Exploring Lifetime Wellness Issues

1
Exploring Lifetime Wellness Issues

• Chapter Fifteen

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Career Wellness

• You will spend at least 50 percent of your waking
  hours at work.
• Technological advances have altered the workforce
  concept.
• When employees are happy and healthy,
  productivity increases.
• The promotion of wellness programs in business is
  based on 4 related premises.

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4 Related Premises of Wellness Programs in
Business

• Prevention is preferable to curing.
• Teaching people to stay healthy is generally less
  expensive than treating them when they are ill.
• Healthful lifestyles offer a better quality of
  life, higher morale, increased productivity, and
  possibly increased longevity.
• Health promotion programs promote a favorable
  corporate image and help attract healthy, capable
  employees who see these programs as a valuable
  employee benefit.

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How to Promote Wellness in the Workplace

• Diagnosis
• Assessment of current health and habits
• Education
• Give information about health enhancement.
• Behavior Modification
• Give help and support in making a specific
  behavior change.

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Family Wellness

• The family unit is the primary transmitter of
  values and attitudes in society.
• The dynamics of a family promote the growth in
  the following areas
• Spiritual
• Physical
• Psychological
• Social

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The Well Relationship Top 10 List

• Communication
• Compromise
• Common values
• Likeability and respect
• Shared responsibilities

• Finances
• Trust
• Space
• Sense of humor
• Love

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The Well Child

• Children learn by watching.
• Family support nurtures this form of learning.
• Health concerns can be remedied if an environment
  is conducive to good health and wellness.
• Strong parental guidance can reduce
• Drug/alcohol use
• Sexual activity
• Criminal or delinquent behaviors

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Understanding Quackery

• What is quackery?
• The promotion of a misleading and fraudulent
  health claim that is unproven.
• Most quackery products are foods, drugs, gadgets,
  or cosmetics that promote physical change.
• Americans spend an estimated 27 billion per year
  on quack products or treatments.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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Personal Safety Issues

• Accidents are the fifth overall cause of death in
  the U.S.
• Number one cause of death for ages 15-44 yrs.
• Common sense will greatly reduce these accidents.
• Issues that are within your control are
• Automobile seat belts
• Driving safety
• Personal safety

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Wellness Trends

• Changes in health care
• Aging America
• Mind-body connection

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Changes in Health Care

• Medical care is changing from sickness business
  to wellness business.
• Support services are being offered.
• Medical education of physicians to include
  lifestyle and preventive influences.
• Alternative forms of medicine along with Western
  methods are offered.
• Insurance companies are providing incentives for
  staying well.

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Aging America

• People are living longer because of healthier
  habits and modern treatments for heart disease
  and cancer.
• Death rates have dropped in half for people aged
  6584 yrs.
• 14.3 drop in number of those who cannot take
  care of themselves physically.
• New and special programs will have to be
  developed as people live longer.

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The Mind-Body Connection

• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
• The study of how emotions, behavior, and mental
  attitudes affect the immune system and the onset
  and course of illness
• Researchers have shown that nerve cells connect
  directly to organs of the immune system, that
  hormones responsive to stressful experiences
  affect the immune response, and that
  psychological and social factors can affect the
  immune systems responsiveness.
• The mind does matter!

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Challenges for the Future

• Diversity
• The environment
• Quackery

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Challenge 1 Diversity

• One of the greatest challenges is making wellness
  information available to everyone.
• Nearly 1 in 4 Americans are non-white.
• Diversity should be celebrated and recognized
  however, wellness has not received equal among
  diverse members of the population.

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Challenge 2 Environmental Concerns

• Ozone layer
• Recycling
• Pesticides
• Pollution

• Loud noises leading to hearing loss
• Noises leading to increased stress levels
• Radon gas/asbestos causing cancer
• Lead toxicities

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Challenge 3 Quackery

• Promotion of misleading or false health claims
  that are unproven.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• The Internet has created another venue for
  quackery.
• Table 15-3 goes over how to recognize quackery.

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Planning Wellness for a Lifetime

• Chapter Fifteen