This article, written in conjunction with Gallup, is a five-part exploration into the changes in Americans&rsquo; health and well-being during the presidency of Barack Obama. It will be updated with new insights daily during the week of August 29th-September 2nd, 2016.

As the eight years of the current presidential administration near conclusion, Gallup and Healthways are reporting on&nbsp;well-being metrics in the United States during the Obama era. Since President Obama&rsquo;s inauguration in January 2009, well-being in the U.S. has maintained or improved in several key areas, including life evaluation, healthcare access, smoking&nbsp;and perceived standard of living. Other well-being items, however, such as obesity and incidence of diabetes continue to trend in the wrong direction, indicating an increasing need for intervention.

The Impact of the Affordable Care Act 
President Obama&rsquo;s most notable contribution to the healthcare sector, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has played a fundamental role in transforming the healthcare paradigm nationwide.&nbsp;Gallup and Healthways research&nbsp;shows that the adoption of the ACA has had&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/uninsured-down-since-obamacare-cost-quality-still-concerns" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">a profound effect</a>&nbsp;on reducing&nbsp;uninsured rates, which have declined 6.1 percentage points since the fourth quarter of 2013, right before the key provision of the Affordable Care Act took effect. As of the end of 2015, uninsured rates had dropped&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/uninsured-rate-remains-at-historical-low" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">to historical lows</a>. A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/the-state-of-health-care" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">recent article</a>&nbsp;published by President Obama in the&nbsp;Journal of the American Medical Association&nbsp;details the impact of the law on this and other healthcare trends.

Healthcare Insecurity&nbsp;Drops; Costs Remain Steady 
Significantly, healthcare insecurity is on the decline. From 2008 through 2013, the percentage of Americans who experienced difficulty in the past 12 months affording healthcare or medicine remained fairly steady, hovering near the average of 18.7%. Since then, the average has been 16.4%, including the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/in-u.s.-healthcare-insecurity-at-record-low" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">new quarterly low of 15.5%</a>&nbsp;for the first quarter of 2016.

U.S. adult satisfaction with the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/uninsured-down-since-obamacare-cost-quality-still-concerns" target="_blank">total cost they pay</a>&nbsp;for their healthcare&nbsp;has remained relatively steady over the past 14 years, including after the healthcare law was passed. Additionally,&nbsp;Gallup reported in late 2015 that the percentage of U.S. adults&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/186740/americans-own-healthcare-ratings-little-changed-aca.aspx?g_source=healthcare&amp;g_medium=search&amp;g_campaign=tiles" target="_blank">rating the quality of their healthcare and their healthcare coverage</a>&nbsp;as &quot;excellent&quot; has dropped over the previous two years.

Life Evaluation Reaches Record High; Health Assessments Drop 
<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/americans-life-evaluations-improve-during-obama-era" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">Recent Gallup and Sharecare analysis</a>&nbsp;finds that life evaluation across all major racial/ethnic groups has improved since 2008. Life evaluation for whites is now higher than it has ever been, although life evaluation for blacks dropped slightly during the President&rsquo;s second term. In 2016, the 55.4% who evaluate their lives &ldquo;thriving&rdquo; is on pace to be the highest measured in the nine years of tracking by Gallup and Healthways.&nbsp;

However, Americans&#39;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/americans-health-assessments-worsen-during-obama-years" target="_blank">self-assessments of their overall health</a>&nbsp;have slipped&nbsp;since 2008. Currently, 19.0% of U.S. adults report &quot;excellent&quot; health,&nbsp;compared with 22.6% in 2008.&nbsp;The percentage of U.S. adults who report their health as &quot;poor&quot; or &quot;fair&quot; has remained stable at around 20% during this period.

Health Behaviors Vary; Obesity Rate Continues to Climb 
While&nbsp;Americans&#39; exercise and smoking habits have improved under the current administration, their eating habits have worsened slightly over the&nbsp;past eight years.&nbsp;The percentage of Americans who said they ate healthy all day yesterday has fluctuated since Gallup and Healthways began to track this metric in 2008, from an initial 66.1%, reaching a high of 67.7% in 2010, to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/in-u.s.-smoking-dips-but-fewer-eating-healthy-since-09" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">64.2% of U.S. adults</a>&nbsp;measured in 2016.

The current 18.0% of U.S. adults who smoke has decreased from 21.0% in 2009,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1717/Tobacco-Smoking.aspx" target="_blank">continuing a trend</a>&nbsp;that began long before Obama took office.&nbsp;Additionally, the percentage of Americans who report exercising regularly has edged up in 2016&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/in-u.s.-smoking-dips-but-fewer-eating-healthy-since-09" target="_blank">to 53.8%</a>, and from a longer-term perspective, has increased 2.4 percentage points since 2008.&nbsp;

Though Americans&#39; exercise habits have improved, this has not contributed to a drop in the obesity rate. In 2015, the obesity rate among U.S. adults climbed to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/u.s.-obesity-rate-climbs-to-record-high-in-2015" target="_blank">a new high of 28.0%</a>, up 2.5 percentage points since 2008. This concerning trend highlights the need for leaders, both civil and political, to continue pushing towards positive change in their communities&nbsp;to encourage active living and promote access to healthy food.

These results are based on more than 100,000 interviews thus far in 2016, 175,000 interviews conducted in 2015 and more than 350,000 interviews conducted in 2008 and 2009 as part of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/about" target="_blank">Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index</a>.

Stayed tuned during the week of August 29th for additional research from Gallup and Healthways. The release schedule for our Obama Era series includes:

<ul>
	<li>Monday, Aug. 29:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/uninsured-down-since-obamacare-cost-quality-still-concerns" target="_blank">Healthcare accessibility and views of healthcare quality and cost</a></li>
	<li>Tuesday, Aug. 30:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/194816/americans-life-evaluations-improve-during-obama-era.aspx?g_source=Well-Being&amp;g_medium=newsfeed&amp;g_campaign=tiles" target="_blank">Americans&#39; life evaluation</a></li>
	<li>Wednesday, Aug. 31:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/in-u.s.-smoking-dips-but-fewer-eating-healthy-since-09" target="_blank">Health behaviors</a></li>
	<li>Thursday, Sept. 1:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.well-beingindex.com/americans-health-assessments-worsen-during-obama-years" target="_blank">Health assessment and chronic conditions</a></li>
	<li>Friday, Sept. 2: Standard of living</li>
</ul>

Learn more about how the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gallup.com/175196/gallup-healthways-index-methodology.aspx" target="_blank">Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index</a>&nbsp;works.

This article originally appeared on Healthways.

Medically reviewed in February 2019.

Well-Being in the United States: The Obama Years

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Phthalates hide in plain sight. They&rsquo;re in countless products you use every day, yet you can&rsquo;t see, taste or smell them. This family of chemicals make plastics soft, flexible and harder to break.

Phthalates can be found in hundreds of products including:

<ul>
	<li>Personal care products&mdash;cosmetics, shampoo, moisturizers, hair spray and nail polish. They&rsquo;re often added to provide a smooth feel or fragrance.</li>
	<li>Household items like shower curtains, raincoats and hoses</li>
	<li>Toys</li>
	<li>Vinyl flooring, wall coverings and blinds</li>
	<li>Foods and drinks that are processed and packaged in plastic</li>
	<li>Some medical supplies like intravenous tubes</li>
</ul>

Although phthalates are common in many consumer products, questions remain about how safe they are for you and your family.

Exposure to phthalates 
When phthalates can leach out of plastics, you may be exposed in a few ways:

<ul>
	<li>Consuming food or drinks contaminated through packaging and storage</li>
	<li>Breathing in air or dust contaminated with phthalates</li>
	<li>Touching or using products made with phthalates</li>
</ul>

Pregnant women, unborn babies and newborns are most vulnerable to these chemicals, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Newborns in neonatal intensive units tend to have higher exposure due to the necessary use of medical tubing.

So, how do these chemicals affect your body?

Some phthalates are endocrine disrupters that mimic or interfere with the work of hormones. These chemicals don&rsquo;t build up in your body. They&rsquo;re broken down and pass through your urine. But since phthalates are in so many products, you&rsquo;re constantly exposed to them. In fact, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a yearly examination of American health, finds that phthalate exposure is widespread and ongoing, based on urine tests of survey participants.

How these chemicals could affect our health 
Much of the research on phthalate safety comes from animal studies, which can expose subjects to massive amounts of these substances. For ethical and safety reasons, these same kinds of studies can&rsquo;t be performed in people. Furthermore, animal results don&rsquo;t always apply to humans.

Some studies have found associations between phthalate exposure and various health risks, measured through human urine samples, but it is difficult to prove that phthalates were the exact cause.

Pregnancy. It&rsquo;s possible that high levels of a very common phthalate, diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), may increase the chance of miscarriage in some women. Researchers followed more than 250 women undergoing fertility treatments, collecting urine samples at the time of conception. The study, published in the journal Epidemiology in 2016, found that women with the highest concentrations of DEHP were 60 percent more likely to lose a pregnancy before 20 weeks than women with the lowest concentrations.

Childhood development. There&rsquo;s evidence that a pregnant woman&rsquo;s exposure to phthalates may damage the developing reproductive systems of male fetuses, says Ahmet Ergin, MD, an endocrinologist at Heart and Family Institute, affiliated with <a href="https://www.sharecare.com/group/st-lucie-medical-center">St. Lucie Medical Center</a> in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

A 2015 study published in the journal Human Reproduction found that boys who were exposed to DHEP during the first trimester had a shorter anogenital distance than those who weren&rsquo;t exposed. That distance refers to the space between the anus and genitals. A shortened distance has been linked to infertility and low sperm count, Dr. Ergin says.

Some research has also looked at exposure to phthalates in the womb and developmental problems in childhood. A 2014 study published in the journal Plos One found a connection between phthalates and lower IQ. The urine of 328 expectant moms was tested during their third trimester and their children received IQ tests at age seven. They found that children exposed to the highest levels of di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP) had between a 6.7 and 7.6 decrease in IQ scores compared to those exposed to the lowest levels.

Liver damage. It&rsquo;s too soon to draw any conclusions, but some preliminary evidence suggests phthalates could cause liver damage in people. A small study presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology in 2019 analyzed urine samples of people in three groups: obese people, those with type 2 diabetes and otherwise healthy people (the control group).

Researchers found that high levels of two common phthalates were linked to higher indicators of liver damage&mdash;as well as insulin resistance, increased fat circulating in the blood (triglycerides) and lower levels of &ldquo;healthy&rdquo; (HDL) cholesterol&mdash;in people with obesity and diabetes. More research is needed to determine the effect of phthalates on liver health.

Cancer. You might wonder if phthalates cause cancer in people. Dr. Ergin says there is no proof of that. But in rodent studies, high levels of DEHP caused liver cancer. Based on these studies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has determined that DEHP may &ldquo;reasonably be anticipated&rdquo; to be a human carcinogen. The Environmental Protection Agency calls DEHP a &ldquo;probable&rdquo; human carcinogen.

Should you avoid phthalates? 
It&rsquo;s still tough to know the effect of phthalates and at what levels potential damage may occur. Dr. Ergin thinks products containing phthalates should include warning labels. He also believes pregnant women should consider avoiding products with the chemical in it.

Unfortunately, warning labels for phthalates do not exist right now and the research is still forthcoming. If you want to avoid phthalates, consider these tips:

Be microwave-smart. When heating and storing food, glass containers are a safe choice. If you&rsquo;re storing food using <a href="https://health/household-safety/article/ways-home-making-you-sick">plastic containers</a> or plastic wrap, check to see if it is labeled phthalate-free. If you&rsquo;re not sure about your container, transfer food to a microwave-safe plate before heating. Wash plastic containers by hand instead of putting them in the dishwasher.

Choose fresh food. Processed food, including fast food, can be packaged in containers that contain phthalates. Many fresh foods use less packaging and can be healthier for you, as well.

Go &ldquo;fragrance-free.&rdquo; If a cosmetic or household good, like laundry detergent, is scented, there could be greater chance that it contains phthalates. They may not even appear under listed ingredients, since manufacturers are allowed to label phthalates as just &ldquo;fragrance.&rdquo; If you can&rsquo;t live without your favorite scent, look for products labeled &ldquo;phthalate-free.&rdquo;

Check labels. Personal care items sold to consumers are required to list ingredients. Steer clear of phthalate, diethyl phthalate (DEP) or dibutyl phthalate (DBP) if you see them on the label. Some manufacturers have taken these chemicals out of their products. The safest bet is to look for &ldquo;phthalate-free&rdquo; on the label.

Go online. If you can&rsquo;t remember that alphabet soup, Dr. Ergin suggests going to the internet to check ingredient lists. Websites like the Environmental Working Group&rsquo;s Skin Deep database or Campaign for Safe Cosmetics often compile lists of &ldquo;safe&rdquo; <a href="https://health/beauty-personal-care/article/can-makeup-give-you-cancer">personal care products and brands</a>.

Know your numbers. Plastic bottles, containers and other goods include a triangular universal recycling symbol, usually stamped into the bottom of the product. If there&rsquo;s a &quot;3&quot; inside the triangle and a &quot;V&quot; or &quot;PVC&quot; below it, it may contain phthalates.

Be choosy with toys. Little ones explore the world with their mouths. Make sure they aren&rsquo;t chewing or sucking on soft or flexible plastic toys&mdash;especially ones sold before April 2018. Since then, the government has banned many phthalates from toys and many childcare products.&nbsp;

Medically reviewed in November 2019.

Sources: 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. &ldquo;Phthalates Factsheet.&rdquo; 
National Library of Medicine. &ldquo;Phthalamon: Phthalates and Your Health.&rdquo; 
Environmental Protection Agency. &ldquo;Biomonitoring Phthalates.&rdquo; 
Harvard School of Public Health. &ldquo;Plastics: Danger Where We Least Expect It.&rdquo; 
S.H. Swan, S. Sathyanarayana, E.S. Barrett, S. Janssen, F. Liu, R.H.N. Nguyen, J.B. Redmon, the TIDES Study Team, First trimester phthalate exposure and anogenital distance in newborns,&nbsp;Human Reproduction, Volume 30, Issue 4, April 2015, Pages 963&ndash;972 
Messerlian, Carmen &amp; Wylie, Blair &amp; Minguez-Alarcon, Lidia &amp; Williams, Paige &amp; Ford, Jennifer &amp; Souter, Irene &amp; Calafat, Antonia &amp; Hauser, Russ. (2016). Urinary Concentrations of Phthalate Metabolites and Pregnancy Loss Among Women Conceiving with Medically Assisted Reproduction. Epidemiology. 27. 1. 
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. &ldquo;Phthalate Exposure Linked to Lower IQ.&rdquo; 
Agency for Toxic Substances &amp; Disease Registry. &ldquo;Public Health Statement for Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP).&rdquo; 
Milica Medic-Stojanoska, Natasa Milosevic, Maja Milanovic. &ldquo;Can Phthalates Impair Liver Function?&rdquo; European Society of Endocrinology. May 2019. 63&nbsp;GP232 
Zero Breast Cancer. &ldquo;Phthalates: The Everywhere Chemical.&rdquo; 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. &ldquo;Phthalates.&rdquo; 
Harvard School of Public Health. &ldquo;Exposure to Phthalates May Raise Risk of Pregnancy Loss, Gestational Diabetes.&rdquo; 
National Library of Medicine. &ldquo;Phthalates: What Are They?&rdquo;

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Active transportation&mdash;a mode of transportation powered by people, like biking and walking&mdash;promotes a multitude of benefits, according to the&nbsp;Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index.

Here&rsquo;s the proof 
Active transportation impacts communities in four key ways: providing affordable transportation, boosting the local economy, achieving a cleaner environment and improving physical health.

Many communities that have promoted active transportation by widening sidewalks, adding protected bike lanes and improving pedestrian crossings have experienced an increase in overall well-being of residents. On average, people that live in high &ldquo;Active Living&rdquo; areas have lower rates of obesity and obesity-related conditions, like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The Beach Cities Health District of California implemented walk- and bike-ability improvements as part of the Blue Zones Project, which contributed to a 15 percent decline in overweight and obese residents.

Gallup and Healthways have examined the Active Living environment in 48 medium- to large-size metro areas. Of these, the top five Active Living communities have a 20 percent lower obesity rate than the five lowest performing communities. Communities where walking paths, bike lanes and parks are more prevalent and easy to access have lower rates of obesity. Likewise, rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, two conditions associated with obesity, are lower in these areas, as well.

The connection 
Obesity, or a body mass index (BMI) over 30.0, is a common, but serious condition. About 24 percent of Hawaii&rsquo;s residents are considered obese, which can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly can reduce a person&rsquo;s risk of obesity and diminish the risks of obesity-related conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity for adults each week.

Looking for an easy way to rack up these recommended minutes? Strap on your sneakers and try biking or walking to work. One study suggests those who cycled to work&mdash;an average of 30 miles per week&mdash;had a 45 percent lower risk of cancer and 46 percent lower risk of heart disease, when compared with those who took non-active modes of transportation. Walking to work was also associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

Also consider taking advantage of the <a href="https://gobiki.org/" target="_blank">Biki Bikeshare</a> Hawaii program if you are located in Honolulu and don&rsquo;t have access to a bike. Always be cognizant of local bicycle <a href="http://www.honolulupd.org/information/index.php?page=pedestrian" target="_blank">safety laws</a> and wear a helmet while riding.

Active transportation is an easy way to sneak more physical activity into your day&mdash;and burn extra calories&mdash;without even realizing it. If <a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/hmsa/article/hawaii-celebrating-pedestrian-safety">walking</a> or biking to work isn&rsquo;t feasible, try to add more movement to your everyday routine. Park your car at the far end of the parking lot, take the stairs, rather than the elevator or take a walk during your lunch break. You&rsquo;ll be amazed at how quickly small changes can add up!

Medically reviewed in April 2020.

The Insider’s Guide to Healthy Hawaii: Proven Ways Your Commute Can Make You Healthier

Wish you could lay off the potato chips better? Then spend more time with someone who&#39;s got excellent self-control.

Research shows that thinking about or writing about or watching people who are good at exerting self-control helps you exercise good self-control as well. Time to pick up that Gandhi biography . . .

Control Yourself 
Yep. Like a cold, <a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/stress-reduction/how-stress-self-control-eating">self-control</a> is contagious. It spreads throughout social networks, and you can catch some of it from friends, coworkers, and significant others. Being around or aware of people who practice good self-control makes it easier for you to come up with thoughts and ideas on how to control your own behavior. You don&#39;t even have to share the same goals.

Bad Influence 
And the opposite end of the self-control spectrum definitely doesn&#39;t do you any favors. In other words, if you spend a lot of time with your doughnut-eating friend who&#39;d like to lose weight but just can&#39;t, that can rub off on you as well. So surround yourself with <a href="https://www.sharecare.com/health/mens-health/article/peer-pressure-and-eating-habits">positive influences</a>. And maybe someday you&#39;ll be that self-control guru that other people are drawn to.

Medically reviewed in April 2019.

These People Can Help You Reach Your Goals

These are tense times for many Americans who are concerned about healthcare reform. Many of us are asking what the new terms could mean for our families and ourselves. As we listen to pundits unpack the overall impact of the changes, there&rsquo;s an immediate way to relieve our stress. We can turn our attention to wellness. We can ask what we and our families can do now to stay healthy?

Healthcare is more disease care than health care. While we need and deserve to be cared for when we become ill, there are practices we can use to optimize our health and well being before we get sick. They include many of the practices used in Ornish Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Dean Ornish and his colleagues have spent over 35 years researching how lifestyle choices can preserve and protect our health, and even reverse disease. The best part is that you can take an active role in these practices.

The Four Pillars of Our Wellness 
Nutrition, fitness, social support and stress management are four very powerful pillars of lifestyle medicine that can help us reclaim our health. Research continues to support that they improve our lives.

<ul>
	<li>Choosing a low-fat vegetarian diet reduces heart disease&nbsp;and some cancers.</li>
	<li>Thirty minutes a day of moderate exercise is associated with less anxiety and depression.</li>
	<li>People with strong social support have longer life spans.</li>
	<li>Yoga and meditation reduce stress, which plays a major role in most chronic illness.</li>
</ul>

Rather than waiting for the doctor to heal us, the nurse to care for us, the surgery to fix us, we can turn inward and use these four pillars to begin to participate in our own care.

What Does Wellness Look Like? 
If we develop an internal locus of control, we are more likely to feel empowered to care for ourselves by seeing the relationship between what we do and how we feel. In contrast, if we are relying on factors outside of us to make us well, this supports an external locus of control and leads to feeling helpless, hopeless and disconnected.

How to Develop An Internal Locus of Control 
Stress management and yoga gives us the tools to massage the muscle of self-reliance. There are five stress management techniques that can be used daily to help us take our health into our own hands.

1. Postures 
These slow gentle movements improve flexibility and strength while they articulate the joints. These practices also help to embody awareness so we become better listeners when our body is offering us important signals about our health.

2. Relaxation 
These techniques help us to rest in a way that is deeper than sleep. Through them, we can restore a sense of balance to our body and mind so healing can occur.

3. Breathing 
How we breathe affects how we think and feel and how we think and feel affects how we breathe. When we slow down our breathing, it has a powerful impact on our sympathetic nervous system by up regulating the relaxation response.

4. Meditation 
A regular practice improves concentration and allows the mind to rest. It cultivates creativity, meaning and joy.

5. Imagery 
Using guided imagery, you use the mind to support healing or to imagine a positive outcome. It can also reverse negative thought patterns that can have an adverse affect on health.

A Daily Practice to Strengthen Your Internal Locus of Control

<ul>
	<li>Sit in a chair or lie on the floor. Allow yourself to be comfortable.</li>
	<li>Begin to relax your body.</li>
	<li>Draw attention to your own heart.</li>
	<li>Breathe as if your heart is breathing and just relax into the safety and comfort of your own heart.</li>
	<li>Quietly and internally begin to ask your heart a few simple questions.</li>
	<li>Is there something I can do to support my own health and well-being?</li>
	<li>What do I need to be healthy and whole?</li>
	<li>Is there something I need to be aware of that I might be overlooking in regards to my own health?</li>
	<li>You may have other questions to ask as well</li>
	<li>Repeat all or some of these questions several times, and then pause and listen. Even if there is no answer right away be patient and sincere. It is the practice of asking and listening that strengthens your relationship with your own inner wisdom and inner healer.</li>
</ul>

This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/the-tools-to-participate-in-your-own-well-care/" target="_blank">Ornish Living</a>.

Yoga, meditation, mindfulness and reduced stress levels are not only good for your heart. Read about additional benefits in <a href="https://www.ornish.com/zine/feeling-sluggish-yoga-can-stoke-your-digestive-fire/" target="_blank">Feeling Sluggish? Yoga to Improve Your Digestion and Energy</a>.

Medically reviewed in February 2019.

The Tools to Participate in Your Own Well Care

As we kick off the 2021 Sharecare Awards, CNN&rsquo;s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, along with award-winning actor Courtney B. Vance and other influencers, join us to share the best health advice they wish they could give their younger selves.

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How can we find strength during tough times? Why do some people bend, but not break? And why is it useful to look at resilience like a GPS?

These are the themes explored in the seventh class of our Roadmap to Resilience series. Every month, Vonda Wright, MD, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and resilience coach, will share techniques that will help you build mental strength and reframe the challenges in your life as opportunities.

Watch the class above and go to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRiKSjrkkMrlTZqKmBVW9OA" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Sharecare&rsquo;s YouTube page</a> for earlier classes from the series.

Leave a comment or question for Dr. Wright in the comments of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14phDPJym-0" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">YouTube video</a>&nbsp;and she may answer it in future videos. And don&#39;t forget to subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRiKSjrkkMrlTZqKmBVW9OA" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Sharecare&#39;s YouTube channel</a>&nbsp;so you don&rsquo;t miss a class in the Roadmap to Resilience series.