“When health is absent, wealth is useless,” Herophilus, an ancient Greek physician, tells us. Another sage of classical antiquity, the Roman poet Virgil, put it another way: “The greatest wealth is health.” Gandhi once opined that “It is health that is a real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” And then there’s this, attributable to just about any Tom, Dick or Harry: “You can’t buy good health.”

Counseled by such wise words distinguishing health from wealth, one might begin to believe that the two have little to do with one another. One would be tragically misinformed.

Evidence of the existence of social inequalities in health has been demonstrated for over 150 years. In the earliest of research, it is easy to see the causal links from low income, through poor housing and sanitation, inadequate diets and hazardous jobs, to poor health such as infectious diseases, injuries, and accidents. Today, however, the relationship between income and health is more complex. For every incremental increase in income, there is an associated higher level of good health. Moreover, it is clear that there are complex chains of exposures and pathways between income and health across the life course. For example, employment as a major source of income in adulthood will be influenced by education, which in turn is influenced by childhood health and circumstances that will have been influenced by the income and wealth of the parents. This means that the relationship between money and health is inter-generational and

bi-directional. For example, parents’ income influences children’s health and children’s health influence their later earning capacity and hence income.

Money buys people the key necessities they need for health such as shelter, warmth, and food. It also allows them to avoid, or ameliorate, potentially harmful ‘toxins’ for example living in poor neighborhoods that are noisy or polluted. This implies a basic level of financial resources is required for good health, but evidence suggests that there is a much more graded association: the more money people have the better their health.

The context in which people live will influence the extent to which money may influence health. For example, in well–developed welfare systems, the health-damaging effects of sudden income losses resulting from unemployment or family breakdown may be reduced by the availability of welfare benefits. Societies provide many key services, such as education and healthcare, but may vary in the degree and quality of these, which may have implications for population health and health inequalities.

Prevalent among socially disadvantaged groups, A number of specific mechanisms have been proposed to explain this. First, some healthy behaviors are expensive, for example, a healthy diet has been shown to be more expensive than an unhealthy one, joining a gym or taking part in extra school sporting clubs can be costly.

Second, people may use some unhealthy behaviors such as smoking or drinking alcohol as a way of coping with difficult situations. A linked argument is that the difficulties of coping with life on low incomes incline people to discount the future more heavily, meaning people are less concerned with the long–term health-damaging effects of behaviors that bring them current pleasure or stress relief.

The cultural context of the lives of people with different income levels may differ, for example, the degree to which unhealthy behaviors are socially acceptable or the extent to which health-promoting messages to change behaviors are adopted. Understanding this broader context, together with the different mechanisms that lead people on low incomes to engage in unhealthy behaviors, helps to explain why it is difficult to improve health behaviors without addressing these multiple reasons for the behavior.

Poor health leads to low income

Health selection theory describes how people’s health influences their income. The most direct route is that ill health prevents someone from undertaking paid employment, which reduces their income. More long-term ill health in childhood may influence educational outcomes which in turn affects employment opportunities and earning potential later in life.

There are also more subtle mechanisms. For example, significant literature exists that suggests that people’s health, in particular, obesity, height, and physical appearance, can influence economic outcomes such as employment opportunities or wages. The hypothesized mechanism is that gatekeepers to such opportunities subconsciously associate being slim or tall or attractive with other positive attributes that they value.

Conclusions

While money can certainly help you improve and maintain your health, too much focus on earning it can be unhealthy too. In fact, some scientists believe that


the stress of competition in American society is one of the many factors that explain why the United States, despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, is far from the healthiest or longest-lived.

the stress of competition in American society is one of the many factors that explain why the United States, despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, is far from the healthiest or longest-lived.

So, I want to emphasize that you must protect your health and your wealth potential by balancing work and play. Be responsible for your career and your physical well-being, by exercising, eating right and taking time to relax and enjoy life.

Here is to your health,

Terrance Hutchinson

Certified Fitness and Nutrition Specialist

Certified Corporate Wellness Coach