I believe Americans need a new way of thinking about health. Look where our current perspectives on the subject have gotten us – we are last among the world’s 17 most industrialized nations in all the key health indicators. It’s hard to believe but true: we’re later in life expectancy; we have the highest rates of obesity, infant mortality, low birth weights, heart disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease, homicide rates, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases.
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The lead author of the Institute of Medicine, an NIH-sponsored study that revealed this situation, remarked that “Americans get sicker, die sooner, and sustain more injuries than people in all other high-income countries.” (That’s a quote from the report.) Then he added this coup de grace: “We were stunned by the propensity of findings all on the negative side – the scope of the disadvantage covers all ages, from babies to seniors, both sexes, all classes of society. If we fail to act, life spans will continue to shorten, and children will face greater rates of illness than those in other nations.”
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Two Ways to Think of Health:
I believe Americans are overly passive about their health. Good health can only be attained and maintained by conscious deeds. These deeds require planning and discipline. Examples include exercising regularly and vigorously, dining in ways that nourish the body without causing problems, and behaving positively and actively. Your lifestyle choices clearly affect the level of health you will enjoy. Your health status depends to a great extent on whether you invest in your well-being or not. If you make little or no such investments, your health will depend on chance, genetics, the aging process, and the timeliness of the quality of medical care you receive.
If, on the other hand, you do invest, if you seek, protect, and defend an advanced state of well-being, the nature of the health status you will have will be dramatically different – and better. Therefore, we need to distinguish these two kinds of health situations: passive aand and active. The Institute of Health reports that places America last reflect that passive segment of America. If the small segment of the American population practicing active health were separated and their health data were compiled and compared, I would be #1. For these and related reasons, I propose we view health in two different ways – by distinguishing between static health – which is how most view and approach their health, and earned health. The latter is what you get when you invest wisely in your well-being.
It’s a way of life I call REAL wellness:
Health As Currently Perceived:
The WHO defines health as unrealistic (nobody, not even the most devout website, enjoys “complete physical, mental, and social well-being,” at least not every day). Most think of health in far less exalted ways. Most think they are well if they are not sick. This is pathetic. It equates with not needing immediate medical attention. This is a “good enough” view of health for the vast majority. Thinking that way is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It means that not being healthy is the best you can hope for. This is the static definition of health, and it must be reformed and at least accompanied by another comparison perspective for those Americans willing to do their part. That would be earned health.
We need ideas about health that remind people of a key fact: a passive situation is not as effective, desirable, protective, or rewarding as a dynamic earned the state of health. We should all be aware that static health, the default setting you get for existing and doing nothing special to enhance health, can and must be reinforced and boosted. Employing a term like earned health might remind people that health can be much more than non-illness. The term earned health can signal the availability of a richer level of well-being. It can remind everyone that health at its best is more than a static condition. Health is a dynamic state; it improves with effort and worsens if ignored. Earned health represents a higher health standard. Earned health is more ambitious and consistent with a REAL wellness mindset and lifestyle than the current health norm of non-sickness.
The Static/Earned Health Continuum:
This continuum is another way of expressing Dr. John Travis’ original, simple line-drawing model of health along a continuum, with “premature death” on the far left side of his continuum) and an ever-changing dynamic of “high-level wellness” on the other, right side extreme. The “0” in the middle represents a neutral point, which could be simple non-sickness.
Earned health is what happens from the neutral point to the +10 indicator. Everyone moves along an imaginary continuum of this kind every day because health is dynamic and constantly changing. By living wisely with the right behaviors, we fuel a better state of health than if we allow health status to be determined by the passage of time (i.e., the aging process, chance, medical interventions, circumstances, and events).
This continuum is a simple way of depicting that earned health evolves largely due to our efforts to improve and protect our well-being; static health, on the other hand, is affected by what happens to you. By the way, Dr. Travis made regular expansions to his original model. You can view the latest edition and read more about the continuum here. Dr. Travis’s Wellness Energy System is a related construct that interests wellness enthusiasts. Earned health is not determined or advanced by medical interventions. Static health, that is, health along the continuum from the center to the left, is so influenced.
The Path to REAL Wellness:
To become healthier in an earned sense, it’s up to us to act to move along the right side of the continuum. The failure to appreciate the different nature of health, earned from static, partly accounts for why America can have so much medical care and yet not enjoy the best health status. After all, modern medicine is a wonderful thing, but there are two problems: people expect too much of it and too little of themselves.
