If you want to, you can take action that will greatly enhance your chances of living a healthy life. A major portion of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity that plague Americans today are a direct result of what they do and do not do. Research from the IHPDP consistently demonstrates the impact and benefits of high-level wellness. More than 20 years ago, Breslow and Breslow showed in a 10 year study involving 4855 adults that there was a consistent relationship between the seven health practices identified by the IHPDP and mortality and disability. The death rate and occurrence of disability were only about one half as great among persons with good health practices as among those with poor health practices. A 10-year follow-up study by Donaldson and Blanchard demonstrated convincingly that these health practices significantly predict wellness or illness. More specifically, study participants who followed six or seven of the health practices during the previous year had the most favorable levels of vitality, positive well being, job performance, anxiety, depression, lack of self-control, and physical illness. Participants who followed four to five of the health practices had intermediate levels of wellness factors, and those who practiced only zero to three experienced 50% greater mortality and disability than those with good health practices. In identifying these benefits, it is important to acknowledge that the emphasis here is on health-related fitness. Health-related fitness is the possession of various physical attributes that reduce the probability of disease and are vital to the quality of life. The components consist of cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and body composition.
Cardiorespiratory endurance refers to the heart’s and the circulatory system’s ability to provide adequate amounts of oxygen to the cells to meet the demands of prolonged physical activity. This is the best physiological measure of total body endurance. Muscular endurance is the ability to exert repetitive muscular force. Muscular strength is the maximal force that a muscle can exert in a single contraction. Flexibility is the ability of a given joint to move through its full range of motion. Body composition refers to the amount of lean body tissue versus fat tissue.
Evidence of the benefits of wellness and the detriments of poor health is so compelling that the enhancement of health and wellness became a high priority for the United States. Since 1987, the Public Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services has led an effort to promote health and prevent diseases by formulating national health objectives. Published in the landmark document, Healthy People 2000, National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives, these objectives provide benchmarks for judging the quality of life of the nation’s people.
How are Americans doing in achieving these objectives? Although improvements in some areas are encouraging, one deficiency is especially trouble some physical activity. Of American adults, 40 to 50 million are sedentary, and the current trend is not good. Between 1985 and 1990, physical activity in all age groups declined by 10%. Furthermore, people who are active now are not active as frequently as they were 5 years ago.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of wellness is the attitude that helps each person to see life’s possibilities and to work toward the ones that are the most personally fulfilling. In this sense, it empowers people to exercise control over their wellness destiny and to accept the wellness challenge.
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