Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter 1 Understanding Your Health and Wellness 27 As you learn about health and wellness, you will discover that researchers are constantly finding out new information about the human body and its health. This means you will need to keep learning about health and wellness throughout your life. Developing health literacy means you can also evaluate health-related products and services. Health literacy helps you analyze advertisements for products (Figure 1.14). With health literacy skills, you can find out whether various products actually promote health. Health literacy can help you determine which health services are right for you. Technology can influence your health literacy. By using the Internet and a few key search words, you can find lots of health-related information. Just because health information is on the Internet, however, does not make it accurate or true. Developing health literacy can help you access valid health- related information on the Internet and evaluate health information. Access Valid Information Your health and wellness depend on your ability to access valid (accurate) information. You need to be able to tell information grounded in science from health claims based on rumors, opinions, and theories. Science is a body of knowledge regarding the natural world, based on observation and experimentation. Science poses questions and proposes explanations about the natural world—including the human body, human health, and diseases. Scientists test these explanations repeatedly to prove or disprove them as factual. Therefore, science-based information is valid, unlike opinions and theories that have not been tested and verified as fact. When using the Internet to answer questions about your health, you will see several websites. How do you decide which source you should trust? In general, you can access valid information from agencies or organizations whose main mission is education, research, or direct healthcare. Safe or reliable URL stems generally include .gov, .edu, and .org. HstrongART/Shutterstock.com Figure 1.14 Health literacy helps you to analyze advertisements, such as this one. What health claim is being made in this advertisement?