This chapter (Ch 15) makes the point that people tend to overestimate biological importance of genes in terms of one’s health. Your own life path matters more. And just giving a person a list of recommendations is not likely to make a major difference. The book makes the distinction that health is not just being free of disease. They introduce the term wellness as being more encompassing of all aspects of one’s health. Social and mental health are important when considering one’s wellness. Just as we have wellness courses at UR that cover topics such as stress management, fitness and exercise, careers, etc. The point I think is to find a balance in all aspects of one’s life. There are things in one’s life that one can’t control and there are other things one can control. I think this book is saying that accepting and adapting to the things one can’t control (such as if your parents’ divorce) and working to change the things one can control is important.
Two quotes from the book that I want to highlight as particularly important:
- “There are a set of “complex but nonrandom pathways that link personalities, predispositions, behaviors, social groups, work environments, and health and longevity” p219
I think this is a point that we have studied over and over in this class. And is essentially saying that the biopsychosocial model is a broad view that attributes disease outcome to the intricate, variable interaction of biological factors (genetic, biochemical, etc), psychological factors (mood, personality, behavior, etc.), and social factors (cultural, familial, socioeconomic, medical, etc.). Health, disease, longevity is a combination of genes, lifestyle (smoking, drinking, dangerous activities, stress, married or not, divorced or not, etc) and personality (conscientiousness, how one adapts to stress, introvert vs extrovert, etc). This is not surprising. How to find the balance between all of these factors is difficult but what we must all strive for.
- “Well-adjusted children growing up in a socially stable society are much more likely to become healthy, long living adults” p222
The question is how to give all children that “socially stable society”. I think this would be most people’s goal but clearly people can’t agree on how to do that. The goal is not just for longevity but also for giving all children the opportunity to become productive members of society. This means stable and safe home environments and decent education for starters. It would be wonderful if all children had this.
You make an interesting point about the biopsychosocial model and its association with longevity. I also noticed how in the book, there were many overlapping factors in each chapter associated with each subject discussed. For example, in the chapter about war and trauma, the authors mentioned that war itself was not a threat, but that the behaviors after, many of which were mentioned as threats in previous chapters, were threats to longevity.