The wellness decisions that older adults make have a direct consequences on senior healthcare. Smart wellness decisions, such as eating nutritious food and exercising regularly, keeps you healthier as you age. After the age of 55, healthy people do not require as much medical care as do unhealthy individuals. A person with uncontrolled diabetes, for example, would likely need medical intervention than someone without the conditions. Furthermore, a healthy person tends to gain more from medical treatments and suffer fewer complications.
Fortunately, making the right wellness decisions now can have a long-lasting impact on your good health. But total wellness lies not just in physical fitness, but in finding balance in all six domains of wellness:
- physical
- emotional
- spiritual
- intellectual
- vocational
- social
You achieve overall wellness when you become as healthy as possible in each dimension, and put each dimensions in balance with the others. And you achieve maximum wellness in each of these dimensions by making good decisions.
Regular medical services can help you improve some of these dimensions of wellness.
- Visiting a physician at least once a year can help optimize your physical wellness.
- Counseling can help you invigorate your emotional health, improve your social health, address your spirituality, and voice concern about your vocational or intellectual wellness.
But both of these steps—and any other options that can improve your overall wellness and wellbeing— take dedication and initiative on your part.
The Effects of Wellness Decisions on Senior Healthcare
The decisions you make regarding your own wellness can have a long-lasting impact on your health— both directly and indirectly. Achieving and maintaining wellness in each of these dimensions can greatly improve the benefits you receive from senior healthcare, while ignoring the health of these eight dimensions can negatively affect the care you receive.
Physical Wellness
Your decisions regarding your physical wellness have the most obvious and direct consequences on senior healthcare. Tobacco use, overeating and a sedentary lifestyle can cause a myriad of medical problems, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer. All of these illnesses worsen your overall health and complicate treatment for other diseases. Making smart decisions, such as eating nutritious food, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can improve the outcome of senior healthcare.
Emotional Health
Emotions are varied and deep, and emotional stress can affect your emotional wellness in a way that directly your senior healthcare. According to the American Institute on Stress, stress has the potential to compromise the immune system which can significantly reduce your ability to fight off common illness like the flu or delay healing time in wounds.
Spiritual Wellbeing
A spiritually healthy person is better able to integrate their beliefs and values with the everyday aspects of their lives and generally more hope for the future—which can help them whether the ups and downs of their physical health.
Intellectual Wellness
Living well and aging gracefully means more than just looking after your physical health. The path to senior wellness requires both physical and mental engagement. But it’s all too easy to become intellectually lethargic when you don’t live in a retirement community that hosts educational experiences and encourages residents to begin their own intellectual pursuits.
If you’re looking for something to get your wheels turning, try joining a regular book club or hobby.
Vocational Health
There are few better ways to find meaning and enrichment after retirement than the pursuit of learning and new experiences. So, after finishing that lifelong learning class, consider plugging into a local volunteer organization. It offers you the opportunity to enrich senior living by giving back to the community.
Social Wellbeing
Social wellness gives you a sense of purpose and a connection to the world. People without social connections are less likely to seek medical care, even when they have a condition that might cause illness for others. Choose to keep your social wellness in good shape by staying in touch with friends, neighbors and family.
