The concept of sub-health needs to be clarified urgently

The “intermediate state” between disease and health is called sub-health. Nowadays, more and more people are worried about whether they will be harmed by sub-health; Worry that you are entering sub-health, and then moving from sub-health to disease and death… Is this worry justified? Is there any scientific and experimental basis? What is sub-health? How does sub-health come from? What are the hazards? How to define it? A correct understanding will help us make timely health care countermeasures.

In response to readers’ possible questions, our reporter interviewed researcher Wu Liuxin, director of the pilot health appraisal and sub-health evaluation center of the Air Force Institute of Aeronautical medicine.

what is sub-health?

at present, sub-health has become a hot topic, but a lot of people talk about it, and few really understand its meaning accurately

The so-called sub-health state, in popular terms, refers to a state of low quality and psychological imbalance in which there are no clinical symptoms and signs, or there is a feeling of disease without clinical examination evidence, but there is information of potential morbidity tendency. Generally speaking, the sub-health state is composed of four major elements: fatigue and weakness that exclude the cause of disease, the intermediate state or pre disease state between health and disease, the imperfect state in physiology, psychology, social adaptability and morality, and the decline of organizational structure and physiological function that are not commensurate with age.

to scientifically understand sub-health, it is necessary to distinguish between Sub-health and related medical problems:

First, sub-health is different from subclinical: Although sub-health partially overlaps with the upstream health status and the downstream disease status, the distinction is also obvious. Subclinical is that there is subjective examination evidence but no obvious clinical manifestation. For example, the common subclinical carotid atherosclerosis in the middle-aged and old people at present has obvious carotid intima-media thickening and even plaque formation, but no clinical manifestation; While those in sub-health state had complaints of headache, dizziness and chest tightness, but no abnormalities were found in vascular cardiac ultrasound and electrocardiogram.

Second, sub-health is not equal to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). First of all, CFS has an international unified standard, but sub-health has not yet; Secondly, the incidence of CFS in adults over 18 years old is only 0.004%, and that of sub-health is 70%, which is very different; Moreover, most of the sub-health states described in China can be restored to health through active intervention, while only 30% of CFS can be restored to health.

Third, the definition of sub-health should also be distinguished from the early diagnosis of clinical functional diseases, mental and psychological disorders and some diseases. It should be pointed out that at present, there is no unified judgment standard for sub-health, and there are also great differences in the understanding and definition of sub-health between Chinese and Western medicine. These are problems to be studied and solved in the future.

how to define sub-health

Sub health has rich connotation and extensive extension. It can be said that the scope of the concept of health is as large as the coverage of sub-health; The scope of sub-health spectrum is as wide as the spectrum of diseases and disorders is. Summarizing the research results of our center in recent years and the opinions of most experts, the classification and main contents of sub-health can be summarized as follows.

1. Based on the new concept of who’s “four in one” health, sub-health can be divided into: (1) physical sub-health. The main manifestations are physical fatigue, weakness, physical discomfort, sexual function decline and menstrual cycle disorder with unknown causes or excluding disease causes; (2) Mental sub-health. The main manifestations are mental fatigue, emotional disorder, thinking disorder, panic, anxiety, inferiority complex, nervousness, indifference, loneliness, thoughtlessness, and even suicidal thoughts for unknown reasons; (3) Social adaptability and sub-health. The prominent performance is that it is difficult to adapt to work, life, learning and other environments, and it is difficult to coordinate interpersonal relations, that is, role dislocation and maladjustment are the concentrated manifestations of social adaptability and sub-health; (4) Moral sub-health. It is mainly manifested in the obvious deviation of harming others and harming oneself in the world outlook, outlook on life and values.

2. Classified according to the constituent elements of the concept of sub-health: (1) the “indefinite statement syndrome” that is physically and mentally uncomfortable but difficult to diagnose; (2) Preclinical manifestations of some diseases (pre disease state); (3) “Unexplained syndrome” whose pathological significance is difficult to be defined for a while, such as menopausal syndrome, neurasthenia syndrome, fatigue syndrome, etc; (4) Some pathogen carrying status: such as hepatitis B pathogen carriers, tuberculosis carriers, and some virus carriers; (5) High and low limit states of some clinical examinations, such as high blood lipid, blood pressure, heart rate and low blood calcium, potassium and iron; (6) The state of high pathogenic risk factors, such as overweight, smoking, excessive tension, dyslipidemia, blood sugar, and high blood pressure.

3. According to the tissue structure and system organs of the body, it is divided into sub-health states such as neuropsychiatric system, cardiovascular system, digestive system, bone joint system, urogenital system, respiratory system and special senses.

what should be paid attention to in the prevention and treatment of sub-health

The survey shows that the incidence of sub-health in China is between 45% and 70%, and the age of occurrence is mainly between 35 and 60 years old. The characteristics of population distribution are as follows: middle-aged intellectuals, white-collar workers, leading cadres, entrepreneurs, film and television stars are the people with high incidence of sub-health. The sub-health problems of teenagers are worrying, the sub-health problems of the elderly are complex and changeable, and the sub-health problems of special professionals are prominent.

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