Hey-hey-hey!
Long time no writing, but that's no news! Sorry anyway, and just so you know - I have new exciting plans, which will also likely lead to more regular as well as clearer posting.
Namely, I want to start a new website for sharing health advice - one which I hope will be much more interactive, so that you can ask whatever might concern you and I can do my best to write about these topics. Hopefully a nice and simple place where one can get credible, science-based advice, with no fuss or confusion, where I promise that I will say if I don't know something and not try to cover it up by sharing vague or otherwise strange tips. Also, where one is not judged because of asking something that "everybody should know".
The truth is that I haven't been posting anything here recently, because while I was busy graduating my MSc and with that my 7-year health-learning-journey, I was also (too) busy getting ever-increasingly frustrated with the "health" world.
I think it was in 2012, where I wrote in a post that "health industry only exists because it doesn't work. Or what?" and mind me, at that time, I think there must have been only half as many online/social-media health advisers and apps available as there is now.
And it really seems to me that the number of advisers and the number of different advises available is growing simultaneously. To an extent, this is of course understandable, but taken that it all is (or should be) based on the same science, we'd expect that increased means of communication would only mean more voices speaking the same thing. But I guess as we all have noticed, this is not the case.
And then, out of respect to my own field (and also with a bit of fear as a freshly graduated job seeker) I did not want to write about this. But as I wanted this post to somehow conclude my 7-year all-blogged-up-health-studying-journey, I could also not write without mentioning it.
So my two big conclusions are:
1) I am frustrated with the current arrangements in the health promotion/science/industry. I think that science is doing a good job figuring out what is healthy for us and also in how to undertake a healthy behavior change. Or even not figuring out, but just proving, since it has shown (for a long time already) that our bodies just want to live like they are used to - eat fresh foods and not sit all day long and that this is also good for our mental health. So..as humans we all already know what is healthy and now science has proved that too. And even health science has moved on from that long time ago and is nowadays concerning itself with all new aspects or further insights.
Yet, the sharing of this knowledge, seems somehow not to have succeeded and instead, made a whole big mess out of a simple thing. Sometimes, for example, I forget something I have learned and try to google it, and looking at all the information that comes up, it is no wonder that people are so confused still. One almost can't expect there to be any health knowledge that "everybody knows", just because there are so many sources with so many different "advises". And even when something seems to be logical and science based and clearly communicated, there will be so many comments claiming that it is wrong and giving their own advice. I mean, how is one supposed to know anything? So, when I forget something, I don't google but pubmed. But then again, not everyone is meant to be able to figure out their answer from pubmed results. So, it seems to me, that while currently health promotion is the most important place to be for a health professional, it is also the most challenging one.
(I'm not sure if this link works, but if it does, then I think maybe this could well apply to a large part of the contemporary health promotion: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSeeMore/videos/2615240601857161/)
2) I don't know how to blog here, because it is confusing, being a blog about my personal life and also about what I think of health. Especially nowadays that this blog somehow suddenly has so many readers (even when I dont post new things :O?!) and I have no idea who they are or if they(you) want to read about me or health.
Therefore, having solved my professional dilemma between science and health promotion by finding myself an amazing place at a company, developing and providing scientific DNA-based health-advice to general population and athletes, I have also decided to try and improve health promotion by myself with my new (soon to come) website.
I haven't started it yet, but I think that it will be nice. It will be called Healthyway, to illustrate the focus on both the physiological health as well as on the mental side, or the "way" to get there. Both of which, I hope that I can now help you with, using the knowledge I've gained along the way. I'll make sure to update you here and on FB and maybe even in real life as soon as its all official :).
This blog can then, meanwhile, continue as my own personal blog for not necessarily science-based thoughts, which hopefully will improve both the writing and the reading experience ;). Of course it will have to be a little bit about health, because that's the topic I think most often about and also, simply because I have one (:D), but I also have a whole bunch of other thoughts that I'd like to write about, which will hopefully seem more in place once the focus of the blog is not anymore the health-student-life of Kirsi Kaups.
But to end this symbolic post, I present you a historic overview of all the major graduations of my life. So luckily always surrounded by the same happy people <3 <3.
Long time no writing, but that's no news! Sorry anyway, and just so you know - I have new exciting plans, which will also likely lead to more regular as well as clearer posting.
Namely, I want to start a new website for sharing health advice - one which I hope will be much more interactive, so that you can ask whatever might concern you and I can do my best to write about these topics. Hopefully a nice and simple place where one can get credible, science-based advice, with no fuss or confusion, where I promise that I will say if I don't know something and not try to cover it up by sharing vague or otherwise strange tips. Also, where one is not judged because of asking something that "everybody should know".
The truth is that I haven't been posting anything here recently, because while I was busy graduating my MSc and with that my 7-year health-learning-journey, I was also (too) busy getting ever-increasingly frustrated with the "health" world.
I think it was in 2012, where I wrote in a post that "health industry only exists because it doesn't work. Or what?" and mind me, at that time, I think there must have been only half as many online/social-media health advisers and apps available as there is now.
And it really seems to me that the number of advisers and the number of different advises available is growing simultaneously. To an extent, this is of course understandable, but taken that it all is (or should be) based on the same science, we'd expect that increased means of communication would only mean more voices speaking the same thing. But I guess as we all have noticed, this is not the case.
And then, out of respect to my own field (and also with a bit of fear as a freshly graduated job seeker) I did not want to write about this. But as I wanted this post to somehow conclude my 7-year all-blogged-up-health-studying-journey, I could also not write without mentioning it.
So my two big conclusions are:
1) I am frustrated with the current arrangements in the health promotion/science/industry. I think that science is doing a good job figuring out what is healthy for us and also in how to undertake a healthy behavior change. Or even not figuring out, but just proving, since it has shown (for a long time already) that our bodies just want to live like they are used to - eat fresh foods and not sit all day long and that this is also good for our mental health. So..as humans we all already know what is healthy and now science has proved that too. And even health science has moved on from that long time ago and is nowadays concerning itself with all new aspects or further insights.
Yet, the sharing of this knowledge, seems somehow not to have succeeded and instead, made a whole big mess out of a simple thing. Sometimes, for example, I forget something I have learned and try to google it, and looking at all the information that comes up, it is no wonder that people are so confused still. One almost can't expect there to be any health knowledge that "everybody knows", just because there are so many sources with so many different "advises". And even when something seems to be logical and science based and clearly communicated, there will be so many comments claiming that it is wrong and giving their own advice. I mean, how is one supposed to know anything? So, when I forget something, I don't google but pubmed. But then again, not everyone is meant to be able to figure out their answer from pubmed results. So, it seems to me, that while currently health promotion is the most important place to be for a health professional, it is also the most challenging one.
(I'm not sure if this link works, but if it does, then I think maybe this could well apply to a large part of the contemporary health promotion: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSeeMore/videos/2615240601857161/)
2) I don't know how to blog here, because it is confusing, being a blog about my personal life and also about what I think of health. Especially nowadays that this blog somehow suddenly has so many readers (even when I dont post new things :O?!) and I have no idea who they are or if they(you) want to read about me or health.
Therefore, having solved my professional dilemma between science and health promotion by finding myself an amazing place at a company, developing and providing scientific DNA-based health-advice to general population and athletes, I have also decided to try and improve health promotion by myself with my new (soon to come) website.
I haven't started it yet, but I think that it will be nice. It will be called Healthyway, to illustrate the focus on both the physiological health as well as on the mental side, or the "way" to get there. Both of which, I hope that I can now help you with, using the knowledge I've gained along the way. I'll make sure to update you here and on FB and maybe even in real life as soon as its all official :).
This blog can then, meanwhile, continue as my own personal blog for not necessarily science-based thoughts, which hopefully will improve both the writing and the reading experience ;). Of course it will have to be a little bit about health, because that's the topic I think most often about and also, simply because I have one (:D), but I also have a whole bunch of other thoughts that I'd like to write about, which will hopefully seem more in place once the focus of the blog is not anymore the health-student-life of Kirsi Kaups.
But to end this symbolic post, I present you a historic overview of all the major graduations of my life. So luckily always surrounded by the same happy people <3 <3.
 |
| This is actually my birthday, but I got 7, so it counts as kindergarten graduation ;) |
 |
| Basic school :) |
 |
| High school |
 |
| BSc (I think one can see from our faces that Agnes is taking the photo :D <3 <3. And I also, for the same reasons, think the first one is taken by mom ;D <3) |
 |
| MSc |
...
Whether or not there will be a PhD or will my new job be too much fun, only time will show ;)
All the best,
me!
p.s. in case you still wonder - the heading did not have anything to do with the post itself indeed. I just returned to my old, but never forgotten habit of random once more. And it went so well with the blog name.
