Chapter 1 - Living a Healthy Life

Lessons 1-3Pg. 4-25

Lesson 1 – Your Health and Wellness

Lesson Objectives◦Relate the nation’s health goals and objectives

in Healthy People 2010 to individual, family, and community health.

◦Discuss the importance of health literacy for achieving and maintaining good health.

The Importance of Good Health

What would you say if someone asked you if you were healthy?

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

It is not an absolute state.

The Health Continuum

Health is dynamic, or subject to change. Think of your health at any moment as a

point on a continuum. Along the continuum are many points where

your health could be located at any given time.

This point changes from day to day, year to year.

Changes can happen suddenly or gradually.

Where do you think you lie on this continuum?

Where would you like to be?

Wellness

Wellness is an overall state of well-being, or total health.

It comes from a way of living each day that includes making decisions and practicing behaviors that are based on sound health knowledge and healthful attitudes.

Achieving wellness requires an ongoing, lifelong commitment to physical, mental/emotional, and social health.

Promoting Your Health

The decisions you make each day affect your health.

Making responsible decisions about health and developing health-promoting habits are crucial to achieving and maintaining wellness and preventing disease.

Lifestyle Factors

Experts have identified habits that affect people’s overall health, happiness, and longevity, or how long they live.

Lifestyle factors, or habits, are personal behaviors related to the way a person lives as well as helps determine his/her level of health. ◦ Lifestyle factors can be good or bad.

Examples of positive lifestyle factors:◦ Getting 8-10 hours of sleep a night.◦ Eating a healthy breakfast.◦ Eating a balanced diet.◦ Being physically active.◦ Managing stress.◦ Avoiding tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.

Can you think of examples of negative lifestyle factors?

Wellness and Prevention

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

Examples: ◦Wearing a seat belt.◦Wearing sunscreen.

Can you think of any more?

The Importance of Health Education

Health is critical to quality of life which is why learning how to become and stay healthy should be a top priority.

This is why health education - the providing of accurate health information to help people make healthy choices – is so important.

The goal of health education is to give people the tools they need to help them live long, energetic, and productive lives.

Healthy People 2010

HP 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 U.S.◦ This plan aims to promote health and prevent illness, disability, and

early death. 2 Main Goals:

1. Increase quality and years of healthy life and2. Remove health differences that result from factors such as gender,

race, education, disability, and location.◦ To reach these goals everyone must work together.

Reaching the nation’s health goals is directly related to the health of the individuals in that nation.

Achieving wellness empowers each individual to improve the community in which he/she lives and as more individuals take charge of their own wellness, global health will also improve.

The best chances for success occur when individuals, families, and communities work together.

Becoming Health Literate

Health literacy refers to a person’s capacity to learn about and understand basic health information and services and use these resources to promote his or her health and wellness.

A health-literate individual needs to be:◦A critical thinker and problem solver.

Evaluate info and make responsible choices,

◦A responsible, productive citizen. Acts in a way that promotes health and respect for themselves and others.

◦A self-directed learner. Can properly evaluate the validity of health info.

◦An effective communicator. Can express his/her health knowledge in a variety of ways.

Lesson 2 – Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle

Lesson Objectives◦Describe the importance of taking responsibility

for establishing and implementing health maintenance for individuals of all ages.

◦Explain how certain influences impact health status.

◦Analyze health messages delivered through the media and technology

Your Health Triangle

The three elements of health – physical, mental/emotional, and social – are interconnected, like the sides of a triangle.

When one side receives too much or too little attention, the whole triangle can become lopsided and unbalanced.

To truly maintain health, you need to take personal responsibility for establishing and implementing health maintenance for all three sides of your health triangle.

The Health Triangle

Physical Health

How well your body functions.◦ Having energy to perform daily

activities, coping with everyday stress, resisting disease.

◦ Getting adequate sleep, having a proper diet, and being physically active on a regular basis.

◦ Practicing good hygiene and getting regular medical and dental check-ups.

◦ Being aware of what you put into your body (thus, abstaining from substance abuse).

Mental/Emotional Health

Your feelings about yourself, how well you meet the demands of daily life, and your ability to process information.

People with good mental/emotional health:◦ Enjoy challenges.◦ See mistakes as opportunities to grow

and change.◦ Act responsibly and stand up for their

beliefs and values.◦ Are in touch with their feelings and can

express them in appropriate ways.◦ Deal with the frustrations of life in a

positive way.

Social Health

Involves the way you get along with others.◦Your ability to make and keep

friends.◦Working and playing in

cooperative ways.◦Seeking and lending support

when necessary.◦Communicating well and

showing respect and care for yourself and others.

Keeping a Balance

Each side of your health triangle is equally important to your health.

An unbalanced triangle is likely to cause you problems at some point.

When you work to keep your three sides of the triangle balanced, you are much more likely to function at your highest level.

Question: How might something affecting the physical side of your triangle affect the other two sides?

Influences on Your Health

There are many factors that influence your health: ◦Heredity◦Environment◦Attitude◦Behavior◦Media◦Technology

Heredity

Heredity – all the traits that were biologically passed on to you from your parents.◦ ie. Physical traits such as eye and hair color, height

Heredity also plays a large role in your general level of health.◦ Specific genes may put you at risk for certain

illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. or

◦ Specific genes may strengthen your resistance to disease.

Beyond your physical health, heredity can also influence personality and basic intellectual abilities and talents.

Environment

Environment – the sum of your surroundings including your family, neighborhood, school, job, and life experiences.

Environment includes all the places you go in a given day as well as the physical conditions in which you live. (Physical Environment)

It includes all the people in your life (Social Environment) and your Culture.

Physical Environment

Influences every aspect of your health.A person who lives in a safe environment

will experience a very different life than someone who lives in a high crime rate area.

Environmental factors such as air pollution or living in a home with someone who smokes can also put you at risk for certain health conditions.

Social Environment

Includes your family, friends, and other people you come in contact with everyday.

As teenagers, an important part of your social environment are your peers – people of the same age who share similar interests; can include friends and classmates.◦ Choosing who you associate and surround yourself with can

have either a positive or negative effect on your own health.

A positive social environment can help a person develop positive values, a commitment to learning, and confidence in future success.

Culture

Refers to the collective beliefs, customs, and behaviors of a group.◦The group can be an ethnic group, a community,

a nation, or a specific part of the world.Your language, food, traditions, and religion

are all a part of your cultural environment.Your culture gives you a sense of identity.Understanding culture can help you know

yourself better as well as be tolerant of others.

Attitude and Behavior

Attitude◦ The way you view situations

greatly affects the choices you make.

◦ Can play a major role in health and wellness. ie. People who see the

positive in situations are more likely to have better health than those who see only the negative.

◦ Viewing challenges positively and thinking in realistic terms will help you make healthful decisions, reach your goals, and successfully manage your life.

Behavior◦ Although you have no

control over your heredity, you have total control over your behavior. For example, just

because your family has a history of heart disease, doesn’t mean you have to follow in their footsteps.

◦ Your behavior strongly affects all three areas of your health triangle.

Media and Technology

Media◦ The various methods of

communicating info. (radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, books, internet).

◦ Main purpose is to provide info and entertain, it also plays a powerful role in shaping public opinion.

◦ The internet has greatly influenced how many people receive info...but now we have to be responsible consumers and weed out the reliable info from the fabricated info.

Technology◦ Has greatly impacted

society in both positive and negative ways.

◦ Positive: Advances in medical screenings and treatments, the ability to keep air, land, and water clean.

◦ Negative: Technology has replaced physical activity (cars, TV, video games, computer).

“Draw Your Own Health Triangle” Assignment (20 pts)

On a piece of white computer paper, you will draw, color, and label your own health triangle.

You can either choose to do a “healthy behavior” triangle or an “unhealthy behavior” triangle. (Make sure you indicate on your poster which type you are doing.)

Your health triangle must include:◦All three sides of the triangle (Physical, Mental/Emotional,

Social) labeled correctly.◦At least FIVE pictures that correctly illustrate/describe each

health behavior. You may also include key words. ◦Then, you must choose one side of the triangle that you think

is most affected by personal behavior and explain your choice. (You can either put this somewhere on the front of our poster, on the back, or write it on a separate sheet of paper and staple it to your poster.)

Make sure your name is on your paper.

Lesson 3 – Your Behavior and Reducing Health Risks

Lesson Objectives◦Describe ways to promote health and reduce

risks.◦Associate risk-taking with consequences.◦Analyze the importance of abstinence from risk

behaviors.

•Part of becoming an adult is learning how to make responsible decisions.

•As you move towards adulthood, you become increasingly responsible for decisions regarding your health. •Remember the choices you make during adolescence can affect your health the rest of your life.

Understanding Health Risks

The first step in becoming responsible for your health is to increase your awareness of risk behaviors in your life.◦Risk Behaviors – actions that can potentially

threaten your health or the health of others.The second step is to examine your

current behaviors and make any necessary changes.

Recognizing Risk BehaviorsSource: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

What can you conclude from this chart?

Cumulative Risks and Behaviors

Cumulative Risks – related risks that increase in effect with each added risk.◦ ie. Smoking one cigarette or eating one McDonald’s

Big Mac is not likely to result in death but repeated over time, the negative effects accumulate and can lead to serious health consequences.

Cumulative risks may also result from a combination of risk factors. ◦ ie. Speeding and not wearing a seat belt; underage

drinking and sex. Can you think of any more?

The more risk behaviors you participate in, the more likely you are to experience negative consequences at some point.

Abstaining from Risky Behaviors

Abstinence – avoiding harmful behaviors (including the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs and sexual activity before marriage).

By abstaining from these behaviors, you avoid many negative consequences as taking part harms all aspects of your health. Fith fifth jjjjj