Wellness…What Is It?

by Dr. Brett L. Lukert, DC

It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to discuss various health topics and conditions, and I look forward to encouraging people to be healthier. In this week’s article, I will introduce the concept of wellness, explain why this a very serious issue, and discuss what you can expect in the months to come.

As a chiropractor, wellness care is what I am most passionate about. Wellness is a preventive approach to health that emphasizes proactively staying healthy rather than reactively waiting for symptoms. It involves making a commitment to improving the environmental factors in our lives, since these are completely within our control, unlike our genetic factors. Some environmental factors include nutrition, weight management, fitness, and stress reduction. One might wonder if improving our environment will really make that much difference in our health, but consider some of the recent research:

•  The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 80-90 percent of cancer risk factors are environmental factors.
•  The Center for Disease Control states that 9 out of the 10 leading causes of death are related to diet and lifestyle. The exception is accidents.
•  70 percent of Americans are overweight. This translates into 184 million Americans, and of these, 77 million are clinically obese.
•  Obesity has climbed into the 2nd leading preventable cause of death (behind smoking), and 400,000 people die annually from obesity.
•  75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
•  97 percent of Americans do not exercise regularly.

These are just a few current statistics, and indicate that we have a lot of room for improvement, but this is also what makes health so challenging and fun! Next month we will address a specific wellness health condition or topic and discuss what can be done to best minimize, prevent, or treat it.