The subject of veterinary health has been receiving more attention in the past decade. It could be due to societal concerns regarding health and well-being worldwide or the rising awareness of the alarming rate of suicide among veterinarians (1). In the veterinary field, well-being is a hot topic all over Canada and worldwide. One could ask, “Is this because the health of veterinarians isn’t as good as it was in the past? Do the demands of practicing get too much?” According to Dr. Jean Wallace (2) in a recent study, which identifies the stress-inducing aspects of the work of veterinarians and how they relate to their health, “more and more veterinarians suffer from burnout, compassion fatigue, and suicidal behaviors.”
The current practitioners face a variety of new developments, pressures of growing expectations of clients as well as the risk of increasing malpractice lawsuits and complaints, increasing the importance of regulatory accountability and governance, and the increasing student debt, all in an increasingly competitive marketplace in which the business management skills and knowledge are becoming just as important as veterinary knowledge and abilities. And to top it all off, the current practitioners are struggling to keep up with the rapid growth of information. This is a problem by itself, but it is made more difficult due to the speed that veterinary medicine is always closer to the standard of care and advanced technology of human medicine. Are these strains threatening the health and well-being of vets? Before answering this question, consider looking back and asking yourself what the definition of health and wellness is.
The terms “health” and “wellbeing wellbeing” are frequently interchangeable; however, their meanings and meanings differ (3). Based on the definitions of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 1940s, health was described as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (4).” While it has also been criticized as being too inclusive and challenging to achieve, particularly the term “complete,” it broadens the definition of health in medicine beyond the essential absence of illness (5). According to the WHO, the main elements determining health are the economic, social, and physical environment and the person’s personality traits and behavior (6). Consequently, the improvement and maintenance of health are contingent not just on external or environmental elements (including the care systems) but the lifestyle choices the person makes (7). In reality, it is dependent on the health of the individual.
The Definitions of Health and Wellness
Health highlights
Health is a fantastic starting point on your journey toward wellness. It is essential not to confuse these two terms, however. You can be in excellent health but not enjoy overall health. Health is a part of being healthy, but overall wellness is a broader goal, and pay attention to every aspect you live in.
Health
At one time, overall health could be defined as being free of illness or impairment; however, this definition has now been broadened to include a mentally healthy state.
Health is more focused on the physical body and how it’s functioning or not. Your health is determined by how you take your food (your nutrition), how the body moves (exercise), and the absence of chronic or acute illnesses.
Wellness
Wellness is a dynamic concept that refers to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and realizing your potential to the fullest.
Wellness is more about the way you live your life that promotes well-being. An ideal wellness-oriented lifestyle is achievable regardless of your health condition or is struggling with an ongoing illness. Wellness encompasses all aspects of your daily life and includes your body, job, relationships, emotional well-being, and many more.
Together, wellness and health can assist you in achieving an excellent level of well-being. Concentrating on your wellness will help you attain good health for a long time.
Wellness Is Multidimensional
Wellness goes beyond only physical health. Many models of wellness contain at minimum six dimensions (and occasionally as high as 9 or 12):
Infographic on wellness
Physical: Maintaining an active body by exercising, eating, nutrition, sleeping, and more.
Mental: Engaging with the world through education, problem-solving, creativity, and so on.
Emotional: Being conscious of the emotions of others, expressing and accepting our emotions, and recognizing the feelings of others.
Spiritual: Looking for meaning and a higher significance in the human experience.
Social: Engaging and connecting with our fellow citizens and others through meaningful methods.
Environmental: Promoting positive interactions between the planet’s health and our choices, actions, and well-being.
Tips to Improve Your Wellbeing
Wellness runner
To help you use these tips, we’ve created our top suggestions to improve your health. If wellness and health are your aims, then practicing self-care and pursuing a healthy lifestyle is the best way to reach your goal. Concentrate on one aspect of your daily life for a given time to implement sustainable changes that you’ll be in a position to keep throughout your life.
When you’ve seen improvement in one aspect that you’re in, you can move on to the next step. In the end, you’ll see that you’ve improved your overall health ten times over. Remember that being healthy is an ongoing process, as there are always aspects within our daily lives that must be balanced.
Choose Nourishing Whole Foods
Our bodies need nourishment, and the western diet isn’t nutritious. If you consume whole organic foods, you’re getting many antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients your body requires to remain healthy. If you buy your foods from local gardeners and farmers, You’ll be eating the highest quality food available and helping your local community.
Commit to a Movement Practice and Exercise Regularly
It’s exercise if you prefer, but the main objective is moving your body daily. You could sign up for the gym if it’s your style. Also, you could take yoga classes, begin walking with your friends or try cycling or hiking. Find the exercise you love, and try to do it as often as possible. Your body and your mind will be filled with gratitude.
Engage in a Mindfulness Practice
Our minds are constantly busy and don’t have much time to be. Practicing mindfulness and mental exercises can help reduce anxiety and depression while also improving the capacity of our minds to function correctly. It also assists us in learning to feel better connected spiritually with the people around us and ourselves.
Choosing A Wellness Lifestyle to Increase Health
The state of our well-being and health is essential to our overall health. When you are aware of the differences between them, it is easier to create goals that are beneficial to you and take part in a continuously changing process.
At the IAWP, This dynamic method can be taught to all of our pupils in our holistic wellness program, Wellness 360. Wellness 360 Wheel Wellness 360 Wheel is one of the tools that our coaches utilize to assist and assist their clients in making lasting changes in their wellness through an integrative approach.
The IAWP is the one holistic coach organization that blends 12 elements of wellness through three levels of well-being over 36 dimensions of the self…into one holistic method of well-being. Our unique multi-dimensional approach focuses on the entirety of a person’s daily life more than any other.
It helps coaches and students consider how factors like our physical, mental and spiritual health are interconnected and how our ways of thinking about finances, relationships, air, water, and many other aspects affect our lives and overall well-being.
Health, Wellness, and Risk Factors
Health refers to an individual’s mental and physical health, the absence of illness.
It’s not the same as health. Wellness is the condition of being in peak physical and mental well-being.
However, it’s much more than it’s. It’s about living a lifestyle with a sense of responsibility for oneself and taking action to ensure one’s overall health.
That means that someone living a healthy life has a good grasp of risks that could cause harm to them. Risk factors include a variety of conditions or actions that can increase the risk of injury or illness.
Let’s examine just a few risks. Smoking cigarettes can be a significant risk factor. It’s a risk factor for lung cancer, among other serious issues. Mountain climbing activity is a risk factor. It’s an element of risk for everything from broken bones to an overly enlarged brain.
Alcohol is an underlying risk factor. It’s a risk of developing damage to the liver. Sexual activity that is not protected can be an additional risk factor. We are all aware that it is possible to contract extremely harmful sexually transmitted diseases when you have sex that is not protected, such as HIV.