Living a Healthy Life

Chapter 1

Your Health and Wellness

Health is the combination of physical, mental/emotional, and social well-being

The Health Continuum

Your health is constantly changing Think of your health at any moment

as a point along a continuum A “health continuum” shows that your

health can be measured on a sliding scale with many degrees of health and wellness

The Health Continuum

A person with a balanced life is said to have a high degree of wellness, an overall state of well-being, or total health.

Promoting your health

The decisions that you make everyday have an impact on your health

Doctors have identified habits that affect people’s overall health, happiness, and longevity – or how they live

Lifestyle Factors The habits that you have in your

everyday life are called lifestyle factors, they are personal behaviors related to the way a person lives his or her life.

Lifestyle factors determine your level of health, certain ones are linked to specific diseases, others promote good overall health

Wellness and Prevention

A key to your wellness is prevention or practicing health and safety habits to remain free of disease and injury

The importance of Health Education

Knowing how to become healthy and staying healthy should be a persons top priority

Therefore health education or the providing of accurate health information to help people make healthy choices, is very important.

The Nation’s Health Goals

Everyone has health goals including our nation

Healthy People 2010 is a nationwide health promotion and disease prevention plan designed to serve as a guide for improving the health of all people in the United States

Healthy People 2010

They have established 2 main goals Increase the quality and years of healthy

life for all Americans Remove health differences that result

from factors such as gender, race, education, disability, and location

Healthy People 2010

In order to stay healthy you have to know how to evaluate your own health and where to get health information

When evaluating health information it should be reliable, accurate, and current

Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle

Lesson 2

Your Health Triangle

There are 3 main elements to your health

Physical Mental/Emotional Social Otherwise known as your Health

Triangle

Your Health Triangle

Physical

Your physical side of your health triangle deals with how well your body functions.

This side of the triangle deals with anything dealing with your body, such as substance abuse, fitness, nutrition, or any non-communicable disease

Mental/Emotional

This side of your health triangle deals with your feelings, how well you meet the demands of daily life, and your ability to process information.

Other health categories that may fall under this side include suicide, mental disorders, and stress

Social This side of the health triangle

involves the way you get along with others. Your ability to make and keep friends, communicating, being able to show respect

Other health categories on this side of the triangle may include, family relationships, peer relationships, public health

Your Health Triangle

Keeping your “Triangle” balanced is a big key.

Each side of the health triangle is just as important as the other

Influences on your health There are several things that can

influence your overall health or well-being including: Heredity Environment Media & Technology Values Attitudes Behavior

Heredity & Environment

Heredity refers to all the traits that were biologically passed onto you from your parents

Environment is the sum of your surroundings they can be either physical or social

Culture, Attitude & Behavior

Culture refers to the collective beliefs, customs, and behaviors of a group

Attitude is the way you view situations. Your attitude greatly affects the choices you make

Behavior refers to how you react or respond to certain situations

Media & Technology

Media or various methods of communicating information can greatly have an affect on your health

Technology advances also affect your health. Many technological advances in medicine have helped to prolong our lives

Your Behavior and Reducing Health Risks

Lesson 3

Understanding Health Risks

Risk Behaviors are actions that can potentially threaten your health or the health of others.

The consequences of risk behaviors may add up over time these cumulative risks are related risks that increase in effect with each added risk

Abstaining from risk behaviors

Abstinence is avoiding harmful behaviors, including the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs along with sexual activity