why is health important in life essay

Essay on Health for Students and Children

500+ words essay on health.

Essay on Health: Health was earlier said to be the ability of the body functioning well. However, as time evolved, the definition of health also evolved. It cannot be stressed enough that health is the primary thing after which everything else follows. When you maintain good health , everything else falls into place.

Similarly, maintaining good health is dependent on a lot of factors. It ranges from the air you breathe to the type of people you choose to spend your time with. Health has a lot of components that carry equal importance. If even one of them is missing, a person cannot be completely healthy.

Constituents of Good Health

First, we have our physical health. This means being fit physically and in the absence of any kind of disease or illness . When you have good physical health, you will have a longer life span. One may maintain their physical health by having a balanced diet . Do not miss out on the essential nutrients; take each of them in appropriate quantities.

Secondly, you must exercise daily. It may be for ten minutes only but never miss it. It will help your body maintain physical fitness. Moreover, do not consume junk food all the time. Do not smoke or drink as it has serious harmful consequences. Lastly, try to take adequate sleep regularly instead of using your phone.

Next, we talk about our mental health . Mental health refers to the psychological and emotional well-being of a person. The mental health of a person impacts their feelings and way of handling situations. We must maintain our mental health by being positive and meditating.

Subsequently, social health and cognitive health are equally important for the overall well-being of a person. A person can maintain their social health when they effectively communicate well with others. Moreover, when a person us friendly and attends social gatherings, he will definitely have good social health. Similarly, our cognitive health refers to performing mental processes effectively. To do that well, one must always eat healthily and play brain games like Chess, puzzles and more to sharpen the brain.

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Physical Health Alone is Not Everything

There is this stigma that surrounds mental health. People do not take mental illnesses seriously. To be completely fit, one must also be mentally fit. When people completely discredit mental illnesses, it creates a negative impact.

For instance, you never tell a person with cancer to get over it and that it’s all in their head in comparison to someone dealing with depression . Similarly, we should treat mental health the same as physical health.

Parents always take care of their children’s physical needs. They feed them with nutritious foods and always dress up their wounds immediately. However, they fail to notice the deteriorating mental health of their child. Mostly so, because they do not give it that much importance. It is due to a lack of awareness amongst people. Even amongst adults, you never know what a person is going through mentally.

Thus, we need to be able to recognize the signs of mental illnesses . A laughing person does not equal a happy person. We must not consider mental illnesses as a taboo and give it the attention it deserves to save people’s lives.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Childhood Obesity — Importance Of Good Health

Importance of Good Health

Categories: Childhood Obesity

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Published: Mar 14, 2024

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Health Essay

Essay on Health

Health is wealth. It is the biggest asset we need every day to meet our goals. Previously, the definition of health was the proper functioning of our organ systems. As time passed, the definition has changed. Good health now includes the physical and mental wellbeing of a person. A person can be physically fit but mentally disturbed due to the circumstances he is facing. The same can happen when someone is suffering from physical illnesses but is mentally strong.

Maintaining proper health is the prime concern these days. This is a competitive era where you cannot stop. The moment you stop you will be replaced by a better option. This is why everyone is running in the rat race without thinking about their wellbeing. The compromise towards health becomes a costly affair later. In the cities, people are more affected by mental issues than physical ones. Constant stress and lack of physical activities contribute to the problem.

Proper health comprises many factors. It includes good food, proper routine, good sleeping habits, and eating habits. Apart from these personal traits, many external factors also control your wellbeing. People in the villages stay physically stronger due to freshness in the air, physical activities, and good food. People in the urban areas, on the contrary, prefer eating unhealthy food, lack physical agility, and cannot handle mental stress properly. In the same context, urban settlement has a better lifestyle and healthcare system. Considering all the components, a person needs to give equal importance to the factors and maintain a balance.

The elements of good health are physical and mental fitness. If both are maintained, a person will enjoy a better life. How can we achieve that state? First, we have to find out the factors influencing physical health. We have to learn about the lifestyle diseases that affect our health and check the ways to avoid or manage them. Secondly, we have to eat good food and maintain a healthy diet. We need to ensure a balanced diet and good food habits to provide nutrition to our systems. In this aspect, we also have to find out the harmful foods we generally prefer eating and avoid them. Regular exercise is the third most important part of good health. When we are physically active, our muscles remain functional. We get hurt very less and also recover faster. We can also maintain our body balance better when we are involved in physical activities.

The next phase is mental happiness. What makes us happy? One can be happy watching TV all the time. Sitting on the couch all day long can also make someone happy but is it a healthy choice? This type of lifestyle choice should be immediately avoided. Choosing a sedentary lifestyle is nothing but an invitation to different diseases. The current urban population is suffering from weight-related issues. Being overweight also makes the situation worse. Lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol elevation, cardiovascular diseases, etc develop at a young age.

We also need to make better choices when it comes to mental health. Playing sports with your buddies will help you relax and de-stress. You can also take a walk in the park and enjoy the greenery. Avoid spending more time on the screen and try to develop a hobby that suits you. In this way, you can become happier and stay healthier.

A person also needs to choose better social factors to remain free from social stigmas. Cognitive health and social health are equally important. Adding more stress will not be the solution. Keep exercising physically and mentally to remain fit and enjoy good health and longer life. Make your home stress-free with good habits and keep everyone healthy.

FAQs on Health Essay

1. What are the Prime Elements Included in Good Health?

The prime elements of good health are physical health, mental health, and social health. A person needs to be physically and mentally fit in a healthy environment. A society should also provide a healthy environment for a person to remain stress-free and enjoy life. Even though an ideal society does not exist, it is not hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle. These elements should be maintained properly to enjoy overall good health and survive in this competitive world. It is important for all family members.

2. Why is Mental Health Also Important?

Previously mental health was not included in the wellbeing of a person. Now that we have found the direct relationship between physical and mental health, it has become an important factor to consider. Many surveys suggest that mental health in a society is ignored. People are less happy when they are surrounded by many responsibilities. Circumstances also make a person sad and mentally unfit. If this continues, a person becomes prone to physical illnesses. Stress is a major reason for mental illnesses. By educating people regarding the importance of mental health, we can avoid such issues.

3. How Can We Teach the Importance of Mental Wellness?

From the very beginning, kids should be taught what mental wellness is. They should play outside, have fun with their friends, play, get hurt, and learn what mental wellness is. Adults also need proper guidance to understand the importance of mental wellness. They should maintain a proper balance between personal and professional life to stay happy. All we have to remember is an individual laughing might not be happy. We need to find out what makes us happy.

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Importance Of Good Health (Essay Sample)

The importance of good health.

Good health is crucial to everything we do in our everyday lives. The importance of good health can be clearly seen in how we function as human beings in the daily tasks that define our functionality in the society. Without good health, we are not able to reach our individual potentials and this can hinder us from achieving our personal goals in the social environment that we exist in.

True enough, defining good health moves beyond the physical sense; it also includes emotional and mental. Good health means the different aspects of well-being which are mold together. For one individual to function properly, he or she should be physically fit, as well as emotionally and mentally. Having one missing aspect in an individual’s health can have heavy implications for an individual.

In both home and work, health is also required in building social relationships. If we are unfit to build these connections, it can imply that we are depriving ourselves of social stimulation that can help in improving our outlook and disposition in everything we do. In most cases, it can be said that good health can be equated to an individual’s self-actualization. An individual who is actualized has a nurtured sense of disposition in the society which makes him or her energetic enough to be able to face different problems that may arise during the day.

At home, good health can be a collective concept for it is also crucial to the well-being of the good family. This means that healthy relationships are required in order for families to function as a single organ. Without health, relationships may fall apart and this can bring both short term and long term damages to how we perceive life.

In professional spaces, health is crucial in dealing with different workplace situations and conflicts. If one is unfit in any of the mentioned aspects above, this can heavily affect how an individual becomes productive in the workplace. Of course, good health can be equated to productivity in this context and without it, more conflicts may arise that may be very hard to deal with.

To achieve good health, we as individuals should know the proper steps in nurturing ourselves. We need to be able to take care of ourselves in order to also know how to take care of others around us. Knowing to take the right meals, eat healthy food, drink the proper amount of water and get the right hours of sleep are the basic things that we need to master. What comes after these are more self-conscious steps that can then nourish our mental health; this includes engaging in healthy discussions with other people as well as lively and productive conversations that nurture positivity instead of negativity. We must also know to surround ourselves with the right people so that we can continue living a live with less worry. Emotional health is also a crucial part in us, as individuals. This is heavily influenced by our social relationships as well as our perception of our own selves. The key in ensuring emotional health is to always gauge our feelings and knowing how to deal with it properly. If our own selves are not capable of ensuring all these, seeking our family, friends and even professionals for help is always an option. The worst thing that we can do is to deprive ourselves of good health. Good health is not a myth; it is something that we can rally achieve as long as we put our minds in it and as long as we remember how to properly value ourselves. All it takes is the right perception of our self-worth and some self-esteem.

Essay on Importance Of Health

Students are often asked to write an essay on Importance Of Health in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Importance Of Health

What is health.

Health means being free from sickness and having a body that works well. It’s not just about not being ill, but also feeling good in your mind and body. When we are healthy, we can play, learn, and enjoy life.

Why Health Matters

Good health lets us do our daily tasks without trouble. It helps us grow properly and fight off diseases. When we’re healthy, we can focus better in school and get along with friends and family.

Keeping Healthy

To stay healthy, we should eat fruits and vegetables, drink clean water, exercise, and sleep well. We also need to wash our hands to keep germs away and visit the doctor for check-ups.

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Speech on Importance Of Health

250 Words Essay on Importance Of Health

Health is like a treasure that helps us live a happy life. It is not just about not being sick; it’s also about feeling good in the body, mind, and heart. When we are healthy, we can play, learn, and do all the things we love without trouble.

Why is Health Important?

Being healthy is very important for several reasons. First, when your body is in good shape, you can do your best at school. You can think clearly, remember things, and concentrate on your lessons. Second, you have more energy to play sports and have fun with friends. Third, you don’t have to visit the doctor often, which means less medicine and more time for fun activities.

Staying Healthy

To stay healthy, eating fruits, vegetables, and drinking water is key. It’s like putting the right fuel in a car. Exercise is also important. Running, jumping, and playing sports keep your body strong. Getting enough sleep every night is another way to keep your health in check. It’s like charging your body’s batteries.

In conclusion, health is very important for everyone, especially for students like you. It helps you do well in school, have fun, and grow up strong. Remember to eat right, exercise, and sleep well to keep your health shining bright. Always take good care of your health because it is the best gift you have.

500 Words Essay on Importance Of Health

Health is like a treasure that we need to take care of every day. It means being well in our body, mind, and emotions. When we are healthy, we can play, learn, and enjoy life. Just like a car needs the right fuel and regular maintenance to run smoothly, our bodies need good food, exercise, and rest to work properly.

Good Health Helps Us Grow

Think of your body as a growing plant. Plants need water, sunlight, and good soil to grow tall and strong. In the same way, children need healthy food, exercise, and enough sleep to grow. Eating fruits and vegetables, playing games, and going to bed on time are like the water, sunlight, and soil for your body. When you are healthy, you can grow taller, think clearer, and feel happier.

Health and Learning

When you are in good health, your brain works better. You can pay attention in class, remember what the teacher says, and do your homework well. Being sick can make it hard to focus and learn new things. That’s why eating right and not getting sick is so important for school. It’s like having a full battery in your toy; it runs better and for a longer time.

Playing and Health

Playing is not just fun; it’s also a way to stay healthy. When you run, jump, and play sports, your muscles get stronger, and your heart becomes healthier. Playing outside can also make you feel happy and help you make friends. It’s like when you play a game you love; you feel good, and you want to play it more.

Staying Away from Sickness

No one likes to be sick. It’s not fun to have a cold or a fever. When you take care of your health, you can keep away from illnesses that can make you miss school or stop you from playing with your friends. Washing your hands, eating clean food, and getting vaccines are ways to fight off germs that can make you sick.

Health and Family

Your health is important to your family too. When you are healthy, your parents are happy and less worried. You can also help around the house and enjoy time with your family. Being healthy means you can go on trips, celebrate holidays, and make memories with your loved ones.

In conclusion, health is very important for many reasons. It helps you grow, learn, play, stay away from sickness, and enjoy time with your family. Taking care of your health is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Remember, being healthy is not just about not being sick; it’s about feeling good every day and being able to do all the things you love to do.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Importance of Good Health in Our Life - How can We Achieve Good Health and Well Being?

Why living a healthy lifestyle is so important and How can we improve our health and well-being?

Good health is central to human happiness and well-being that contributes significantly to prosperity and wealth and even economic progress, as healthy populations are more productive, save more and live longer.

For a healthy life cycle, you need a healthy and balanced diet, good hygiene habits, staying in a proper shelter and getting enough sleep. In addition, you will have to participate in physical activities, weight management, and stress management activities .

Let's explore why good health is important in our lives and how we can achieve good health and well-being.

Why Good Health So Important in Our Life? Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

What is the definition of good health, importance of good health in human life, how can you achieve good health and well being, eat healthy meals:, add more fruits and vegetables to your diet:, drink a lot of water:, get regular exercise:, lose your extra weight:, wash your hands before eating a meal:, protect your skin: , get enough sleep:, prevent substance abuse:, make your lifestyle choices better:, contact form.

Essay on Importance of Health – Tips for Healthy Lifestyle

Essay on Importance of Health – Health is defined as a state of complete mental and physical well-being. It may also be defined as the ability to adjust physical, mental, and social challenges throughout our life.

As Health and Wellness is a very wide topic and we are not able, to sum up, everything in one article, so, we are trying to give you an idea on Importance of Health in our day to day life as a student point of view.

Table of Contents

100 Words Essay on Importance of Health

Maintaining good health is one of the best practices as it gives us a feeling of complete physical, mental and social well-being. Living a healthy lifestyle can prevent long-term illnesses like such as Asthma, Diabetes, heart diseases, and many more.

It provides us freedom from almost all diseases. It is very necessary for all of us to maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to be fit and fearless of diseases. We must eat healthy food and do regular physical exercises to stay fit always. Being healthy brings happiness to our lives and helps us to live a stress-free and disease-free life.

200 Words Essay on Importance of Health

According to the World Health Organisation, better health is the reason behind human happiness and well-being. It also contributes to the economic progress of the world as healthy populations are more productive and live longer.

There are so many different factors that influence the health status of a person. Some of them are discussed below.

Regular physical exercise and a balanced diet is the only way to stay fit & healthy. It reduces the risk of Heart Attack and Type 2 Diabetes. Moreover, to have strong bones and muscles, physical activity is a must-needed thing.

We must maintain a healthy weight in order to stay fit. By doing this, we can reduce the risk of stroke, heart disease, and anemia among many others. It also helps us in controlling non-insulin-dependent diabetes and increasing our energy levels along with optimizing our immune system.

We must get enough sleep in order to stay healthy and fit. Most of us need daily 7 to 8 hours of sound sleep to keep our health and minds healthy. It has a strong effect on our ability to think and work in our lives. Getting sufficient time of quality sleep at the right times helps us to protect our both physical and mental health.

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Long Essay on Importance of Health

Joyce Meyer said, “I believe that the greatest gift you can give to your family and the world is a healthy you”.

If a person stays healthy physically, he will stay healthy mentally too. Physical and mental health is linked fundamentally. If we are able to keep our bodies fit and healthy by taking the right food and doing physical activities regularly, our bodies will definitely help us to deal with daily stress.

Our body cells are made up of a variety of chemical substances and they move from place to place. Moreover, there are lots of other activities are happening in our body, for which, our body needs lots of energy and raw material. For the well-functioning of our cells and tissues, food is necessary.

For living a healthy lifestyle, good nutrition is one of the best things we should make habit of. If we combine good nutrition with regular physical activities, we are able to maintain a healthy weight which may reduce our risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer. Below are some of the possible ways to do things right to have good health.

Eating and drinking the right things – Eating and drinking the right things can make our health better. Though it is not an easy task to keep a healthy diet in this world of Junk Food, we must maintain a balance in our diet of each food group.

Our balanced diet must include carbohydrates, protein from non-dairy sources, fruit, vegetables, etc. A balanced diet includes the right drinks also as our body needs to stay hydrated to keep ourselves healthy. We must avoid caffeine and sugary drinks as they can cause mood swings and affect our energy levels.

Along with good eating & drinking habits, physical activity & exercise can improve our health and reduce the risk of several diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, etc. Regular physical activity can boost our endurance and improve our muscle strength. It also stimulates our health and increases our feelings of happiness and calm.

Final Words – In this “Essay on Importance of Health”, we tried to cover the things like, what are the importance of Health in our life, how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, etc.

Though it is a very general topic, and covering each and everything related to Health and Fitness is next to impossible in a single article, we tried our best to cover as much as we can from a student’s point of view.

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15 Reasons Why Being Healthy Is Important?

September 17, 2023 by Ayesha Akhtar

Being healthy is important for us as it can help us achieve our dreams and aim. If we are not healthy, we will not be able to do anything. We need to be healthy to lead a good life and have a good future. This article will share why being healthy is important for you?

Table of Contents

15 Benefits Of Being Healthy For You

If we are not healthy, we will be facing many difficulties in the future. We do not want to face these difficulties. It is better if we start taking care of our health now before it is late . Here are 15 reasons why being healthy is important for us:

1. Being Healthy Can Help Us Achieve Our Dreams

If we are not healthy, we will not be able to do anything. We need to be healthy to lead a good life and have a good future. Without health, we will not be able to do anything. The world would be pretty much black and white for you only dreams make them colorful. To achieve them you need to take care of your health .

2. Being Healthy Can Make Us Successful

It is essential to be healthy to become successful. As we can’t do anything if we are not healthy and we won’t be able to fulfill our dreams without being healthy, so it is extremely important to take care of our health.

Our future will be impacted for better or worse by our health. A healthy lifestyle helps a person to live a successful and contented life. A healthy body not only gives you better performance but also keeps your mind relaxed. A sound mind lives in a sound body!

3. Being Healthy Can Make Us Happy

A sick person is always unhappy as he/she cannot do anything. If we are healthy, we can do anything and everything which will make us smile . A smile relieves stress and it is also essential for happiness . A happy person can achieve his/her goals easily as compared to an unhappy one.

4. Being Healthy Is Important As It Keeps Our Mind Relaxed

A sound mind lives in a sound body! If you are not healthy, your mind would be filled with worries thinking about how to get good health back. A healthy body makes our mind relaxed because then the body is under less pressure to fight diseases or recover from injuries that happened due to poor health conditions. So always take care of our health!

5. Being Healthy Can Improve Our Immune System

Our immune system becomes weak if we don’t take care of our health. The immune system protects us from different kinds of diseases and infections. So always take care of your health to stay safe from any kind of infection like the common flu , smallpox, etc.

6. Being Healthy Can Make Us Look Fresh And Beautiful

A healthy lifestyle can help you achieve glowing skin that will make you look fresh and young forever! It is important for everyone who wants to keep their face ever shining with life. If we are not taking care of our health then it might cause acne on the face which is not good for looking young or beautiful.

7. Being Healthy Helps You To Stay Away From Several Diseases

If we are healthy, we can avoid several diseases that can affect our health badly. A healthy lifestyle helps a person to live a successful and contented life. A healthy body not only gives you better performance but also keeps your mind relaxed. A sound mind lives in a sound body!

8. Being Healthy Is The Key To Happiness

To be happy, one needs to be healthy first. It is the key to happiness because if we are healthy then it leads us that we don’t need anyone’s help or medicine to get rid of any kind of pain or disease. We can follow yoga exercises to stay fit and fine all around the year which will ultimately lead us towards the path of happiness without falling sick always.

9. Being Healthy Prevents Us From Stress And Tension

A healthy lifestyle helps a person to live a successful and contented life. A healthy body not only gives you better performance but also keeps your mind relaxed. A sound mind lives in a sound body! Stress causes unhappiness and it must be avoided at any cost. It’s easy to get rid of stress with exercise or yoga which can help a lot in relaxing the muscles that are tensed due to stress and tension after work etc.

10. Being Healthy Is The Key To Success

It’s easy to get success when we are healthy! A person who is in tune with his/her body and mind can achieve their goals much more easily. It has been seen that successful people have a very active lifestyle and a healthy diet too which helps a lot in achieving the targets they want in life. So it proves that being healthy does not only give us good health but also takes us towards success without any hurdle standing in our way.

11. Being Healthy Can Help You In Different Situations

Being healthy brings self-confidence as everything would be done by you without depending on others for help. The feeling of being dependent forces us to lose faith in ourselves which causes stress and tension again, so it must be avoided at any cost.

12. Being Healthy Can Keep You Away From Doctors And Medicines

You must be aware that doctors and medicines are expensive! They will not be needed if we stay healthy as our body can cure itself by detoxification of the whole system. It is better to avoid diseases by staying fit and fine through a healthy lifestyle than treating them once they occur.

13. Being Healthy Gives Us More Time To Do Other Things

People with good health can do more work in less time as compared to those who lack this quality. A person who stays busy with work all day long hardly gets time for rest or fresh air, but it’s essential for us because we need energy and motivation from outside to keep going on with our life.

14. Being Healthy Can Help Us To Achieve Our Goals

Goals are great motivators for achieving anything in life. We need to know our goals first so that we may take care of every aspect related to health. This way, we can have a clear picture of our plans and can work accordingly according to them. Achieving goals rise confidence within us as well as self-esteem too.

15. Being Healthy Gives You Good Night’s Sleep

If you are healthy, it helps you to have a sound sleep! If your body is tired, then how can you expect to get proper sleep? So ensuring that one eats at the right time and remains active by doing daily exercises will help us to remain fit and fine which will eventually lead us towards better health.

The Importance Of Being Healthy – Conclusion

This concludes why being healthy is important for achieving any goal in life. People strive hard every day to achieve something new but what they ignore is their health! They come in close contact with polluted air which causes various diseases. Regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle are important for maintaining good health. So why not make this crucial step towards success one of your aims? It’s really easy to be happy!

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/keep-active-eat-healthy-feel-great
https://www.sane.org/information-stories/facts-and-guides/healthy-living
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-link-between-happiness-and-health-3144619

Importance of Nutrition in Health Life Essay

Health is an essential condition for human existence, contributing to complete physical, spiritual and social well-being. The topic devoted to maintaining and strengthening health into everyday life is extremely relevant in our time because the introduction of behavioral changes in health care is the prevention of diseases. A health promotion model is comprehensive and positively affects different aspects of life, including education.

A study was conducted in which the focus group consisted of young people, college students, or people just entering adulthood. The research topic was an ecological model for healthy behavior. Even with wide recognition that “the food that we consume has a strong impact on our health, consumers ’food preferences do not always lead to the best nutritional choices, according to the research arguments.” (Sogari, 2018, p. 13) This fact led scientists to look in more detail at the factors that influence poor food choices, the conditions under which it occurs, and “specific social factors”. (West, 2020, p. 455) The availability of healthy food, “promotion of physical activity”, and programs dedicated to cooking and planning healthy meals have become important conditions for choosing a healthy lifestyle in general. (Fletcher, 2018, p. 1631) The findings noted that the introduction of healthy eating habits is very important and significantly affects the productivity of people in general.

An ecological model includes certain behavioral changes, and teaching them consists in the fact that people realize good eating habits through the dissemination of information. “Common barriers to an ecological model in eating habits were time constraints, unhealthy snacking, convenience high-calorie food, stress, high prices of healthy food, and easy access to junk food”. (Sogari, 2018, p. 13) A person’s readiness for change is a key ability of our time, every day the world is improving, and in this case it is imperative to find a way to adapt to the new rhythm of life.

To conclude, nutrition has been shown to affect intellectual development and learning ability, so changing behavioral habits within an ecological model is effective and generally helps to strengthen the body.

Fletcher, G. F., Landolfo, C., Niebauer, J., Ozemek, C., Arena, R., & Lavie, C. J. (2018). Promoting physical activity and exercise: JACC health promotion series. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 72 (14), 1622-1639.

Sogari, G., Velez-Argumedo, C., Gómez, M. I., & Mora, C. (2018). College students and eating habits: A study using an ecological model for healthy behavior. Nutrients, 10 (12), 1823.

West, R., Michie, S., Rubin, G. J., & Amlôt, R. (2020). Applying principles of behaviour change to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Nature human behaviour, 4 (5), 451-459.

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IvyPanda . 2022. "Importance of Nutrition in Health Life." July 25, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/importance-of-nutrition-in-health-life/.

1. IvyPanda . "Importance of Nutrition in Health Life." July 25, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/importance-of-nutrition-in-health-life/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Importance of Nutrition in Health Life." July 25, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/importance-of-nutrition-in-health-life/.

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The Importance of Mental Health

Elizabeth is a freelance health and wellness writer. She helps brands craft factual, yet relatable content that resonates with diverse audiences.

Akeem Marsh, MD, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who has dedicated his career to working with medically underserved communities.

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Risk Factors for Poor Mental Health

Signs of mental health problems, benefits of good mental health, how to maintain mental health and well-being.

Your mental health is an important part of your well-being. This aspect of your welfare determines how you’re able to operate psychologically, emotionally, and socially among others.

Considering how much of a role your mental health plays in each aspect of your life, it's important to guard and improve psychological wellness using appropriate measures.

Because different circumstances can affect your mental health, we’ll be highlighting risk factors and signs that may indicate mental distress. But most importantly, we’ll dive into all of the benefits of having your mental health in its best shape.

Mental health is described as a state of well-being where a person is able to cope with the normal stresses of life. This state permits productive work output and allows for meaningful contributions to society.

However, different circumstances exist that may affect the ability to handle life’s curveballs. These factors may also disrupt daily activities, and the capacity to manage these changes.

The following factors, listed below, may affect mental well-being and could increase the risk of developing psychological disorders .

Childhood Abuse

When a child is subjected to physical assault, sexual violence, emotional abuse, or neglect while growing up, it can lead to severe mental and emotional distress.

Abuse increases the risk of developing mental disorders like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, or personality disorders.

Children who have been abused may eventually deal with alcohol and substance use issues. But beyond mental health challenges, child abuse may also lead to medical complications such as diabetes, stroke, and other forms of heart disease.

The Environment

A strong contributor to mental well-being is the state of a person’s usual environment . Adverse environmental circumstances can cause negative effects on psychological wellness.

For instance, weather conditions may influence an increase in suicide cases. Likewise, experiencing natural disasters firsthand can increase the chances of developing PTSD. In certain cases, air pollution may produce negative effects on depression symptoms.

In contrast, living in a positive social environment can provide protection against mental challenges.

Your biological makeup could determine the state of your well-being. A number of mental health disorders have been found to run in families and may be passed down to members.

These include conditions such as autism , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , bipolar disorder , depression , and schizophrenia .

Your lifestyle can also impact your mental health. Smoking, a poor diet , alcohol consumption , substance use , and risky sexual behavior may cause psychological harm. These behaviors have been linked to depression.

When mental health is compromised, it isn’t always apparent to the individual or those around them. However, there are certain warning signs to look out for, that may signify negative changes for the well-being. These include:

A switch in eating habits, whether over or undereating
A noticeable reduction in energy levels
Being more reclusive and shying away from others
Feeling persistent despair
Indulging in alcohol, tobacco, or other substances more than usual
Experiencing unexplained confusion, anger, guilt, or worry
Severe mood swings
Picking fights with family and friends
Hearing voices with no identifiable source
Thinking of self-harm or causing harm to others
Being unable to perform daily tasks with ease

Whether young or old, the importance of mental health for total well-being cannot be overstated. When psychological wellness is affected, it can cause negative behaviors that may not only affect personal health but can also compromise relationships with others.

Below are some of the benefits of good mental health.

A Stronger Ability to Cope With Life’s Stressors

When mental and emotional states are at peak levels, the challenges of life can be easier to overcome.

Where alcohol/drugs, isolation, tantrums, or fighting may have been adopted to manage relationship disputes, financial woes, work challenges, and other life issues—a stable mental state can encourage healthier coping mechanisms.

A Positive Self-Image

Mental health greatly correlates with personal feelings about oneself. Overall mental wellness plays a part in your self-esteem . Confidence can often be a good indicator of a healthy mental state.

A person whose mental health is flourishing is more likely to focus on the good in themselves. They will hone in on these qualities, and will generally have ambitions that strive for a healthy, happy life.

Healthier Relationships

If your mental health is in good standing, you might be more capable of providing your friends and family with quality time , affection , and support. When you're not in emotional distress, it can be easier to show up and support the people you care about.

Better Productivity

Dealing with depression or other mental health disorders can impact your productivity levels. If you feel mentally strong , it's more likely that you will be able to work more efficiently and provide higher quality work.

Higher Quality of Life

When mental well-being thrives, your quality of life may improve. This can give room for greater participation in community building. For example, you may begin volunteering in soup kitchens, at food drives, shelters, etc.

You might also pick up new hobbies , and make new acquaintances , and travel to new cities.

Because mental health is so important to general wellness, it’s important that you take care of your mental health.

To keep mental health in shape, a few introductions to and changes to lifestyle practices may be required. These include:

Taking up regular exercise
Prioritizing rest and sleep on a daily basis
Trying meditation
Learning coping skills for life challenges
Keeping in touch with loved ones
Maintaining a positive outlook on life

Another proven way to improve and maintain mental well-being is through the guidance of a professional. Talk therapy can teach you healthier ways to interact with others and coping mechanisms to try during difficult times.

Therapy can also help you address some of your own negative behaviors and provide you with the tools to make some changes in your own life.

A Word From Verywell

Your mental health state can have a profound impact on all areas of your life. If you're finding it difficult to address mental health concerns on your own, don't hesitate to seek help from a licensed therapist .

World Health Organization. Mental Health: Strengthening our Response .

Lippard ETC, Nemeroff CB. The Devastating Clinical Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect: Increased Disease Vulnerability and Poor Treatment Response in Mood Disorders . Am J Psychiatry . 2020;177(1):20-36. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010020

Helbich M. Mental Health and Environmental Exposures: An Editorial. Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2018;15(10):2207. Published 2018 Oct 10. doi:10.3390/ijerph15102207

National Institutes of Health. Common Genetic Factors Found in 5 Mental Disorders .

Zaman R, Hankir A, Jemni M. Lifestyle Factors and Mental Health . Psychiatr Danub . 2019;31(Suppl 3):217-220.

Medline Plus. What Is mental health? .

National Alliance on Mental Health. Why Self-Esteem Is Important for Mental Health .

By Elizabeth Plumptre Elizabeth is a freelance health and wellness writer. She helps brands craft factual, yet relatable content that resonates with diverse audiences.

What is health and why is it important?

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

Yoga, pilates, tai chi, lifting weights or using resistance bands twice a week, and
20 minutes a day moderate exercise, for example brisk walking, riding a bike, dancing or hiking. or
10 minutes a day vigorous exercise, for example running, swimming, riding a bike uphill, walking up stairs, playing sports or martial arts.
or a mixture of the two.
Sleep and rest
Eating and drinking well, and
Getting moving

"A positive state experienced by individuals and societies." "Wellbeing encompasses quality of life and the ability of people and societies to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose. Focusing on well-being supports the tracking of the equitable distribution of resources, overall thriving and sustainability."

Connecting with others. Relationships are important for belonging and self-worth, sharing experienced and providing emotional support with each other.
Being physically active. As mentioned above, moving is great for physical health and also helps with self-esteem, achieving goals and boosting positive mood.
Learning new skills. Trying something new helps with connection, building a sense of purpose, and improving self-confidence and self-worth.
Giving to others. Being involved in your community, giving your time to helping others, even small acts of kindness can help you feel connects, gives a sense of reward and purpose and boosts self-worth.
Paying attention to the present. Practicing mindfulness can help resilience, processing your thoughts and feelings, as well as how you interact with the world.

There are two ways you can tell us what happened

Importance of Being Healthy

Eating healthy foods and exercising regularly are challenges for almost everyone. It's tough to find the time and motivation to devote to a healthy diet and workout routine, and to balance those factors with other activities. However, the mental and physical benefits of following a healthy lifestyle are significant, and the bottom line is that consistently healthy choices lead to a longer life.

Healthy Diet

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The importance of diet can't be overstated for a healthy lifestyle. People get the vitamins, minerals and nutrients they need to function and thrive from the foods they eat, so choosing foods that offer the most of those components helps improve quality of life. According to the Food Standards Agency, a healthy diet for most people consists of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain foods, lean proteins and some low fat or nonfat dairy products. It's just as important to limit foods that are high in fat, sugar, sodium and cholesterol as it is to choose healthy foods.

There are just as many, if not more, benefits to exercising regularly than there are to following a healthy diet. At its most basic level, exercise burns calories. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that exercise and diet play dual roles in maintaining healthy weight and aiding weight loss. The muscles in people's bodies work best when they are used regularly, built up and strengthened through activity. In addition, people's hearts grow stronger and healthier when they engage in cardiovascular exercise that raises heart rates for an extended time.

Physical Benefits

People who exercise regularly have lower occurrences of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes and cancer. They also have higher energy levels and sleep better. The Cleveland Clinic suggests that a healthy, nutrient- and antioxidant-rich diet also guards against cancer and helps improve the immune system's functions. Finally, the CDC notes that people of all ages, ethnicities, sizes and shapes have the power to extend the length of their lives by regularly engaging in physical activity.

Mental Benefits

Eating well and getting proper exercise offer mental benefits as well as better physical health. HelpGuide.org notes that healthy, mindful eating practices can help reduce stress in adults' lives, as can mild physical activities, such as walking, yoga and tai chi. Exercise stimulates brain chemicals that make people happy. Also, the CDC points out that a healthy lifestyle helps sharpen thinking, learning and judgment skills, and reduces the risk of depression.

No matter how old a person is or what kind of diet and exercise pattern he or she follows, it's possible for that person to make adjustments and improve health. A person who is not very active can start by making small changes, such as replacing soft drinks with water and adding a 10-minute walk to a daily routine. Choose changes that are exciting and attainable for the best, most consistent results over time.

Georgia State University: The Benefits of Exercise
Cleveland Clinic: Diet, Exercise, Stress and the Immune System
Helpguide: Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief
CDC: The Benefits of Physical Activity
Food Standards Agency: Nutrition Essentials

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Importance of Mental Health Essay

Updated on
Apr 9, 2024

Essay on the Importance of Mental Health : A person in good mental health may learn and work efficiently, overcome obstacles in life, realise their full potential, and contribute back to their community. It is an essential component of health and welfare that upholds our ability to make decisions, build relationships, and have an impact on the world around us both as people and as a society. A fundamental human right is mental health. Furthermore, it is for socio-economic, communal, and personal growth.

Quick Read: 200+ Essay Topics for Students

Table of Contents

1.1 Understanding Mental Health and Its Importance
1.2 Benefits of Good Mental Health
1.3 Conclusion
2 100-word Paragraph on the Importance of Mental Health

Essay on the Importance of Mental Health in 500 Words

Mental wellness goes beyond simply being free from mental illness. Everybody experiences it differently, and it falls on a complex range with varying degrees of difficulty and distress, in addition to perhaps having quite distinct social and therapeutic impacts.

Mental health issues encompass a range of mental states and disorders, including psychosocial disabilities and mental disorders, that are linked to considerable suffering, impaired functioning, or self-harm risk. Although it’s not always the case, people with mental health disorders are more likely to have lower levels of mental well-being.

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Understanding Mental Health and Its Importance

An emotionally calm and fit individual can handle emotionally challenging circumstances with ease and always feels lively and fully alive. One needs to be physically fit to be emotionally powerful. Even though mental health is a personal matter and what affects one person may not affect another, mental health problems are often caused by several important factors.

Our emotional state, such as anger, depression, fear, irritation, and negative thinking, impacts how fit we are. Regular exercise contributes to a high level of physical fitness because physically fit people are happier and more capable of handling stressful and depressing conditions.

It is suggested that mental fitness entails psychological well-being. It indicates feeling good about our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, all of which enhance our capacity to enjoy life. It strengthens the inner capacity for self-determination. It is a proactive, optimistic term that eschews any potential negative ideas. Cognitive fitness is widely used to characterise the capacity for reason, comprehension, and rational thought by psychologists, mental health professionals, corporations, educational institutions, and the general public.

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Benefits of Good Mental Health

Numerous advantages of good mental health support general well-being and quality of life. The first benefit is that it increases resilience, which makes it simpler for people to handle the highs and lows of life. Resilience fosters self-development and fortitude in the face of adversity, making it feasible to effectively manage stressors and adapt to differences and barriers. Additionally, a person’s ability to effectively manage negative emotions like sadness or anxiety as well as several positive emotions like contentment, happiness, and peace are all made possible by having good mental health.

Furthermore, the establishment and upkeep of wholesome relationships are critically dependent on mental health. People who are in good mental health have good communication skills, empathy, and support for one another, which promote relationships and interactions that are constructive. Additionally, there is a strong correlation between better mental and physical health outcomes. People who place a high priority on their mental health are also more likely to practice healthy habits that improve physical health overall and lower their risk of disease, such as regular exercise, a balanced diet, and enough sleep. Finally, mental health improves performance and productivity across a range of life domains, including work, school, and personal objectives. Better concentration, judgement, and creativity are fostered by a focused and clear mind, which eventually results in greater success and fulfilment.

The general well-being and quality of life are contingent upon mental health. One of the body’s most potent organs, the mind, controls how every other organ functions. Our body as a whole works differently when our minds are unsettled. Being in excellent mental and physical condition is the key to success in anything in life. People should emphasise preserving the state of their minds in the same manner that they manage their physical well-being, given the adverse effects of mental illness. The physical and mental states of an individual are inextricably linked.

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100-word Paragraph on the Importance of Mental Health

Quick Read: Essay on Mental Health in English

Ans: Elements of mental well-being include psychological, social, and emotional health. It affects our feelings, thoughts, and actions. It affects our capacity for stress management, social interaction, and intelligent decision-making. Every stage of life—from childhood and adolescence to adulthood—values mental health.

Ans: Some advice for enhancing your mental health Make an effort to de-stress. Look for methods to be creative and learn. Take some time to enjoy the outdoors. Make connections with other people. Take care of your physical well-being. Make an effort to get better sleep.

Ans: Organisations around the world will have the opportunity to come together in observance of World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2024, with the theme “Mental health is a universal human right.”

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How to achieve great health for all? Start in your city.

At a glance.

The global population living in cities is projected to grow to about 70 percent by 2050. Large disparities in health outcomes within urban populations suggest that a city-level focus has significant potential to improve health.
The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) estimates that a focus on improving health at the city level can unlock 20 billion to 25 billion additional years of higher-quality life across cities globally (approximately five years per person living in urban areas). All organizations across sectors have a role to play to capture this opportunity.
Immediately influenceable interventions, grounded in a rich existing evidence base, are a starting point to improve health at a city level. For example, interventions could add to residents’ healthy longevity and brain health, lessen the impacts of climate exposure, and improve health-worker capacity.

In the past 60 years, global longevity rates have risen substantially, increasing life spans for individuals by 20 years on average. 1 “Life expectancy at birth, total (years),” World Bank, 2022; “Global burden of disease study 2019: Population estimates 1950-2019,” Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2023. Yet that accomplishment has not resulted in an equivalent gain in time spent in good health: at a global level, every additional year of life means an average of six months in ill health (Exhibit 1).

Why has time spent in ill health increased so much? As the global population ages, the burden has shifted to three fields of age-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) broadly associated with the wear and tear of body and mind: cardiometabolic diseases, cancers, and mental, substance use, and neurological conditions. Today, all NCDs account for 69 percent of the global disease burden (Exhibit 2). The three big fields of age-related illness 2 Angela Chang et al., “Measuring population ageing: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017,” The Lancet Public Health , March 2019, Volume 4. account for 65 percent of the NCD burden, a trend that is expected to accelerate: one in six people worldwide will be over 60 (one in three in some countries) by 2030. 3 “Ageing and health fact sheet,” World Health Organization, October 1, 2022; “World Population Prospects 2022,” United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. By 2040, 11 of 14 of the disease categories predicted to increase will be NCDs, with age-related diseases such as diabetes or kidney diseases increasing the most—possibly by more than 60 percent by 2040. 4 Kyle J. Foreman et al., “Forecasting life expectancy, years of life lost, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 250 causes of death: Reference and alternative scenarios for 2016–40 for 195 countries and territories,” The Lancet , October 2018, Volume 392, Issue 10,159.

External threats to global health, including climate change and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), will further increase the disease burden. The impacts of climate change on human health will be varied and far-reaching—ranging from the direct effects of climate hazards on physical and mental health to effects on water and vector-borne disease transmission, food security, and air pollution. Even under a midrange emissions-reduction scenario, specific climate-change-related mortality is expected to increase to 250,000 excess deaths per year in 2050. 5 “Fact sheet–health,” International Panel on Climate Change, February 2023; impacts on malaria but not other diseases included in the estimate. Any climate-sensitive increase of the disease burden, including mental health, will be on top of that. Deaths from AMR are expected to increase to 10 million or more, up from less than 1.2 million, in the same period. 6 Bracing for superbugs: Strengthening environmental action in the One Health response to antimicrobial resistance , UN Environment Programme, February 7, 2023; Tackling drug-resistant infections globally: Final report and recommendations , Review on Antimicrobial Resistance , May 2016.

Cities are where the drivers of health play out in practice

Many stakeholders influence people’s health in nonobvious ways. In “ The secret to great health? Escaping the healthcare matrix ,” MHI identifies 23 drivers of health and shows how individuals and institutions are part of an interconnected ecosystem of health that they can shape together. Nineteen of these drivers are outside of conventional healthcare.

To succeed in achieving substantial impact in cities, all stakeholders are needed to optimize the drivers of great health. Within conventional healthcare, there is reasonably clear ownership of the best way to diagnose and treat. But who is responsible for ensuring that people eat better, exercise, sleep well, have less negative stress, spend time in nature, consume content that is good for them, and have meaningful social interactions? While individuals have an important role, a virtuous cycle between institutions and individuals is needed to optimize these drivers truly. Governments, including national and subnational levels that enable cities to play their part, businesses, civil society, employers, philanthropic organizations, and academia are all part of the picture.

In this way, cities shape the institutional context for individuals’ health and daily lives. For example, a city dweller who can pick up fresh produce along the daily commute can take up a healthier diet; a young professional might identify their risk of disease sooner when taking part in a screening initiative offered by their employer; or a retiree can join an exercise session and connect with their community at a local green space.

Addressing the shifting disease burden requires looking at factors beyond healthcare, including prevention and health promotion across all fields. MHI estimates that, by embracing a more comprehensive definition of health and actively working to address the drivers of health throughout life, each person on the planet could have up to six years of higher-quality life over the next decade. 7 Reflects global average. Lars Hartenstein and Tom Latkovic, “ The secret to great health? Escaping the healthcare matrix ,” McKinsey Health Institute, December 20, 2022. Every institution and every individual has a role to play (see sidebar “Cities are where the drivers of health play out in practice”).

Cities are a hub of opportunity to realize this potential. They are where many of the long-term drivers of health that can help address this shifting disease burden are playing out. Cities have a unique ability to mobilize cross-sectoral stakeholders quickly to create an enabling environment and focus on near-term, influenceable interventions. In the next section, we lay out three reasons why cities have a vital role to play in enabling better health for their citizens.

Learn more about how we are accelerating sustainable inclusive growth

Focusing on healthy cities: cities are a critical nexus to advance health.

For decades, groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) have heralded cities for the health-related opportunities they present. 8 “WHO European Healthy Cities Network,” World Health Organization, accessed January 2024. Cross-city and local initiatives to improve health in cities, whether led by governments, nonprofit organizations, or the private sector, have been successful. For example, C40 Cities, a network of mayors from the world’s leading cities, is collaborating on climate-focused initiatives, including health-focused ones like air pollution reduction. 9 “Our cities,” C4 Cities, accessed January 2024. Global efforts such as the Partnership for Healthy Cities, the WHO European Healthy Cities Network, the International Society for Urban Health, and Fast-Track Cities, as well as private sector foundations such as the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Novartis Foundation, are other examples of city-focused health collaborations.

At the same time, the opportunity to do better and achieve improved and more equitable health outcomes in cities is still large. Attention on health at a city level could still be much higher. For example, while 100 percent of countries have a top official responsible for health at a national level, 10 These officials oversee programs that include health and well-being, public health, disease prevention, and health promotion. only 37 percent of the largest cities in the world 11 Top five most populous cities per continent, as well as Dubai, Mumbai, Nairobi, Singapore, and Santiago de Chile. have a top official who is similarly focusing on health (Exhibit 3). Having a dedicated senior city leader for health can signal the city’s prioritization of health and facilitates the mobilization of city leaders to focus on health-related issues. 12 The role of national health departments in cities can vary significantly by country.

Opportunities abound at any level of economic development: at all levels of average GDP per capita, the life expectancy in microregions across the world differs by decades (Exhibit 4). While 53 percent of the variation in life expectancy can be explained by a person’s income, the remaining 47 percent can be explained by other factors such as health-related interventions and innovations. 13 “ A dividend paid in years: Getting more health from each dollar of income ,” McKinsey Global Institute, December 7, 2022. These facts indicate that opportunities to improve health outcomes exist beyond growing income or stimulating economic growth.

Based on updates to its foundational analysis , MHI has found that approximately five more years of higher-quality life per person living in urban areas is possible—an additional 20 billion to 25 billion years at a global level. 14 This means a large share of the additional years of higher-quality life in MHI’s foundational analysis can be captured in cities. The potential for adding higher-quality life years is calculated based on sizing three effects on a country’s urban population: increase of life expectancy (“extending”), decrease of lifetime spent in poor health, and decrease of lifetime in moderate rather than good health (“lifting” and “squaring the curve”). For more, see “ Adding years to life and life to years ,” McKinsey Health Institute, March 29, 2022. For major global cities, this could amount to 10 million to 190 million higher-quality life years for their residents (Exhibit 5). 15 The potential is calculated by multiplying each city’s metropolitan population by the number of “good and moderate health years” gained per person (based on previous MHI research outlined in “ Adding years to life and life to years ,” March 29, 2022), which varies depending on the country’s income band. There are three major reasons why cities have this potential (Exhibit 6).

More than half of the global population today lives in cities. City population is projected to grow to about 70 percent by 2050 (high-income economies may see up to 87 percent of their population living in urban areas by that time). 16 World cities report 2022: Envisaging the future of cities , UN-Habitat. Older adults are increasingly living in urban areas and stand to benefit most from improvements in broader population health. 17 “Ageing in Cities: Policy highlights,” OECD, 2015. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of people 60 years or older in urban areas worldwide increased by 68 percent, with many in less-than-great health or socially isolated. 18 World population ageing report , United Nations, 2017; “ Aging with purpose: Why meaningful engagement with society matters ,” McKinsey Health Institute, October 23, 2023.

The large disparities in health outcomes within urban populations suggest that a city-level focus could have substantial potential to improve health. For example, despite being eight miles apart in London, there is a 14-year difference in life expectancy among people who live near Prince Regent station and those who live near Charing Cross. 19 “Lives on the line: A map of life expectancy at birth,” Tube Creature, accessed August 2023. In Chicago, there is a 30-year life expectancy gap between residents in Streeterville, a neighborhood where residents have an average life expectancy of 90, and Englewood, a neighborhood nine miles away where the average is 60 years. 20 “Large life expectancy gaps in U.S. cities linked to racial & ethnic segregation by neighborhood,” NYU Langone Health, June 5, 2019; Sarah Holder and David Montgomery, “Life expectancy is associated with segregation in U.S. cities,” Bloomberg, June 6, 2019. Around the world, rapid urbanization has often meant urban poverty, where growth in population outpaces infrastructure and support. In 2020, one in four urban dwellers lived in informal settlements or slums, 21 Informal settlements and slums are characterized by UN-Habitat as lack of access to improved water, improved sanitation, sufficient living area, and quality/durability of structure. Security of tenure is also an indicator but not included in the estimate due to data limitations. See The sustainable development goals report , United Nations. which translates to more than a billion people worldwide living with barriers such as limited access to a healthy diet 22 Mireya Vilar-Compte et al., “Urban poverty and nutrition challenges associated with accessibility to a healthy diet: A global systematic literature review,” International Journal for Equity in Health , January 2021. and basic services. 23 Aurelio Menendez, “Access to basic infrastructure by the urban poor,” Economic Development Institute of the World Bank, 1991. City-specific interventions show potential to improve population health within cities.

Many of the stakeholders that have a large influence on population health are located in cities. In addition to conventional healthcare players, stakeholders include private sector companies, the government, philanthropists, employers, as well as civil society. Cities are an ideal place to convene all of these players to further health. Usually, a relatively small set of players within a city has an outsize influence on the drivers of health. For example, in Paris, more than 20 percent of employees work in the public sector, and ten hospitals cover 65 percent of hospital capacity. 24 Characteristics of establishments at the end of 2020, Department of Paris (75), Insee, December 13, 2022; MHI analysis based on APMI Partners data, 2023. In London, 86 percent of the supermarkets are run by just four major chains. 25 “Top supermarket chains in the UK: Location analysis,” ScrapeHero, accessed December 2023. In Nairobi and Singapore the situation is similar, with 90 percent of supermarkets operated by five chains in Nairobi, 26 MHI analysis based on Trendtype data, 2023. and 70 percent operated by five players in Singapore. 27 MHI analysis based on Euromonitor data, 2022. In addition, only the five largest employers in each of the 12 cities referenced in Exhibit 5 have a total annual revenue of $600 billion. 28 S&P Capital IQ, 2023; examples of the total revenues of top five companies from individual cities include London (USD $85 billion to $90 billion), Singapore (USD $65 billion), and Tokyo (USD $55 billion to $60 billion). This illustrates that powerful stakeholders are indeed a presence in large cities and that harnessing this power is a great opportunity for human health.

Taking action: Focus on neglected areas and start with immediately influenceable interventions

Where possible, doubling down on what cities are currently doing to improve health with their current resources can be helpful. When investing more to drive initial change, immediately influenceable interventions are an effective way to start, especially for stakeholders that are stepping up their involvement in health. In contrast to large-scale infrastructure investments, for instance, immediately influenceable interventions take a relatively short time to implement, have a relatively short payback period, and can typically be advanced by a number of different stakeholders. In principle, any meaningful company, public agency, or civil-society organization can contribute.

Examples of immediately influenceable interventions to scale in cities worldwide

City interventions can focus on a range of levels, including, but not limited to, the following.

Healthy aging and longevity

Offering screenings, diagnosis, and proactive treatment (nontherapeutic and/or therapeutic) for cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders, including screening for high blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and blood sugar (for example, HbA1c) in a community or workplace setting. Stakeholders may facilitate nontherapeutic and/or therapeutic treatment and employ digital adherence tools (for example, continuous glucose monitoring) for those with elevated levels.
Expanding nutritional access and food choices, such as by collaborating with convenience store chains and large retailers to integrate healthy portfolios throughout their product offerings, optimize stock displays, and provide discounted rates for fresh, nutritious foods in underserved regions.
Encouraging societal participation of older people through citywide coalitions to formalize social opportunities for older adults, including age-friendly education programs for lifelong learning, community participation programs for volunteering focused on the elderly, and employment awareness programs for individuals seeking work.
Offering early detection and treatment for breast and colon cancers through improved accessibility and artificial intelligence-driven data/image analysis.

Brain health

Upskilling and training clinical and nonclinical workers on “task sharing” to deliver brief, basic versions of existing evidence-based psychological treatments (for example, cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy).
Supporting community-based crisis care services by deploying clinical and/or nonclinical workers trained in task sharing to support individuals who have experienced or are experiencing a mental health crisis in community settings. This would serve to strengthen the community-based crisis care continuum and prevent overreliance on first responders (emergency medical services, police), emergency departments, and psychiatric hospitals.

Climate-related health

Implementing custom heat-health action plans with immediate response actions for heatwaves, the identification of heat respite spaces, and the enhancement of urban greening to mitigate extreme-heat impacts.

Health-worker capacity

Training health workforce through at-scale training programs (including certification and upskilling) to grow paramedical/paraclinical workforce (nursing and therapeutical staff) and community health workforce by establishing linkages to suitable employment opportunities.

Four categories of interventions can harness cities’ unique potential to tackle the growth in noncommunicable diseases: healthy longevity interventions (including those that address cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes), brain health interventions (including initiatives that address mental, substance use, and neurological conditions), climate-related health interventions, and interventions that improve health-worker capacity. All of these intervention groups are highly relevant across the globe, addressable, and underresourced. Immediately influenceable interventions for each of these areas can take a variety of forms (see sidebar “Examples of immediately influenceable interventions to scale in cities worldwide”).

Healthy aging and longevity. Many interventions can materially contribute to healthy longevity, including effective screening and treatment for cardiometabolic conditions or cancer, as well as interventions enabling better diets or societal participation of older people. For instance, high blood pressure is a critical early marker of compromised cardiometabolic health, and early action can materially improve health outcomes. Even smaller-scale low-cost interventions can make a big difference: providing blood pressure testing kits with appropriate cuff sizes to health workers can increase the share of people with accurate blood pressure measurements.

Effective screening interventions paired with appropriate follow-up interventions, such as enabling healthier nutritional choices in collaboration with local stores, can unlock years of higher-quality life per person. For starters, employers and businesses could raise awareness, provide spaces, or offer incentives for employees to increase testing. There is opportunity to work with city stakeholders to proactively improve health and quality of life of its older residents through enabling their more meaningful participation and contribution. Examples include the following:

Childhood obesity. In New York City, a public–private partnership for food security among a nongovernmental organization, a philanthropic foundation, and the New York City government to deliver produce prescription programs 29 Wholesome Wave’s fruit and vegetable prescription program, New York City: 2013 outcomes , Wholesome Wave, 2014. and home delivery of fresh produce 30 “NYC Health + Hospitals launches produce prescription program study to improve the health of children with overweight and obesity,” NYC Health + Hospitals press release, June 2, 2022. led to 40 percent of children lowering their BMI after four months. 31 “Doctors at HHC Elmhurst and Bellevue Hospitals write fruit & vegetable ‘prescriptions’ for vulnerable children and their families,” NYC Health + Hospitals press release, October 16, 2014. In Amsterdam, a program targeting childhood obesity led to a 12 percent decrease in obesity over a three-year period. 32 The Amsterdam healthy weight approach: Investing in healthy urban childhoods: A case study on healthy diets for children , UNICEF, City of Amsterdam, EAT, November 2020. The program involves citywide government-led initiatives and policies, including screening infants at risk of obesity, implementing healthy corner stores, curtailing junk food marketing, and subsidizing sports clubs. For those living with obesity or are overweight, the city provides tailored nutrition and exercise plans from child-health nurses, alongside regular check-ins from a volunteer buddy network.
Societal participation of older people. Age Friendly Seoul’s 2012 Comprehensive Plan for Senior Citizens included the creation of and support for senior-community organizations, senior clubs, and cultural programs and a skills-matching volunteer program. Building on its 2012 plan, Seoul published its Aging Society Master Plan in 2020, which set “the realization of an age-friendly city” as its main policy goal. 33 “Progress of Seoul’s Join,” Age Friendly Seoul, accessed January 2024. Seoul became the first Korean city to join the WHO’s Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities & Communities in 2013. 34 “Age-friendly world: Seoul,” World Health Organization, accessed January 2024.

Brain health. Increasing access to effective mental health supports by training clinical and nonclinical workers 35 Clinical workers could include doctors, nurses, and clinical social workers. Nonclinical workers could include school counselors, caregivers, and community health workers. to provide brief, basic versions of existing evidence-based psychological treatments (for example, cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, problem-solving therapy) is an approach that can help address a range of common mental disorders, including low to moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression, and substance use. Data shows that this “task sharing” of psychosocial interventions can have a positive impact on patient outcomes, particularly for those with anxiety and mood conditions. 36 Nadja Ginneken et al., “Primary‐level worker interventions for the care of people living with mental disorders and distress in low‐ and middle‐income countries,” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2021.

Task sharing can also be utilized to strengthen the community-based crisis care continuum and prevent overreliance on first responders (such as emergency medical services), emergency departments, and psychiatric hospitals. For example, clinical and/or nonclinical workers trained as part of a task-sharing approach can be deployed in community mental health settings to support individuals who have experienced or are experiencing a mental health crisis. In order to expand access to mental health supports in a wide range of contexts, there is an opportunity to move toward long-term sustainability of task-sharing models by leveraging technology, health system innovation, and community support.

A practical example of what task sharing may look like in practice is the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA). CETA teaches clinical and nonclinical mental health practitioners how to address a range of mental health issues (for example, trauma, depression, anxiety, and substance use) in a single treatment flow. CETA’s system of care includes a mental health assessment, triage, treatment, safety for suicide/violence/abuse, and monitoring and evaluation. Another task-sharing model, Friendship Bench, was developed in Zimbabwe to enhance mental well-being and improve quality of life through the use of problem-solving therapy delivered by lay health workers. Uniquely, the Friendship Bench engages “grandmothers”—trained community volunteers, without prior medical or mental health experience—to counsel patients on wooden benches in their communities. Other effective task-sharing models under consideration include mhGAP Intervention Guide, EMPOWER, the Shamiri Model, and Group Interpersonal Therapy.

Climate-related health. There are a wide range of climate-related health challenges in cities such as heat, air pollution, and flooding. Cities are developing climate and heat action plans to counter the health effects of climate change. Such plans set guidelines for managing acute emergencies, such as working with local government and outdoor-labor-intensive businesses to ensure that employees are protected from working during the most heat-exposed hours of the day and that vulnerable residents have a place to go. Other efforts enhance urban greening to mitigate the impact of extreme heat. There is potential to work with key stakeholders to further prioritize climate-related health issues on public health agendas and improve data and technology and healthcare systems to prepare for the upcoming challenges. The following are examples of existing heat action plans.

The government in Ahmedabad, India, developed South Asia’s first heat action plan in 2013. 37 Ahmedabad heat action plan: Guide to extreme heat planning in Ahmedabad, India , Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, 2019. The plan had three components: an emphasis on increased public awareness through billboards, digital marketing, and partnerships with local organizations; the development of an early-warning system with a seven-day heatwave forecast and plans to mobilize first responders, media agencies, and community groups; and improved health-worker training to recognize and treat heat-related illness. The heat action plan contributed to the prevention of deaths both during and outside of heatwaves, with an estimated 1,190 lives saved per year. 38 Jeremy Hess et al., “Building resilience to climate change: Pilot evaluation of the impact of India’s first heat action plan on all-cause mortality,” Journal of Environmental and Public Health , 2018. In Miami, the world’s first chief heat officer launched the Climate and Heat Health Task Force in 2021, in partnership with academia, the private sector, and community groups, to shape the city’s extreme-heat action plan. 39 “Extreme heat action plan,” Miami-Dade County Office of Resilience, November 2021.

A road map for driving health in cities

So how, in practice, can cities start on the journey to becoming a healthy city? A four-step approach could allow stakeholders to rapidly mobilize around a joint aspiration for their city and get going (Exhibit 7).

To make this approach work in practice, it is important to learn from both past experiences as well as emerging successes. Early successes are critical, as they can help to set in motion a sustainable, virtuous cycle between institutional action and individual behaviors on city level. The following factors can help ensure that residents and stakeholders fully capture the potential of this approach:

Understanding the “unlock”: identifying root causes for the problems with known solutions and tailoring the design to local needs
Focusing on the “point” intervention: picking a few effective actions to speed up progress and deliver efficiency
Enhancing the execution engine: concentrating on running a well-organized system that can help people quickly
Mixing the old with the new: combining long-proven methods with innovation and new technologies (such as artificial intelligence)
Making the investment attractive: identifying allies, as this is crucial for obtaining the resources needed to advance
Identifying anchor stakeholders: starting with a small group of senior leaders, ideally of leading social, public, and private sector institutions, who are ready to own this effort

Everybody stands to gain, and the prize could be huge. Businesses could see healthier, happier, and more productive workforces and customers. For health innovators, cities can present an interesting lead market for the large and largely untapped healthcare-adjacent market of prevention and promotion. Residents—both older people and younger generations—stand to gain years of healthy additional life. Cities have the potential to add an extra five years of healthier life per person—up to 25 billion years in total. For all city stakeholders, it’s worth considering how best to get involved, and to do so now.

As part of its commitment to help people live longer and healthier lives, MHI is taking action to advance health in cities by partnering with city-level, national, and global stakeholders. As a non-profit-generating entity, MHI aspires to help advance health on the ground in selected cities across continents and to then share findings, innovation, resources, and data in the public domain. The aim is to enable others to replicate what proves effective.

Hemant Ahlawat is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Zurich office and a coleader of the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI), Erica Coe is a partner in the Atlanta office and an MHI coleader, Lars Hartenstein is an MHI coleader in the Paris office, Pooja Kumar is a senior partner in the Philadelphia office and an MHI coleader, and Drew Ungerman is a senior partner in the Dallas office and an MHI coleader.

The authors wish to thank Manish Binukrishnan, Jacqueline Brassey, Kana Enomoto, Ellen Feehan, Tansylu Gimadeeva, Mona Hammami, Anna Hextall, Michael Korenberg, May Lim, Cary Mei, Sara Rasul, Taylor Saunders-Wood, Konstantin Sietzy, Oliver Walker, Claudia von Hammerstein, Nina Zoric, and for their contributions to this article. The authors would also like to thank José M. Zuniga from Fast-Track Cities, Giselle Sebag and Jeffrey L. Sturchio from the International Society for Urban Health, and Franciscka Lucien from the Clinton Global Initiative for their contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Elizabeth Newman, an executive editor in the Chicago office.

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The secret to great health? Escaping the healthcare matrix

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The physical sensations of watching a total solar eclipse

Regina Barber, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.

Regina G. Barber

Science writer David Baron witnesses his first total solar eclipse in Aruba, 1998. He says seeing one is "like you've left the solar system and are looking back from some other world." Paul Myers hide caption

Science writer David Baron witnesses his first total solar eclipse in Aruba, 1998. He says seeing one is "like you've left the solar system and are looking back from some other world."

David Baron can pinpoint the first time he got addicted to chasing total solar eclipses, when the moon completely covers up the sun. It was 1998 and he was on the Caribbean island of Aruba. "It changed my life. It was the most spectacular thing I'd ever seen," he says.

Baron, author of the 2017 book American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World , wants others to witness its majesty too. On April 8, millions of people across North America will get that chance — a total solar eclipse will appear in the sky. Baron promises it will be a surreal, otherworldly experience. "It's like you've left the solar system and are looking back from some other world."

Baron, who is a former NPR science reporter, talks to Life Kit about what to expect when viewing a total solar eclipse, including the sensations you may feel and the strange lighting effects in the sky. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Baron views the beginning of a solar eclipse with friends in Western Australia in 2023. Baron says getting to see the solar corona during a total eclipse is "the most dazzling sight in the heavens." Photographs by David Baron; Bronson Arcuri, Kara Frame, CJ Riculan/NPR; Collage by Becky Harlan/NPR hide caption

Baron views the beginning of a solar eclipse with friends in Western Australia in 2023. Baron says getting to see the solar corona during a total eclipse is "the most dazzling sight in the heavens."

What does it feel like to experience a total solar eclipse — those few precious minutes when the moon completely covers up the sun?

It is beautiful and absolutely magnificent. It comes on all of a sudden. As soon as the moon blocks the last rays of the sun, you're plunged into this weird twilight in the middle of the day. You look up and the blue sky has been torn away. On any given day, the blue sky overhead acts as a screen that keeps us from seeing what's in space. And suddenly that's gone. So you can look into the middle of the solar system and see the sun and the planets together.

Can you tell me about the sounds and the emotions you're feeling?

A total solar eclipse is so much more than something you just see with your eyes. It's something you experience with your whole body. [With the drop in sunlight], birds will be going crazy. Crickets may be chirping. If you're around other people, they're going to be screaming and crying [with all their emotions from seeing the eclipse]. The air temperature drops because the sunlight suddenly turns off. And you're immersed in the moon's shadow. It doesn't feel real.

Everything you need to know about solar eclipse glasses before April 8

In your 2017 Ted Talk , you said you felt like your eyesight was failing in the moments before totality. Can you go into that a little more?

The lighting effects are very weird. Before you get to the total eclipse, you have a progressive partial eclipse as the moon slowly covers the sun. So over the course of an hour [or so], the sunlight will be very slowly dimming. It's as if you're in a room in a house and someone is very slowly turning down the dimmer switch. For most of that time your eyes are adjusting and you don't notice it. But then there's a point at which the light's getting so dim that your eyes can't adjust, and weird things happen. Your eyes are less able to see color. It's as if the landscape is losing its color. Also there's an effect where the shadows get very strange.

Crescent-shaped shadows cast by the solar eclipse before it reaches totality appear on a board at an eclipse-viewing event in Antelope, Ore., 2017. Kara Frame and CJ Riculan/NPR hide caption

You see these crescents on the ground.

There are two things that happen. One is if you look under a tree, the spaces between leaves or branches will act as pinhole projectors. So you'll see tiny little crescents everywhere. But there's another effect. As the sun goes from this big orb in the sky to something much smaller, shadows grow sharper. As you're nearing the total eclipse, if you have the sun behind you and you look at your shadow on the ground, you might see individual hairs on your head. It's just very odd.

Some people might say that seeing the partial eclipse is just as good. They don't need to go to the path of totality.

A partial solar eclipse is a very interesting experience. If you're in an area where you see a deep partial eclipse, the sun will become a crescent like the moon. You can only look at it with eye protection. Don't look at it with the naked eye . The light can get eerie. It's fun, but it is not a thousandth as good as a total eclipse.

A total eclipse is a fundamentally different experience, because it's only when the moon completely blocks the sun that you can actually take off the eclipse glasses and look with the naked eye at the sun.

And you will see a sun you've never seen before. That bright surface is gone. What you're actually looking at is the sun's outer atmosphere, the solar corona. It's the most dazzling sight in the heavens. It's this beautiful textured thing. It looks sort of like a wreath or a crown made out of tinsel or strands of silk. It shimmers in space. The shape is constantly changing. And you will only see that if you're in the path of the total eclipse.

Shots - Health News

Watching a solar eclipse without the right filters can cause eye damage. here's why.

So looking at a partial eclipse is not the same?

It is not at all the same. Drive those few miles. Get into the path of totality.

This is really your chance to see a total eclipse. The next one isn't happening across the U.S. for another 20 years.

The next significant total solar eclipse in the United States won't be until 2045. That one will go from California to Florida and will cross my home state of Colorado. I've got it on my calendar.

The digital story was written by Malaka Gharib and edited by Sylvie Douglis and Meghan Keane. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected].

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify , and sign up for our newsletter .

NPR will be sharing highlights here from across the NPR Network throughout the day Monday if you're unable to get out and see it in real time.

Correction April 3, 2024

In a previous audio version of this story, we made reference to an upcoming 2025 total solar eclipse. The solar eclipse in question will take place in 2045.

Life Kit: Life Skills
total eclipse
solar eclipse

25 Questions (and Answers!) About the Great North American Eclipse

The McDonald Observatory’s guide to one of nature’s most beautiful and astounding events: What you might see, how to view it safely, how astronomers will study it, how animals might react, and some of the mythology and superstitions about the Sun’s great disappearing act.

1. What’s happening?

The Moon will cross directly between Earth and the Sun, temporarily blocking the Sun from view along a narrow path across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Viewers across the rest of the United States will see a partial eclipse, with the Moon covering only part of the Sun’s disk.

2. When will it happen?

The eclipse takes place on April 8. It will get underway at 10:42 a.m. CDT, when the Moon’s shadow first touches Earth’s surface, creating a partial eclipse. The Big Show—totality—begins at about 11:39 a.m., over the south-central Pacific Ocean. The shadow will first touch North America an hour and a half later, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Moving at more than 1,600 miles (2,575 km) per hour, the path of totality will enter the United States at Eagle Pass, Texas, at 1:27 p.m. CDT. The lunar shadow will exit the United States and enter the Canadian province of New Brunswick near Houlton, Maine, at 2:35 p.m. (3:35 p.m. EDT).

3. How long will totality last?

The exact timing depends on your location. The maximum length is 4 minutes, 27 seconds near Torreon, Mexico. In the United States, several towns in southwestern Texas will see 4 minutes, 24 seconds of totality. The closer a location is to the centerline of the path of totality, the longer the eclipse will last.

4. What will it look like?

Eclipse veterans say there’s nothing quite like a total solar eclipse. In the last moments before the Sun disappears behind the Moon, bits of sunlight filter through the lunar mountains and canyons, forming bright points of light known as Baily’s beads. The last of the beads provides a brief blaze known as a diamond ring effect. When it fades away, the sky turns dark and the corona comes into view— million-degree plasma expelled from the Sun’s surface. It forms silvery filaments that radiate away from the Sun. Solar prominences, which are fountains of gas from the surface, form smaller, redder streamers on the rim of the Sun’s disk.

5. What safety precautions do I need to take?

It’s perfectly safe to look at the total phase of the eclipse with your eyes alone. In fact, experts say it’s the best way to enjoy the spectacle. The corona, which surrounds the intervening Moon with silvery tendrils of light, is only about as bright as a full Moon.

During the partial phases of the eclipse, however, including the final moments before and first moments after totality, your eyes need protection from the Sun’s blinding light. Even a 99-percent-eclipsed Sun is thousands of times brighter than a full Moon, so even a tiny sliver of direct sunlight can be dangerous!

To stay safe, use commercially available eclipse viewers, which can look like eyeglasses or can be embedded in a flat sheet that you hold in front of your face. Make sure your viewer meets the proper safety standards, and inspect it before you use it to make sure there are no scratches to let in unfiltered sunlight.

You also can view the eclipse through a piece of welder’s glass (No. 14 or darker), or stand under a leafy tree and look at the ground; the gaps between leaves act as lenses, projecting a view of the eclipse on the ground. With an especially leafy tree you can see hundreds of images of the eclipse at once. (You can also use a colander or similar piece of gear to create the same effect.)

One final mode of eclipse watching is with a pinhole camera. You can make one by poking a small hole in an index card, file folder, or piece of stiff cardboard. Let the Sun shine through the hole onto the ground or a piece of paper, but don’t look at the Sun through the hole! The hole projects an image of the eclipsed Sun, allowing you to follow the entire sequence, from the moment of first contact through the Moon’s disappearance hours later.

6. Where can I see the eclipse?

In the United States, the path of totality will extend from Eagle Pass, Texas, to Houlton, Maine. It will cross 15 states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Tennessee, and Michigan (although it barely nicks the last two).

In Texas, the eclipse will darken the sky over Austin, Waco, and Dallas—the most populous city in the path, where totality (the period when the Sun is totally eclipsed) will last 3 minutes, 51 seconds.

Other large cities along the path include Little Rock; Indianapolis; Dayton, Toledo, and Cleveland, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania; Buffalo and Rochester, New York; and Burlington, Vermont.

Outside the path of totality, American skywatchers will see a partial eclipse, in which the Sun covers only part of the Sun’s disk. The sky will grow dusky and the air will get cooler, but the partially eclipsed Sun is still too bright to look at without proper eye protection. The closer to the path of totality, the greater the extent of the eclipse. From Memphis and Nashville, for example, the Moon will cover more than 95 percent of the Sun’s disk. From Denver and Phoenix, it’s about 65 percent. And for the unlucky skywatchers in Seattle, far to the northwest of the eclipse centerline, it’s a meager 20 percent.

The total eclipse path also crosses Mexico, from the Pacific coast, at Mazatlán, to the Texas border. It also crosses a small portion of Canada, barely including Hamilton, Ontario. Eclipse Details for Locations Around the United States • aa.usno.navy.mil/data/Eclipse2024 • eclipse.aas.org • GreatAmericanEclipse.com

7. What causes solar eclipses?

These awe-inspiring spectacles are the result of a pleasant celestial coincidence: The Sun and Moon appear almost exactly the same size in Earth’s sky. The Sun is actually about 400 times wider than the Moon but it’s also about 400 times farther, so when the new Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun—an alignment known as syzygy—it can cover the Sun’s disk, blocking it from view.

8. Why don’t we see an eclipse at every new Moon?

The Moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted a bit with respect to the Sun’s path across the sky, known as the ecliptic. Because of that angle, the Moon passes north or south of the Sun most months, so there’s no eclipse. When the geometry is just right, however, the Moon casts its shadow on Earth’s surface, creating a solar eclipse. Not all eclipses are total. The Moon’s distance from Earth varies a bit, as does Earth’s distance from the Sun. If the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun when the Moon is at its farthest, we see an annular eclipse, in which a ring of sunlight encircles the Moon. Regardless of the distance, if the SunMoon-Earth alignment is off by a small amount, the Moon can cover only a portion of the Sun’s disk, creating a partial eclipse.

9. How often do solar eclipses happen?

Earth sees as least two solar eclipses per year, and, rarely, as many as five. Only three eclipses per two years are total. In addition, total eclipses are visible only along narrow paths. According to Belgian astronomer Jean Meuss, who specializes in calculating such things, any given place on Earth will see a total solar eclipse, on average, once every 375 years. That number is averaged over many centuries, so the exact gap varies. It might be centuries between succeeding eclipses, or it might be only a few years. A small region of Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky, close to the southeast of St. Louis, for example, saw the total eclipse of 2017 and will experience this year’s eclipse as well. Overall, though, you don’t want to wait for a total eclipse to come to you. If you have a chance to travel to an eclipse path, take it!

10. What is the limit for the length of totality?

Astronomers have calculated the length of totality for eclipses thousands of years into the future. Their calculations show that the greatest extent of totality will come during the eclipse of July 16, 2186, at 7 minutes, 29 seconds, in the Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of South America. The eclipse will occur when the Moon is near its closest point to Earth, so it appears largest in the sky, and Earth is near its farthest point from the Sun, so the Sun appears smaller than average. That eclipse, by the way, belongs to the same Saros cycle as this year’s.

11. When will the next total eclipse be seen from the United States?

The next total eclipse visible from anywhere in the United States will take place on March 30, 2033, across Alaska. On August 22, 2044, a total eclipse will be visible across parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The next eclipse to cross the entire country will take place on August 12, 2045, streaking from northern California to southern Florida. Here are the other total solar eclipses visible from the contiguous U.S. this century:

March 30, 2052 Florida, Georgia, tip of South Carolina May 11, 2078 From Louisiana to North Carolina May 1, 2079 From Philadelphia up the Atlantic coast to Maine September 14, 2099 From North Dakota to the Virginia-North Carolina border

12. What is the origin of the word ‘eclipse?’

The word first appeared in English writings in the late 13th century. It traces its roots, however, to the Greek words “ecleipsis” or “ekleipein.” According to various sources, the meaning was “to leave out, fail to appear,” “a failing, forsaking,” or “abandon, cease, die.”

13. Do solar eclipses follow any kind of pattern?

The Moon goes through several cycles. The best known is its 29.5-day cycle of phases, from new through full and back again. Other cycles include its distance from Earth (which varies by about 30,000 miles (50,000 km) over 27.5 days) and its relationship to the Sun’s path across the sky, known as the ecliptic (27.2 days), among others. These three cycles overlap every 6,585.3 days, which is 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours.

This cycle of cycles is known as a Saros (a word created by Babylonians). The circumstances for each succeeding eclipse in a Saros are similar—the Moon is about the same distance from Earth, for example, and they occur at the same time of year. Each eclipse occurs one-third of the way around Earth from the previous one, however; the next eclipse in this Saros, for example, will be visible from parts of the Pacific Ocean.

Each Saros begins with a partial eclipse. A portion of the Moon just nips the northern edge of the Sun, for example, blocking only a fraction of the Sun’s light. With each succeeding eclipse in the cycle, the Moon covers a larger fraction of the solar disk, eventually creating dozens of total eclipses. The Moon then slides out of alignment again, this time in the opposite direction, creating more partial eclipses. The series ends with a grazing partial eclipse on the opposite hemisphere (the southern tip, for example).

Several Saros cycles churn along simultaneously (40 are active now), so Earth doesn’t have to wait 18 years between eclipses. They can occur at intervals of one, five, six, or seven months.

The April 8 eclipse is the 30th of Saros 139, a series of 71 events that began with a partial eclipse, in the far north, and will end with another partial eclipse, this time in the far southern hemisphere. The next eclipse in this Saros, also total, will take place on April 20, 2042.

First eclipse May 17, 1501

First total eclipse December 21, 1843

Final total eclipse March 26, 2601

Longest total eclipse July 16, 2186, 7 minutes, 29 seconds

Final partial eclipse July 3, 2763

All eclipses 71 (43 total, 16 partial, 12 hybrid)

Source: NASA Catalog of Solar Eclipses: eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros139.html

14. What about eclipse seasons?

Eclipses occur in “seasons,” with two or three eclipses (lunar and solar) in a period of about five weeks. Individual eclipses are separated by two weeks: a lunar eclipse at full Moon, a solar eclipse at new Moon (the sequence can occur in either order). If the first eclipse in a season occurs during the first few days of the window, then the season will have three eclipses. When one eclipse in the season is poor, the other usually is much better.

That’s certainly the case with the season that includes the April 8 eclipse. It begins with a penumbral lunar eclipse on the night of March 24, in which the Moon will pass through Earth’s outer shadow. The eclipse will cover the Americas, although the shadow is so faint that most skywatchers won’t notice it.

This article was previously published in the March/April 2024 issue of StarDate magazine, a publication of The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory. Catch StarDate’s daily radio program on more than 300 stations nationwide or subscribe online at stardate.org .

15. How can astronomers forecast eclipses so accurately?

They’ve been recording eclipses and the motions of the Moon for millennia. And over the past half century they’ve been bouncing laser beams off of special reflectors carried to the Moon by Apollo astronauts and Soviet rovers. Those observations reveal the Moon’s position to within a fraction of an inch. Using a combination of the Earth-Moon distance, the Moon’s precise shape, Earth’s rotation and its distance from the Sun, and other factors, astronomers can predict the timing of an eclipse to within a fraction of a second many centuries into the future.

Edmond Halley made the first confirmed solar eclipse prediction, using the laws of gravity devised only a few decades earlier by Isaac Newton. Halley forecast that an eclipse would cross England on May 3, 1715. He missed the timing by just four minutes and the path by 20 miles, so the eclipse is known as Halley’s Eclipse.

16. What are the types of solar eclipses?

Total : the Moon completely covers the Sun.

Annular : the Moon is too far away to completely cover the Sun, leaving a bright ring of sunlight around it.

Partial : the Moon covers only part of the Sun’s disk.

Hybrid : an eclipse that is annular at its beginning and end, but total at its peak.

17. What are Baily’s beads?

During the minute or two before or after totality, bits of the Sun shine through canyons and other features on the limb of the Moon, producing “beads” of sunlight. They were first recorded and explained by Edmond Halley, in 1715. During a presentation to the Royal Academy of Sciences more than a century later, however, astronomer Frances Baily first described them as “a string of beads,” so they’ve been known as Baily’s beads ever since. Please note that Baily’s beads are too bright to look at without eye protection!

18. Will Earth always see total solar eclipses?

No, it will not. The Moon is moving away from Earth at about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) per year. Based on that rate of recession, in about 600 million years the Moon would have moved so far from Earth that it would no longer appear large enough to cover the Sun. The speed at which the Moon separates from Earth changes over the eons, however, so scientists aren’t sure just when Earth will see its final total solar eclipse.

19. How will the eclipse affect solar power?

If your solar-powered house is in or near the path of totality, the lights truly will go out, as they do at night. For large power grids, the eclipse will temporarily reduce the total amount of electricity contributed by solar generation. During the October 14, 2023, annular eclipse, available solar power plummeted in California and Texas. At the same time, demand increased as individual Sun-powered homes and other buildings began drawing electricity from the power grid. Both networks were able to compensate with stations powered by natural gas and other sources.

The power drop during this year’s eclipse could be more dramatic because there will be less sunlight at the peak of the eclipse.

20. What are some of the myths and superstitions associated with solar eclipses?

Most ancient cultures created stories to explain the Sun’s mysterious and terrifying disappearances.

In China and elsewhere, it was thought the Sun was being devoured by a dragon. Other cultures blamed a hungry frog (Vietnam), a giant wolf loosed by the god Loki (Scandinavia), or the severed head of a monster (India). Still others saw an eclipse as a quarrel (or a reunion) between Sun and Moon. Some peoples shot flaming arrows into the sky to scare away the monster or to rekindle the solar fire. One especially intriguing story, from Transylvania, said that an eclipse occurred when the Sun covered her face in disgust at bad human behavior.

Eclipses have been seen as omens of evil deeds to come. In August 1133, King Henry I left England for Normandy one day before a lengthy solar eclipse, bringing prophesies of doom. The country later was plunged into civil war, and Henry died before he could return home, strengthening the impression that solar eclipses were bad mojo.

Ancient superstitions claimed that eclipses could cause plague and other maladies. Modern superstitions say that food prepared during an eclipse is poison and that an eclipse will damage the babies of pregnant women who look at it. None of that is true, of course. There’s nothing at all to fear from this beautiful natural event.

21. How do animals react to solar eclipses?

Scientists haven’t studied the topic very thoroughly, but they do have some general conclusions. Many daytime animals start their evening rituals, while many nighttime animals wake up when the eclipse is over, perhaps cursing their alarm clocks for letting them sleep so late!

During the 2017 total eclipse, scientists observed 17 species at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. About three-quarters of the species showed some response as the sky darkened. Some animals acted nervous, while others simply headed for bed. A species of gibbon had the most unusual reaction, moving excitedly and chattering in ways the zookeepers hadn’t seen before.

Other studies have reported that bats and owls sometimes come out during totality, hippos move toward their nighttime feeding grounds, and spiders tear down their webs, only to rebuild them when the Sun returns. Bees have been seen to return to their hives during totality and not budge until the next day, crickets begin their evening chorus, and, unfortunately, mosquitoes emerge, ready to dine on unsuspecting eclipse watchers.

A NASA project, Eclipse Soundscapes, is using volunteers around the country to learn more about how animals react to the changes. The project collected audio recordings and observations by participants during the annular eclipse last year, and will repeat the observations this year. Volunteers can sign up at eclipsesoundscapes.org

22. How will scientists study this year’s eclipse?

Astronomers don’t pay quite as much professional attention to solar eclipses as they did in decades and centuries past. However, they still schedule special observations to add to their knowledge of the Sun and especially the inner edge of the corona.

Sun-watching satellites create artificial eclipses by placing a small disk across the face of the Sun, blocking the Sun’s disk and revealing the corona, solar prominences, and big explosions of charged particles known as coronal mass ejections.

Because of the way light travels around the edges of an eclipsing disk, however, it’s difficult to observe the region just above the Sun’s visible surface, which is where much of the action takes place. The corona is heated to millions of degrees there, and the constant flow of particles known as the solar wind is accelerated to a million miles per hour or faster, so solar astronomers really want to see that region in detail. The eclipsing Moon doesn’t create the same effects around the limb of the Sun, so a solar eclipse still provides the best way to look close to the Sun’s surface.

For this year’s eclipse, some scientists will repeat a series of experiments they conducted in 2017 using a pair of highaltitude WB-57 aircraft to “tag team” through the lunar shadow, providing several extra minutes of observations.

Other scientists will use the eclipse to study Earth’s ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the atmosphere that “bends” radio waves, allowing them to travel thousands of miles around the planet. Sunlight rips apart atoms and molecules during the day, intensifying the charge. At night, the atoms and molecules recombine, reducing the charge.

Physicists want to understand how the ionosphere reacts to the temporary loss of sunlight during an eclipse. They will do so with the help of thousands of volunteer ham radio operators, who will exchange messages with others around the planet. During last October’s annular eclipse, when the Moon covered most but not all of the Sun, the experiment showed a large and immediate change in the ionosphere as the sunlight dimmed.

NASA also will launch three small “sounding” rockets, which loft instruments into space for a few minutes, to probe the ionosphere shortly before, during, and shortly after the eclipse.

Another project will use radar to study changes in the interactions between the solar wind and Earth’s atmosphere, while yet another will use a radio telescope to map sunspots and surrounding regions as the Moon passes across them.

One project will piece together images of the eclipse snapped through more than 40 identical telescopes spaced along the path of totality to create a one-hour movie of the eclipse. The telescopes will be equipped with instruments that see the three-dimensional structure of the corona, allowing solar scientists to plot how the corona changes.

23. What have astronomers learned from eclipses?

Solar eclipses have been powerful tools for studying the Sun, the layout of the solar system, and the physics of the universe.

Until the Space Age, astronomers could see the Sun’s corona only during eclipses, so they traveled around the world to catch these brief glimpses of it.

Eclipses also offered a chance to refine the scale of the solar system. Watching an eclipse from different spots on Earth and comparing the angles of the Moon and Sun helped reveal the relative sizes and distances of both bodies, which were important steps in understanding their true distances.

During an eclipse in 1868, two astronomers discovered a new element in the corona. It was named helium, after Helios, a Greek name for the Sun. The element wasn’t discovered on Earth until a quarter of a century later.

An eclipse in 1919 helped confirm General Relativity, which was Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity. The theory predicted that the gravity of a massive body should deflect the path of light rays flying near its surface. During the eclipse, astronomers found that the positions of background stars that appeared near the Sun were shifted by a tiny amount, which was in perfect agreement with Einstein’s equations.

Today, astronomers are using records of eclipses dating back thousands of years to measure changes in Earth’s rotation rate and the distance to the Moon.

24. How did astronomers study eclipses in the past?

With great effort! From the time they could accurately predict when and where solar eclipses would be visible, they organized expeditions that took them to every continent except Antarctica, on trips that lasted months and that sometimes were spoiled by clouds or problems both technical and human.

During the American Revolution, for example, a group of Harvard scientists led by Samuel Williams received safe passage from the British army to view an eclipse from Penobscot Bay, Maine, on October 21, 1780. Williams slightly miscalculated the eclipse path, though, so the group missed totality by a few miles. (The expedition did make some useful observations, however.)

In 1860, an expedition headed by Simon Newcomb, one of America’s top astronomers, journeyed up the Saskatchewan River, hundreds of miles from the nearest city, braving rapids, mosquitoes, and bad weather. After five grueling weeks, they had to stop short of their planned viewing site, although at a location still inside the eclipse path. Clouds covered the Sun until almost the end of totality, however, so the expedition came up empty.

King Mongkut of Siam invited a French expedition and hundreds of other dignitaries to view an eclipse from present-day Thailand in 1868. He built an observatory and a large compound to house his guests at a site Mongkut himself had selected as the best viewing spot. The eclipse came off perfectly, but many visitors contracted malaria. So did Mongkut, who died a few weeks later.

An expedition in 1914, to Russia, was plagued by both clouds and the start of World War I. The team abandoned its instruments at a Russian observatory and escaped through Scandinavia.

The eclipse of July 29, 1878, offered fewer impediments. In fact, it was a scientific and social extravaganza. The eclipse path stretched from Montana Territory to Texas. Teams of astronomers from the United States and Europe spread out along the path. Thomas Edison stationed his group in Wyoming, where he used a tasimeter, a device of his own creation, to try to measure the temperature of the corona. Samuel Pierpoint Langley, a future secretary of the Smithsonian, was atop Pikes Peak in Colorado. Maria Mitchell, perhaps America’s leading female scientist, decamped to Denver. And Asaph Hall, who had discovered the moons of Mars just the year before, journeyed to the flatlands of eastern Colorado.

Thousands of average Americans joined the festivities, paying outrageous prices for some of the best viewing spots. Some things, it seems, never change.

25. What about lunar eclipses?

While solar eclipses happen during new Moon, lunar eclipses occur when the Moon is full, so it aligns opposite the Sun in our sky. The Moon passes through Earth’s shadow. In a total eclipse, the entire lunar disk turns orange or red. In a partial eclipse, Earth’s inner shadow covers only a portion of the Moon. And during a penumbral eclipse, the Moon passes through the outer portion of Earth’s shadow, darkening the Moon so little that most people don’t even notice it.

Lunar eclipses happen as often as solar eclipses—at least twice per year. This is a poor year for lunar eclipses, however. There is a penumbral eclipse on the night of March 24, with the Moon slipping through Earth’s faint outer shadow, and a partial eclipse on the night of September 17, in which the Moon barely dips into the darker inner shadow. Both eclipses will be visible from most of the United States.

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15 Reasons Why Being Healthy Is Important?

15 Benefits Of Being Healthy For You

1. Being Healthy Can Help Us Achieve Our Dreams

2. Being Healthy Can Make Us Successful

3. Being Healthy Can Make Us Happy

4. Being Healthy Is Important As It Keeps Our Mind Relaxed

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5. Being Healthy Can Improve Our Immune System

6. Being Healthy Can Make Us Look Fresh And Beautiful

7. Being Healthy Helps You To Stay Away From Several Diseases

8. Being Healthy Is The Key To Happiness

9. Being Healthy Prevents Us From Stress And Tension

10. Being Healthy Is The Key To Success

11. Being Healthy Can Help You In Different Situations

12. Being Healthy Can Keep You Away From Doctors And Medicines

13. Being Healthy Gives Us More Time To Do Other Things

14. Being Healthy Can Help Us To Achieve Our Goals

15. Being Healthy Gives You Good Night’s Sleep

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