Personal Image and Health

Isaac Amigo

SUMMARY
Caring for personal looks is not an exclusive concern to our society but, probably, it takes root in the social nature of the human being of adapting his/her appearance to that of the people among which he/she lives, to feel integrated within the reference group. In our culture, the body has got an added value because of this individualistic society of us, in which the personal look has entered the market society. A body adapted to our society’s sought after ideal features can boost the personal, social or labor success. In this article, a closer look is taken to three basic compounds involving our fine personal image and its relation to health. The thin body takes part in our beauty myth. While thinness is a way to keep oneself healthy, one can see that the methods of which people make use to lose weight can bring about several iatrogenic effects. Concretely, being placed on hypocaloric diets that induce the so called jo-jo effect has been related to increased rates of mortality from every cause and, in particular, from cardiovascular failures and cancer. They can end up by a continued weight gain involving many people and make up the entrance door, but not the cause, for eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia or the binge eating disorder. On the other hand, we reflect on the contradiction between health and the fact of shaping an athletic body. Well carried physical activity has always a positive effect on the physiological systems of the human organism. However, the necessary physical activity to achieve optimum health levels comes, by far, to a lesser extent than that needed to highlight muscularity. Thus, it has been shown that very intense physical routines, above all when they are practiced irregularly or occasionally, are associated to the increase of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, a well toned body, though related to a good personal image, is not always synonymous to health. Finally, we have also analyzed the need of keeping a good psychological state in order to hold that good personal image. Notwithstanding, one can see again that the ways through which people try to feel fine have brought about a recreational or cosmetic use of drugs, just not only trying to avoid discomfort but being more than fine. And this use of drugs is not free of side effects, many of which get hidden because of the newness of this kind of consumption.