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Reflective Writing 1 18/03/17

Improvement in health is likely to come from modification of the conditions which lead to
disease, rather than from intervention in the mechanism of disease after it has occurred.
(McKeown 1979 cited in Germov, 2914, p. 15.)
For me I found this to be the most important part of this weeks reading to think about it not
only from a personal view but additionally to think of it from a world view. I found this
started to make me think about the types of different aspects that can affect my personal life,
for example stress, lifestyle and conditions, nutrition, relationships (family and friends), lack
of exercise, work etc. In Second Opinion, page 15 it goes not by saying personal
behaviours and that, its more about presentation of what he saw to be the new threats to
health, but in saying this he is not anti-medicine he just wants to reform it to focus on the
prevention above all. (Germov, 2014). I believe this stayed with me and really grabbed my
attention as I had quite bad asthma as a child and had to have an air purifier at night so I
could sleep. My parents are smokers and it was not until I moved out that I realised my
breathing improved and now I no longer need a puffer or an air purifier unless I am ill or
doing excessive exercise.
Once I had begun to think about the different personal behaviours that could affect me in
my life, I then began to think about other peoples personal behaviours and their impacts
which lead me to start thinking about the differences between the 20th century Germov
(2014, p.14) talks about and now. when I think of this and reflect I can see how much the
world has changed and how far it has come. I mean from peoples illnesses and diseases to
their living conditions and hygiene expectations/ understandings. When I think that most of
the major reason the life expectancy increased during the twentieth century was because of
living standards and improved health and not due to medical treatment as
explained. (Germov, 2014, p. 14) It just blows my mind.
Having read chapter one of, Second Opinion I now wonder how much is continuing to
change in the way we view medicine and the prevention of illness/diseases. I wonder how
much more we have to and are learning/discovering about how our personal behaviours and
their affect not only our lives but the lives of those around us. I am also interested in learning
more about how everything is connected and how the simplest of things can affect our whole
health and well-being. I do now feel I have a bit better understanding of how we operate as
individuals and as a social group/culture.
This knowledge and understanding will help and be essential in the way I interact with
others and in the way, I help them, not only as once again individuals but as a group. It will
also help me appreciate how far we have come in the discovery of health as a
whole. As for my next step, I
believe I need to discover more about health and the other aspects that do and can affect
health as an individual and as a social group/culture.
References
Germov, J. (2014). Imagining Health Problems As Social Issues. In J. Germov, Second
Opinion: an Introduction to Health Sociology (5th ed., pp. 14 - 15). Victoria: Oxford
University Press.

April,
Youve made a good start to recording your reflections. Well done! What you need to do now
is to draw clearer connections between your own experiences and what you are learning.
Note that your referencing needs a lot of attention.
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