Large Waist Size Doubles Risk of Premature Death

This is a very interesting article I ran across in Muscular Development magazine. The article explores new findings by the New England Journal of Medicine which examined the relationship between waist size and death rates.

"Sixty-six percent of Americans are obese or overweight. Excess fat increases the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, stroke, and sudden death. A large European population study that tracked nearly 400,000 people for nearly 10 years showed that fat distribution was more important than total fat for predicting the risk of death.

Researchers measured body mass index (BMI; a measure of the proportion of height to weight). waist circumference, and waist to hip ratio. They also gathered data on education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, and exercise. People with the highest waist circumference (top 25%) increased the risk of death during this period by 105%, while those with the highest waist to hip ratios increase their risk by 78%.

BMI, a rough measure of obesity, was also related to an increased risk of death, but it was not nearly as significant as markers of high abdominal fat. The lowest risk of death linked to BMI was 25.3 for men and 24.3 for women. Waist size is a simple and accurate measure for determining general health status and the relative risk of death." (New England Journal of Medicine, 359:2105-2120,2008)

The Need for More Effective Physical Education in Schools

Why We Need Physical Education in
Schools

According to the National Association of Sport and Physical Education less than 6% of schools provide daily physical education classes. No wonder our children don't participate in physical activity at school (only 15% of all students participate in PE class at least 2 times a week)- our schools don't provide them the opportunity to do so!


Inactive in school, many of these students return home and sit in front of the television, play video games or surf the internet. According to the recent Youth Risk and Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) study over 43% of adolescents watch more than 2 hours of television a day and the average 12-19 year old spends 15.6 hours on the computer a week.



The effects of physical inactivity in school and at home help explain why many of our nation's youth have become obese and overweight.

I believe our schools need to be doing more to provide our children with the opportunities for physical education and healthy eating as well as educating them about a healthy lifestyle.

During the 9 months school is in session our students spend 50% of their time and eat 50% of their calories in school. It seems to me that schools are the perfect place to attack the childhood obesity epidemic!

That's why FitZees will be working with schools districts to provide students with more physical education classes and after school athletic programming. We will also be partnering with community centers and local gyms to provide students opportunities for physical activity outside of school.

Schools should look to the power exercise can have in relieving many of their problems. Integrating exercise into the broader curriculum could solve many of the behavioral, health and academic problems schools face today.

The health benefits associated with exercise are obvious, but exercise's other two benefits- improved student performance and improved behavior in the classroom may not be so obvious.

The work of Dr. John Ratney from Harvard University has shown exercise to enhance both cognition and student performance. His book Spark as well as Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina outline the positive benefits exercise can have on the brain.

Central Naperville High School of Illinois proves what Dr. John Ratney and Dr. John Medina have found in their research. Through an emphasis on physical education and an integration of exercise into the broader curriculum Central Naperville has seen an improvement in its student's academic performance and behavior in the classroom (watch video here).

Not to mention the success they have had in preventing childhood obesity. The rate of obesity in their school is 3%, whereas the national average is 20%.

What more could educators want? Healthier and better behaved kids and higher test scores. All because of exercise!

We should be providing greater opportunities for physical activity as well as educating our children in the classroom of what constitutes healthy living.

There are two parts to the phrase "physical education", but for some reason traditional PE classes seems to ignore the second part: education. Educators should require an education component, with lessons, readings and tests to PE class just like any other core class. That's what the teachers from Central Naperville have done and look at the success they have had.

At a time when we are cutting back budgets, we need to be investing in our kids future and that means investing in ways to expand our physical education offerings and make them more effective.

Check Out This Free Online Health Questionnaire

Today I ran across a Health Question Form from Summit Health Products which is one of the best free online health questionnaires I have seen. It covers everything from your diet to your mental/spiritual state, sleep habits and overall lifestyle. The questionnaire also has you state five lifestyle changes/goals so that it can evaluate your health based upon what your lifestyle goals are. Your results can be emailed, faxed or read over the phone to you by a Summit Health Professional. I encourage you to take the time and fill it out (Get it Here).

Pouring on the Pounds?

Here is a new public advertisement meant to help out New York Governor Paterson's campaign to create a tax on sugary drinks that have been proven to contribute to the obesity epidemic. Governor Paterson proposes an 18% tax on all non-diet sodas and I have to say I agree 100%.



We have made smoking a social taboo, and raised the tax to the point that some people just can afford to smoke an $8 pack of cigarettes. Why not do the same with foods that make us fat? The obesity tax as it is called, if passed has the potential to set a precedent that would make it easier to tax fast-food, sugary foods and other junk food that have no nutritional value and just make us bigger as a nation. I applaud Governor Paterson and NYC's ad campaign and I only hope the Rhode Island legislature can be as supportive when I propose a similar tax this coming fall.

Hip to be Round?

New York Times Reports on the Hipness of Being Round







Today I ran across a New York times article (check it out here) that reports on the growing prevalence of young men's pot bellies in New York City. Well the author's evidence is all anecdotal, it probably is not too far from the truth. We are all becoming bigger as a country as we exercise less and eat whatever we want.

The author comments on the sad reality that many young people don't work out. Many for lack of motivation. As the author says, guys can get away with having a pot belly and still get the girl they want. If you can still get the girl, do whatever you'd like and live a happy life than why workout?

Such is our attitude to exercise and eating healthy since its benefits are not immediate. In the near term we can eat junk food, not be physically active and it wont have a huge impact on our daily lives. Except for the 10-15 pounds we gain a year.

We think of the environment in very much the same way. The constant harm we do to the environment does not show up in our daily lives so we do not consider it one of our top priorities. But when the time comes that the environment does impact us on a regular basis it will be too late to fix.

The same goes for living a healthy lifestyle. The immediate effects of not exercising and eating unhealthy are not life-threatening. Sure the extra ten pounds you put on last year might mean that your clothes fit tighter, you are more self-conscious when you go to the beach, but neither of those is usually enough to motivate us to make a lifestyle change.

This motivation to start living healthy usually starts when the doctor tells us we have hypertension, diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Or tells us directly that we have to lose weight or else.

Usually at this point it is too late. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease while manageable, are irreversible. So are stretch marks and fat cells. If that's not enough, the extra pounds around our abdomen increase our risk of cancer two-three fold.

Knowing many people that live with diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease I can tell you that none of the three diseases are easy to live with. So while you might think living a healthy lifestyle does not apply to you now, because you are 23, can get any girl you want, make six figures and are virtually invincible, think again, it does.

Not to mention that contrary to its growing pervasiveness, a pot belly is not hip.

Obesity Costs Us $147 Million a Year!

A study released Monday said the medical costs of treating obesity-related diseases could reach $147 billion dollars (read press release here). This number has grown substantially from the $117 billion a year in 2000 when the Surgeon General testified in front of Congress on the topic.

The study published by Health Affairs said obesity currently accounts for 9.1 percent of all medical spending, up from 6.5% in 1998. That means almost 1 dollar out of every 10 of all medical spending in this country goes to treating obesity. This number is even higher when you consider the treatment of diabetes ($191 billion a year) and the absenteeism and lack of productivity cause by obesity.

Per capita medical spending for obese individuals was $1,429 dollars more each year than those of normal people. For those that don't believe this a correlation between higher medical care costs and higher obesity rates, think again.

There is a huge debate currently taking place about what is the best model for insurance- public vs. private. This study this is the wrong debate- whether our insurance plan is public or private we will still be an obese country. We must focus on getting people to be healthy because that will lower our costs, instead of bickering about whether a public or private plan is best.

The study also showed that obesity rates grew 37% percent between 1996 and 2006! In only 10 years we have become much much more obese as a country. It also showed that on average we now consume 250 more calories a day than we did 10 years ago. Thats one extra donut, one extra soda or one extra ice cream cone.

If you consumed 250 more calories a day that would equal 26 pounds of weight gain a year! Over a ten year time frame that would be 260 pounds! When looked at in that light it is pretty easy to see how our obesity rate has increased almost 40%.

While I believe individuals should be held responsible for what they put into their bodies as well as the choices the make we as a society have to make it easier and cheaper for people to eat healthy. Fast and junk food are now the most convenient and cheapest options. So obviously that is what most people will choose.

Why is it that you can pay 30 cents more at McDonalds for 10 more ounces of soda and double the french fries, but when you try to get fruit or vegetables you have to pay a couple dollars?

We can provide healthy food for cheaper. It is just a matter of priorities. Instead of subsidizing the corn and soybean industries that inundate us with high fructose corn syrup and unhealthy fats our government should make fruit and vegetables inexpensive and readily available. Instead of allowing fast-food restaurants to serve us hamburgers that have more fat than a stick of butter, our government should require them to serve healthier menu options.

The bottom-line is that we must engineer society so that we make it easier for people to eat healthy and be active. When do this we will be much closer to solving the obesity epidemic that costs each US money.

Phil Lawler and PE4LIFE

Piggybacking on the post I made yesterday about the need for more effective physical education in schools I would like to highlight a program, PE4LIFE, that has been doing this since its inception in 2000.

PE4LIFE trains school districts to improve their physical education offerings and has had amazing success in improving student’s health and academic performance. Check out their website here.

This past Friday I had the privilege of speaking with Phil Lawler the founder of PE4Life. A four-time cancer survivor and 35 year baseball coach, physical activity advocate and entrepreneur, Phil has been on the front line of the fight against childhood obesity. His message has reached schools around the country and the world, the floor of Congress and the pages of Time Magazine and other major news outlets. Phil is an amazing individual and the hour conversation I had with him opened my eyes to so many things.

Apart from not providing sufficient physical education to our students, our schools do not provide them with the right type of physical education.

Physical education has always been sports focused and results based. We put a premium on how fast you can run a mile, how many pushups you can do and how many free throws you can make in a row. We allow the physically inclined to thrive and ostracize the non-athletic students.

Perhaps your PE experience was different, but in mine every activity we did was a team sport. What about those kids that don’t like sports? Or just aren’t very good at them? What are they supposed to do? Sit and watch or not participate?

Well, after talking to Phil who has observed PE classes all over the country for 35 years, the answer is yes.

Many of the kids that need PE the most fail to get anything out of it because we do not provide them with the right medium through which to be physically active.

What is worse, we focus mainly on playing team sports even though as adults we seldom play organized team sports. According to Phil less than 4% of the US population over the age of 24 plays on an organized team, so why are team sports the main focus in PE class?

Well, whatever the reason is, one thing is for sure, they shouldn’t be the focus. In addition, to team sports we should look to non-traditional means of exercise like dance, martial arts, rock climbing, team building games and exergaming. Exergaming has shown huge successes in improving student’s health and academic performance in the schools that have implemented. Phil like many others believes exergaming holds the key to bringing us closer to solving the childhood obesity epidemic.

Well exergaming might be part of the solution, what is for certain is that we need to incorporate many non-traditional means of exercising into PE class to allow all students a chance to participate and feel good about themselves.