Your Health Today Choices in a Changing Society

This exciting new brief text presents personal health in the context of a changing social and cultural environment. Going beyond behavior change and individual responsibility, it offers a broadened view of health that includes the impact of family, community, and society. It's a new way of looking at health: "It's not just personal..." "Choice" is another key theme in Your Health Today. Emphasizing the importance of making informed health choices, this text demonstrates how these choices affect an individual's health--for today and for a lifetime. The brief version of Your Health Today contains five fewer chapters than the big book, but it still offers in-depth coverage of key topics such as nutrition and fitness and presents complete chapters on genetics, sleep, body image, and spirituality.Health as part of today's changing society. The text demonstrates how social and cultural factors influence an individualĹźs understanding of health information, options for health care, and approach to personal health. The importance of heredity and genetics, made easy to understand. The text shows how genetic factors relate to an individualĹźs health and explores topics such as the family health history, genes and behavior, genetic counseling and testing, the Human Genome Project, and gene therapy. Spirituality and its impact on personal growth and improved health. The text demonstrates how spirituality can be expressed in a variety of ways and discusses issues of death and dying, such as healthy grieving, end-of-life decisions, and death with dignity. Sleep and optimal health. Coverage addresses sleep cycles, sleep debt and its effect on performance, sleep disorders, sleep medications, naps, and sleep changes in older adulthood. Body image for both men and women. A full chapter discusses sports and body image, eating disorders, exercise disorders, awareness and prevention of body image problems, and the importance of a healthy body image for overall good health. "Did You Know?" feature. Each chapter opens with a sampling of interesting facts designed to draw students' attention to the chapter topic. "Challenges & Choices." This feature focuses on behavior change (e.g. stopping smoking, achieving a healthy weight, improving communication skills) and offers practical tips for successful change in the college setting. "Beating the Odds." This feature presents groups of three scenarios (each describing an individualĹźs life situation) and invites students to determine which individual has the highest or lowest risk for a specific health problem. "You Make the Call" feature at the end of each chapter. Engaging students in controversies in health today, this feature challenges them to think beyond the book, consider different approaches to an issue, and take a stand. "Add It Up!" This feature invites students to find out how they measure up health-wise through fun and thought-provoking tear-out assessments at the end of the book. Online Learning Center. Icons in the text draw attention to activities and resources that students can explore on the companion Online Learning Center. "Highlight on Health." Additional boxes complement the text discussion on topics of special interest, background information, and practical health tips. "Healthy People 2010" boxes. These highlight objectives from the landmark document, relating chapter topics to national health goals. "Think It Over" questions. Each new part of the text is launched by questions that prompt students to begin thinking about important issues in upcoming chapters. "Consumer Clipboard" boxes. These boxes guide students in evaluating health information and using that information to make informed choices for better health.