Ayla Elledge

Professor Thomas
UWRT 1102
13 February 2016

When thinking about this inquiry project, I had so many ideas of topics that
interested me, but nothing struck me as a spectacular choice. I wanted to spend
time researching something that was relevant and important to me, but also
something I could garner a multitude of information about. When I chose, I was
shocked that it hadnt come to me sooner. Ive been battling Hodgkins Lymphoma
off and on for the past few years so I wanted to delve into what it means to be
healthy. There are so many different views on what being healthy is. These
views sometime contradict other views on the same topic. There are so many
dimensions to health and so many diverse contexts that health can be applied
to and I plan to explore why it is critical to stay informed and up to date on new
ideas and practices, as well as, having credible information.
What is health? To some people being healthy simply means that they
are disease free. For others, healthy can take on a very complicated routine of
exercise and strictly regulated food intake. Someone else may consider
themselves healthy because they are very happy or successful. The World

Health Organizations definition of health very much sums up all of these

notions: A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmary. This same definition has been used
by the WHO since its inception in 1948. There is much variability in the
human gene pool so it obviously must be left vague and open-ended, but what
exactly does it mean to be healthy in the world we live in? How has this
changed over time? And is good health generally the same for everyone?
These days, we truly dont know how lucky we are to be in an age of such
medical and health innovation. Up until the late 1800s it was common practice
to use bloodletting as a form of treatment for anything from acne to cancer, to
plague or stroke. For those unfamiliar, blood-letting is the act of removing blood
from the body via a medieval device (and more recently leeches) to get some of
the bad blood out and keep the 4 humors of the body in homeostasis.
Nowadays, this theory is considered wildly preposterous and is often referred to
as a pseudoscience. By contrast, modern medicine is quite complex and
difficult to understand sometimes. On the curing diseases side of health, we
have a procedure or pill for almost any ailment, and you can bet that it will be
different than the treatment of a slightly different ailment. Our medical system
has gotten so specialized in a way that treatment may follow certain standard
guideline but will often receive alteration. With that said, is it healthy to react

to every physical ailment we encounter? There are many current studies

showing that as individuals, our bodies are becoming very resistant to
antibiotics because of the frequency we are prescribed them. ( This resistance
our bodies bacteria forms makes fighting stronger or different types of infection
very difficult and sometimes deadly. It is a hard line to walk. Do I take medicine
to get better or not?
Another very prominent concern is the all encompassing industries of
fitness and diet as the road posts to good health. You see it every time you turn
on the T.V. or go to the store. It may be a health magazine telling you how to
lose 6 pounds in 6 days, a new drink supplement that will invigorate your
mind, or a new super food that is the BEST NEW thing to fight insert cancer
or chronic disease. We are obsessed with being healthy. We are obsessed with
eating the right things or doing the right moves to look better. The trouble with
this is that much of this market is uncontrolled, unregulated, or just new and
untested. Going back to the 1970s-1980s, we see a measurable difference in
how nutrition was seen. Some older guidelines show that eating food with fats
and cholesterol are bad for your health. While partly true, newer studies have
shown that there are two separate types of cholesterol (High-density lipids and
Low-density lipids). For better cardiovascular health, it is recommended that
you decrease your LDL cholesterol intake, but increase your HDL cholesterol

intake. A differentiation wasnt made in federal dietary guidelines until 2005. A

similar concept is being applied to the amount and types of fats that we eat.
Simply put, Saturated fats: bad, Trans fats: bad, Unsaturated fats: good.
I could go on for days about the ways in which healthiness can be
debated, fixed, changed, described, or otherwise transformed, but I wont. Even
though he wasnt specifically talking about health, I think Charles Addams
summed it up the best. Whats normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. If
you feel very sick, go to the doctor. Its probably a good rule of thumb to eat a
good amount of fruits and vegetable everyday and get your protein and calcium
intake. Being highly sedentary WILL make you fat and unhealthy. But dont
expect what works for you to work for everyone exactly the same. Our gene-pool
is rich with diversity and that comes with the consequence of needing different
approaches. Do your research and be informed, not just about current health
trends, but about your body and the way it reacts to the things around you.