Ideal Wellness World?

I recently posted (very unscientifically) a question on a social media forum; “What is your biggest complaint, mystery and or philosophy on all things health concerned.”

Below is a sample of the answers received. While I understand any group that I belong to is not unbiased, the comments reflect sentiments I’ve heard year after year as a wellness professional.

“The fact that there are so many theories/ studies on so many things with so many varying results.”

“I think too many doctors and medical professionals are too willing to treat the symptoms of an illness rather than find the cause and work at correcting that. Sore back? Painkillers. Diabetes? Insulin and oral medications.” 

“That consumers have no idea how much anything costs until after the purchase. Fundamentally wrong in a capitalistic model. Supply and demand should dictate price.”

“Somewhere along the line, we got sold on the idea that eating fat would make you fat. It doesn’t work that way.”

“Complaint, parents not teaching good nutrition and the importance of exercise at home then blaming everyone else for their families’ health issues. Mystery, how hormones contribute to our overall health, I feel there is a lot still unknown. Philosophy, you know your body better than anyone, do what works for you.”

“Favorite philosophy is to be responsible for your own health & fitness. Most of the people I train have tons of knowledge about their chosen profession and little to no knowledge about their own bodies.”

My question to readers as well as to wellness leaders is what can we do to improve the current state of affairs? Is what we are doing working? If not, how can we solve some of the above-mentioned critiques and move forward.

Let’s start with the ideal and work back from there.

1. Insurance, hospital, medical and pharmaceutical companies would be completely transparent on price of all services, products and transactions.
2. Doctors and medical professionals would treat the whole person not just the symptoms and work with individuals to find solutions beyond a pharmaceutical or surgical method if the individual so desires.
3. Assist individuals at all levels and ages in gaining knowledge on wellbeing components that suits their needs, age, gender, occupational and personal goals.
4. Nutritional information should be individually based and include options beyond a standard one-size fits all method that is dictated by a governing body that might be subject to corporate, financial or other incentives.
5. Start from the ground up in supporting individuals to create their own personal philosophy in all things health and wellness.

For our “ideal world” to take shape, we need a host of changes from varying perspectives to engage. Here’s just a few ideas, feel free to chime in with others!

Political

• Need policies on health and wellness that reflect individual needs and are not dictated by corporations, companies or non-profits seeking to promote solely their brand, product or service.
• Leaders who fight for transparency in price and quality of service in the insurance, medical, pharmaceutical and wellness sectors.
• Citizens and politicians must demand economic and health equities for all citizens in order to have equal access in all areas of wellbeing.

Education

• School programs should include health and wellness education that builds sustainable tools in all areas of wellbeing (career, social, financial, physical and community).
• Develop leaders who work for broad-based wellbeing education that caters to multi-cultural as well as individual needs.
• Programs should be designed to combat inequities in health and wellbeing.

Worksite wellness

• Eliminate initiatives that are solely focused on physical health requirements, such as BMI and Health Risk Assessments.
• Stop promoting and pushing programs that do not improve health significantly for long periods of time, particularly weight loss competitions.
• Assist individuals in building critical thinking skills on all levels of health, health literacy, review of studies and research and overall health information.
• Do more to promote diversity in the workplace, organizational health and community health initiatives.

Media

• Must be held accountable for promotion of health products and services that often in reality do not achieve or provide claims promoted in advertising and marketing materials.
• Any and all research of health products and services done by companies themselves and or financially connected parties need to be easily displayed and brought to the attention of the consumer.

Final Note

As I was writing this post it’s been a week of extreme violence in America. Although some might say that is every week in the USA. There does seem to be an escalation that I remember from the 1960’s. So on one hand the above post seems trivial, but on another hand I firmly believe remaining silent means you are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

In reality till we solve our racial problems as well as health and economic inequities across the nation none of this matters. We must come together and solve these issues or the field of worksite wellness should deservedly close shop, because we have done nothing to improve the landscape of wellbeing in this nation. Maybe we would be better to put our energy toward solving some of the real issues like health and racial inequities. Just a thought

You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.

Bob Marley