The health of an individual, much less the health of a community, relies on a complex, interconnected system. Maintaining a healthy weight helps your heart. Having access to good food choices affects obesity rates in any community. Individual choices and large-scale policies can both make a difference. An alternative approach may help one patient, a high-tech solution help another. So in Asheville and Buncombe County, how do these and other factors all fit together? And what can we do about it?
In this first part of a two-issue look at both broad questions and specific ideas, we give Buncombe County a check up, explore where alternative and traditional medicine meet, note Asheville City Council’s adoption of a Food Action Plan, and report some of the health-and-wellness news that comes across our desk each day. We invite you to explore the topic with us.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR WELLNESS SECTION
Rutherford Regional, Mission move closer to merger
Caitlin Byrd
Vital signs: Taking Buncombe County’s pulse
Caitlin Byrd
Common ground: Conventional, alternative medicine meet in the middle
David Forbes
Wellness: Connecting the dots
Caitlin Byrd
Mental-health agency closes budget gap, seeks new leaders
Tracy Rose
A nourishing policy: Asheville adopts Food Action plan
Emily Patrick and David Forbes
Mental-health agency closes budget gap, seeks new leaders
Tracy Rose
