Wellness Essay, Research Paper

Williams, H. Melvin. Lifetime Fitness and Wellness,4th edition

McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1996.

In this paper we will be discussing wellness, and the information relative to this subject. Wellness is defined as the overall health of an individual. There are many points of wellness to discuss, such as the Wellness/Illness Continuum, 5 Domains of Wellness, Chronological Age vs. Fundamental Age, risk factors, statistics, and other such information.

The Wellness/Illness Contimuum explains, with a diagram, the health of society as a whole. In between Optimal Health and Pre-mature Death (bad health), is the inferior point. At 50% of the population, this is the average health of society. This is considered normal but borderline health; anything below this point is considered abnormally bad. At the top of the diagram, under Optimal Health, it shows that 35% of the population is in abnormally good health/shape: the 10% of society (mostly athletes) are in premium health, while the other 25% are in regular health/shape.

The following domains of wellness are key to accomplish total health. The first is the social domain, and this is concerned with the development of personal relationships with family and friends. Next is the emotional domain, which is concerned with the development of self-confidence, the ability to handle stress, and express emotions. The third domain is-physical, which is defined as the ability to exercise properly, to eat healthy, and to avoid high risk behavior, such as smoking. The 4th is the intellectual domain—the ability to think critically, to identify and solve problems. Last but not least, is the spiritual domain concerned with finding meaning and purpose in life.

We will now discuss aging and health risk factors. There are two types of aging: Chronological and functional. The Chronological age represents the passage of time. This is our actual age in years. The Functional age represents the capacity of the body to perform certain specific tasks and is usually evaluated in a variety of ways, such as tests of vision and hearing, physiological functioning during exercise, etc. Other noticable changes are: gray hair, increased percent body fat, and wrinkled skin. Internal changes include: clogged arteries, less efficient heart and lungs and the diminished function of certain glands. These aging changes are inevitable, but some can be slowed down by avoiding behaviors with a high risk factor. A risk factor is defined as: health behavior or personal characteristics that has been associated with a particular disease. We can control the risk factors associated with smoking, alcohol consumption, and poor diet and exercise, by avoiding these things. We do not have control over are gender, age, genetics, race and family history though. Some risk factors to take note of that are associated with smoking are: heart disease, atherosclerosis which leads to arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and cancer. Its also possible to get arteriosclerosis from a high fat/cholesterol diet. Problems caused by excessive body weight may be corinary heart disease and diabetes. Low amounts of exercise may also cause coranary heart disease as well as obesity. One way to avoid these problems all together is to check your total cholesterol amount. This should be under 200. Not all cholesterol is bad though. The HDL is the good cholesterol, but the LDL is not because it carries plaque into artery walls.

In conclusion, the path to wellness relys on a positive health lifestyle. Here are 3 ways to adopt this lifestyle: develop an awareness of areas in your life that need improvement, develop a set of permanent positive health behaviors (exercise regularly, eat right), and continue these behaviors throughout your life.

I find the material we covered to be motivating, and informative, ofcourse. The good news about wellness is that, for the most part, we are in control of it. if we choose to be healthy, we can be healthy. That is the basic concept i gathered from the material covered.