Wellness and Health Related Articles

Our Calendar has a long List Of World Health Observances and Awareness Days so we thought it would be a good idea to have a section in our blog that is dedicated to Wellness and health related articles. You will be able to find it in the right hand column of the blog, under the title "Wellness Wednesday."

The term "Wellness" 
was partly inspired by the preamble to the World Health Organization’s 1948 constitution which said: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

” It was initially brought to use in the US by Halbert L. Dunn, M.D. in the 1950s; Dunn was the chief of the National Office of Vital Statistics and discussed “high-level wellness,” which he defined as “an integrated method of functioning, which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable.” The term "wellness" was then adopted by John Travis who opened a "Wellness Resource Center" in Mill Valley, California in the mid-1970s, which was seen by mainstream culture as part of the hedonistic culture of Northern California at that time and typical of the Me generation. Travis marketed the center as alternative medicine, opposed to what he said was the disease-oriented approach of medicine. The concept was further popularized by Robert Rodale through Prevention magazine, Bill Hetler, a doctor at University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, who set up an annual academic conference on wellness, and Tom Dickey, who established the Berkeley Wellness Letter in the 1980s. The term had become accepted as standard usage in the 1990s.

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Defintion of Wellness

1. the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.
2. an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases.
3. The condition of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits.
4. the state of being in good physical and mental health.

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The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration uses the concept of wellness in its programs, defining it as having eight aspects: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual

See top photo-

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Outside Links / Resources / References:
www.dictionary.com
www.wikipedia.org
photo /  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
http://www.nyhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18FOB-onlanguage-t.htmltimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18FOB-onlanguage-t.html
http://www.nationalwellness.org/?page=six_dimensions
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