Key Concepts:
Vocabulary: heredity, environment, peers, culture, media, technology
What Affects Your Health?
Influences on Your Health
Main Idea: Heredity, environment, attitude, behavior, media, and technology can all influence your health.
It is your responsibility to make healthy decisions and take actions to ensure your well-being. Factors such as heredity, environment, attitude, behavior, media, and technology can influence how you live. Understanding these influences will help you make informed decisions about your health.
Heredity
Your heredity refers to all the traits that were biologically passed on to you from your parents. LaToya inherited her brown eyes, black hair, and tall body type from her parents. LaToya also inherited genes that put her at risk for diabetes, a serious disorder that prevents the body from converting food into energy. Both of LaToya’s parents have diabetes.
They have taken steps to control their diet and started an after dinner walking program to keep their condition from getting worse. By watching her parents, LaToya has learned to eat healthfully, maintain a normal weight, get adequate rest, and stay active. She’s learned from her parents’ example that these healthful behaviors may help her avoid getting diabetes herself.
It’s important to understand the influences heredity has on your health. Ask your parent or grandparent questions about what health conditions and diseases run in your family. Knowing this information can help you take actions to stay well and healthy.
Environment
Your environment is the sum of your surroundings, including the physical places in which you live and the people who make up your world. The culture you live in is part of your environment as well.
Physical Environment
You may not have much control over your physical environment at this time in your life. However, it’s still important to recognize how your physical environment can impact all aspects of your health. Some environmental factors that can affect your health include
neighborhood and school safety.
air and water quality.
availability of parks, recreational facilities, and libraries.
access to medical care.
There are some things in your environment over which you do have control. For instance, you can keep your room clean and help reduce litter at your school. How else can you improve your physical environment?
Social Environment
Your social environment is made up of all the people around you, including your family and peers. Your peers, people of the same age who share similar interests, also include your friends. All these people can be positive role models who support your healthful decisions or they can increase your health risks. For example, Brandon promised his dad that he wouldn’t drink. Hanging out with peers who drink, though, made it hard to keep that promise. Ultimately, Brandon decided to honor his commitment to his dad and found a new group of friends. Peers can have a positive influence on you, too. If your friends are involved in community service, chances are good that you’ll join them in such activities.
Culture
Culture refers to the collective beliefs, customs, and behaviors of a group. This group may be an ethnic group, a community, a nation, or a specific part of the world. Culture may include the language you speak, the foods you eat, your spiritual beliefs, and the traditions you practice. These factors can be a big influence on your health. For instance, some cultures enjoy a diet based on vegetables, fruits, grains, and very little meat. People from these backgrounds may be less likely to develop high cholesterol and may be better able to maintain their weight than those who eat a higher fat diet.
Attitude
Your attitude, or the way you view situations, can have a big effect on your health. If you believe that adopting healthful habits will influence your health in positive ways, then you’re more likely to make the decision to practice them.
In addition, optimists, people who “see the glass as half full,” are usually in better health than pessimists, who “see the glass as half empty.” Even if you have a natural tendency toward pessimism, you can remind yourself to look at the challenging situations positively.
Behavior
Although you can’t choose your heredity and may have only limited control over your environment, you have total control over your own behaviors. You can choose to avoid high-risk behaviors in favor of healthful behaviors, like choosing low fat, nutritious foods and participating in daily physical activity.
Media and Technology
Every day you encounter one of the most powerful influences on your health-the media. Media are the various methods for communicating information. This content is delivered via technology, such as radio, television, and the Internet, and through print media, like newspapers and magazines. The constant presence of media messages has a significant influence on your decisions.
Media personalities and celebrities might be seen as role models because they get a lot of attention. Sometimes this attention is related to positive achievements, such as excelling in athletics or contributing time and money to help others in need. Sometimes the attention is related to negative behaviors. For example, some actors or models may practice unsafe eating habits in an attempt to maintain an extremely thin appearance. You also know about athletes who take drugs to help them perform better. Characters in movies or TV programs may drive dangerously, use alcohol, smoke, or engage in sexual activity. They never seem to face any consequences associated with these behaviors. When you see these behaviors in the media, you may get the false impression that everyone is doing it.
More powerful and far reaching than radio, television, newspapers, and magazines is the Internet, which surpasses all other forms of media as an information source. Thousands of pages of health information from all over the world are available at the click of a mouse. Unfortunately, not all health messages and sources are valid. Some Web sites are sponsored by advertisers who only want you to buy their products. For valid health information, stick to Web sites that have .gov and .edu in their addresses, or sites maintained by professional health organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
One way to tell whether a Web site has reliable information is to look for the HON code. HON code is run by the Health On the Net Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of online health information. Web sites accredited by the HON code must follow a strict code of conduct.
Understanding Your Influences
Main Idea: You can take control of your health by understanding the factors that influence it.
Think about all the factors that influence your health, including your heredity, your physical and social environments, your culture, your attitudes, your behaviors, and the media. Understanding these influences and committing to a healthy lifestyle are the first steps toward taking charge of your health.
In the lessons that follow, you will learn more about risks and behaviors that are harmful to your health. You will gain the knowledge and skills you need to take responsibility for promoting your own health by avoiding these risks. You will also learn ways to promote the health of others. Learning these health skills and knowledge will help you achieve and maintain wellness.
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