Public Health
Conquering obesity improves lives
|
|
I’ve written many times that we are the fattest society the world has ever seen, and we are getting fatter year by year, and at a faster rate. We lead the world in obesity, but, unfortunately, many parts of the world seem determined to catch us.
The World Health Organization projects that from 2005 to 2015, the incidence of overweight adults worldwide will increase from 1.6 billion to 2.3 billion, and the incidence of obesity will increase from 300 million to 700 million. These trends, if ignored, foreshadow severe implications for the future, both human and economic.
The human cost in terms of compromised and ruined lives from chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is obvious.
Let’s Move! The Obama Campaign against Childhood Obesity
|
|
Childhood overweight and obesity is a serious problem globally. One of the hardest hit countries is the United States, where half of children are overweight for their age. As such, First Lady Michelle Obama has launched an important program called Let’s Move to try to find ways to deal with the problem - and it deserves a lot of attention!
Let’s Move aims to help families manage and prevent childhood obesity from four vantage points:
* helping parents make healthy choices for their kids
* finding ways to make the school environment healthier
* increasing physical activity
* finding ways to access healthy and affordable food
L.A. obesity summit will feature Schwarzenegger, Clinton
|
|
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former President Clinton are scheduled to attend a summit on health, nutrition and obesity in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
The governor, a former bodybuilder who has long advocated healthy living and exercise, will join with health professionals, educators and others to discuss ways California can combat obesity and promote physical fitness.
In a statement, the governor cited several efforts he has supported to combat obesity in California, including requirements that some vending machines include healthy foods, that larger restaurant chains have nutritional information on menus and that some junk foods be removed from school campuses.
Bill Clinton fights childhood obesity after his 2nd heart surgery: South Florida schools fight too
|
|
“More than ever, we as parents and a nation must do something about the growth of obesity in our children. We must do more than just talk, we must be concerned enough to act.”—Lee Haney
Former President Bill Clinton received a second wake up call three weeks ago warning him to change his lifestyle and eating habits. After an emergency trip to the hospital and an hour long, life saving heart surgery to unclog his blocked arteries, he is doing amazingly well. Six years after a quadruple bypass heart surgery, Ex-president Clinton was given a second chance at life that he is now taking very seriously.
Clinton stated, “I have been working too hard and sleeping too little and not exercising too little.” So what will he change? The former president stated, “I’m exercising more, I’m sleeping more and I’m trying to be even more rigorous about the diet… Lots of fruits and vegetables and salads.”
Pelosi: Lawmaker healthcare concerns can be satisfied
|
|
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she was confident of satisfying Democratic concerns about a Senate-approved healthcare bill and passing the measure.
Pelosi made the comment at her weekly news conference - just hours after one lawmaker said a dozen House Democrats opposed to abortion were willing to kill the legislation unless it satisfies their demand for language barring federal funding of the procedure.
Their threat to kill healthcare reform came a day after President Barack Obama launched a final push to pass the overhaul, a top domestic priority, and urged Democrats in Congress to vote on the bill this month, even without Republican support.
Chinese youth accused of not being fighting fit
|
|
China must urgently address the physical fitness of the nation’s youth or run the risk of raising a generation incapable of fighting the Japanese in a future war, the head of the country’s top sports university said Thursday.
The government must immediately invest some of its new wealth in ensuring that children take regular exercise, Beijing Sports University president Yang Hua told the sports group of the largely ceremonial advisory body to China’s annual parliament.
“It is time for the Chinese nation to improve the physical fitness of our next generation,” said Yang. “If we miss the next three to five years a whole generation will be next to useless.
Europe soccer stadiums unprepared for heart attacks
|
|
Many of Europe’s top soccer stadiums haven’t got the equipment or trained staff to save the lives of spectators who suffer heart attacks, researchers said on Wednesday.
New research published online in the European Heart Journal said that more than a quarter of the 187 top sports arenas that were studied in 10 European countries did not have automated external defibrillators on site, action plans or training in place to help fans who had heart attacks.
Study author Mats Borjesson is chairman of the sports cardiology section of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR) and also a club doctor at elite level for both the Swedish premier division football team GAIS and the Swedish national women’s football team.
US examining possible effects of bisphenol A
|
|
The federal agency that investigates health risks is concerned that the chemical bisphenol A may harm people and is spending $20 million to study the substance, widely used in food containers, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has launched 11 new animal studies to investigate the possible effects of bisphenol A or BPA, NIEHS director Linda Birnbaum told Congress.
“There are concerns about multiple possible health effects of BPA exposure,” Birnbaum told a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Energy and Environment Subcommittee.
Albemarle obesity, smoking rates high
|
|
Roughly a fifth of Albemarle area residents don’t have health insurance and are considered to be in either poor or fair health, according to a recent analysis of state health data.
The analysis, compiled by the University of Wisconsin Population Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also found that roughly a third of area residents smoke and a third are obese, while about 13 percent are considered binge drinkers.
The analysis, “County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health,” examined health data for every county in the United States and then ranked counties according to two categories: overall health outcomes and health factors.
Ca. Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Actions to Fight Obesity, Promote Healthy Living
|
|
Following a moderated discussion with President Clinton at the Governor’s 2010 Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity: Actions for Healthy Living, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced eight specific actions he will pursue to support healthy living in California. The actions announced by the Governor will fight childhood obesity and encourage all Californians to live a healthy, active lifestyle through promoting healthy beverages, increasing physical activity and incorporating the idea of “health in all policies.”
“My top priorities include the health and well-being of our children and all Californians, and reducing obesity will help improve both,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “At the 2010 Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity, we discussed the link between fitness and educational success, the importance of making sure kids have healthy beverages and water available at school and the relationship between the environments that we live, work, study and play in and access to physical activities, like walking and riding bikes, and healthy food choices. Now I want to take what was discussed at the Summit and turn our state goals into action that will attack obesity on every level and create a healthy foundation for California’s future.”
Since taking office, Governor Schwarzenegger has led the fight against California’s obesity epidemic and the actions he announced today will continue the state’s legacy of promoting healthy living and active lifestyles. The Governor’s 2010 Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity brought together a cross-section of public health, education, community and local government leaders from around the state who have been active in promoting healthy eating, physical fitness and community-level health efforts.
ChildCare Education Institute Supports the First Lady’s Efforts to Reduce Childhood Obesity
|
|
ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI) gives child care professionals the opportunity to aid the campaign against childhood obesity. Child care staff can enroll in HLTH100: Early Childhood Obesity, at no cost, and learn strategies for combating childhood obesity.
Child care providers are responsible for ensuring the health of the children in their care, including providing healthy food choices. HLTH100: Early Childhood Obesity provides child care staff with practical strategies to address childhood obesity in the early care setting. Students will learn to define obesity, identify the causes of obesity and determine risk factors. Students completing the course will be awarded 0.1 IACET CEU and receive a certificate of completion.
“This is an outstanding opportunity for child care staff to learn new skills and aid in the campaign to reduce childhood obesity. The knowledge gained from completing HLTH100: Early Childhood Obesity has the potential to affect over 14 million children currently in early child care settings. If every child care provider completed the course and implemented the strategies in their classroom, it would make a huge impact on the campaign against childhood obesity,” said Maria C. Taylor, President and CEO of CCEI.
We Need To End the Obesity Epidemic
|
|
Forget the health care crisis.
This country is in the midst of a health crisis—we are simply in worse health now than we were a decade ago. The trend lines are pointing in the wrong direction. And it all starts with obesity.
When you think about it, the U.S. has done a terrific job catering to our worst impulses. Calories are cheap, and so we eat too many burgers and sodas (200 calories of good food are considerably more expensive than 200 calories of processed, fattening foods, as these pictures demonstrate). Entertainment is free and ubiquitous, so we plop down in front of our television sets for hours a day (in fact, researchers have found that the more hours people watch TV, the fatter they tend to be).
Obesity Related Strokes on the Rise in America’s Youth
|
|
Strokes have always been associated with the elderly population but that is changing according to a new study. The study revealed some startling information about the dramatic increase of strokes in people under the age of 45.
The group that saw the biggest increase were young whites between 20 and 45 years old. The statistics show that 25 out of 100,000 individuals are likely to have a stroke. This number is up from just 12 in 100,000. The average age of a stroke victim in 1993 was 71, today it is 68.
Dr. Brett Kissela led the study after treating a high level of stroke patients under the age of 50. Kissela based his results on patient information collected between 1993 and 2005 from five counties in Ohio and Kentucky. Kentucky has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in the country with 38 percent of the youth considered to be obese.
Cheney out of hospital after mild heart attack
|
|
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was discharged from a Washington hospital on Wednesday after being treated for a mild heart attack, his fifth in 32 years.
Cheney’s office said Cheney was “feeling good this morning” and released from George Washington University Hospital.
“He will resume his normal schedule shortly,” a statement said.
Diabetes to exact huge costs on poor countries
|
|
Diabetes and its complications - such as strokes and heart disease - will place an enormous financial burden on poorer countries in years to come, researchers warned in a report published Tuesday.
“Diabetes is moving from being a disease of developed countries to a disease in developing countries like India and China, and this could put pressure on healthcare systems through rising healthcare costs,” said Philip Clarke, associate professor at University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.
Clarke and his colleagues examined records of 11,140 patients with severe diabetes in 20 countries, including the complications they suffered, money spent and length of hospital stays.
