Vitality comes from the Middle French word vitalité and the Latin words vītālitās and vīta, which mean "life." It refers to the ability to live, grow, or develop. Vitality is a feature that helps tell apart living things from non-living things. In psychology, experiencing vitality is considered a basic need, and in philosophy, it is part of the will to live. Because of this, people often try to increase their vitality or their sense of vitality, which is linked to better physical health and mental well-being.

Overview

The study and care of health and energy have been important in medicine and early scientific ideas for a long time. Life depends on several important biological functions called vital processes. In the past, these processes were thought to be caused either by physical and chemical rules or by other, non-physical reasons. The belief that life cannot be fully explained by chemical and physical rules is called vitalism.

Before the 19th century, many scientists believed that people lived shorter lives in the past and that aging happened because of a loss of energy and the inability to keep it strong. A common idea was that people are born with a limited amount of energy, which decreases over time. Eventually, this loss leads to illness, weakness, and death.

Religion

In many traditional cultures, the ability to live is often seen as the same thing as the soul or breath. This idea appears in Hindu beliefs through the concept of prana, which means that the energy in the body comes from air and food. Similar ideas are also found in Hebrew and ancient Greek writings.

According to Jainism, there are ten types of life-principles or vitalities. A major Jain text called the Tattvarthsutra states: "Cutting off vitalities due to desire is considered harm." Since life is seen as sacred in all living things, Jains avoid killing any creature. They follow a vegetarian diet and do not eat vegetables that grow underground because each underground stem contains a very large number of vitalities, each of which could grow into a complete plant. The table below shows the vitalities that living beings have based on their senses.

Vitality and DNA damage

Low energy or tiredness is often reported by older individuals. This lack of energy can be an early sign that a person may be becoming frail and might indicate a hidden health problem. In a study involving 2,487 patients from Copenhagen, researchers measured vitality levels using a standard scale where people rate their own energy levels. They found that as DNA damage increased in blood cells, vitality levels tended to decrease. DNA damage can signal problems with how cells work.