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Abstract
Health is usually defined as the absence of pathology. Here, we endeavor to define
health as a compendium of organizational and dynamic features that maintain physiology.
The biological causes or hallmarks of health include features of spatial compartmentalization
(integrity of barriers and containment of local perturbations), maintenance of homeostasis
over time (recycling and turnover, integration of circuitries, and rhythmic oscillations),
and an array of adequate responses to stress (homeostatic resilience, hormetic regulation,
and repair and regeneration). Disruption of any of these interlocked features is broadly
pathogenic, causing an acute or progressive derailment of the system coupled to the
loss of numerous stigmata of health.