The long anticipated health and wellness blog post is finally here. I asked, on Facebook, for a definition of wellness. I got lots of very good answers, but of course I want to start with health. As some of you may know I used to teach high school health. One of the things I liked to do on the 1st day, before they got their books, had to be done in class, for their definition of health and their definition of wellness. As you might expect, 9th graders came up with some interesting definitions, and in fact, many of the students thought health and wellness were the same thing. They are not.
According to my McGraw Hill text, "Health is the absence of disease" pretty simple, if you don't have a disease you are considered healthy. My question always was/is, define disease. I can find a definition, you can find a definition, none of the definitions answer all of my questions, you have to interpret. My interpretation might be different than yours. The big questions for me are:
Is obesity a disease? Hypertension? Diabetes? Some are easy, who would argue that cancer is a disease? If you use a literal definition of disease are any of us healthy? I'm not. I have hypertension, probably have always had hypertension, probably always will. Also at 5'10" and 184 lbs I'm overweight according to the Body mass Index scale. Again, you have to interpret. Am I overweight? According to the height weight charts and BMI scale I am. But am I really? My doctor doesn't think so, and more importantly, my wife doesn't think so. How depressing would it be to lose 80 lbs and still be considered overweight? At 264 lbs I knew I needed to lose close to 100 lbs to be in the healthy weight range. I also knew I had no intention of weighing 164 lbs. I wasn't sure what the number would end up, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be 164 lbs. I know as a nation, statistics say that Americans are overweight. Like we needed someone to do a study to figure that out, look around.
So, how many of us are healthy? Depends on your definition. What if I change the definition of health to "absence of chronic disease"? What if I change the definition to "absence of chronic health problems"? Surely wellness will be easier, right? According the good ol' textbook, "wellness is the ability to perform day to day tasks with ease" Really? With ease? If I have a 1 acre yard that I push mow, and struggle because, you know, that's a whole bunch of grass to mow, does that mean I'm not well? If I decide to do nothing but sit on my couch, I can do it with ease, am I well? Right now I'm wondering why I started this. Back to work. The definitions I got from you, my loyal followers, mostly had to do with being able to live your life. Go to work, mow the yard, play with the kids, work out. I had a couple that mentioned people with disabilities. Can someone with a mental or physical disability be healthy? Can they be well? By most definitions, healthy would be a tough sell for someone with a disability. But what about well? I think (it's my blog, I get to have an opinion) a person with a disability could be considered well. We all have our own version of well. Will the 75 year old me be able to do everything the 46 year old me can do? Not unless I find the fountain of youth. Does that mean I cannot be well when I'm 75? In a word, no. I have no way to measure what I'm about to say, so don't ask. I define wellness as the ability to accomplish tasks that my peers can accomplish, without causing undue strain to my body. In other words, can I do most of the things an average 46 year old male can do daily. I workout 6 times a week, am I average? Is it possible that any 46 year old male off the street, who doesn't work out regularly, can show up at SNAP, and do my exact workout? Sure they could, if they are too stubborn to quit. But how would they feel the next day? The day after that? Would they be so sore they could not do their normal daily activities without pain/discomfort? If they couldn't, does that mean they aren't healthy? Does it mean they aren't well? Not necessarily. Now I need to define peer. 46 year old used to be obese, now works out all the time? How many people are in that group? To restrictive? How about male between 42 and 48? I'm giving myself a headache. I'm going to make this easier. Health is absence of chronic disease. Wellness is the ability to perform regular daily tasks without putting undue stress on the body. I know what you're thinking, this has been a long, rambling post that didn't really answer any questions, and may have brought up more questions than it answered. Sometimes that's how it goes, sometimes you have to come up with your own conclusions. I just hope I can make you think. If any of you have other ideas, thoughts, definitions, drop me an email at: mrigoni64@gmail.com. Also if you have topics you would like me to discuss, please send them to me.
That's all for now.
I'll see you at the gym.
