HED 110 | Comprehensive Health Education | OER Course Hub
A collection of open teaching and learning materials curated by BMCC faculty
It is possible to manage stress – some ideas can be found here https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/stress/index.shtml and here https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/3-tips-to-manage-stress.
There are certain key ways to help manage the way you think that help with stress.
One way to understand how long-term stress affects your health is through the General Adaptation Syndrome, which describes the three stages of stress – alarm, resistance, and exhaustion – https://www.healthline.com/health/general-adaptation-syndrome.
Before you experience stress, your body is in homeostasis. This is the state where the various body systems are in equilibrium. When you first perceive something stressful, the fight or flight response of the alarm phase begins.
When you perceive something as a threat to you, your body activates part of your autonomic nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system which sends hormones through your body. These hormones cause various changes that you can notice – all of these changes are called the fight or flight response.
Stress can be good (known as eustress) or bad (distress). Eustress often comes from events or situations that are challenging, like going to college, getting a new job, or a new baby, but that ultimately lead to growth and success. Distress is caused by things like losing a loved one, losing a job, breaking up with a partner, and other difficult situations. Stress from these events can lead to negative health outcomes.
Read more here:
Stress can affect how you feel, physically and emotionally.
There are different kinds of stress: acute, episodic acute, and chronic – https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress-kinds.
There are many reasons to feel stress, whether good or bad. The stress process often has a harmful effect on our bodies. But there are many things we can do to manage our stress.
What are your favorite ways to manage your stress? What do you like to do, eat, read, create to unwind and take a breather during your day?
Discussion question: How have the causes of death changed in the last 100 years?
Discussion question: Why have the causes of death changed in the last 100 years?
What are some of the most common behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death? And is there anything we can do to change our likelihood of death from a particular cause?
The behaviors that are responsible for most deaths in the United States are: using tobacco, a sedentary lifestyle and an unhealthy diet.
Health behaviors are considered to be modifiable determinants of health – that is, you can change them! But how can people change these common behaviors? The field of health education uses several theories to explain the process of making behavior change.
• Health belief model – http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories2.html
• Theory of planned behavior – http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories3.html
• Social cognitive theory – http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories5.html
• Transtheoretical model or Stages of Change – http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories6.html
Our government and many health-related organizations put together a plan every 10 years to improve the health of the nation. This decade’s plan is called HealthyPeople 2020 – https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/About-Healthy-People
Some of the broad areas that Healthy People 2020 focuses on are:
HealthyPeople 2020 mid-course review – https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/data-search/midcourse-review/lhi
One way to track the health of the nation every year is with the leading causes of death which can be found here https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm for all ages in the United States. To learn more about different causes of death by sex, age, and race, download or read the following report from National Vital Statistics. The rate of death is called mortality.
Leading-causes-of-death-2017-CDCWe can also see how long people are expected to live – this is called life expectancy. Right now the average life expectancy is 78.6 years according to the CDC. You can also see differences by sex and ethnicity here – https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm.
Generally, life expectancy has been on the rise across most of the world, reflecting advances in medicine. However, in the US life expectancy has declined for the past 3 years – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/us-life-expectancy-drops-third-year-row-reflecting-rising-drug-overdose-suicide-rates-180970942/.
How would you define health? There are several interconnected and related
dimensions of wellness that are dynamic – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5508938
What makes your health better or worse? All of the factors that influence
your health, including your genetic code, your behaviors, and your environment,
are called the determinants of health – https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/foundation-health-measures/Determinants-of-Health
Social determinants of health – https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/index.htm
To learn more about how social determinants of health can impact our lives,
watch this movie. Go to the BMCC Library website – http://lib1.bmcc.cuny.edu/ and click on Databases. Select Video Databases, then select Kanopy Streaming Videos. If you are not on campus, you will have to log in with your BMCC log-on (the same credentials you use to log into computers on campus). When you are in the Kanopy database, search for Unnatural Causes. Your result will say Collection on it. Watch the movie titled In Sickness and in Wealth.
Is the United States a healthy country? Read more here – https://unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/AmazingFacts_small.pdf.
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