Eating Better
“Wellness is an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence.” This statement comes from the National Wellness Institute. Its founder and the main person who brought “health and wellness” into awareness was physician, Dr. Bill Hettler in 1976. The above definition goes on to “describe a shift from unconscious living, where you do not think about your health until you have a problem or experience symptoms, to conscious living, where you are actively making healthy choices to promote your success and well-being.https://med.umkc.edu/sa/wellness/wellness-2(hover marker over HTTP address, left click, then left click again over the HTTP that lights up, just below).
Dr. Hettler graduated from medical school much earlier than I did in 1969. At his commencement graduation ceremony, he remembers a speech given by his medical school’s preventative medicine professor, Dr. John Phair, M.D.. This professor, whom he had never met, went on to say, ” If we would spend our time helping people learn how to live instead of practicing traditional medicine, we would indeed save more lives and alleviate more suffering.” Dr. Hettler wrote this toward the latter part of his years of practicing medicine: “I have to admit that at that point in my career, I did not see the wisdom of Dr Phair’s words. It is almost 30 years since I heard Dr. Phair give his sage advice. I have since learned that what people do for themselves in the way of lifestyle choices has a much greater impact on their chances of survival than anything physicians are likely to accomplish”.
So here I am in very much the same situation as Dr. Hettler, having paid much more attention to disease processes and treatments the same through the years that I practiced medicine. There is one important distinction, however. I also became a patient!
How true to the above definition, that is, after I acquired adult-onset diabetes, I became very much aware, and in fact, alarmed! I am very thankful, however, that I “made choices toward a more successful existence.” I had a “shift from unconscious living, where you do not think about your health until you have a problem or experience symptoms, to conscious living, where you are actively making healthy choices to promote your success and well-being”.
Indeed, wellness, more than anything, will entail, for some, an awareness of a health problem and subsequent action toward improved health!