About 200 recent studies have shown reading difficulty of most health related materials FAR exceeds average reading abilities of American adult. One of biggest silent health problems today is gap between health materials and reading skills.

In United States, average reading level is eighth grade. In 1992, Educational Testing Service determined that half U.S. adults read at between first and eight grade level. That is about 148 million people. It gets worse. One quarter of Americans read BELOW FOURTH GRADE level, meaning 74 million people would struggle with even simplest, most well written health materials.

Does it matter? Do you remember anthrax scare, when someone was putting deadly white powder into our mail system?

During that terrorist scare, U.S. post office mailed millions of post cards to Americans. The post cards told people how to protect themselves from deadly infection. They gave instructions on how to handle and report suspicious mail. These post cards were written at between ninth and eleventh grade reading level.

More than half people who got that mailing could not read it well enough to protect themselves and others. Does it matter? Do 148 million people matter? Will it matter next time terrorists strike?

Do you remember mailing Surgeon General sent out explaining how to avoid contracting HIV? He made every effort to see that it was written in clear, simple language. He got criticism for just how plain talking it was in places. A later evaluation of that document showed that it was written at between seventh and ninth grade level. Half people receiving it read at a level BELOW what was required to read it. No wonder infection keeps spreading.

Low self esteem or fearfulness looks like slouched shoulders; head down, arms folded in front or in pockets. Confidence looks like walking tall, shoulders back, head up, eye to eye contact, arms at side. One statistic revealed that those trained in martial arts are less likely to ever be attacked because of way they carry themselves. They’ve been trained to defend themselves and to not take a weak position. They have confidence.

Try this experiment. The next time you’re in a public place, mall, grocery store, beach, no matter, walk past all people and look them directly in eye. You might want to smile a little or offer a “how ya doin’?” so they don’t think you’re stalking them. You’ll be amazed at number of people who will not look at you. They’ll look down or away but not at you. Of course, in some cultures it’s not proper to look people in eye. Be sensitive to that. But in many circles you will find it hard to find 10 people who will look at you.