1 Taking Charge of Your Health

Wellness: The New Health Goal
Choosing Wellness
How Do You Reach Wellness?
Being Healthy for Life

2 Stress: The Constant Challenge

What is Stress?
Stress and Disease
Common Sources of Stress
Techniques for Managing Stress
Creating a Personal Plan for Managing Stress

3 Psychological Health

What Psychological Health is Not
Defining Psychological Health
Meeting Life's Challenges
Psychological Disorders
Getting Help

4 Intimate Relationships and Communication

Developing Intimate Relationships
Communication
Pairing and Singlehood
Marriage
Family Life

5 Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

Sexual Anatomy
Hormones and the Reproductive Life Cycle
Sexual Functioning
Sexual Behavior
Understanding Fertility
Pregnancy
Childbirth

6 Contraception and Abortion

Principles of Contraception
Reversible Contraception
Permanent Contraception: Sterilization
Which Contraceptive Method is Right for You?
The Abortion Issue

7 The Use and Abuse of Psychoactive Drugs

Addictive Behavior
Drug Use, Abuse, and Dependence
How Drugs Affect the Body
Representative psychoactive Drugs
Drug Use: The Decades Ahead

8 Alcohol and Tobacco

The Nature of Alcohol
Alcohol and Health
Alcohol Abuse and Dependence
Why People Use Tobacco
Health Hazards
The Effects of Smoking on the Nonsmoker
What Can Be Done?
How a Tobacco user Can Quit

9 Nutrition Basics

Nutritional Requirements: Components of a Healthy Diet
Nutritional Guidelines: Planning Your Diet
A Personal Plan: Making Informed Choices About Food

10 Exercise for Health and Fitness

What is Physical Fitness?
The Benefits of Exercise
Designing Your Exercise Program
Getting Started and Staying On Track

11 Weight Management

Basic Concepts of Weight Management
Factors Contributing to Excess Body Fat
Adopting a Healthy Lifestyle for Successful Weight Management
Approaches to Overcoming a Weight Problem
Eating Disorders

12 Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer

The Cardiovascular System
Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease
Major Forms of Cardiovascular Disease
Protecting Yourself Against Cardiovascular Disase
What is Cancer?
Common Cancers
The Causes of Cancer
Detecting, Diagnosing, and Treating Cancer
Preventing Cancer

13 Immunity and Infection

The Chain of Infection
The Body's Defense System
The Troublemakers: Pathogens and Disease
Giving Yourself a Fighting Chance: How to Support Your Immune System
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Other STDs
What You Can Do About STDs

14 The Challenge of Aging

Generating Vitality As You Age
Confronting the changes of Aging
Life In An Aging America
What Is Death?
Planning for Death
Coping With Dying
Coping With Loss
Coming to Terms with Death

15 Conventional and Complementary Medicine: Skills for the Health Care Consumer

Self-Care: Managing Medical problems
professional medical and Health Care: Choices and Change
Conventional Medicine
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Paying For Health Care

16 Personal Safety: Protecting Yourself from Unintentional Injuries and Violence

Unintentional Injuries
Violence and Intentional Injuries
Providing Emergency Care

17 Environmental Health

Classic Environmental Health Concerns
Population Growth
Pollution
Healing the Environment
Appendix: Nutritional Content of Popular Items from Fast-Food Restaurants
Index
Study Guide