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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 Proposed New Role for the FDA

Wednesday January 28, 2004

Yesterday, I outlined a few reasons why there is so much disagreement on just about everything, including the nature of wellness and how to promote whatever it is or should be. I also mused about the optimum role for government in health-related public policy debates. Should we expect government only to prevent negative occurrences (epidemics) or might it also promote positive outcomes (improved health status)? This is a fitting topic for much debate--and I promised to elaborate on five considerations of a wellness nature that might improve such deliberations. Here they are:

Accept the reality of complexity, shades of gray and the inevitability and even desirability of discussion and debate about wellness -- and everything else.
Continue to grow the wellness concept. Let's have more discussions about what it means to be well and how to become and remain as healthy and happy as possible, first individually and then in service to others.
Focus on ways to improve chances that people will be able to sustain desired outcomes, from increased physical fitness to enthusiasm about the quality of their lives.
Develop more effective interventions that enable more people to experience less frustration and stress.
Help others embrace personal responsibility and meaning and purpose throughout life.

I thought about such challenges the other day when reading about the Food and Drug Administration's attempts to follow its ban on ephedra with more scrutiny of other herbal supplements. Ephedra, you might recall, was the ingredient in a variety of almost surely bogus weight-loss treatments that caused serious health problems for unsuspecting users, such as death! How much FDA activism is desirable is a fair topic of hot debates. Would such debates yield wiser resolutions if some of the five points listed were taken into account? If so, how might that be done?

I propose the FDA leaders consider an expansion of their role, from that of simple regulation (the old prevention of problems approach) to that of wellness promotion. The latter would focus on encouraging an understanding of the five points as a way of framing issues before the FDA.

When the FDA takes an action, it has the attention of a huge audience. What an opportune time to help everyone involved appreciate the complexity and shades of gray of the issues at hand and the applications of wellness criteria to decisions made. In all that it does, the FDA could identify and promote wellness perspectives and values. In doing so, it could help citizens focus on sustained behavior change (keeping weight off by exercising sufficiently to stay fit, for example) and improved interventions to enable responsibility and meaning in life. This would position the FDA (the government) to BOTH protect the public AND promote wellness. The possible role I have in mind can be seen in the current debate about safeguarding the public from bogus and often dangerous food supplements.

That is tomorrow's topic. Be well. Look on the bright side.

Domain: mental
Subdomain: factual knowledge

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