Environmental Wellness
Environmental wellness is the ability to recognize our own responsibility for the quality of the environment that surrounds us. What surrounds us each day in our home, work, or neighborhood affects our health. Taking small steps to make your environments safer and limiting your exposure to potentially harmful substances can help keep you healthier. The National Institutes of Health has a variety of resources to help improve your environmental health.
Here are seven strategies for improving your environmental wellness:
1. Make Your Home Healthier
Do you know what’s in your household goods and products? Some chemicals can harm your health if too much gets into your body. Becoming aware of potentially harmful substances and clearing them out can help keep you and your family healthy. Learn more.
2. Reduce Your Allergies
Allergies arise when the body’s immune system overreacts to substances, called allergens, that are normally harmless. When a person with allergies breathes in allergens—such as pollen, mold, pet dander, or dust mites—the resulting allergic reactions in the nose are called allergic rhinitis, or hay fever. Click here to learn how to control your symptoms.
3. Stay Safe During Hot Weather
Heat is the biggest danger in the summer months. Being hot for too long can cause many illnesses, some of which can be deadly. But the warmer weather also brings lots of new opportunities to improve your health. Click here to learn how to make the most of the summer months.
4. Guard Against Cold Weather
Cold air can pose a threat to your health, whether you’re indoors or outside. Learn to recognize the signs of your body temperature dropping too low, and take steps to keep yourself and your family warm and safe during the chilly season by clicking here.
5. Air Quality and Your Health
The combination of high temperatures, pollution, and airborne particles can brew up an unhealthful mixture in the air. This can make it hard to breathe and sap your energy. But air pollution can also occur inside—in homes, offices, or even schools. If you’re regularly exposed to high levels of unhealthy air, the health consequences can linger for months or even years—click here to learn more.
6. Stay Safe in the Water
Swimming pools, lakes, and oceans can sometimes get contaminated with bacteria and viruses. Swimming in contaminated water can make you and your family sick. Click here to learn how to stay safe while playing in the water.
7. Clear Out Toxins in Your Home
Some hazards in the home are easy to see, like a loose electrical socket or torn carpet on the stairs. Others are harder to spot, while some are even invisible and in the very air you breathe. These include lead, mold, and radon. Click here for ways you can find and fix these unseen hazards, or reduce your exposure
Social Media
Here are two social media posts for you to use on your business or personal profiles to promote environmental wellness and life insurance. Click on the image to enlarge, then right click and save to your desktop. Click here for caption ideas.
Life Chat Podcast
Environmental wellness invokes a respect for nature and other environments, such as our home and workspaces, which in turn benefit our health and well-being. Join Danny Nielsen, photographer and videographer for Wake County in Raleigh, NC, along with life insurance advocates Laura Timmins and Anna Coleman from EMC National Life as they discuss practical ways to incorporate environmental wellness while creating harmony and balance in our own lives.
More Resources
Environmental wellness is key to maintaining a healthy quality of life. It also positively benefits your health, which can lower your life insurance premiums, making it easier to provide peace of mind to those you love. Contact us to learn more.
Environmental Health Resources:
- Environmental Wellness Toolkit: https://www.nih.gov/health-information/environmental-wellness-toolkit
Source: National Institutes of Health (July 21, 2022). Environmental Wellness Toolkit. Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/health-information/environmental-wellness-toolkit