While modern Western medicine primarily evolved as reactive treatment—interventions that happen in response to an ailment—other health traditions prescribe proactive engagement with the body, seeking to instill well-being by taking preventative measures before disease takes hold.

Historians trace the roots of preventative health as far back as 3000 BCE, with the practice of Ayurveda—a practice related to Hinduism that argues for individual approaches to nutrition, exercise, hygiene, and social health based on each person’s needs. Ayurveda holds that balancing these four factors prevents illness. Likewise, traditional Chinese medicine endorses a holistic approach to health (“History of Wellness.” Global Wellness Institute).

In the US, Dr. Halbert L. Dunn, coined the term “wellness” in the late 1950s. Dunn envisioned a shift away from treating poor health and instead actively taking steps to promote good health. He proposed consciously striving to better physical, emotional, and mental health daily (Blei, Daniela. “The False Promises of Wellness Culture.” JSTOR Daily, 2017). Dunn gave a series of 29 lectures on the subject, which were collected in his book High Level Wellness (1977). As Dunn’s ideas were increasingly promoted by physicians in the late 1970s, the first national Wellness Center and Wellness Conference were established, as was the first university campus

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