But when trying to make an informed decision about just about any aspect of health, people can quickly find themselves sifting through a haystack of information seeking a needle of understanding.
Much of that information has been created by someone who is selling a product or service. That doesn’t necessarily mean the information isn’t true, but it’s a good bet that if someone wants you to pay for a product or service, they aren’t likely to pass on information that might make you decide not to do that. At best, you’re not going to get the whole story. At worst, the information you get will be distorted, or even false.
Think about the number of companies that have a financial interest in the health decisions you make—companies that produce, process and distribute food, manufacture medical drugs, and prescribe those drugs—generating combined revenues of 6 trillion dollars a year. You can see why it’s almost inevitable that you will be immersed in an ocean of information, and misinformation, about things that affect health.
How do you avoid drowning? How do you find and learn what is truly useful to know, avoid sales spin, and become more capable of managing your own health or that of the people you love?
When you’re dealing with a lot of information, it can be helpful to sort it into categories.
At eSavvyHealth, we’ve found that a useful set of categories for sorting health-related information is the ways that your health can be impacted by your own choices and decisions.
We call these “health influences”:
These are the factors you can exert control over so as to manage your own health.
Savvy means “having practical knowledge and good judgment.”
Practical means “of or concerned with doing or using something rather than only with theory and ideas.”
Judgment is “the ability to determine how true or how important something is.”
Health is “the dependable operation of the body’s systems so as to support—and not inhibit—the individual’s capability of doing what he or she wants to do.”
Our goal is to help you improve your judgment about health matters, so as to be able to maintain or improve your own or other’s health in the pursuit of personal goals.
But judgment does not come from consuming information, even when it’s valid and useful. There’s another vital step—understanding.
Millions of words have been written on the subject of understanding.
It can seem complicated. But one simple aspect of understanding stands out: when you understand something new, you know how it relates to things that you already understood.
Which means that if you don’t understand something, you can’t relate it to your own knowledge and experiences. And that puts your ability to have good judgment on that matter out of reach.
You’ll find eSavvyHealth’s courses to be different from most other educational experiences you’ve had, because they are constructed based on expert knowledge of how understanding is either supported or inhibited by the way information is presented.
That’s why we say that the result of an eSavvyHealth course is not just the acquisition of information, but the achievement of insight.
The rationale of eSavvyHealth as a company can be simply expressed:
eSavvyHealth will never endorse a specific product or treatment, and will never make money from advertising products and services. Our purpose is your empowerment, and we look forward to your participation in the eSavvyHealth community.
Founder, Executive Director and Executive Editor
Bob Graves, eSavvyHealth’s Founder, Executive Director and Executive Editor, brings more than three decades of editorial, publishing and training experience to this mission.
In the 1980s, as a co-founder of e.Republic, he was instrumental in establishing the Government Technology event and publishing divisions of the company. eRepublic quickly became a respected source of news, in-depth articles, and research on the rapidly-changing world of information technology, providing much-needed resources to hundreds of government agencies and IT companies across the country. e.Republic expanded rapidly from a single conference in Sacramento, California to encompass scores of regional and local conferences and a wide range of print and online publications.
In 2006, capitalizing on his academic training in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he co-founded and served as president and editor-at-large of Green Technology. For more than a decade, this nonprofit publishing organization has supported the efforts of public and private sector professionals by organizing education sessions and in-depth training on effective strategies for all aspects of sustainable practice. Through product expos, Green Technology also highlights innovations in green products and services.
Broadening the scope of these efforts, Bob helped produce three international “Governors’ Global Climate Summits” with a team from California Governor Schwarzenegger’s office. He has also guided the delivery of training on CALGreen, California’s green building code to over 5,000 government building officials and design/construction professionals.
Bob’s most recent work in the field of sustainability involved service as associate director and content curator of the Governing Institute, where he provided advice on smart and sustainable approaches to water, waste, energy, transportation and building systems by publishing articles and by organizing and presenting at Governing conferences throughout the country.
Turning his attention to another critical challenge of our time – personal health, he will draw upon hard-earned insights regarding organizing and disseminating knowledge as well as a master’s degree in Nutrition from UC Davis. Through original articles, curated resources, live seminars and more, the independent voice of eSavvyHealth will help you take charge of your health with information you can trust.
co-Founder and Chief Curriculum Officer
Dave Hendry, eSavvyHealth co-Founder and Chief Curriculum Officer, is a lifelong educator with more than four decades of teaching and curriculum development experience in a wide range of settings, helping children and adults achieve understanding.
Dave has held positions as Senior Vice President for Curriculum Management at Age of Learning, Vice President of Research and Development at The Galef Institute, and Director of Curriculum for The Futures Channel. He is a nationally recognized expert on achieving learner engagement and understanding through application of principles of instructional design, and has served as principal faculty member in over 100 teacher institutes for schools and districts nationwide. He has lectured widely to educators and others about education policies and teaching practices that will prepare today’s young and adult learners for the challenges of the future.
Dave’s curriculum publications include the award-winning teacher’s guides for the instructional television series FUTURES with Jaime Escalante, The Eddie Files, and Interactions: Real Math-Real Careers. He is also author of the instructional guidelines for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory documentary Catch the Wind: The QuikSCAT Story, the National Center for Atmospheric Research documentary High Hopes, the Borrego Solar Curriculum and Lutron’s Lighting for Learning curriculum.
As project producer of the documentary Good Morning Miss Toliver and coordinating producer for The Eddie Files, Dave is two-time winner of the George Foster Peabody award, and has also been awarded The Educational Press Association’s highest award for curriculum resources. Dave has directed development activities for four National Science Foundation projects, for two of which he was Principal Investigator, has served as Principal Investigator in two US Department of Education Professional Development projects, and is the creator of The National Math Trail.
As a senior member of the ABCmouse.com development team at Age of Learning, he contributed to the creation of a groundbreaking early childhood education resource that earned the Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award, the Teacher’s Choice Award, and the Parent’s Choice Gold Award. Dave is named co-inventor on 6 educational technology patents.
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Medical Disclaimer
Our mission at eSavvyHealth is to help you push aside noise, confusion, half-truths and misinformation about health, discover objective sources and facts, and develop the ability to confidently chart a course to a healthy life.
The content eSavvyHealth provides is not intended to be relied upon for medical diagnosis or treatment.
eSavvyHealth.com information is not intended to replace a partnership and consultation with a qualified health care professional. Inform your doctor of any changes you may make to your lifestyle and discuss these with him or her.
Information you read on our site or materials we provide should not cause you to disregard medical advice or delay visiting a medical professional.
For questions or concerns about any medical conditions you may have, please contact your doctor.
eSavvyHealth, eSavvy, and the eSavvyHealth logo are trademarks of eSavvyHealth.
