Health is not the absence of sickness

I attended a semi-awkward family reunion this weekend.  Now most reunions are a little awkward.  When spending time with folks you usually only see once every year or so, it is guaranteed that you will answer the same question multiple times.  Usually, where do you live and what do you do?  Sometimes, are you married yet?  At my family reunions, this is exacerbated by the fact that my dad has 13 brothers and sisters - 5 full siblings, 5 step siblings and 3 half siblings - so there are usually people in attendance who I've either never met or haven't seen in 10 years.  So it isn't weird to meet someone new at a family reunion.

Lucky me, I get to introduce myself as the oldest daughter of Herbert and Theresa, who lives in Washington, DC and works as a registered dietitian nutritionist.

As soon as you tell someone that you are a dietitian, they immediately want to tell you all about their diet and ask you nutrition-related questions.

At my family reunion, the husband of my grandma's sister (I think), who I've never meet before, told me that he would be my "best customer" because he has a horrible diet.  He then proceeded to tell me that there is "nothing wrong with him."  When I suggested that he has good genes (to not get any illnesses despite having a horrible diet), he told me that he doesn't smoke nor drink.  When I asked about exercise, he told me that he doesn't exercise much because his knees hurt.  Then he showed me his varicose veins.

Two thoughts.

1. I am always a little unnerved when folks bear their skin to me, as if I were their primary care physician.  In addition to my great uncle-in-law, I also had a client show me all 14 of her tattoos.  Yikes!

2. Health is not just the absence of sickness.

I wish I had asked my great uncle-in-law how he defined "nothing is wrong with me."  I wish I had asked, "do you consider yourself healthy?" and "What does 'healthy' look like?"  Because, last time I checked, the definition of "nothing is wrong with me" does not include having sore joints (i.e. arthritis).

One of my goals in life is to help people to realize that health is not merely the absence of sickness; it is the feeling of vitality, it is the ability to move your body, it having a good quality of life where you can do all the activities that you love.

One of my other goals in life is to stop the progression of chronic disease before gross morphological changes occur within the body (e.g. cartilage wears away until bone grinds against bone) and, hopefully, reverse the damage so more folks can live healthier, happier, more productive and more enjoyable lives.