ABSTRACT
The emergence of new scientific and medical disciplines such as positive psychology and lifestyle medicine has resulted in a broadening of our understanding of health. Positive health is a new emerging construct which, while recognising the importance of factors that drive disease, ageing and illness, also focuses on the processes that underpin optimal health, happiness, well-being and thriving. In this chapter, the drivers for the emergence of the positive health construct and its key elements and principles are described. A new working model of positive health is proposed based on a continuum running from serious illness and disease to physical, mental, social and meaningful thriving. The model highlights the systemic nature of positive health and the importance of both individual and environmental factors. The likely physiological substrates of positive health are also explored and the question is posed as to whether the physiological mechanisms that underpin thriving simply mirror or overlap with those responsible for disease or are likely to be unique.
