Donald B. Ardell
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Donald B. Ardell wrote High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs and Disease in 1976 and a dozen books since, his latest being Aging Beyond Belief: 69 Tips For REAL Wellness.. He has produced the WELLNESS REPORT since 1984 - nearly 700 editions are in circulation. The REAL wellness Don promotes is a mindset and lifestyle that celebrates reason, exuberance and liberty, unlike the more common form of wellness featured at worksites that in fact is fake wellness, programming that is medically focused that only seeks to lower health risks.
REAL wellness is about quality of life - fitness is part of it but so is attention to meaning and purpose, applied ethics, environmental sensitivity, happiness, critical thinking, humor, relationships, play and support for excellence and joy.
Don once ran for mayor of Tampa as "the oldest, fittest, fastest and prettiest of all the candidates" promising to promote "a well city" that would be 4 F - “fit, functional, free and fun.” (He won in every respect (spent less, made fewer enemies, enjoyed the experience more than the other candidates) save getting the most votes.)
Don runs, bikes and swims regularly. He has won
several national and two world championships.
He can be reached at 727
471-8091
Recent Essays by Donald B. Ardell - The Well Infidel
By Donald B. Ardell - 02.14.16
INTRODUCTION
U.S. Surgeon Generals, psychiatrists and all manner of sensible people are aware that vast numbers of American are somewhat unhinged. One former Surgeon General, namely David Satcher, released an exhaustive review of research on mental health in 2001 which revealed that one in five Americans has mental disorders. The latest official count of the U.S. population (as of the start of 2015) was 320 million, meaning there are 64 million loonies walking the streets unsupervised.
By Donald B. Ardell, January 10, 2016
Introduction
Workplace wellness has been a feature of U.S. companies for several decades. Still, many observers question whether outcomes from these endeavors justify the costs. Some critics are urging a reassessment before continuing current funding levels into the future.
In 2009, 92 percent of American companies with 200 or more employees sponsored worksite wellness, according to a Rand Report for the U.S. government. A recent estimate put company spending on prevention and assorted risk reduction education (the true nature of so-called “wellness” offerings) at $40 billion annually—on a global basis. Fortune 500 company spending in America designed to reform unhealthy lifestyles and thereby reduce employee medical costs accounted for a painful share of after-tax company profits. (The estimates I’ve seen are so high I won’t include them them because I’m skeptical about their accuracy.)
By Donald Ardell - 12.13.15
The interest I have in believing a thing is not a proof of the existence of that thing.
~ Voltaire, in reference to Blaise Pascal's infamous wager advice regarding the existence of a god.
Scientific practices-observation and experiment; the development of falsifiable hypotheses; the relentless questioning of established views-have proven uniquely powerful in revealing the surprising, underlying structure of the world we live in, including subatomic particles, the role of germs in the spread of disease, and the neural basis of mental life.
Religion has no equivalent record of discovering hidden truths.
~ Paul Bloom, Scientific Faith Is Different From Religious Faith, The Atlantic, November 24, 2015