in adaptation and a transition to illness.

A modern qualified teacher should have a valeological education, the foundation of which is the principles of humanity, forecasting, integrity, scientific validity and constancy.

The basis of the valeological culture of teachers is the science of valeology.

Valeology (from Latin "valeo" - "to be healthy")- a young integrative science that comprehends the means and patterns aimed at the formation, restoration and strengthening of the health of each person using a variety of healing methods and technologies.

The formation of health implies a set of actions aimed at optimizing the birth rate, growth and upbringing of adolescents.

Restoring health involves following the rules of a healthy lifestyle (in the valeological aspect), as well as measures aimed at returning lost health (recovery) and maintaining it at the same level.

Health promotion includes enhancing health through wellness treatments and exercise.

Health is defined by the World Health Organization as the achievement of a state of absolute moral, physical and social well-being, and not only the elimination of diseases and the absence of physical disabilities, this is especially important, especially when valeology is used in kindergartens and schools, at the stage of the formation of children as whole individuals.

In the concept of valeology, health is the ability of the human body to maintain its efficiency in changing environmental conditions. This is a kind of benchmark to be achieved.

Thus, valeology includes theoretical and practical tools for managing all aspects of human health - physical, psychological and spiritual condition, its place in society.

Valeology is divided into general and industry-specific.

The task general valeology is the formation of generalized scientifically based laws of a healthy person's lifestyle.

Industry valeology studies health in context with other sciences. There is psychological, medical, family, pedagogical, sports valeology, etc.

Like any branch of science, valeology has its own subject, object for study, methods, methodological foundations, goals and objectives.

The subject of the science of valeology is the individual health of a person, health reserves, the functions of his body and the possibility of their regulation and correction.

Object of valeology a person who is healthy in all aspects and a person who is at the stage of pre-illness appears.

Pre-illness is the risk of deterioration in health due to pathological processes that occur regardless of the action of external factors, as a result of a decrease in health reserves.

Among the methods used by valeology - statistical, logical techniques and methods, combinatorics.


Thanks to valeological methods and technologies, it is possible to timely detect people in need of health promotion. Applying the methods of recovery, they are removed from the stage of pre-disease. Thus, valeological technologies serve as the foundation for primary prevention of morbidity.

In addition, valeological technologies are applicable to an already ill person. In this case, the aspect of secondary valeologic prevention of the disease is manifested. The direct use of healing methods leads to an increase in health reserves, the resumption of the functions of self-regulation and self-reproduction, the prevention of the consequences of the disease and its spread throughout the body.

1. Health is understood as an independent socio-medical category that can be described qualitatively and quantitatively. The task of valeology is to form, maintain and strengthen health.
2. The transition from the stage of health to the stage of pre-illness is preceded by a certain state. At the same time, health is a broader category, while illness and pre-illness are rather narrow concepts.

Illness and pre-illness is a state of health in which its reserves are reduced or some disorders or damage appear.

1. The approach to the consideration of human health in valeology is integrative, systemic, the methods used in it are not medical, but mostly natural in nature.

Thus, the main goal of valeology as a science is to improve the human body by attracting people to a healthy lifestyle.

Valeology is faced with the following tasks: to strengthen health, to promote an improvement in the standard of living of an individual, to promote his adaptation in society, to study the patterns of formation and maintenance of individual health.

Many people compare valeology with hygiene. Undoubtedly, they have something in common, but still they are two different sciences. The subject of valeology is the health of the individual, the functions of his body and the ability to influence them. And the subject of hygiene is the study of the relationship between external factors (natural and social) and human health. The object of valeology is a healthy person and a person in the "third state" (pre-illness). The object of hygiene is external factors and a person. Thus, hygiene goes from the external environment to the person, and valeology, on the contrary, from the person to the environment.

Although it is worth noting that the latest research of hygienists is based on an inverse approach that is unusual for them - from assessing health, they have moved on to assessing the factors that cause it.

There is a misconception that valeology is the science of leading a healthy lifestyle.... But the way of life is a wide social group, which includes not only the absence of bad habits and playing sports, but also financial solvency, profession, level of education, degree of human culture and much more. The study of the influence of lifestyle on health is a subject of social hygiene. And valeology only develops the principles of a lifestyle, thanks to the adherence to which the formation, restoration and strengthening of health occurs.

The young science of valeology is now still in its infancy. The foundation for its development was: ecology, biology, anatomy, psychology, sociology, physical education, pedagogy, hygiene, human life safety.

The need for valeological knowledge is due to the fact that, in their absence, a person may misunderstand his health and rush from one extreme to another - strengthen it with frightening fanaticism or abandon the formation and strengthening of health for fear of harming himself.

Lack of knowledge in the field of valeology gives rise to many conjectures and myths regarding some diseases, for example:

1. Church myth - all diseases were given to me for my sins.
2. Psychogenetic myth - I inherited all my mental illnesses.
3. Bioenergy myth - I am sick because "energy vampires" are draining my vitality.
4. Psychoanalytic myth - all diseases are due to the fact that my relationship with my parents was unsuccessful.
5. Karmic myth: illness now is punishment for sins in a past life or the sins of my ancestors.
6. Sociocentric myth - I got sick because I fulfilled my purpose on Earth and ceased to be needed.
7. Astrological myth - I got sick, because the stars are so "arranged."

There are many such myths. And thanks to valeology, the younger generation can correctly form their idea of ​​health, appreciate it and are skeptical about such speculations. The formation of health is a category in which there is no room for assumptions and guesses, this is a serious problem of modern society, which requires a serious and holistic approach to the solution, both by the person himself and by professionals in their field - doctors, scientists, teachers, social workers.

Valeology (vale (lat.) - the usual formula of greeting among the ancient Romans "be healthy"; logos (Greek) - a word, doctrine.) Is a fairly young science about a correct and healthy lifestyle. This term was introduced into modern medical and educational practice in the early 80s. XX century. the famous domestic doctor I.I.Brekhman. The most acute relevance of valeology lies in the fact that it, in a concise and extremely practical form, sets out the knowledge and skills that a person needs in order to go through his life path in the best way, i.e. if possible, be happy and prosperous.

Valeology is based on practical knowledge extracted from many ancient cultures and traditions, from modern scientific research, which allows a person to solve his problems, contribute to his personal growth, physical and moral health, and professional development.

The evolutionary history of man ended with the formation of a fundamentally new species, qualitatively different from other animals inhabiting the Earth, however, the mechanisms and factors that acted in the course of the evolution of our ancestors did not differ in any way from the mechanisms and factors of evolution of any other species of living beings. What contributed to this evolutionary leap? From a certain stage of development in the evolution of mankind, social factors began to play a greater role than biological ones. The origin and evolution of man began to be considered from the point of view of the interaction of many factors: hereditary, ecological, social, etc. Thus, valeology as a science of human health in all its aspects, borders on biology, genetics, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, chemistry, psychology and ecology.

The central problem of valeology is the attitude towards individual health and the cultivation of a culture of health in the process of individual development of the personality.

The subject of valeology is individual health and human health reserves, as well as a healthy lifestyle. This is one of the most important differences between valeology and preventive medical disciplines, the recommendations of which are aimed at preventing diseases.

The object of valeology is a practically healthy person, as well as a person in a state of pre-illness in all the limitless diversity of his psychophysiological, socio-cultural and other aspects of existence. It is such a person who is outside the sphere of public health interests until he becomes a sick person. When dealing with a healthy or at-risk person, valeology uses the functional reserves of the human body to maintain health, mainly through familiarization with a healthy lifestyle.

The method of valeology is the study of ways to increase the reserves of human health, which includes the search for means, methods and technologies for the formation of motivation for health, introduction to a healthy lifestyle, etc. Here, an important role is played by the qualitative and quantitative assessment of human health and reserves, as well as the study of ways to increase them. If the qualitative assessment of health is traditionally used in its practice by medicine, then the quantitative assessment of the health of each individual person is purely specific for valeology and successfully develops and complements the qualitative analysis. Thanks to this, the specialist and the person himself acquire the ability to dynamically assess their health level and make appropriate adjustments to their lifestyle.

The main goal of valeology is the maximum use and preservation of inherited mechanisms and reserves of human vital activity and maintaining a high level of adaptation of the body to the conditions of the internal and external environment. In theoretical terms, the goal of valeology is to study the laws of maintaining health, modeling and achieving a healthy lifestyle. In practical terms, the purpose of valeology can be seen in the development of measures and determining the conditions for maintaining and promoting health.

The main tasks of valeology:

1. Research and quantitative assessment of the state of health and human health reserves.

2. Formation of an attitude towards a healthy lifestyle.

3. Preservation and strengthening of health and health reserves of a person through his introduction to a healthy lifestyle.

Valeology has all the attributes of science: it has its own subject, method, object, goals, objectives, etc. Nevertheless, it is necessary to determine the general foundations of the relationship of valeology as an independent science (or scientific direction) with other sciences, based primarily on the fact that the subject of valeology is health.

Biology (general biology, genetics, cytology, etc.) investigates the patterns of life of organisms in phylogenesis, forms an evolutionary view of the nature of health, creates a holistic picture of the biological world.

Ecology provides the scientific basis for the rational use of natural resources, explores the nature of the relationship "society - man - environment" and develops optimal models for their construction, forms knowledge about the aspects of the dependence of health on the environment.

Medicine (anatomy, physiology, hygiene, sanology, etc.) develops standards for ensuring health, substantiates a system of knowledge and practical activities to strengthen and maintain health, to prevent and treat diseases. The following components are considered the structure of medicine: the science of disease (pathology), the science of a healthy environment (hygiene), the science of healing mechanisms (sanogenesis), and the science of public health (sanology).

Physical education and physical culture determine the regularities of maintaining and improving physical development and physical fitness of a person as integral characteristics of health.

Psychology studies the laws of human mental development, the state of the psyche in various conditions of life, the psychological aspects of ensuring health.

Pedagogy develops goals, objectives, content and technologies of valeological education and upbringing, aimed at the formation of vitally sustainable motivation for health and at introducing a person to a healthy lifestyle.

Sociology identifies the social aspects of maintaining, strengthening and maintaining health and health risk factors.

Political science determines the role, strategy and tactics of the state in ensuring and shaping the health of its citizens.

Economics substantiates the economic aspects of ensuring health and, on the other hand, the economic value of health in ensuring the well-being of the people and the security of the state.

Philosophy determines the laws of development of nature and society, while the subject and object of both is man: influencing nature and society, he changes them, but, in turn, experiences their influence on himself, including on his health. The formation of a philosophical, dialectical worldview of a person is a very significant factor in the correct assessment of the role of health in human life.

Culturology determines the goals and ways of culturological training of a person, an essential part of which is valeological culture.

History traces the historical roots, the continuity of the ways, means and methods of maintaining health in the world, in the region, in the ethnos.

Geography establishes the climatogeographic and socio-economic specifics of the region and the relationship of a person with the environment in the aspect of human adaptation and ensuring a healthy lifestyle.

Of course, the above relationships of valeology do not reflect the full picture, since in quantitative terms there are immeasurably more such connections and valeology is only one of the branches of that area of ​​human knowledge, which is called science, the subject of which, in turn, is a person.

The relationship of valeology with other sciences is two-sided. Using the data of related sciences, valeology itself can give significant results for the development and concretization of the problems of human science.

Being at the junction of many sciences, valeology, with its methodology, problems, data, makes the representatives of these sciences, in some aspects, take a fresh look at their own problems. It is not surprising, therefore, that in valeology itself there is a noticeable differentiation, reflecting the specifics of the interests of scientists who came to valeology from various branches of science.

Currently, the following main directions can be distinguished in valeology.

General valeology is the basis, the methodology of valeology as a science or field of knowledge. It determines the place of valeology in the system of human sciences, the subject, methods, goals, objectives, the history of its formation. This should also include the issues of the biosocial nature of man and its role in ensuring health.

General valeology can be considered as the trunk of a tree of science, from which branches, branches of valeology depart.

Medical valeology determines the differences between health and disease and their diagnosis, studies methods of external health maintenance and disease prevention, develops methods and criteria for assessing the health of the population and individual social-age groups and methods of using the body's reserve capabilities to eliminate the onset of the disease, examines external and internal factors threatening health, develops recommendations for ensuring human health and a healthy lifestyle.

Pedagogical valeology studies the issues of training and upbringing of a person who has a strong life orientation towards health and a healthy lifestyle at different age stages of development. Now this branch of valeology is developing most dynamically, which is due to at least two of the following circumstances: 1) the need of society for urgent measures to improve the health of a person with the possibility of the fastest return; 2) the relative cheapness of the introduction and implementation of valeological programs in the educational process for a state in difficult financial and economic conditions.

The basic concepts of pedagogical valeology are valeological education, valeological training, valeological education, valeological knowledge, valeological culture.

Valeological education is understood as a continuous process of training, upbringing and development of human health, aimed at the formation of a system of scientific and practical knowledge and skills, behavior and activities that provide value relationships to the personal health and health of people around.

Valeological training is the process of forming knowledge about the laws of formation, preservation and development of human health, mastering the skills of preserving and improving personal health, assessing the factors that form it; assimilation of knowledge about a healthy lifestyle and the skills of its construction, development of methods and means of conducting advocacy work on health and a healthy lifestyle.

Valeological education is a process of forming value-oriented attitudes towards health and a healthy lifestyle, built as an integral part of life values ​​and general cultural worldview. In the process of valeological education, a person develops an emotional and at the same time conscious attitude to health, based on positive interests and needs, a desire to improve their own health and to respect the health of people around them, to develop their creativity and the spiritual world, to conscious perception and relation to society.

Valeological knowledge is a set of scientifically grounded concepts, ideas, facts accumulated by mankind in the field of health and representing the starting base for the further development of science and valeological knowledge itself.

The result of valeological education should be the valeological culture of a person, which assumes knowledge of his genetic, physiological and psychological capabilities, methods and means of control, preservation and development of his health, the ability to spread valeological knowledge to others.

Valeological education is connected and actively interacts with other types of education: mental, physical, professional, political and others. Such interaction contributes to a more effective performance of the functions of each of these types of education, the specific preparation of people (and primarily children and youth) to fulfill their personal and social responsibilities in society.

The principles of pedagogical valeology are generally recognized principles of pedagogy. In addition, it is necessary to supplement them in their application to valeology with humanistic, anthropological and health-building principles.

Age-related valeology studies the features of the age-related formation of human health, its relationship with factors of the external and internal environment at different age periods and adaptation to the conditions of life. At each age stage, the state of any of the body systems corresponds to the implementation of the genetic program for this particular period of development. That is, we are talking about the fact that the assessment of the level of health and its individual indicators should be dynamic, carried out from the standpoint of the age development of the individual, and not refer to any average standards of adult age.

Differential valeology deals with the study of individual-typological characteristics of health, built on the genetic and phenotypic assessment of an individual; develops a methodology for constructing individual programs for changing the quantity and quality of health.

Professional valeology studies issues related to the problem of professional testing and vocational guidance, built on scientifically based methods for assessing individual typological personality traits. In addition, she examines the features of the influence of occupational factors on human health, determines the methods and means of vocational rehabilitation both in the process of work and throughout life.

Special valeology studies the influence of various special, dangerous for human life and extreme factors on human health and safety criteria for these factors, determines methods and means of maintaining and restoring health during and as a result of exposure to such factors. Special valeology is closely related to the discipline of "life safety fundamentals".

Family valeology studies the role and place of the family and each of its members in the formation of health, develops recommendations for ways and means of ensuring the health of each of the generations and the entire family as a whole. Apparently, this section of valeology has a great future, since the formation of health - from preparing for childbirth to raising a conscious attitude to health - can be most purposefully and consistently carried out in the family.

Ecological valeology studies the influence of natural factors and the consequences of anthropogenic changes in nature on human health, determines human behavior in the emerging environmental conditions in order to preserve health. Human intervention in the natural development of nature creates more and more distinct contradictions between it and the human body, which is a product of biological evolution. In this regard, valeology should, on the one hand, study the nature of the effects of the changed environment on human health, and on the other, develop recommendations about the optimal, from the point of view of health, human behavior in the prevailing conditions.

Social valeology aims to study human health in society, in its diverse and multivariate relations of a social nature with people and with society. In the sphere of interests of social valeology and the study of the state of health in social groups (permanent or temporary), both as a whole (collectives, groups), and each of its elements.

Probably, over time, further differentiation of valeology will occur.

The introduction of the term "valeology" into mass circulation is caused by the desire of people to preserve their health in an irresponsibly destroyed natural environment, a decrease in the availability of qualified medical care to the general population, an increase in statistical indicators of morbidity and negative trends in the demographic state of Russia. To satisfy the need for health, many resort to "fashionable" means - from telehealing to food supplements "Herbalife", because, unfortunately, the current system of medical care for health care and traditional methods of training for compulsory normative tests of the physical education system are not in the modern environment adapted to the demands and needs of the population

The formation of mankind in the past was provided by the main factor - the ability to preserve and reproduce life, the ability to adapt to the environment and the degree of reproductive success.

Life is a higher, in comparison with physical and chemical, form of the existence of matter, which naturally arises under certain conditions in the process of its development.

Adaptation (adaptation, adaptive reactions) is the development of new biological properties in the organism, which ensure the vital activity of the biosystem when the external environment or the parameters of the biosystem itself changes.

The preservation and promotion of health can be represented in the form of a formalized health management process. The management process consists of the following formal stages: collection and analysis of information about the state of the object, its forecast; formation of a program of control actions, its implementation; analysis of the adequacy and effectiveness of the control program (feedback). As you can see, the current state of medical science does not make it possible to form a well-founded program of health "management". The creation of “healthy” living conditions (including personal hygiene), for the scientific justification of which hygiene science is responsible, is a “passive-defensive” way of prevention. And the active position of health improvement cannot be substantiated without defining the essence of individual health, its mechanisms that should be "controlled". This is the main problem of the doctrine of health.

One should not think that this problem was not raised in medicine. According to historians, Hippocrates believed that only Nature can cure a patient, and the task of a doctor is to enhance the "healing power" of Nature when treating a patient, to direct it and not create obstacles for it. The healing legacy of Hippocrates, which for centuries was considered perfect, was forgotten, and only today doctors have chosen his name for the name of their professional oath.

The first modern attempt to formulate the provisions on the mechanisms of health and methods of influencing them was made at the end of the 60s of our century by the pathologist S. M. Pavlenko and the internist S. F. Oleinik. They substantiated a scientific direction called "sanology". Sanology was defined as "a general doctrine of the body's counteraction to disease", which is based on "sanogenesis" - a dynamic complex of adaptive mechanisms (physiological or pathological) that occurs when exposed to an extreme stimulus and develops throughout the entire disease process - from the state of pre-illness to recovery. Although sanogenetic mechanisms operate constantly in the body, the authors of the concept, as pathologists, focused on their functioning in the presence of the danger of developing a disease (exposure to an extreme stimulus) and put forward “pre-illness” and “recovery” as the main categories. The creators of this trend argued that many mechanisms of sanogenesis can be significantly improved in order to increase the stability of the organism and maintain health in general.

The weak point of this direction was the provision that the "dynamic complex of protective and adaptive mechanisms" appears only when there is a danger of the disease. This purely theoretical miscalculation almost ruined the whole concept of sanogenesis, and extensive materials of three sanological conferences (Lvov, 1967-1969) were devoted to the role of defense mechanisms that are activated exclusively at the stages of "pre-illness-illness-recovery". The concept of sanogenesis was not accepted by the medical community and was consigned to oblivion for 1.5-2 decades.

Meanwhile, at the present stage of the development of science, it has become obvious that sanogenesis, i.e. the mechanisms of maintaining and strengthening health, operate constantly in a healthy person, and only when the balance between the strength of the acting factor and the reserves of these mechanisms is disturbed, they are woven into pathogenesis as a resistance to the damage itself, contributing to the preservation of homeostasis and recovery.

A significant contribution to the development of the problem was made by representatives of military medicine, engaged in medical support of persons working under extreme conditions. At the beginning of the 70s. IA Sapov together with his colleagues (GLApanasenko, Yu.M. Bobrov, AS Solodkov, VS Shchegolev and others) formulated the doctrine of the "physiological support" of submarine cruises. For the first time, an attempt was made to "control" the body functions responsible for the professional performance of submarine specialists. In cosmonautics, the concept of "prenosological diagnostics" was formulated (R. M. Baevsky, 1973), which was successfully used in civil health care (V. P. Kaznacheev et al., 1980). We should also mention the works concerning the problems of normology that appeared in the 70s (A.A.Korolkov, V.P. Petlenko). However, “norm” has the same relation to valeology as “syndrome” to pathology.

A significant contribution to the formation of the prerequisites for the emergence of valeology was made by a group of scientists from the Kiev Research Institute of Medical Problems of Physical Culture of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (1969-1986), who developed the doctrine of the physical state of a person (G.L. Apanasenko, S.A. Dushanin, L.Ya. , I.V. Muravov, E.A.Pirogova and others). Unfortunately, this research institute, which is essentially the only scientific institution in the former USSR dealing with the health problems of a practically healthy person, was disbanded in 1986.

The founder of the science of health in its modern understanding is rightfully considered a graduate of the Naval Medical Academy I.I. Brekhman, who for the first time after a long oblivion (1982) raised the methodological foundations of health protection for practically healthy people. Investigating the role of adaptagens and forming a new scientific direction - pharmacosanation ("medicines for the healthy"), he came to the idea of ​​the need to change the entire health care strategy by studying the etiology and mechanisms of an individual's health. Calling the scientific direction he founded "valeology" (from the Latin valeo - "hello", "to be healthy"), in 1987 he published the first monograph on the problem, in which he argued that the science of health should not be limited to one medicine, but integral, forming on the basis of ecology, biology, psychology, medicine and other sciences. In 1990, the second, supplemented and revised edition of this book was published.

The second center for the development of valeology was Kiev, where the formation of valeological direction was associated with sports medicine (sports medicine has the largest data bank in medical science on the state of the functions of healthy people). In 1985, at a visiting meeting of the Bureau of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences "Medical problems of physical culture and sports", G.L. models in the prevention of diseases and health improvement of the population. In the same year, his first article on the methodology for quantifying the level of an individual's health was published (the journal "Hygiene and Sanitation").

Acceleration of the pace of social development (social, economic, technological), as well as growing environmental problems affect the biological nature of man. There is a decrease in the functional reserves of organs and systems of the body as a whole, a violation of self-regulation processes, the birth of weakened offspring, and much more. As a result, the nature of diseases developing in modern humans is changing. If in the past humanity suffered from infectious diseases, in our time, chronic non-infectious diseases have become widespread, new infectious diseases have appeared (AIDS, Ebola, SARS) for which today there is no even adequate treatment. But the biggest problem is the so-called polysyndromic conditions, which are a serious problem for classical medicine, because do not fit into the known forms of diseases of classical medicine and are incomprehensible from the point of view of the pathogenesis of the disease.

In cases of the occurrence of polysyndromic conditions, different specialists of a narrow profile often establish "their own" diagnosis for the same patient and prescribe the appropriate treatment. As a result, the patient can be simultaneously recommended several different treatment regimens, which not only may not agree with each other, but even come into conflict or mutually exclude each other.

Both Hippocrates and Avicenna distinguished several gradations of health. Thus, Avicenna identified six such transitional states. I.I. Brechman defined the so-called third state, characterizing it as incomplete health, in which the body can be for a long time and from which it can go both into health (first state) and disease (second). The third state is not necessarily the threat of a transition to a disease, but rather the opportunity, time, and chance given to man by nature in the process of microevolution to restore the capabilities of his functional systems through a certain degree of tension of self-regulation mechanisms.

There are four states of the body:

With sufficient adaptive capacity;

Pre-nosological, when adaptation is realized due to a higher than normal voltage of regulatory systems;

Premorbid with a decrease in functional reserves;

A breakdown in adaptation with a decrease in the functional capabilities of the body is already a condition in which a clinical diagnosis is made.

Unfortunately, states 2 and 3, when the body is fighting for the transition to state 1, are not of interest to doctors (most likely, due to the congestion of state 4 and, possibly, because the doctor has no idea what to do with a person in the first three states).

There is also a more specific classification of transient health states:

Conditional health;

Functional deviations;

Borderline states;

Chronic diseases;

Disability;

Complete loss of functions;

Fatal outcome.

Thus, regardless of the above classifications, the task, in principle, is to transfer a person to a higher degree of health.

The modern educational process with its technology, volume of information, structure, specifics of classes, conditions of their conduct, etc. makes great psychological and physiological demands on students, which for the most part do not correspond to the individual age, mental and physical capabilities of students. Such a discrepancy leads, already at the early stages of learning, to a decrease in the reserves of the body's systems, its compensatory and adaptive capabilities. As a result, the body's resistance to the effects of social, environmental and professional factors is disrupted. In the structure of the morbidity of students, there has been an increase over the past ten years in patients with tuberculosis, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system, endocrine system. The number of infectious diseases, including viral hepatitis, has increased.

It should be noted that 90% of the increase in somatic diseases in children and adolescents develop against the background of dysfunctions of the central nervous system, dysfunctions of interaction and compensation between brain structures, dysfunctions of regulation and compensation caused by the interaction of body systems.

At the end of the 20th century, there was a sharp increase in the number of disabled children. The main health disorders that cause disability are diseases of the central nervous and immune systems, visceral and metabolic disorders, eating disorders, motor and mental disorders. The number of children with disabilities, according to social statistics, has been steadily growing since 1980, increasing by 10-20% per year. This figure increased most rapidly in 1991-1992. (35-38% per year). The prevalence of disability among boys is higher than among girls. For the first time, disability is registered most often at the age of 0 to 4 years, that is, most children with disabilities have congenital and developmental defects. Among more than 500 thousand children with disabilities, 78% suffer from mental disorders.

Analysis of the state of the problem of health of pupils and students in the Russian Federation indicates the need to attract the latest means and technologies to solve it.

The issues of assessing the level of health and its development are being developed in many educational institutions of the regions of Russia. Since 1996, the Russian Institute for Preventive Medicine (St. Petersburg) has begun to hold annual national congresses "Preventive Medicine and Valeology". Since 1996, the scientific and practical journal "Valeology" has been published. The journal was founded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Education, the Russian Academy of Education, the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Southern Federal University, the Southern Branch of the Russian Academy of Education, the Scientific Research Institute of Valeology of the Southern Federal University, the Association of Valeology Centers of Russian universities. Until 2007, the journal was included in the list of VAK journals. The Ministry of Health approves the position of “valeologist”. The Ministries of Education of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are introducing the subject “valeology” in universities and schools. Currently, the teaching of the subject "Valeology" in Russia is a consequence of the initiative of individual educational institutions. In Belarus, the teaching of the subject "Valeology" in secondary schools is preserved as an optional course.

In Rostov-on-Don, the only Russian Educational and Research Institute of Valeology of the Russian State University is functioning, which has accumulated significant experience in organizing health centers in universities and school institutions in Russia. In the Kemerovo region, 47 Health Centers have been created in schools and universities, in the Altai State University, Ryazan RTA, Samara Technical University, Tomsk and Tula State Universities and other universities in Russia, methodological foundations for equipping and functioning of such health centers have been developed. The scientific and practical journal "Valeology" was organized and published since 1996. The publishing and printing complex "Valeology" was created and is functioning. A series of textbooks, educational-methodical literature on the culture of health, age-related physiology, and physiological foundations of health has been published.

According to the programs of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, a series of hardware and software tools, hardware complexes, expert systems for diagnostics, prognosis and correction of psychophysiological reserves of body systems and the body as a whole are being developed and widely distributed.

A number of Russian universities are training and retraining specialists in health-saving education technologies. A draft educational standard for the specialty “Culture of Health” has been prepared (Moscow State Pedagogical University).

Thus, in universities, research and other institutions of the Ministry of Education of Russia, the number of scientific and pedagogical, educational, methodological, informational, instructive and organizational, regulatory, software and technical and other materials on the formation, development and preservation of children's health is constantly increasing. adolescents and youth. The exchange of these materials, however, is unsatisfactory and sporadic. In this regard, there is an urgent need to create conditions for the prompt reception, processing, storage, transmission, replication of information on health problems.

The Russian Orthodox Church reacted sharply negatively to the emergence of a new science. In particular, Priest Sergiy Rybakov, speaking about valeology, noted the following:

Valeology is not a science, but claims to develop a worldview, i.e. is a religious teaching.

Valeologists strive to influence a wide range of children, school (teenage), and youth audiences.

Valeologists aim to destroy the existing system of education and upbringing and, which is especially dangerous, encroaches on the foundations of the family.

Valeology forms the cult of the body and has a pronounced emphasis on issues of sexual relations. This leads to the development of egocentrism and selfishness in children, a violation of the adequate perception of the world around them, and various mental and physical abnormalities.

Thus, valeology is accused of destructiveness, aggressiveness in the forms and methods of its dissemination and anti-scientific nature, which allowed the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church to classify the young science as religious sectarian teachings of a totalitarian nature.

Nevertheless, the introduction into the practice of training health professionals of the plan and program of the basics of valeology in the mid-80s contributed to their widespread dissemination and the revitalization of the creative developments of many researchers and institutions. At the same time, the developers of valeological ideas and recommendations relied on various previous works of famous Russian scientists (N.M. Amosov, P.K. Anokhin, I.A.Arshavsky, V.I. Vernadsky, N.D. Graevskaya, V.P. Kaznacheev, A.V. Korobkov, V.V. Frolkis, etc.), which can rightfully be called the fundamental blocks of modern valeology, theoretical and methodological foundations for the formation of a healthy lifestyle for the population of Russia.

The dissemination of ideas and activities of valeology, the formation and implementation of a healthy lifestyle is greatly influenced by public opinion, which means the following: 1) a system of relatively stable assessments of social life, traditional attitudes towards social phenomena; 2) the intellectual reaction of broad strata of society to a specific phenomenon or event. Public opinion about a healthy lifestyle is formed, formed and developed on the basis of:

Knowledge of socially significant functions and effects of a healthy lifestyle, the impact on a person of physical culture, enshrined in the relevant basic information in vice legislative acts and teaching aids, generalized and personal experience, propaganda materials;

Impressions arising under the influence of intensive information flows, selectively and / or randomly characterizing particular aspects and effects of a healthy lifestyle, physical culture, medicine and psychology.

The inclusion of ideas and principles of valeology and a healthy lifestyle in public opinion and public consciousness was largely influenced by their propaganda aimed at various groups of the population (N.M. Amosov, Yu.F. Zmanovsky, Yu.P. Lisitsyn, A.A. Mikulin, G.I. Tsaregorodtsev and others). The promotion of the health-improving effects of physical culture, as well as the inclusion of their description and analysis in educational publications, has a particularly important and effective value. The most significant result of these processes was the active involvement of teachers and educational institutions in the formation of a healthy lifestyle using the foundations of valeology and even the separation of this direction into independent educational specializations, disciplines, courses. As noted by the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation E.V. Tkachenko, due to the fact that the health of children deteriorates 4-5 times during schooling, changes are needed in the organization of health-improving work and that it is for this that a new specialty is being opened - "Pedagogical valeology", a standard for this specialty is being developed, educational -methodical literature. The first successful steps have already been taken. An example is the implementation of the concept "Physical culture, health and sport" developed by the Samara Department of Education, which is based on activities that allow students to form an internal need for physical culture and sports, to form a wide fund of vital motor skills, skills and related knowledge that contributes to the formation of a healthy lifestyle, professional self-determination, the development of physical, intellectual and moral abilities, as well as the achievement of a level of sports success in accordance with abilities.

Control questions:

What does valeology study, what are its subject, method, purpose and objectives?

What is the place of valeology in the system of sciences about man and society?

What are the main directions of valeology?

What are the prospects for the development of valeology in the future?

What are the reasons for the occurrence and what is the relevance of valeology?

Give a characteristic of medical valeology.

Define the goal and objectives of pedagogical valeology.

Give examples of facts from the media available to you that prove the impact of a deteriorating environment on public health.

Give a definition of health.

What factors determine a healthy lifestyle?

1. The founder of valeology is:

E.N. Weiner

I.I. BrekhmanA

ON THE. Dobrolyubov

2. Sanology is:

General doctrine of the body's resistance to disease;

Dynamic complex of adaptive mechanisms;

The totality of all the characteristics of an organism formed in the process of its individual development.

3. The basic concepts of pedagogical valeology are:

Valeological education;

Valeologic training;

Valeological education;

Valeological knowledge;

Valeological prevention.

4. Polysyndromic conditions are:

Intoxicated state caused by narcotic or other substances;

Human reaction to directly acting stressors;

Diseases incomprehensible from the point of view of pathogenesis, characterized by multiple manifestations and complex symptoms.

5. The third state is:

Incomplete health, in which the body can be for a long time and from which it can go both into health and into illness;

An intermediate state between life and death;

Adolescent puberty.

6. The term "health" means:

The state of balance between the adaptive capabilities of the organism (human potential) and constantly changing environmental conditions;

Harmony of mental and physical condition;

The harmonious state of the body and the unity of all kinds of metabolic processes in it.

7. Indicate which of the following are not related to valeology:

Health and illness;

Healthy lifestyle;

Adaptation;

Condensation.

8. Indicate that of the following, various areas of valeology are studied (general valeology, medical valeology, pedagogical valeology, age valeology, professional valeology):

External ways of maintaining health and preventing disease;

Features of the age-related formation of the body,

Studies the problems of vocational testing and vocational guidance;

Represents the methodology of valeology as a science;

Studying the issues of training and education of a person.

I.I. Brekhman;

Hippocrates;

V. Ya. Danilevsky.

10. Complete the list of factors that hinder the development of a culture of health:

Lack of a consistent and continuous health education system;

Lack of persistent motivation for health;

Orientation of existing health education work towards treatment rather than disease prevention;

Providing social protection by the state, first of all, to the sick;

Replication of bad habits and violence, and not the formation of an image of a harmoniously developed person.

(Valeo, Greek - hello, be healthy) - the science of individual health, methods of maintaining and strengthening it. The term was first introduced by I.I. Brekhman (1982). Valeology is an integrative science, as it uses the results of various branches of medicine, psychology, philosophy, etc. The first department of Valeology was created by one of the founders of the development of this science, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Academician of the Petrovsk Academy of Sciences V.P. ... Petlenko on the basis of the Leningrad State Institute for Advanced Training of Physicians, now the St. Petersburg Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education. Currently, the subject of Valeology has been introduced into the curricula of schools, secondary and higher specialized educational institutions. At Novgorod State University, by order of the rector since 1995, the subject "Valeology and the basics of medical knowledge" is mandatory for all directions and specialties of non-medical profile.

WHAT IS HEALTH?
There are many definitions of this concept, the meaning of which is determined by the professional point of view of the authors. The most philosophical, comprehensive and least specific definition was adopted by WHO in 1948: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or physical defects." From a physiological point of view, the following formulations are decisive:
Individual human health - the natural state of the body against the background of the absence of pathological changes, optimal communication with the environment, the consistency of all functions (GZ Demchinkova, NL Polonsky);
Health is a harmonious set of structural and functional data of the body, adequate to the environment and providing the body with optimal vital activity, as well as full-fledged labor activity;
Individual human health is a harmonious unity of all kinds of metabolic processes in the body, which creates conditions for the optimal life of all systems and subsystems of the body (A.D. Ado);
Health is the process of preserving and developing biological, physiological, psychological functions, working capacity and social activity of a person with the maximum duration of his active life (V.P. Kaznacheev).

HOW TO DETERMINE A HEALTH LEVEL?
To assess the health status of the population, or the level of public health, various indicators are used: demographic(fertility, mortality, average life expectancy), indicators of morbidity, morbidity, disability, etc. Determination of the level of an individual's health is mainly based on an assessment of somatic health, which includes, first of all, an assessment of the physical development and functional state of the body, i.e. the state of the basic physiological reserves. For practical valeology, screening techniques are of great interest, allowing, using relatively simple tests and indicators of physical development, to assess the state of health of the subject. Some of them have computer options, which makes it possible to quickly process the results of a survey of large enough contingents and organize health monitoring.

WHAT DOES HEALTH DEPEND ON?
Human health is the result of a complex interaction of social, environmental and biological factors (Robbins, 1980). It is believed that the contribution of various influences to health is as follows:

• heredity - 20%;
• environment - 20%;
• the level of medical care - 10%;
• lifestyle - 50%.

In a detailed version, these figures, according to Russian scientists:

• human factor - 25% (physical health - 10%, mental health - 15%);
• ecological factor - 25% (exoecology - 10%, endoecology - 15%);
• socio-pedagogical factor - 40% (lifestyle: material conditions of work and life - 15%, behavior, mode of life, habits - 25%);
• medical factor - 10%.

DOES HEALTH LEVEL DEPEND ON MATERIAL WELL-BEING?
The level of material well-being undoubtedly has a significant impact on the way of life. Simple common sense and research results show that maintaining and promoting health is possible only if basic life needs are met. It is no coincidence that the first stages of increasing life expectancy in developed countries were directly related to economic growth and improving the well-being of people. Currently, in economically developed countries, a 6-10-fold gap in the average per capita income of the socio-economic extreme groups of the population leads to a 3-4 fold difference in health indicators. People with lower incomes are more likely to get sick, less likely to resort to preventive care, and have higher mortality rates. High-income groups of the population are more likely to use preventive health care. However, upon reaching a certain material well-being (income of the middle class), the health of the population as a whole and of each individual person, first of all, begins to be influenced not so much by the material opportunities themselves, as by the nature of their use in the interests of health. The latter largely depends on the level of education. When comparing the same age-sex groups, it was shown that the mortality rate of persons with a high level of education is 1.5-4 times lower than in groups with a lower level of education. The data on differences in life expectancy are also convincing. It is believed that a longer life expectancy of persons with a higher level of education is associated, first of all, with more rational stereotypes of behavior and, in addition, with the nature of work. The mother's education directly affects the infant mortality rate; in extreme cases (university, incomplete secondary school, illiterate), infant mortality rates differ by more than 4 times.