Aha Moments

Taking Charge of your Health

There are 6 dimensions of wellness: Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Interpersonal, Spiritual, and Environmental. I once thought wellness was merely physical, mental and emotional. I like that this horizon has broadened!

Vital Statistics: for a lifespan of 77.9 years, 66.2 years of living healthy, and 11.7 years of living impaired. Wow, that is a lot of impaired years! Quality is much more important than quantity.

Stress The Constant Challenge

General Adaptation Syndrome: Alarm, Resistance, and Exhaustion. I find it amazing that the body can cope with stress in the Resistance phase and develop more resistance to disease and injury than usual.

Managing Stress: Support, Communication, Exercise, Nutrition, Sleep, Cognitive, and Relaxation. It is amazing that we have so many methods of coping with stress!

Psychological Health

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Physical Needs, Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, Self-Esteem, and Self-Actualization. I find it awesome that to be self-actualized encompasses realism, self-acceptance, autonomy, authenticity, intimacy capacity and creativity. What a wonderful goal!

Defense Mechanisms: Projection, Repression, Denial, Displacement, Dissociation, Rationalization, Reaction, Substitution, Passive Aggressive and Humor. What can sometimes work in the now, really does you no good in the long run. We all have one or more of these and it is nice to have an alternative to these behaviors!

The Use and Abuse of Psychoactive Drugs

Psychoactive Drugs: Potential for Dependence. It is interesting that these drugs can have physical and psychological effects on the body.

Use to Abuse: 20 million Americans used benzodiazepines for non-medical purposes. Wow, it is hard to imagine why someone would affect their body this way for recreation!

Alcohol and Tobacco

Possible Health Benefits of Alcohol: Numerous studies showed that moderate drinkers live longer than heavy drinkers or even those who abstain. For people 50+ it can thin the blood and raise healthy cholesterol levels. I would have never guessed!

Who Uses Tobacco: 2.8 Million Americans between 12 and 17 are currently using tobacco. How do they get them? I am amazed that the laws in place do not work better!

Nutrition Basics

USDA’s MyPyramid: Grains, Veggies, Fruits, Milk, and Meat and Beans. The key messages are Personalization, Physical Activity, Moderation, Proportionality, Variety and Gradual Improvement. I like how they have changed the pyramid to reflect the representation of each of these ideas.

Dietary Supplements: 150 Million Americans take dietary supplements. I have taken “vitamins” a few times in my life, but real food tastes better. I am somewhat surprised that so many people will trade a pill for the real McCoy!

Exercise for Health and Fitness

Improved Body Composition: Only 32% of Americans are at a healthy weight. I suppose living in southern California I take exercise for granted. There seem to be many healthy weighted individuals around me, yet overall this statistic is shocking! More people need to become allergic to the couch and get out and moving!

Physical Activity Pyramid: Sedentary, Strength Training, Cardio, Moderate Intensity. I thought it was cool that you can go from an entirely sedentary state to a state of health at your own comfortable pace. By increasing your amount of activity, you can make positive healthy changes in your life!

Weight Management

Body Mass Index: to classify health risks of body weight. I was happy to see I fall within acceptable ranges! I have been underweight for a long time and only recently have I been able to gain weight to a desired level.

Body Fat Distribution and Health: Abdominal obesity is a forewarning of diabetes and heart disease. Curious to find this fact about how your body can tell you when something is wrong. It is beneficial to your health to pay attention to your body!

Personal Safety

Unintentional Injuries: Whether disabling injuries or death, this number is way too high. For death, 118000 people suffer from injuries leading to death. A staggering 25 Million suffer from disabling injuries. It is wise to check your attitude or behavior to avoid this unnecessary fact of modern life!

Elder Abuse: Every year up to 2 Million elders are abused by those responsible for their care. Not only is this shocking, but unacceptable. I think more people should speak out and report any abuse they may witness to help stave these numbers ideally down to zero!