The other face is a smaller but growing culture that looks to the fundamental principles of healthy living to lead us to a higher level of personal health and well-being. This culture creates services which are rarely covered by our health insurance system; promotes consumption of organic foods grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides and lifestyle products which do not contain harmful or carcinogenic chemical additives; displays a higher level of health and well-being; and suffers less from the epidemic lifestyle and stress engendered illnesses than the members of the “illness culture.” This culture has had limited financial resources and difficulties in getting their message out through our major media.

The first culture is focused on illness. The second culture is focused on maintaining wellness. The illness culture is a very modern phenomenon, growing rapidly since the advent of the pharmaceutical drug industry into our current “medical-industrial complex.” The roots of the wellness culture are very ancient. The systems of ancient Chinese, Ayurvedic, Greek, and Islamic medicine (Unani) viewed health as a state of balance and illness as the result of not living in accordance with natural laws—what I to refer to as “the human operating system.” In these systems good health and longevity were the primary focus of medicine, and the secondary focus was returning people to good health when they became ill.

Moving to a Culture of Wellness
To bring about an expansion of the “culture of wellness” in our society where it becomes the prevailing culture will require a new type of leadership from our federal government, the medical industry, and corporate America, that looks beyond the limited vision of special interests that are not in the common public interest. Our government must put out a clear and positive message about health and wellness and take the food, medical, pharmaceutical, and other industries to task when their products present a public danger and threaten public health.

Corporate America needs to step up to the plate and begin to direct their R&D efforts toward creating products that support health and wellness and do not increase the strain on our overtaxed health care system. Corporations must recognize that their advertising campaigns can either enhance the emerging culture of wellness or support the culture of illness—fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, sugar, processed foods, and chemical additives that lead to epidemic obesity, diabetes, heart disease, fatigue, and stress-related illnesses. For an average individual to pursue a wellness-based lifestyle in the midst of a culture of illness promoted through TV, radio, print, and Internet advertising, it is an uphill battle.