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If you plan to age, prepare yourself — it's later than you think. The challenge of aging well should be taken seriously, but not grimly! Whatever your age, it's never too soon, or too late, to learn and apply the fine art of aging well, really well. Discover what aspects of aging can't be changed and improve the rest that can. Mold your own realities with REAL wellness, Ardell-style.

The 69 tips — one for each year of the author's life — are thought-provoking, challenging, eye-opening, manageable and fun to read. And all provide practical guidance for intelligently designing your own life-style evolution.
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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

A Self-Management Perspective on Strokes

Tuesday May 8, 2001

Self-management is a positive, upbeat lifestyle approach to optimal health and effective living. As a wellness promoter, I do not dwell upon or deal very much with illness, which is the province of the medical community. Illness gets far too much attention in this country with a trillion dollar illness system in place that gets bigger year after year while matters associated with efforts to stay well in the first place, such as wellness lifestyle strategies, are ignored by policy-makers at every level. But, illness, disease, and death are realties, no matter how much a few of us may promote and try our best to live wellness lifestyles, so it is fair enough to ask, "What might a self-management perspective on strokes look life?" I'm pleased to offer one perspective for your consideration.

Strokes cause a range of effects. This continuum extends from paralysis or death at one extreme to symptoms that are barely noticeable or completely unnoticed at the other extreme. The former (paralysis) can be physical and/or mental -- either form can be nearly terminal insofar as life quality is concerned.

In every case, however, the cause of a stroke is always the same -- an interruption of the blood supply to all or a portion of the brain after a blood clot blocks a vessel (ischemic) or the vessel itself bursts (hemorrhagic). As you might expect, any organ denied blood flow will cease to function properly, if at all, depending upon the degree of interruption. In the case of a stroke, as is true with heart attacks, or liver failure, penile dysfunction, or any other system malfunction occasioned by lost access to the flow of blood, the problem is very much influenced by lifestyle factors. Therefore, a connection to the focus of this Wellness Center is not difficult to establish.

The reduction of your risk of stroke is just one of many good NEGATIVE reasons to adopt an ambitious wellness lifestyle. Yet, as I have emphasized many times in these essays, this NEGATIVE good reason and so many other NEGATIVE good reasons (like reduced risk of heart attacks, less likelihood of liver failure, and lower prospects of impotency) pale in comparison with the POSITIVE good reasons to choose and sustain wellness attitudes and behavior patterns. These include such wonderful returns as a higher quality of life -- as manifested in such personal gains as raised self-efficacy, more daily energy, improved physical attractiveness, and greater work/life satisfaction.

Of course, the same measures that doctors recommend for preventing a stroke and other health problems (like heart attacks, diabetes, and erectile dysfunctions)are among the same measures that one must embrace to pursue a self-management lifestyle. Specifically, eat wisely, exercise regularly, avoid self-destructive habits (like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption), and read the daily "Don's Reports!" OK -- maybe doctors don't recommend the latter. At least not yet! You probably will agree that these and related initiatives will help you avoid the bad outcomes and increase your experience of the good things.

So, my friends choose self-management. There are no guarantees -- the fittest, most diligent wellness savant could still have a stroke at some point in life -- or get run over by a bus -- but the odds are more in your favor when you live a wellness lifestyle. Other things being the same, always go with the better odds.

As Eric Idle would sing (and give a whistle) -- Always look on the bright side of life. If life seems jolly rotten, There's something you've forgotten, And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing. When you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly chumps, Just purse your lips and whistle--that's the thing. And, always look on the bright side of life...(whistle).

Domain: mental
Subdomain: factual knowledge

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