What is wellness?
New on the site:
To bolster your immune system exercise - but not too much
A Reply to David Maldonado III
The most dysfunctional Group of Doctors in the World?
A reply to Peter Mansfield of Healthy Skepticism (Part 1)
A reply to Peter Mansfield of Healthy Skepticism (Part 2)
What is “wellness”? How does it differ from “health”?
A Google web search for “wellness” resulted in 130 million hits. Confining the search to news stories reduced the number of hits to 12,000.
Here are Google’s top 5 news stories featuring wellness as at 10:00 am Australian Eastern Daylight Time on 30 March 2009.
Managing Healthcare Costs Fuels Growth of Wellness Sector
Festival of Hope celebrates mental health wellness
Southern Wesleyan University to sponsor Wellness Week
2009 Community Health and Wellness Fair
Oriflame to launch wellness products
There is also a website called “definitionofwellness.com”. It defines wellness as follows:
Wellness is a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being.
The author of this piece of gobbledegook, according to definitionofwellness.com, is Charles Corbin, Professor Emeritus, Exercise and Wellness at Arizona State University Polytechnic.
The interim report of the Australian National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, released in December 2008, contained the word “wellness” more times than I could count without providing any definitions.
A Google search with “wellness providers” in the search box resulted in 17,700 hits. Topping the list was the website of The Radial Group who describe themselves as “Corporate & workplace wellness providers.” Their blurb reads as follows:
Helping employers reduce costs for healthcare, disability and workers’ comp while improving productivity through reduced absenteeism and presenteeism offers profits for many wellness businesses. These customers offer long-term relationships, more predictable cash flows, and greater growth opportunities.
Services range from executive wellness services to broad-based wellness programs for all employees.
I am not sure how it is possible simultaneously to reduce absenteeism and “presenteeism” but never mind. We do not expect sense from corporate blurbs.
Among Australian wellness providers Fitsense Australia topped the list. The blurb on Fitsense Australia’s website read as follows:
FitSense Australia provides corporate health and wellness programs to organisations looking to improve the health and fitness of their staff. The implementation of these programs will have a positive financial impact through increasing staff productivity and moral [sic], reduced absenteeism and injury, and a positive company image.
I suppose anything that will improve the “moral” of corporations is to be welcomed. I would like to believe that every corporation has at least one moral.
Whatever else it may be, wellness has become big business. I find this a bit alarming. Do we really want this degree of corporate intrusion in our lives? Do we want our employers to take charge of our wellness? Do these programs even work?
Is wellness merely another money making scam? A fad? A fashionable buzz word?
Or is there some substance to the hype?
As I shall demonstrate on this website, there really is substance behind the wellness hype. Wellness is first and foremost about making healthy choices. It is about making choices that will enhance your mental and physical health and, thereby, the quality of your life.
And that brings me to the reason for this website.