“Health” and “Wellness” Defined

“Health and Wellness.” The combined phrase gets used so often that it can be easy to forget that health and wellness are two different things.

The World Health Organization took the time to define both terms in its original constitution, chartered in 1946. According to the WHO, health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Wellness, defined by the WHO elsewhere in the constitution, is “the optimal state of health of individuals and groups,” usually expressed as “a positive approach to living.”

In other words, health is the destination, but wellness is the method and path we use to reach health. You can’t reach a state of health without first having lived in a state of wellness.

How this looks in practice is where things get complicated. In general, we should try not to view the journey of wellness as black and white (you either have wellness or don’t). Instead, wellness is more like a journey. Everybody is starting at their unique position on the path of wellness. What they need to take the next step, then the next and so on to reach a state of health will also be unique to them.

Paragon and Wellness

For some people, a diagnosis with a chronic, rare or acute and rare condition is a significant roadblock to the “positive approach to living” that is the goal of wellness. Finding out that your disease or disorder will require you to undergo intravenous (IV) treatment monthly, weekly or even daily, or finding out that you will need an alternative form of nutrition to bypass a digestive system that isn’t working can be shocking. Living with wellness in these cases can seem like an impossibility.

Fortunately, that isn’t true. At the very heart of Paragon’s mission as an infusion treatment and specialty pharmacy provider is meeting those patients where they are. We do everything we can to give them freedom, dignity and individualized care, all while receiving life-saving or life-altering infusion treatments or nutrition support.

Many infusion treatments give our patients opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have. Hemophilia, for example, would normally keep someone from participating in sports or activities with the potential for even slight injuries or bruising. However, infused replacement of a patient’s missing blood clotting factors will often allow them to participate normally.

For patients whose digestive systems have been disrupted in one way or another, the parental nutrition services offered by our Nutrition Support program allow them to receive the full benefit of balanced nourishment while still living a full and independent life.

The same can be said for so many other treatments that occur in our Infusion Centers or in a Home Infusion setting, whether for immunodeficiencies, degenerative neurological conditions, other immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, painful dermatological conditions like psoriatic arthritis, and so many more. With more than 300 diseases and conditions treated, Paragon has the specialized focus to equip you for an effective journey of wellness toward your destination of lifelong and holistic health.

To learn more about Paragon Healthcare, visit our website at https://paragonhealthcare.com.