“Everybody wants to be healthy and well and nobody wants to be sick. Is everybody well? We are at war with overweight and obesity, anxiety, depression, heart disease, allergies, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer”, Dr. Paul Kasenene, MD of Wellcare Limited and Uganda’s leading nutrition based doctor, reverberates right before he gives a lecture on nutrition, lifestyle & healthy living.
It is true that nobody wants to be sick and that everybody wants to be well. Even though people are not sick, they are not feeling well either and sadly, some of them do not know why. I hope that after reading this you will have adopted a new holistic way of looking at your health care and be focused on prevention more than you do on treatment after you are ill and sometimes even dying.
Now, allow me introduce you to wellness which will revolutionize your health! Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. This is more than just being free from illness; it rather is a dynamic process of change and growth. There are 8 aspects of wellness which are: spiritual, social, emotional, environmental, occupational, intellectual, financial and physical wellbeing.
According to the World Health Organization, health is a state of spiritual, emotional, mental, physical and social well-being in which disease and infirmity are absent. Health however, is not limited to the absence of disease considering its six components: spiritual, emotional, social, cognitive, physical and cultural health. It is vital to note that each one of the six components of health is somehow integrated and should be approached holistically through a healthy lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle is one which helps to keep and improve people’s health and well-being. Some of the ways of being healthy include spirituality, healthy eating, socializing, recreation, physical activities, weight management, and stress management.
As a very important first step, prioritize your spirituality because every human being’s essence springs from this dimension of wellness. Through this dimension, one’s other aspects of health and physical wellbeing are stabilized and enhanced. Perhaps, we shall learn more about the eight dimensions of wellness that are important in the pursuit of optimum health in my next article.
Written by Ivan Baguma, Nutritionist at Wellcare Limited.
