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[Pathology101]

Are medical diseases, disorders, sicknesses, illnesses, and other types of medical conditions, (regardless of the obvious differences between some of these terms, I use them interchangeably for the sake of simplicity) reducible to a set of symptoms and signs, or is there an ontological basis which makes the disease in-itself a separate "entity" from its symptoms and signs? Or do diseases, in-themselves, supervene on their symptoms and signs?

So, essentially, what constitutes a medical disease? (I speak in reference to human diseases)

In terms of the epistemology of medicine, what exactly is a medical disease?
And if a cohesive and comprehensive conclusion is reached, how does the definition of medical diseases influence the definition of health?

According to the World Health Organization, health is more than simply the absence of any diseases or infirmity, if so, is health to be viewed as a separate "entity" from an absence of diseases, and how so?

[A Poster He or I]

Look up "homeostasis." Health is best thought of as the maintenance of homeostasis. Disease is that which upsets homeostasis.