HEALTHY CHOICES: Health Today

HEALTHY CHOICES: Health Today Lawndale High School Ms. Mai

Health • What does “health” mean? • Health – a state of well-being • What defines a person’s state of well-being has changed considerable over the years

Health: Past and Present • In the past, a healthy person was someone who was considered to be free from disease • In the 1900, the leading cause of death were infectious diseases from bacteria or viruses

Ten Leading Causes of Death

Medical Advances • Over the years, research has been able to identify many causes of life-threatening diseases • Through improved working and living conditions and new medicine, many diseases were brought under control in the last 100 years • Today, poor health is highly related to our own personal lifestyle

Medical Advances • Therefore, the health focus of today is on wellness instead of preventing infection • Wellness – a positive, whole-health approach that includes physical, intellectual, social, and emotion well-being (PISE) • Wellness does not mean that you have to be the best, but it does mean striving to live your life to its fullest potential and acting in healthy ways to prevent unnecessary illness

Longevity • Controlling diseases has greatly increased the life expectancy of people around the world • Life Expectance – the measure of the average number of years that a group of people may expect to live • In the 1900, life expectancy was only 47 years. Today, as long as you maintain good health, life expectancy has increased to 78 years.

What Determines Health? • The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) have identified 4 main factors that determine your health • Personal health behavior • Your physical environment • Hereditary influences • Quality of health-care services available

1. Personal Health Behavior • Health behaviors refers to patterns of behaviors that affect your health now and as you get older • Therefore, your personal lifestyle greatly affects the quality of your health • Good health behaviors can increase the average length of you life

Eight Good Healthy Behaviors 1. Sleeping 7 to 8 hours daily 2. Eating breakfast daily 3. Rarely eating between meals 4. Maintaining a healthy weight 5. Reducing fat and salt in meals 6. Getting regular physical exercise 7. Avoiding tobacco and alcohol 8. Appropriately using only legal medication

2. Your Physical Environment • Physical Environment – your surrounding (any place you live, work, and play) • Your physical environment, including the quality of air you breath, the noise level, infected food or water, can all affect your health

3. Hereditary Influences • Heredity – the biological passing of physical traits from parents to their children • Sometimes your ability to prevent diseases may be limited by hereditary factors • Although hereditary may effect your health, the effects on your health can often be reduced by choosing responsible health behaviors

4. Quality of Health-Care Services • Regular medical and dental care can help prevent many health problems • Preventing illnesses is usually easier than curing an illness

Health Discuss with a partner how much you think each of the four main factors affect your health. Come up with a percentage for each of the factors. • Personal health behavior (50%) • Your physical environment (20%) • Hereditary influences (20%) • Quality of health-care services available (10%)

Striving for Personal Wellness • As we now understand, the concept of health has changed a lot over the years • Remember that wellness involves physical, intellectual, social, and emotional (PISE) well-being • The key to health lies in your ability to achieve balance in all four areas of health

The 4 Factors of Health 1. Physical Wellness – health of your body (exercise, nutrition, preventive care, and avoiding abusive substances) 2. Intellectual Wellness – gathering knowledge through stimulating learning experiences (challenging your mind, solve problems)

The 4 Factors of Health 3. Emotional Wellness – awareness and acceptance of your feelings and self-image (self-expression, self-control, self-evaluation, enthusiasm for life) 4. Social Wellness – relationships with others (make friends, cooperate with others, productive member of society)

In Your Wellness Journal… THE FOUR FACTORS OF HEALTH Discuss each of the 4 factors of health in your life. Rate each factor on a scale of 1 to 10. Which factor is your strength? Which factor is your weakness? What is one thing you can change in your lifestyle to improve on your weakness?

Health in our Generation • Achieving personal wellness should be everyone’s goal • Healthy People 2000 was published in 1990 as a response to the concern of the well-being our our nation as a whole with 3 major goals • Increase the span of a healthy life • Reduce health differences • Achieve better access to health service

Healthy People 2000 • Along with these 3 goals, there were also objectives in 22 areas related to health that addressed age, income, race, and gender • Healthy People 2000 was published with the goal of making the United States a healthier nation by the year 2000. Read each objective and consider what you think our current status is. Also compare 2000 and 2010’s goal.

HEALTHY CHOICES: Health Today