Healthy Living, Healthy Spirituality November 2009 by Fr. John S. Rausch

In the basement of St. Francis Catholic Church in Logan, West Virginia, fitness enthusiasts bounce up and down, swing side to side and do curls with dumbbells five nights a week.  At this improvised fitness studio, one parishioner lost 40 pounds.  Conversely, a 76-year-old cancer survivor who needed to increase her appetite, gained four pounds in less than two months.

The inspiration for the fitness studio came from a pastoral, A Church That Heals to , promulgated in 2006 by Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese.  He encourages a healthy lifestyle for the good of society and the spirituality of the individual.  By broadening the understanding of health and linking it to faith, his pastoral offers some refreshing perspectives about personal responsibility and public accountability for the current health care debate.

We Americans enjoy the most technologically advanced health care in the world, but we experience income-tiered access to it.  Health status frequently is related to education, income and employment.  We have higher costs for health care compared to other industrialized societies, but we receive lower results.  One sixth of our gross domestic product is spent on health care, yet about 46 million Americans still lack health insurance which discourages them from getting preventive medical check-ups.  However, other important variables in the health care equation pay too little attention to both personal behaviors and commercial practices that impact our health.

Health experts find, aside from accidents and violence, that genetics account for 20 percent of premature mortality, while the environment accounts for 20 percent and medical care for 10 percent.  The remaining 50 percent of premature mortality is due to lifestyle choices.

Excessive tobacco use, inactivity and a steady diet of fatty fast foods without the proper balance of fruits and vegetables lead to serious nutritional and health consequences.  The results bring high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol and Type II diabetes, all of which raise the risk of early death.

However, besides personal responsibility and lifestyle choices, the social and physical environment also impact our health.  The food industry promotes processed foods high in fat, salt and sugar.  The movie, Food, Inc., claims that 90 percent of processed foods sold in supermarkets contain either corn or soy products adding to the sugar content of food and ultimately contributing to society’s obesity problem.  The Center of Disease Control estimates that one-third of American children born after 2000 will develop diabetes as a result of poor diet and lack of exercise.

For rural residents and intercity dwellers other social factors can affect their health.  Lack of adequate transportation to health facilities, distribution of health care providers, distance to supermarkets with healthier foods plus unemployment or underemployment all influence health care choices.

In addition the physical environment makes its impact.  The American Lung Association claims that 46 percent of the U.S. population lives in areas that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution.  Unfortunately, coal-fired electrical plants as currently operated contribute the fine particle pollution that cause more than 20,000 premature deaths per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”  Working for a nutritious food system, adequate social services, a healthy environment and a stable economic base for families becomes an act of health justice.  Moreover, adding contemplation and reflection about our bodies with its gift of health from God deepens our spirituality and adds a missing dimension to health care.The church’s vision of economics serves all people and not just the better off. From its earliest social encyclicals it taught “that the civil order...needed intervention from the state for purposes of redistribution” (par. #39). Currently, health care reform, comprehensive immigration reform and labor reform all reflect aspects of solidarity promoting authentic human development. These considerations represent moral choices wrapped in economics intended “to build a more human world for all” (par. #39).