Module 2 Learning Activities


Whatever you can do or dream
you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius,
power, and magic in it.

Goethe


Respond to each question below. E-mail your responses to the Instructor. Each correct response is worth 1 point.

1. Read this essay on the definition of health. Compare the "5-d" definition of health and the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health.

2. Write a paragraph describing how your personal definition of health (what you wrote for Question 5 of Learning Activities for Module 1) compares to the World Health Organization's definition of health. Post your definition on the class Discussion Board if you wish to.

3. Read about Lifestyle Diseases and heart disease major risk factors you can modify (scroll down the page). Write a paragraph explaining how heart disease is almost always a lifestyle disease. Take the Heart Disease Assessment Test and comment on anything significant you discovered.

4. Research indicates that unhealthy behaviors are responsible for about half of all American deaths (see the list of preventable causes of death). If more people lived healthfully this percentage would be much lower. Discuss three things that, in your opinion, would reduce the number of preventable deaths. You may share your ideas on the Course Discussion Board if you wish to.

5. Type 2 diabetes affects nearly 26 million Americans and a disturbance in biology that leads to Type 2 diabetes, called prediabetes affects nearly 90 million Americans. It is well known that the causes of Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes are a diet consisting of too much sugar and fat, lack of movement activity such as walking, and stress. Employers are very concerned about this epidemic of diabetes because it lowers the productivity of their employees and drives up employer health insurance premiums. Describe three ways you would recommend to employers to help reduce their costs for type 2 diabetes among their employees? You may share your ideas on the Course Discussion Board if you wish to.

6. In your opinion, what are the three most significant health issues of people in your age group? Refer to this list. (You may identify health issues that are not on the list.) State your reason for each issue that you list.

7. Identify one aspect of your health that you would like to improve (for example, stop smoking). What prevents you from changing? Do you believe that you could make a positive health change?

8. Which of the Breslow-Ornish health behaviors are regular aspects of your life? Consider using the Course Project as a way to integrate one of these health behaviors into your life.

9. Your tax dollars are definitely at work at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), the most comprehensive medical library in the world. One of the Library's services is providing consumers with accurate, up-to-date, authoritative health and medical information through its MedlinePlus Web site, www.medlineplus.gov. Visit the MedlinePlus Web site and click on anything that interests you. Describe your experience. Also, Bookmark the MedlinePlus Web site in your Health 1 Bookmarks Folder.

10. What is your interpretation of the quote from Goethe at the top of this web page ("Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.")? Besides writing your response for this assignment, you may post it on the course Discussion Board if you wish to.