Your Health Today

About this book

"It's not just Personal! Your Health Today teaches personal health from a truly inclusive and socially responsible perspective. While each of us has a unique set of individual characteristics that shape our health, other environmental factors have an impact on our well being too. Your Health Today incorporates the individual, interpersonal, and broader social factors that affect our health, acting as a guide for healthy living in college and beyond. The student-focused features in the fifth edition of Your Health Today highlight current topics, illustrate concepts with new photos and graphs, and invite dialogues among personal health students. For every chapter, the following features serve as entry points to classroom discussion, critical thought, and practical application of health concepts to students' lives"-- "The story of this book began twelve 12 years ago when three friends--a health educator, a family physician, and a family therapist--had a conversation about their beliefs about teaching health. While our clinical and academic paths differed, we found that we shared a fundamental belief that, while the individual plays a role in the wellness process, society has a responsibility to promote the well-being of all individuals. Many personal health books at the time focused on personal responsibility for health. While it is indeed a major part of health, we wanted to emphasize a model where individuals make health decisions within the context of their relationships, cultures, communities, policies, and physical surroundings. What eventually came of that conversation was the decision to create a book that emphasizes putting personal health in context"--