Prior to the 1950s except for the period of rationing in World War II, most people in the industrialized Western world consumed what would be considered today an unhealthy diet and they were unlikely to take seriously the health impacts of smoking or regular alcohol consumption. Three discoveries from the 19th century had helped to increase life expectancy: these were vaccines, improved sanitation and better hygiene, but even until the 1920s, life expectancy in the US remained below 60. It was only through the prescription of antibiotics from the 1940s, increasing incomes and better standards of living that life expectancy figures began to rise. Not only did antibiotics revolutionize the treatment of many diseases, but national health services were also established after World War II where free and available healthcare began to be seen as a human right.
Health in the Western world however, still tended to be centered solely on the treatment of disease, treatments that had to have their effectiveness proved in clinical trials. The widespread use of antibiotics and a focus on evidence-based medicine meant the discrediting of certain medical practices such as traditional spa cures and hydrotherapy. As a result, in the immediate post-World War II era, many such medical spa facilities and sanitoriums in both Western Europe and the US were closed down, went out of business or fell into decline. Conversely in Europe the establishment of health services and the welfare systems changed the dynamic of spa stays. During the period of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, which lasted from after World War II up until 1989, spa therapies and balneology began to be funded from a central budget as part of their important role in their health welfare systems.
The first half of the 20th century also witnessed the beginning of the popularity of the self-help movement. Whereas in the past, guidance on how to live life was to be found in religion and philosophy, people began to seek advice from popular psychology. The primary aim of these new self-help books was to enhance personal strengths and functioning rather than to alleviate the symptoms of psychological disorders. Common themes included personal growth, personal relations and coping with stress. Samuel Smile’s Self-help (the 19th-century book that launched the self-help movement), had put the onus on the individual to develop and improve themselves. This was a continuing message of bestselling self-help books in the first half of the 20th Century. These included Napoleon Hill’s Think Rich and Grow Rich (1937), a book that promoted finding your passion in order to be financially successful, and Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936). Both books are still bestsellers today and have become icons of the self-help movement.
At the same time, an organization was created that also contributed greatly to the development of the self-help movement, known as alcoholics anonymous or AA. By the 1930s, the prohibition of alcohol in the US had ended and there was a dramatic increase in the consumption of alcohol. An organization for alcoholism addiction was set up in the late 1930s by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith containing a 12-step system that included: admitting the addiction, trusting in God or a higher power and helping others with the affliction. This program was later adapted for other addictions such as compulsive eating, gambling and drug addictions. The recognition of the AA movement is important as its steps and philosophy have influenced many self-help books, and the threads of its message are still evident in people who define themselves as spiritual as opposed to religious.
The 1950s were characterized by an economic post-World War II boom, particularly in the US. America was the world’s leading military power and cars, suburban houses and consumer goods became available to more people as they had more money to spend. In this decade the suburban lifestyle was seen and promoted as the ideal. It encouraged women to leave the workforce (many women had been in employment in World War II) and embrace their roles as wives and mothers. Advice books and magazine articles with titles such as Don’t Be Afraid to Marry Young or Femininity begins at home as well as adverts and films displaying women in traditional roles were widespread. It was in this post-WWII era that antibiotics, antivirals and later the birth control pill (the first lifestyle drug), improved not just life expectancy, but also the quality of life for everyday citizens, particularly for women.
1950s America was a conservative era of traditional values marked by the McCarthy trials (a crackdown on liberal thought). In the West, capitalism and individual freedom were pitted against a global socialist expansion, defended by a growing number of evangelical Christians inspired by preachers such as Billy Graham. It was against this background of Christian values, the power of faith and positive thinking that Norman Vincent Peale was inspired to write his series of self-help books. A conservative, like Samuel Smiles, he also promoted values such as personal responsibility and morality – a combination of Christ and capitalism. He also happened to be the pastor of President Donald Trump’s church and his teachings were instrumental in developing the self-confidence and self-belief associated with this president. In 1986, Trump told the New York Times “The mind can overcome any obstacle. Reverend Peale was the type of minister that I liked. He instilled a very positive feeling about God that also made me feel positive about myself”. The influence of Christianity in the personal development movement continued through the 1950s and a book was even published called Pray Your Weight Away (1957).
Hula hooping and jiving were the fitness trends most associated with this decade. While food portions were smaller than today, off-beat diets such as the Cabbage Diet and even the Domino Sugar diet where people were advised to substitute foods with sugar found their way to popularity. However, the biggest impact on health and wellness at the time was smoking. Even in the 1950s, the dangers of smoking were not yet realized by the general public; smoking was seen to be glamorous, sophisticated and portrayed by film stars as sexually alluring. While research in the 1940s had linked smoking to cancer, tobacco companies had counteracted these claims by promoting cigarettes as beneficial for certain health conditions (such as digestion) and used doctors and film stars to promote their brands. It was not until 1964 that the US Surgeon General, after reviewing more than 7,000 medical articles, concluded that smoking was indeed the reason behind the high numbers of cancer and bronchitis.
In this era of prosperity and advances in medicine, infectious diseases were superseded by lifestyle diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancers. Against this backdrop Halbert Dunn (1896 -1975) can be credited with the birth of the wellness movement as is known today and he is justly recognized as its founding father. He introduced his concept of wellness in the 1950s through a series of lectures, which then served as the basis for his book High-Level Wellness. As a medical doctor with a background in statistics, he was interested not only in disease but also in health patterns and trends, such as life expectancy and diseases of civilization (such as aforementioned cancer and cardiovascular diseases). He believed that many of the health problems were caused by the Western approach of separating the mind, body and spirit – the opposite method of ancient healing systems of the Greeks, Romans, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda. The essence of his understanding was that wellness was not just holistic but a continuum where the individual progresses towards the highest state of which they are capable, self-knowledge and awareness being key instruments to support this aim.
Because Halbert Dunn was also a statistician, he could see the impact of societal lifestyles. This meant his approach also took into consideration the external factors that influence a person’s wellness and the importance of responsibility in order to make the right lifestyle choices. As a doctor, he saw that if all areas of health are managed well, not only do people age less rapidly, but they are more effective in solving problems and in creating a more fulfilling life, particularly in their senior years. Halbert Dunn can perhaps be credited with bringing to the forefront the notion that optimum health can be achieved not only through physical means but also through recognizing the mental and spiritual components. He understood the need for balance and he stressed the need for sleep and rest in the right quantities. In addition, he advocated a balance between work and play, and emphasized the importance of social, environmental and mental wellness. Unfortunately, Dunn’s approach and book High-Level Wellness did not receive much attention, perhaps because it was too heavy in style to be embraced by the mainstream, however, what it did do was inspire others, particularly those influenced by the New Age and hippy movement, to take the concept of wellness further and break it down in such a way that ordinary people could understand. Perhaps his most important contribution to the concept of wellness was that he recognized the necessity of love as a key component, stating that, “Love is the most vital force in our society. Love and trust, these are the qualities which set mankind apart”. Whilst his teachings and ideas might seem simplistic and dated, they were undoubtably the beginning of the wellness movement as we know it today.
More information about the origins of wellness can be found in our book entitled “Wellness for the 21st Century, thriving in a post pandemic world”, now available on Amazon.