History of Wellness

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Recent years have witnessed a significant rise in the popularity of the word “wellness.” But the practice has a long history and is as old as humanity. People have been searching for ways to be healthy and lead disease-free lives throughout the course of human history. Through that quest, several traditional wellness practices emerged across geographies, contributing significantly to the evolution of human beings. 

Prehistoric societies had advanced medical systems that understood the fundamentals required to sustain and advance human health and welfare. People were trained to diagnose, cure, and prevent a wide range of illnesses well before the advent of modern medicine. Our ancestors lived an environment-focused lifestyle. There was an in-depth understanding of climatic shifts, pandemic forecasts, and the effects of the five forces of nature. Additionally, they emphasize one’s lifestyle, which includes diet, exercise, quality of sleep, moral behavior, encouragement of positive thoughts and sentiments, and the cultivation of their spiritual nature via prayers and meditations.

Every religion with a focus on the connection between the body and the soul has a custom of wellness. Ancient cultures had highly advanced healthcare systems that emphasized the significance of balancing the body, mind, and spirit of individuals and took a holistic approach to human health. Especially, the ancient civilizations of Asia, Greece, and Rome have had a profound influence on today’s wellness wave.

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Ancient Wellness 

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Ayurveda (3000-1500 BC)

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The world’s oldest natural medical system is undoubtedly Ayurveda, which dates back more than 5,000 years to ancient India. Ayurveda, which refers to “the science of life,” is a part of the ancient system of religious doctrine known as the Vedas. The Vedas include a wide range of subjects, including health and healthcare procedures, astrology, spirituality, politics and governance, art, and human behavior. That is why, according to Ayurvedic doctrine, all aspects of life influence one’s health. Starting with an internal cleansing procedure, Ayurvedic treatment includes diet, herbal medication, massage therapy, yoga, and meditation.

• When completely accepted, the ayurvedic way of life enhances your overall wellness.
• Refreshing the mind and soul can be accomplished through exercise, having an active lifestyle, getting adequate sun exposure, receiving the proper therapies, and maintaining a healthy mental state. It will make you glow on the inside and out.
• To help patients regain their health, Ayurveda places an emphasis on a balanced diet, intense relaxation, natural remedies, yoga, and regular exercise.
• Yoga, meditation, herbal remedies, and adequate sleep all help to increase cognitive levels, which in turn helps you re-calibrate your everyday life’s mental and goal-based parameters.
• Immunity, appetite, and digestion are all improved by ayurvedic treatments.
• The fundamental principles of Ayurveda are to avoid skipping breakfast, have a light dinner, avoid staying up late, drink plenty of water, eat organic foods, avoid using tobacco and alcohol, and maintain an active lifestyle.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine(3000-2000 BC)

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Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) is a general term that refers to a wide range of therapeutic approaches and practices. They have a similar conceptual underpinning that is derived from Taoism, an ancient kind of Chinese philosophy with roots that are thought to date back over 5,000 years. TCM is said to have been used for the first time on record some 2,000 years ago. Its core principle is that life energy known as “Qi” flows through the body. Any Qi imbalance might result in sickness and disease.

The fundamental focus of TCM is the interactions of all internal organs in order to restore the wellness of the body, mind, and soul.

• Acupuncture helps to improve the body’s internal systems, boost blood flow, and nourish the tissue. Tiny needles are inserted into certain meridian spots on the body to enhance the body’s natural healing process.
• The oldest type of professional medicine currently in use is Chinese herbal medicine. One of the most common and successful complementary therapies used in the West today is the use of Chinese herbs. Making a decoction is the most typical way to consume Chinese herbal medicine.
• Cupping therapy and Moxibustion are used in conjunction with acupuncture to impact the movement of both Qi and blood through the body, eliminating cold dampness and reducing swellings and pains.
• In Gua Sha, tiny red or purple patches are intentionally created by scraping or rubbing. These patches can aid to increase the flow of blood, energy, and other fluids, including metabolic waste that clogs muscles and skin-surface tissues.
• Massage therapy helps in stress reduction, pain management, and immune development.

500 BC: Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician, is possibly the first to focus on preventing illness rather than simply treating disease, and he also argued that disease is a result of diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors.

 

50 BC: The Greek belief that illness was caused by diet and lifestyle was adopted by Ancient Roman medicine, which emphasized disease prevention. The highly developed public health system of Ancient Rome (with its extensive system of aqueducts, sewers, and public baths) aided in the prevention of germ transmission and the maintenance of a healthier population.

 

Intellectual and Medical Movements of the Nineteenth Century

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New intellectual movements, spiritual philosophies, and medical practices proliferated in the United States and Europe during the nineteenth century. During this period, several alternative healthcare methods that emphasize self-healing, holistic approaches, and preventive care, such as homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, and naturopathy, were founded and gained widespread popularity in both Europe and the United States. 

 

The philosophies embodied in these nineteenth-century systems – that a healthy body is the result of a healthy mind and spirit – are now regarded as forerunners to the current, thriving wellness and self-help movements. Furthermore, despite falling out of favor with the rise of modern, evidence-based medicine in the mid-twentieth century, several of these approaches are now regaining favor within the mainstream medical community and the general public.

 

1650s

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “wellness,” which means the opposite of “illness” or the “state of being well or in good health,” first appeared in the English language in the 1650s. Sir Archibald Johnston’s diary entry from 1654 contains the earliest published reference: “I… blessed God… for my daughter’s wealnesse.” The first modern spelling citation comes from Dorothy Osborne’s letter to her husband, Sir William Temple, in 1655: “You… never send me any of the new phrases of the town… What exactly do wellness and unwellness mean?”

 

1790s

Homeopathy, a system that uses natural substances to promote the body’s self-healing response, is developed by German physician Christian Hahneman in the 1790s.

 

1860s 

Sebastian Kneipp, a German priest, promotes his “Kneipp Cure,” which combines hydrotherapy with herbalism, exercise, and nutrition. The New Thought movement, centered on Phineas Quimby’s theories of mentally-aided healing, also emerges.

 

1870s

Mary Baker Eddy establishes spiritual-healing-based Christian Science in the 1870s. Andrew Taylor Still pioneers Osteopathy, a holistic approach based on the manipulation of muscles and joints.

 

 

1880s

Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a Swiss physician, pioneered nutritional research in the 1880s, advocating a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables. With its founding principle of developing mind, body, and spirit, the YMCA becomes one of the world’s first wellness organizations.

 

1890s

Daniel David Palmer develops Chiropractic in the 1890s, focusing on the structure and function of the body.

 

1900s

John Harvey Kellogg (director of the Battle Creek Sanitorium in Michigan) promotes a healthy diet, exercise, fresh air, hydrotherapy, and “learning to stay well.” Naturopathy, which emphasizes the body’s ability to heal itself through dietary and lifestyle changes, herbs, massage, and joint manipulation, is also making its way to the United States from Europe. F.X. Mayr, another Austrian, creates “Mayr Therapy,” a detoxification and dietary modification program.

 

The twentieth century sees the spread and importance of wellness.

 

Our modern use of the term “wellness” dates back to the 1950s and a seminal – but little-known – work called High-Level Wellness by physician Halbert L. Dunn (published1961). Although Dunn’s work was initially ignored, his ideas were later adopted in the 1970s by an informal network of individuals in the United States, including Dr. John Travis, Don Ardell, Dr. Bill Hettler, and others. 

 

Between 1980 and 2000, the wellness movement gains traction and is taken more seriously by the medical, academic, and corporate worlds. For example, Hettler’s National Wellness Institute piqued the interest of Tom Dickey and Rodney Friedman, who launched the monthly Berkeley Wellness Letter (1984) to compete with the Harvard Medical School Health Letter, using the word “wellness” in the title as a point of contrast.

 

Many corporations began developing workplace wellness programs toward the end of the twentieth century. Globally, the fitness and spa industries have expanded rapidly. And an ever-expanding list of celebrities and self-help experts began bringing wellness concepts to a wider audience. Despite these disparate developments, this momentum had not yet been formalized under the banner of a “wellness industry.”

 

A Few Important Moments

 

The 1950s: J.I. Rodale, one of the first advocates for organic farming in the United States, launches Prevention magazine, a forerunner in promoting alternative/preventative health.

 

The 1950s-1960s: Physician Halbert L. Dunn gives 29 lectures on “high-level wellness” before publishing his ideas in his influential book of the same name.

 

The 1970s: Dr. John Travis, influenced by Dunn, establishes the world’s first wellness center in California and publishes The Wellness Inventory (1975) and The Wellness Workbook (1977), both of which are still in use today. High-Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs, and Disease is published by Don Ardell in 1977, referencing Dunn’s work. Using Travis’ materials, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) establishes the first university campus wellness center, with campus wellness centers spreading throughout the United States by the 1980s. Dr. Bill Hettler of USWP organizes the National Wellness Institute and the first National Wellness Conference in 1977-78.

 

Workplace wellness programs, the fitness and spa industries, and celebrity wellness and self-help experts take off in the 1980s and 2000s, bringing wellness into the mainstream.

 

Further advancements during the Twenty-First Century

 

According to a 2010 New York Times article on the word/concept of wellness, when Dan Rather did a 60 Minutes segment on the topic in 1979, he said, “Wellness, that’s a word you don’t hear every day.” However, “…more than three decades later,” the New York Times noted, “wellness is, in fact, a word that Americans may hear every day…” And it’s not just Americans who are concerned about their health. The global wellness movement and market have reached a tipping point in the twenty-first century: fitness, diet, healthy living, and well-being concepts and offerings have spread wildly.

 

With a chronic illness and obesity pandemic raging over the world in the twenty-first century, resulting in unsustainable healthcare expenditures, the conventional medical establishment and more governments are changing their attention to prevention and wellness. For example, although most academic medical facilities were hostile to complementary medicine in the 1990s, several of the world’s most prestigious institutions today include Integrative Medicine departments. In the United States, for example, eight medical schools (including Harvard and Stanford) met in 1999 at a landmark conference called The Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. Today, 60 prestigious institutions are its members, including Yale, Harvard, and the Mayo Clinic.

 

Wellness Milestones Across the 21st Century:

 

2008: Bhutan accepted democracy in 2008, and its constitution states, “The State must endeavor to establish those conditions that would permit the achievement of Gross National Happiness.” The concept was coined in the 1970s by His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan, who questioned the notion that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) alone could give pleasure and contentment to society. The United Nations General Assembly enacted “Resolution Happiness: Towards a Holistic Approach to Development” in 2011, asking member countries to follow Bhutan’s lead to quantify happiness, and well-being and describing happiness as a “fundamental human aim.”

 

 

Is the history of wellness relevant, and why?

It is highly significant for the healthy growth of wellness practices to understand wellness as a cultural vision of holistic health and to be educated about its origins, cultural elements, and evolution. There’s more to wellness than just grace. Understanding earlier conceptions of health and their current uses can be a valuable source of motivation for adopting wellness activities in daily life.

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