Health Literacy and Behavior Modification

Introduction

In these days the terms "Health Literacy" and "Behavior Modification" are becoming increasingly common. This is because it is now recognized that health literacy encompasses far more than the readability of a health-related text: a person who is "health literate" has begun to move in the direction of behavior modification. Thus an individual who is highly literate but does not succeed in successfully modifying behavior in the context of an accepted health-maintenance paradigm will not be regarded as being "health-literate."

The purpose of this internet site is to discuss health literacy and behavior modification.

Section 1. What is Health Literacy?

Your Age Group

• Younger than 55
• Between 55 and 70
• Older than 70

Ages and what we feel

Younger than 55	Indifference about health We are not aware of death
Between 55 and 70	Great concern about health Parents or friends have died
Older than 70	Not greatly concerned Resigned to life one day at a time

Everyone dreams of being someone else. The musician dreams of being an artist, the artist dreams of being a dentist, and the dentist pines for the life of a mountain-climber. We go shopping but find, to our dismay, that we have added an extra inch to our dimensions and cannot wear that pair of pants, or that dress that we saw in the window. Wouldn't it be wonderful to look like Wonder Woman?

But Wonder Woman is a comic, and we are real people, and real people are not perfect! Wonder Woman has the willpower never to get fat, and Wonder Woman exercises constantly. Wonder Woman does not have Diabetes, and even if she has salt, fries and hamburgers for lunch, she will never get high blood pressure or heart disease. And until she dies -- that is, when the newspapers stop printing her comics, she will get neither gray hair, nor osteoporosis, nor swollen ankles. But we do!
When we age we pay for the sins of the past that we have accumulated through a combination of bad-living factors. These include lack of proper diet, exercise, watching weight and drinking lots of water.

Would you like to look like Wonder Woman? Would you like to be slim and move easily as you go about your business of the day.