We have been running this Blog for almost 4 months now and for the most part it has been possible to keep with the goal of providing some insight into attaining our physical and/or mental health goals. Our Blog is however limited in readership, and although there have been interesting/thought provoking/even delicious topics presented I wondered what the general UBC population is hearing. Are we just Blogging to the converted? After all, we are members of the Department of Health, Safety and Environment. Shouldn’t we be well informed on issues relating to our health? What message is getting out to the other members of the UBC community? This week I sought to get a brief snapshot of the information that is targeted to my fellow transit commuters.
People who commute by bus will usually either plug in an iPod or pick up one of the local commuter ‘rags’ to occupy their time. So, today (October 28th) I decided to see what they would learn from the local papers related to health and well being. I picked up copies of WE, “Vancouver’s Urban Weekly”, and metro, “The world’s largest global newspaper.”
H1N1 stories, fed by the media frenzy for sensational reporting, have progressed far beyond the health advice stage (wash your hands/Dracula sneeze) so I am not considering items related to it. So my findings were:
WE: No general health or fitness columns (advertising, yes) but they do get credit for their front page story “Can’t Sleep – Your not alone” , a discussion of common sleep disorders.
metro: No general health or fitness columns. No articles.
So it was a short search! Conclusions? That our daily information relating to health and wellness comes from advertising! Want to lose weight? Try apple cider. Improve the quality of your sleep? Use a wool duvet! I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise in our world of instant messaging news bites. One that caught my immediate attention was “Body Troubleshooting” – implying an instant fix to conditions that we have taken years to attain!
Let’s hope that our habits over the years have not left us with conditions that cannot be fixed and we are aware of legitimate resources – not just advertising – to help us make informed decisions on how to improve.
