After reading chapters 1 through 3, there were many areas that I found highly fascinating and compelling. The most shocking was the statistic of annual deaths caused by chronic diseases to all ages. The most deadliest chronic disease in the U.S. is heart disease, which had over 614,000 deaths. Followed by cancer (591,700), chronic respiratory disease (147,101), unintentional injuries (135,928), and strokes (133,103). Reading these diseases and the number of annual deaths they create scared me because the majority of my family has both cancer and heart disease. It doesn’t mean that I will have these health issues but it is something to look out for.
Another thing that I found interesting was the matter of spiritual health. As a child, I was always taught mental, physical, and emotional health were the aspects of health. But being spiritually healthy is also very important and significant to one’s lifestyle. For instance, when I went through a breakup, I felt little to no purpose of life in this world. I was very depressed and everything became dull. Because this dimension of health was severely fragmented, it also took effect to the other dimensions such as physical, social, and emotional health. I was always sad, and only listened to music that was very emotional. I wanted to be alone and spent little to no time with friends and family. I even stopped eating for a while which really impacted my physical health in a negative way. But today that is no more, I am a very happy person who strongly believes he has a purpose in this world and will eventually impact someone someday.
The last thing that I found very intriguing was the advice and information given to limit stress in chapter 3. Stress is something that can be avoidable but is extremely difficult to do. A few facts that were given to limit stress is to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night as well as having good time management. For example, if you have an 8-page paper for a class, you probably shouldn’t wait until the day before it is due to begin the paper. But in some “rare” cases, such as myself, I feel less stressed if and when I do an essay the day before. The reason for this is because I feel more focused and motivated to get my work done. I feel that if I try to space out my time and work on the paper piece by piece each day, I won’t get much done. Something that I have said is, “oh this paper isn’t due for another 3 days, I’ll do this tomorrow”, just to watch the Celtics on TV. Yes, waiting last minute may cause stress for most people but I feel like it is a very risky way to get the most production out of someone.
By: Zachary Branco
Sunday, 7-14-19 (12:31pm)
Zach's Health Blog 