Be Active Your Way Blog - Preventing Obesity

A Vision for a Healthier, More Prosperous America

TRichards — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:41:00 -0400

As a trade association for health clubs, the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) is rightly considered an organization dedicated to promoting healthy living through physical activity.

We believe deeply that physical activity is a core component of wellness and that its reintegration into American culture is vital to reversing the chronic disease and obesity epidemics threatening our nation's future.

We are cognizant, however, of the limitations of a policy that promotes "physical activity" as a silver bullet for ending our nation's health care problems. Surely, pursuing a healthy lifestyle means more than just regularly exercising. It means adopting a whole system of healthy behaviors, broadly defined as "primary prevention."

So this May, as we celebrate National Physical Activity Month, we are announcing our new commitment to a broader policy spectrum - a spectrum founded on our belief in physical activity as the basis for healthy living - and launching an effort to raise awareness of the need for primary prevention.

The new initiative is based on "A Vision for Healthier, More Prosperous America."

The text of the vision is below.

Primary prevention - the prevention of a disease before it occurs, including regular exercise, healthy eating, avoidance of tobacco and other controlled substances, stress management, and routine medical exams - is critical to public health and our country's future economic competitiveness.

It saves lives, encourages increased individual responsibility, increases worker productivity, and lowers federal health expenditures.

As individuals, professionals, and taxpayers, we must recognize the valuable and dramatic role that primary prevention plays in reducing the devastating toll that chronic diseases have taken on our country. And we must support preventative lifestyle practices for all Americans.

Since the late 1980's, roughly two-thirds of the increase in U.S. health care spending has been due to the increased prevalence of treated chronic disease. Today, about half of all Americans suffer from one or more chronic diseases. A greater emphasis on primary prevention would significantly reduce the annual cost of treating chronic disease (currently $1.5 trillion) in the United States.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, primary prevention may prevent 80% of heart disease and stroke, 80% of type 2 diabetes, and 40% of cancer. A greater emphasis on primary prevention would significantly reduce the incidence rate of preventable chronic disease.

Individually and collectively, we must help our citizens, legislators, and community leaders understand and respond to the documented correlation between chronic disease and primary prevention. We must actively promote public policies and principles - such as financial incentives - that promote primary prevention and personal responsibility, and that remove barriers to healthy lifestyle choices.

We also must support businesses, health professionals, and local public health communities in their efforts to promote primary prevention as well.

What do you think of this vision?

Can We Catch "Healthy Lifestyles" from Our Co-Workers?

TRichards — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:49:00 -0400

We know from research that obesity can spread through social networks like an infectious disease.

In fact, one model suggests that the rate of transmission has been steadily increasing and may result in an obesity rate that stabilizes at 42% of the population. Of course, research predicting a 42% obesity rate is troubling and alarming, but it also begs a very hopeful question for policymakers: can we start an epidemic of infectious healthy living?

The question has profound implications for wellness programming, particularly in the area of workplace wellness, where an individual can have long exposure to a static social network. For example, the Partnership for Prevention, in it's publication Leading by Example: The Value of Worksite Health Promotion to Small- and Medium-Sized Employers, challenges organizations to "[d]efine, create, and sustain a culture of health that supports your health promotion goals and values." By changing the culture of health, it is presumed, an organization can change the behavior of its social networks.

The Worksite Sector of the National Physical Activity Plan takes the idea one step further. The sector promotes the importance of creating not just a culture of health at the workplace, but also a supportive environment for physically active lifestyles. It's a somewhat novel argument, but one rapidly gaining acceptance in light of the health and economic benefits of exercise.

The Worksite Sector - co-chaired by the American Council on Exercise, the American Heart Association, and the International Health Racquet & Sportsclub Association - is currently working on three strategies for promoting physical activity in the workplace:

Identify best practices and model interventions;
Develop a multi-communication and outreach plan designed to engage, inform and inspire leaders to promote active lifestyles in organizations, industries and local communities; and
Develop legislation and policy agendas that promote employer-sponsored physical activity, while protecting individual employees' and dependents' rights.

IHRSA is thrilled by the progress of the sector, some of which was chronicled in the first edition of the National Physical Activity Plan e-newsletter. Driven by remarkable group of strategy leaders and advisors, the sector has begun to lay the groundwork for a fundamental and sustainable transformation of the workplace environment. If work is truly a second home for many Americans, we look forward to the day when the second home is as wonderfully active as the first.

In many ways, the sector approach of the National Physical Activity Plan resembles a grand experiment into whether we can create an epidemic of healthy living. It will be a study of whether the inspiration to live a more active life may be introduced and subsequently thrive in a particular community. Inspiration alone, however, will surely not be enough; it will take thousands of champions from every sector to push the experiment ahead, and I'm looking forward to compelling America's worksite leaders to start pushing.

Do you know a worksite or business leader who would support the goals of the National Physical Activity Plan?

Commemorating the First Anniversary of Let’s Move

SLier — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:00:00 -0400

As we celebrate the first anniversary of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative, we want to convey to you how thrilled we are that Let’s Move is relying on the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. We are especially pleased that the guidelines are incorporated as the Get Active pillar of Let’s Move. During its first year, this initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation, has built tremendous momentum and has come alive in hundreds of communities across the nation.

Everyone can get involved in Let’s Move. Parents, community leaders, chefs or kids, all have a role in fighting childhood obesity. Get involved: http://www.letsmove.gov/action.php #letsmove”

The President’s Council of Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition is setting the pace for Let’s Move with the Million PALA challenge. All it takes to win The Presidential Active Lifestyle Award or PALA is 60 minutes of physical activity for kids and 30 minutes for adults, five days a week for six weeks. We are supporters of the President’s Council in this challenge and encourage everyone to participate. The First Lady has earned her PALA award, and if she can do it as one of the busiest ladies in our country, so can the rest of us.

Congratulations to Let’s Move! What are you doing to get your community moving?

Exergaming and Physical Activity

SLier — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:54:00 -0400

Video games, along with television and computers, are often maligned as a major culprit in the obesity epidemic in America. Given the coincidence between the obesity epidemic and the onslaught of media (a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one in five 8 to 18 year olds are exposed to at least 16 hours of media a day!), it’s really not a stretch to see that this is the case.

However, recently, home gaming platforms, particularly Nintendo’s Wii, have received considerable attention and research funding to explore their potential in increasing physical activity. For example, some schools in New York City have developed pilot programs to have kids satisfy their gym requirement by playing Wii Fit 4 hours per week. The new term to describe this practice is “exergaming.”

One of the benefits of exergaming is its inherent entertainment factor. Kids (and adults) love games because they’re fun, social, and captivating. While exercising with the general goal of long-term health in mind is noble, it is difficult to remain motivated when there are more immediate needs to attend to, and you can always put your exercise off “until tomorrow”. Video games provide an engaging, immediate goal to attain, which coupled with a required physical activity can be a far less painful way to burn calories than logging endless hours on a treadmill. Video games have actually been shown to distract from physically painful stimuli, allowing people to tolerate pain longer. As with any other exercise regimen, exergaming is only useful if people stick to it and really exert themselves. Once the initial novelty wears off, these games can be just as tedious as trudging to the gym.

Is exergaming a sufficient way to get the recommended physical activity into our busy schedules? Compared to sedentary video games, active games are beyond a doubt a better choice. On average, kids expend only about 107 calories per hour playing sedentary games, which have also been shown to increase snacking behavior while playing: a double whammy for developing an obesogenic culture. In comparison, an hour of Wii boxing burns an average of about 174 calories. This is a definite improvement on sedentary gaming, however, keep in mind that one study showed that in doing an hour of real boxing, a kid expends 382 calories.

Does the hour of Wii boxing constitute the hour of physical activity suggested by the guidelines for children and adults?

According to the American College of Sports Medicine the answer is yes- so long as the activity gets the heart rate up sufficiently. This level of exertion varies with age and physical fitness level. For the physically fit gamer, home gaming systems don’t provide enough intensity for the games to be counted towards the daily physical activity recommendations, though games are certainly a good way to get together with friends and family or relax after a long day.

But for older adults who need get back into exercise, people who are undergoing rehab, or those who have limited mobility in general, exergaming is an engaging and comfortable way of getting exercise, which can very well serve as your physical activity for the day. You might be surprised to think of introducing older generations to video games, but according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, over half of adults regularly play video games already, making exergaming an obvious option for people who are already familiar with the systems.

How do you think exergaming can be incorporated into the physical activity recommendations?

Sanna Ronkainen B.A.
Guest blogger

Dedicating Awareness Months to Helping Families Avoid Obesity by Physical Activity

LCulver — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:16:00 -0400

Montefiore Medical Center Physical Therapy Department promoted physical activity by sponsoring a two-mile run/walk to benefit B'N Fit, a Montefiore program that teaches teens how to adopt healthy, physically active lifestyles.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 68% of adults over the age of 20 are either overweight or obese.

With Americans' health challenges in mind, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) dedicated October’s annual National Physical Therapy Month (NPTM) to letting people know that children and adults ― both able-bodied and differently-abled ― can help prevent obesity and its consequences by following the HHS Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. We chose to place our emphasis on obesity prevention

According to a 2009 PEW Research Center study, 61 percent of American adults look online for medical help. Knowing this we decided to engage our audience by hosting a Tweet Chat. We partnered with AOL’s “That’s Fit,” a popular, interactive, online fitness, health and wellness resource to host the chat and addressed issues related to the role of physical activity in staying fit, starting an exercise regimen, and exercise considerations for people who are obese and/or have type 2 diabetes. We found that this was a great addition to our PR efforts, as our post-chat report indicated that we reached an estimated audience of 81,000. We plan to incorporate social media into our NPTM efforts for the foreseeable future and we plan to encourage our members to make social media part of their own efforts.

We developed a variety of materials for members, the media, and the public. For APTA members, the NPTM Web page featured new additions to our “staple” resources such as sample Facebook and Twitter posts and a downloadable board game. For the public and the media, we included some of the above, with links to HHS physical activity guidelines, including guidelines for adults with disabilities and health conditions such as type 2 diabetes. We also posted a “physical activity” page on our consumer Web site that included information from our press release and links to our Find-a-PT database and a YouTube video about physical activities for kids of all abilities.

It was satisfying to see the creative ways in which members got the word out in their communities. These included free community lectures, booths at local health fairs, a run/walk to benefit a program that teaches teens how to adopt healthy, physically active lifestyles, and a professor and her students visiting all three national morning shows. We always ask for members to send us their photos and descriptions of their events so we can showcase them on our NPTM page. We also provide links to the previous years’ descriptions and photos so members can get ideas for the current year.