Case Scenario:
Question 1 - Write response for:
Hip to be healthy
Wellness is an all encompassing term, intrinsically tied to not only your own state of being, physically and emotionally but also the socioeconomic world around you. Health and wellness are intertwined, in America especially, these wellness factors rely so heavily upon one another, ones health becomes increasingly dependent upon their status. However, it is interesting to see that the most healthiest of people in America are immigrants who upon living in America for upwards on 5 years, become closer and closer to the American health gradient which places people on a stepping scale that compares health and wealth. In those five years, studies have shown that Latino immigrants blood pressure increases one and a half times and they are one and a half times mores likely to have high blood pressure, be obese, have heart disease or diabetes. The scale expands to include everyone in America and can be studied to showcase how wealth and health are connected.
One link I found was to a website that gave tips and tricks. It caught my eye because it was a little different than the majority of articles comparing the poor to the unhealthy, this one entitled ‘3 healthy ways to improve your social status' brought to light modern trends as they relate to the wellness field. Had I just read the title, I would have never have assumed that those three ways included clean eating, wearing performance wear or being invited to a specialty gym.
Todays conceptualization of wellness includes more dimensions of wellness than in different eras. We now understand that being well means the financial, social, occupational and intellectual aspects just as much as the spiritual physical, and emotional. Consumerism in America can be used positively to encourage younger children to be active and eat healthy, just as much as it can influence those to crave fast food. While there will always be a push from corporations to make money, the corporation's interest will switch to include that in the mainstream because it sells. With more and more efforts being pushed towards eating clean organic vegetables and grass fed, free ranged meats along with staying physically active, I think more children will grow up with the idea that its hip to be healthy and will have wellness engrained in them, furthering prevention.
Question 2 - Write response for:
The world revolves around money and status
Economics and wellness is a subject I know very well since I react to what is going on in the world economically such as being unemployed, higher taxes for food (when I moved from Kentucky to Tennessee and also from Tennessee from Kentucky), and general economics of the United States. As discussed in the article in Forbes magazine, I too experienced chest pains and stomach issues and even started to loose some of my hair because I was worried about how the changes would affect my financial standing or credit score (Ruiz, R. 2009). The dimensions of wellness that was affected was financial (of course), emotional, physical, and vocational because of my health ailments, not having a job to pay my bills, and I was constantly stressed out.
Business Concepts and wellness I am not very familiar with because I do not take target marketing seriously as I do not consider myself as a demographic but I can see how it can be harmful to a person's well being. For example, a magazine targeting women my age (33) how they should be dressed, look, and what type of wealth and education they should have before the age of 35. The stress alone from what a magazine writer "thinks" a woman should be can drive someone who buys into it the hype into delierium. All of the dimensions can be affected because the woman would not feel like she is worth anything because of an unfeasable expectation.
Social status can also play into the business concepts and economics grouping and can affect the wellness of an individual because of peers who have the social status due to having the correct finanical standing and the correct connections.
I think that because of the way money contributes to a person's wellbeing is over done. The push from advertisers to have the right clothes, the right car, the right education, the right partner, the right job is overwhelming and should not be taken seriously but more as suggestions for personal goals.
References
Ruiz, R. (2009). Economic stress-how bad is it really? Forbes.