Wellness comprises six dimensions that include physical, intellectual, emotional, environmental, social, and spiritual wellness.

The concepts of health and wellness are often spoken of as if they were synonyms, yet they embody distinct ideas with their own significances, despite being closely linked. The World Health Organization (WHO) articulates health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity.”

In contrast, WHO describes wellness as “the optimal state of health for individuals and groups,” highlighting it as “a positive approach to living.”

The essence of the distinction lies in understanding that health represents the objective, whereas wellness is the journey or active pursuit towards achieving that state. One cannot truly attain health without engaging in the process of wellness. Wellness significantly impacts overall health, which is crucial for leading a vibrant, joyful, and fulfilling existence.

Health vs. Wellness Explained

Health is something you find yourself in, not something you can choose, encompassing the presence or risk of disease and accidental injuries. On the other hand, wellness is a choice, a lifestyle decision to move towards optimal health through continuous growth and change.

Wellness involves engaging in activities and making choices aimed at holistic health, including managing risk factors, focusing on nutrition, maintaining a balanced diet, and embracing spiritual practices that contribute to overall well-being.

Risk factors like smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unprotected sex, and extreme physical activities can jeopardize health. Addressing these risks is part of adopting a wellness-oriented lifestyle.

Wellness transcends physical health, embracing a holistic and multidimensional approach that includes physical, intellectual, emotional, environmental, social, and spiritual dimensions:

• Physical Wellness: Engaging in regular physical activity, maintaining a balanced diet, staying hydrated, and getting enough sleep are foundational to physical wellness.
• Intellectual Wellness: Continuous learning, problem-solving, and creativity nurture intellectual wellness, helping to stave off mental health issues.
• Emotional Wellness: Managing stress, understanding personal feelings, maintaining self-esteem, and empathizing with others contribute to emotional wellness.
• Environmental Wellness: Playing a positive role in environmental health and living in a hazard-free environment support overall wellness.
• Social Wellness: Building and maintaining strong relationships and contributing to community life enhance social wellness.
• Spiritual Wellness: Seeking meaning and purpose in life, developing compassion, and engaging in practices like meditation or spending time in nature foster spiritual wellness.

While individuals with health issues may seek medical intervention for treatment, those focused on wellness proactively engage in behaviors that enhance health, prevent disease, and improve their quality of life and sense of well-being. Wellness is about proactive prevention and taking personal responsibility for one’s health.

Exercise for physical health

Physical health

Physical activity and exercise is a major contributor to a healthy lifestyle; people are made to use their bodies, and disuse leads to unhealthy living. Unhealthy living may manifest itself in obesity, weakness, lack of endurance, and overall poor health that may foster disease development.

Benefits of exercising regularly:

• Regular exercise can prevent and reverse age-related decreases in muscle mass and strength, improve balance, flexibility, and endurance, and decrease the risk of falls in the elderly. Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Regular, weight-bearing exercise can also help prevent osteoporosis by building bone strength.
• Regular fitness can help chronic arthritis sufferers improve their capacity to perform daily activities such as driving, climbing stairs, and opening jars.
• Regular exercise can help increase self-esteem and self-confidence, decrease stress and anxiety, enhance mood, and improve general mental health.
• Regular exercise can help control body weight and in some people cause loss of fat.

Tips for exercising regularly:

• Thirty minutes of modest exercise (walking is OK) at least 3 to 5 days a week is recommended, but the greatest health benefits come from exercising most days of the week.
• Exercise can be broken up into smaller 10-minute sessions.
• Start slowly and progress gradually to avoid injury or excessive soreness or fatigue. Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day.
• People are never too old to start exercising. Even frail, elderly individuals (70-90 years of age) can improve their strength and balance with exercise.
• Almost any type of exercise (resistance, water aerobics, walking, swimming, weights, yoga, and many others) is helpful for everybody.
• Children need exercise; play outside of the home is a good beginning.
• Sports for children may provide excellent opportunities for exercise, but care must be taken not to overdo certain exercises (for example, throwing too many pitches in baseball may harm a joint like the elbow or shoulder).
• Exertion during strenuous exercise may make a person tired and sore, but if pain occurs, stop the exercise until the pain source is discovered; the person may need to seek medical help and advice about continuation of such exercise.

Most individuals can begin moderate exercise, such as walking, without a medical examination. The following people, however, should consult a doctor before beginning more vigorous exercise:

• Men over age 40 or women over age 50
• Individuals with heart or lung disease, asthma, arthritis, or osteoporosis
• Individuals who experience chest pressure or pain with exertion, or who develop fatigue or shortness of breath easily
• Individuals with conditions that increase their risks of developing coronary heart disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cigarette smoking, high blood cholesterol, or having family members who had early onset heart attacks and coronary heart disease
• Individuals who are morbidly obese

Consequences of physical inactivity and lack of exercise include:

• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are associated with heart disease and some cancers.
• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are associated with type II diabetes mellitus (also known as maturity or adult-onset, non-insulin-dependent diabetes).
• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise contribute to weight gain.

Exercise for mental health

Mental health

Healthy living involves more than physical health, it also includes emotional or mental health. The following are some ways people can support their mental health and well-being.

Tips for improving mental health:

• Get enough sleep daily; the CDC recommends the following by age group (naps inclusive); 12-18 hours from birth to 2 months, 14-15 hours from 3-11 months of age, 12-18 hours for 1-3 years of age, 11-13 hours for 3-5 years of age, 10-11 hours for 5-10 years of age, 8.5-9.5 hours for 10-17 years of age and those 18 and above need 7-9 hours of sleep. Elderly people need about 7-9 hours but do not sleep as deeply and may awaken at night or wake early, so naps (like kids need) allow them to accumulate the total of 7-9 hours of sleep.
• Take a walk and reflect on what you see and hear at least several times per week.
• Try something new and often (eat a new food, try a different route to work, go to a new museum display).
• Do some mind exercises (read, do a puzzle occasionally during the week).
• Try to focus on a process intensely and complete a segment of it over 1 to several hours, then take a break and do something relaxing (walk, exercise, short nap).
• Plan to spend some time talking with other people about different subjects.
• Try to make some leisure time to do some things that interest you every week (hobby, sport).
• Learn ways to say “no” when something occurs that you do not want to do or be involved with.
• Have fun (go on a trip with someone you love, go shopping, go fishing; do not let vacation time slip away).
• Let yourself be pleased with your achievements, both big and small (develop contentment).
• Have a network of friends; those with strong social support systems lead healthier lives.
• Seek help and advice early if you feel depressed, have suicidal thoughts, or consider harming yourself or others.
• People taking medicine for mental health problems should not stop taking these medications, no matter how “well” they feel, until they have discussed their situation with their prescribing doctor(s).

Avoidance behavior is another key to wellness. Below are described some of the major items to avoid if a person is seeking a healthy lifestyle.

Avoid tobacco use

Tobacco use is the most important preventable illness and cause of death in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Tobacco use was estimated to be the cause of 443,000 deaths in 2010 in the U.S.

• Stop smoking tobacco (it takes about 15 years of nonsmoking behavior to achieve a “normal” risk level for heart disease for those that smoke).
• Stop using chewing tobacco to avoid oral cancers.

Adverse consequences of tobacco use:

• Tobacco use causes or contributes to a large number of cancers in the U.S. In men, 90% of lung cancer deaths are attributable to smoking; 80% in women. Tobacco use causes cancers of the lung, mouth, lip, tongue, esophagus, kidney, and bladder. It also further increases the risk of bladder cancer in subjects occupationally exposed to certain organic chemicals found in the textile, leather, rubber, dye, paint, and other organic chemical industries, and further increases the risk of lung cancer among subjects exposed to asbestos.
• Tobacco use causes atherosclerotic arterial disease (hardening and narrowing of the arteries) that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and lack of blood flow to the lower extremities. Tobacco use causes an estimated 20%-30% of coronary heart disease in the U.S. It also further increases the risk of heart attacks among subjects with elevated cholesterol, uncontrolled hypertension, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.
• Tobacco use causes an estimated 20% of chronic lung diseases in the U.S., such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and causes pneumonia in those with chronic lung disease. The CDC, in 2011, estimated that 90% of deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) were due to smoking.
• Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies with low birth weight.
• Secondhand smoke can cause middle-ear infections (otitis media), coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, and pneumonia in babies, and aggravate asthma in children. Secondhand smoke (sometimes referred to as passive smoking) can also cause lung cancer.

Tips for quitting tobacco:

• Quitting smoking is difficult to accomplish; tobacco contains nicotine, which is addictive. Some smokers can quit “cold turkey,” but for most, quitting smoking requires a serious life-long commitment and an average of six quitting attempts before success.
• Quitting smoking efforts may include behavior modification, counseling, use of nicotine chewing gum (Nicorette Gum), nicotine skin patches (Transderm Nicotine), or oral medications such as bupropion (Zyban).

Avoid excessive alcohol consumption

Adverse consequences of excessive alcohol consumption:

• Chronic, excess alcohol consumption is the major cause of liver cirrhosis in the U.S.
• Liver cirrhosis can cause internal hemorrhage, fluid accumulation in the abdomen, easy bleeding and bruising, muscle wasting, mental confusion, infections, and in advanced cases, coma, and kidney failure.
• Liver cirrhosis can lead to liver cancer.
• Alcohol accounts for 40%-50% of deaths from automobile accidents in the U.S.
• Alcohol use is a significant cause of injury and death from home accidents, drowning, and burns.

Tips for limiting alcohol intake:

There are many treatments for alcoholism. But the crucial first step to recovery is for the individual to admit there is a problem and make a commitment to address the alcoholism issue. The 12-step-style self-help programs, pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous, can be one effective treatment. Psychologists and related professionals have developed programs to help individuals better handle emotional stresses and avoid behaviors that can lead to excess drinking. Support and understanding from family members are often critical for sustained recovery. Medication can be useful for the prevention of relapses and for withdrawal symptoms following acute or prolonged intoxication.

Avoid high-risk sexual behaviors

High-risk sexual behavior can lead to the acquisition of sexually transmitted illnesses such as gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, or HIV infection. High-risk sexual behavior is also known to spread human papillomavirus infection, which can lead to cervical cancer in women and other anogenital cancers in both men and women. High-risk sexual behaviors include the following:

• Multiple sex partners
• Sex partners with a history of the following:
  • Intravenous drug use
  • Venereal disease (sexually transmitted diseases or STDs)

Adverse consequences of high-risk sexual behavior:

• Transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes)
• Transmission of hepatitis B (50% of hepatitis B infections are due to sexual transmission) and, in rare instances, hepatitis C
• Transmission of human papilloma virus (HPV), which can cause genital warts and anogenital carcinomas, most commonly cancer of the uterine cervix
• Unplanned pregnancy

Tips for avoiding unsafe sex:

• Avoid unprotected sex (sex without barriers such as a condom) outside an established, committed, monogamous relationship.
• If you plan to have sex and are unsure of your partner’s health status, use a condom.