From Your Health Journal…..”A great article today from MedPage Today by David Pittman called Obama Take 2: Tobacco, Obesity Key in Second Term. President Obama is going to focus on making Americans healthy, by trying to lower tobacco use and obesity. One in three adults is considered obese, along with one in five children – change is needed. So many Americans already suffer from risk factor for heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and weak joints – all related to obesity rates. Americans are getting a ‘unhealthy’ reputation around the world when it comes to health. The article also points out a very scary fact – tobacco kills 1,200 people a day and each deceased smoker is replaced by two new youth smokers. Please visit the MedPage Today site to read the complete article. I love their web site, and always try to bring traffic there when I can since they have so many quality articles.”
From the article…..
The second term of an Obama administration will be marked for implementing key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but the president also wants to focus on lowering tobacco use and obesity rates, a senior administration official said.
Obama and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plan to release a number of new initiatives in these areas while continuing already launched programs, according to Howard Koh, MD, MPH, HHS assistant secretary for health.
“In the second term, we’re eager to reaffirm and re-energize our commitment to the public health,” Koh told MedPage Today in an interview Friday.
One in three adults is considered obese, along with one in five children, said Koh, who serves as the senior health adviser to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Meanwhile, tobacco kills 1,200 people a day and each deceased smoker is replaced by two new youth smokers.
“These are the most challenging public health issues of our time,” Koh said.
The FDA will launch a media effort later this year aimed at preventing childhood tobacco use. It should complement a similar effort already underway by the CDC.
“The general public and healthcare providers will be hearing much more on the importance of tobacco cessation or prevention in the upcoming term than we’ve heard in quite a while,” Koh said.
In the area of obesity, HHS later this year will review physical activity guidelines, which were first launched in 2008, to see where interventions could be successful, Koh said. The White House also will expand the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, her childhood obesity intervention.
The Healthy People 2020 initiative, which monitors national health trends and sets public health goals, aims to reduce adult and childhood obesity by 10% each before the end of the decade.
HHS set a goal of trying to reduce adult smoking rates to 12% by 2020. Currently, that rate is close to 19%, Koh said.
“For obesity, we’re simply trying to get the trends to move in a positive direction because over time they’ve gone in the wrong direction,” he added. “We’re seeing some signs of youth obesity trends plateauing and maybe declining in some cities … So that’s encouraging, and we want to build on that for the future.”
To read the full article…..Click here