1. Lesson 1: Understanding Health and Wellness

2. Health Today Two factors that can be used to evaluate health are:
Life Expectancy-the number of years a person can expect to live.
In the United States, life expectancy increased by 30 years between 1900 and 2000.
Quality of Life-the degree of overall satisfaction that a person gets from life.

3. What is….
Health is the combination of physical, mental/emotional, and social well-being.
Spiritual health is a deep-seated sense of meaning and purpose in life.
Wellness is an overall state of well-being or total health.
Chronic disease is an ongoing condition or illness.

4. Take charge of your health What are some ways that people can take charge of their health?
Getting regular check-ups
Eating nutritious foods
Regular physical activity

5. What is your health triangle?

6. Physical Health
High level of physical health = energy for daily activities, everyday stresses, and avoiding injuries
What does it take to keep a healthy body?
8-10 hrs of sleep
Nutritious meals / 8 cups of water
30-60 min physical activity
Avoid tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs
Bathe daily / floss and brush

7. Mental/Emotional Health
Mental Health-the state of being comfortable with yourself, with others, and with your surroundings.
Emotional Health-how you react to events in your life.
People who are mentally and emotionally healthy
Enjoy challenges
Have control over their lives
Express emotions in APPROPRIATE ways
Positive outlook
Make responsible decisions
What is one issue that teens have a hard time coping with?

8. STRESS Ever felt you did not have enough time? Need to do more now?
Felt caught up in chronic “speedaholism”?
Worrying about the future and reliving the past?

9. Mental/Emotional Health

10. Stages of Stress-Alarm Stage
During the alarm stage, your body releases a substance called adrenaline into your blood, which creates changes in your body.
These changes prepare you to either “fight” the stressor or “take flight” and escape.
The initial reaction of the body to stress is called the fight-or- flight response..

11. Stages of Stress-Resistance Stage
If you are unable to successfully respond to a stressor during the alarm stage, your body moves into the resistance stage.
Your body begins to adapt to the continued presence of the stressor.
You may think you are no longer stressed because the symptoms disappear.
However, your body uses up a great deal of energy during this stage.
As a result, one may become tired, irritable, and less able to handle any added stress.

12. Stages of Stress-Exhaustion Stage
Your body can no longer keep up with the demands placed on it.
Your physical and emotional resources are depleted.
This only occurs if a stressor continues for a long time (i.e. month or years)
One may reach this stage when they experience extreme stress that is beyond their control-such as death of a family member.

13. Stress and Illness
Stress can trigger certain illnesses, reduce the body’s ability to fight an illness, and make some diseases harder to control.
Stomachaches
Asthma
Headaches
Lowered resistance to disease
Heart disease

14. Stress and Personality
Your personality influences your assessment of a situation.
Optimism (positive) and pessimism (negative)
A perfectionist is a person who accepts nothing less than excellence.
Because perfectionists set goals that are impossible to attain, they are never satisfied with what they have accomplished
Accept that you cannot be perfect
Take pride in the things you do well
Don’t focus on your mistakes

15. Resilience
The ability to recover, or “bounce back”, from extreme or prolonged stress.
The key factor of resilience is having the support of family and friends.
People with resilience share these characteristics:
They know their strengths and have confidence in their abilities.
They make realistic plans and take steps to carry out those plans.
They have good communication and problem solving skills.

16. Mental/Emotional Health

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21. Mental/Emotional Health

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23. Mental/Emotional Health

24. Mental/Emotional Health
Spiritual Health
Does not necessarily mean you belong to a religious group
Involves having a feeling of purpose and a sense of values

25. Social Health Getting along with others
Social network = family, friends, teachers, peers, and other members of your community
Lots of friends DOES NOT = social health
Having someone to share your thoughts and feelings
Healthy relationships involve
Seeking and lending support when needed
Communicating clearly and listening to others
Showing respect and care for YOURSELF and others

26. Keeping a balance Balanced (Health Triangle) = high level of wellness
Spending too much time working out
Physically fit
Feels lonely and depressed
Mental/emotional and social health negatively affected

27. Think about it? 1.) Does your Health Triangle have equal sides?
2.) Is there one area that you are strong in?
3.) Is there an area that you need to work on?

28. The Health Continuum What is a continuum?
Health and wellness are always changing
Feel great one day and catch a cold the next
What is a continuum?
Your health at any moment can be seen as a point along a continuum (sliding scale)
Spans the complete range of health
Loss of health / wellness -high level of wellness
Figure 1.4 The Health Continuum

29. The Health Continuum
As you mature, your position on the continuum changes.
Unfortunately Americans usually move to the lower end
One-half of American adults live with a chronic disease
Leading risk factors for chronic disease include
Smoking
Lack of physical activity
Poor nutrition
Being overweight
Lack of health screenings

30. I want YOU to make a lifelong commitment to practice healthful behaviors

31. Thinking Critically Relate Predict
How can poor mental/emotional health affect physical health?
Predict
How might your behaviors today affect your health now? How might they affect your health in the future?