Wealth and Wellness

Our perspective of health and wealth is that wealth cannot exist without health. Both health and wealth are vital parts of living. Good health can help us expand our wealth because we must be mentally healthy and prepared to gain wealth. However, it has numerous challenges worldwide because of the wage and wealth gap. Life in societies with wide gaps between rich and poor creates ongoing social and psychological stresses. The disparities between health and wealth are utterly unfair in many situations. For example, in the article The Health- Wealth Gap, in one 2012 study, subjects played a game of chance against one another with differing amounts of starting resources (Sapolsky, 2018). "Poor" subjects became more likely to borrow against future earnings and less attuned to helpful clues about game strategy. In another study, subjects prompted to imagine scenarios of financial loss (versus neutral or advantageous ones) did steeper temporal discounting in an unrelated task (Sapolsky, 2018). This study has shown the disadvantages of the wealth gap and how health can become a stress for people who do not meet the wage gap. Our core values are to work hard, pray, and enjoy every moment of life. (Sapolsky, 2018). For instance, increase mobility or exercise a few days out of the week; also mitigate the intake of sugary food for many reasons. Moreover, we need a sound mind to accomplish sustainable financial goals by incorporating healthy habits in daily living, such as eating healthy and continuing to have positive thoughts. With a good mind, one can accomplish tangible financial goals.

Wealth

Wealth is about more than money. It measures the value of all the assets owned by a person and community. It is also defined by bringing the absolute market significance of all physical and intangible assets and subtracting all debts. Essentially, wealth is the accumulation of scarce resources. Humanity links better health with a standard amount of wealth. The wealth accumulated can be used to cater for health services which are sometimes costly depending on the magnitude of the health crisis. Individuals earning a high income can sustain the high costs of maintaining good health, while low-income earners may be subjected to poor healthcare practices (Canadian Medical Association, 2013). The impact of wealth on health can be seen in our daily lives. Wealth is, therefore, necessary in a city that longs for better healthcare facilities (Krisberg, 2016). Wealth will also enable a smooth flow of operations in the healthcare centers since the providers will be fully catered for.

Health

Health is a multifaceted notion that must be considered in a broader sense than good health and wellness. Frameworks of health offer a perspective from which to understand the relationships between health and wellness. At The Vice Practice, healthcare providers understand how patients react to illness, can minimize the effects of illness, and help patients and their families maintain and/or return to their highest level of functioning.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2023), “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." Health is created not in the clinic or the hospital, but in homes, schools, streets, workplaces, supermarkets, and cities – in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the products we consume, and the conditions in which we live and work (WHO, 2023). A complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. People define a state of being about their values, personality, and lifestyle. Individual views of health vary among age groups, genders, races, and cultures. When considering health, one must look at your patient holistically (WHO, 2023).

Five Types of Wealth

As mentioned previously, that money is not the only wealth; it covers various aspects. According to First Arabian Drug Information Centre (FADIC) (2020), the five types of wealth are financial, social, physical, mental, and time.

First, finances are the most considered and understood type of wealth. Numerous individuals depict this as someone wealthy. Financially stable is where the money and assets of an individual have accumulated. Also, financial wealth is an alluring measuring stick for success; generally, finances assume and create happiness (FADIC, 2020). Money is scientifically associated with happiness—but only up to a baseline level of life lower than you think. Once above this baseline, entire financial wealth does not create cumulative satisfaction (FADIC, 2020).

The second type of wealth clings to society. According to FADIC (2020), a social connection can be characterized as a person you have the potential to interact with, whether face-to-face, on the phone, internet, etc. Social wealth would include family members, relatives, co-workers, friends, pets, etc. Just like economic wealth, you inherit some of these connections (family, relatives, etc.), and others you earn (spouse, friends, etc.). Each association also has a distinct value, leaning on its depth. Social wealth predominantly comes down to how we interact with the world.

Physical wealth refers to fitness, health, and vitality. It is the most essential but underused type of wealth. With physical wealth, it is possible to enjoy all the other types of wealth because it is built through a long foundation and compounding of daily actions. Physical health can be balanced with lifestyle modifications such as diet, moderate exercise, good sleep habits, and mental health balance. There is an old saying, " Health is Wealth," I agree with this because it consists of having and maintaining a proper mindset; one can quickly improve health; it is the connection of wellness of mind, body, environment, society, and wellness aspects (Tunajek, 2011).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2021), mental wealth includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is essential at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Moreover, mental wealth is about mental health, fitness, and the ability to grapple with life's tangible and intangible questions. Mental health is often overlooked, particularly by those pursuing world-changing endeavors, but it is essential. Mental health is generally achieved through an awareness of oneself built through breathing, meditation, and other practices such as spirituality, faith, and the freedom to choose whom to spend time with (FDIC, 2020).

Lastly, time wealth is also about an appreciation for the precious nature of time—its value and importance. There is a saying that when you are young, you are a time billionaire," technically rich with time (FDIC, 2020). However, most people fail to realize how precious time is until it is gone. One must treat time as your ultimate currency it is all you have, and you can never get it back because once it is gone, it is gone. In reality, time does not care about you. One must understand that never let the pursuit of financial wealth rob you of your time wealth; this is a dangerous trap that far too many fall into. However, time is rare today because we spend so much of it time dedicated to ourselves earning money and building our “status.”

In conclusion, we can all achieve the five types of wealth in huge correlation to wellness. It requires understanding, practice, dedication, humility, and learning to take part as a whole. The pursuit of wealth and wellness should be depicted as a lifelong process to achieve better outcomes.

The Vice Practice believes in Wealth and Wellness

At The Vice Practice, we believe that Wealth and Wellness correlate together; Maslow (1954) classified basic needs into five categories: physiological, safety and security, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. He hypothesized that these needs appeared sequentially as one moved up the phylogenetic scale and as the human individual developed from birth to adulthood (David, 2013). Furthermore, the lower needs were more robust (prepotent) than, the higher needs. The more these basic needs were satisfied, the better the individual's psychological and overall health. The Vice Practice asserts that an individual must complete the physiological needs before advancing the hierarchy. At The Vice Practice, our focus is on the totality of the patient; unless the patient is secure in their basic needs, wellness will remain out of reach.

References

Canadian Medical Association. (2013). Health Care in Canada: What makes us sick? Canadian

Medical Association Townhall Report. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Medical Association.

Kaplan, G., Violante, GL & Weidner J. (2014). The Wealth Hand-to-Mouth. Washington, DC:

Brookings Institution.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, 28 June). About Mental Health. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm

David, L. (2013). Measuring Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Psychological Reports, 113, 15-17. https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=92992006&site=ehost-live&scope=site

First Arabian Drug Information Centre. (2020). Five Types of Wealth. https://fadic.net/the-5-types-of-wealth/

Kaplan, G., Violante, GL & Weidner J. (2014). The Wealth Hand-to-Mouth. Washington, DC:

Brookings Institution.

Krisberg, K. (2016). Income inequality: When wealth determines health: Earnings influential as a lifelong social determinant of health. The Nation's Health, 46(8) 1-17. Retrieved from

https://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org/content/46/8/1.1.

MASLOW, A. H. (1954) Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.

Sapolsky, R. M. (2018). The health-Wealth Gap. Scientific American, 319(5), 62–67. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27173701

Tunajek, S. (2011). Building Wellness Wealth. American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology, 65(1), 24. https://chamberlain.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUCON_INST/f6kb8f/cdi_gale_infotracmisc_A181085003

World Health Organization. ( 2023, 12 January). Picking up the Pieces: The Challenges of Fixing a Broken World - Topic: Forging a Global Health Strategy. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-ngic-high-level-meeting---12-january-2023