What some of us have been saying for decades is well documented in a recent report covered by the Wall Street Journal and other publications: Americans have more illnesses and accidents on average than people in any other advanced, industrial nation. Even wealthier, insured, college-educated Americans demonstrate the highest worldwide morbidity/mortality rates when compared to other industrial nations.
This recent study shows the U.S. rests near the bottom of 17 of the most affluent countries for life expectancy, citing our high rates of obesity and physical inactivity as among the primary causes of all chronic disease. According to the study, "the U.S health disadvantage is pervasive — it affects all age group up to age 75 and is observed for multiple diseases as well as for most risk factors."
Being last sucks. Let’s get back to chalk board and review some basic fundamentals. This means, demanding that our parents, PTAs, Boards of Education, and most of all folks who read blogs like this get off your ass and change their play books too.
And get this: ". . . America's low (health) outcomes were striking given that U.S. per capita health spending exceeds that of all other countries."
Unfortunately, comments on this study quoted in several leading newspapers offer no real solutions other than the same old bromides advising people to walk more, stop eating so much high-calorie, low-nutrient dense foods, stop smoking, etc. They were also critical of the availability of guns.
One report cited in the Wall Street Journal quoted the study's chairman, Steven Woolf, professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. He thought health outcomes were determined "by much more than health care."
Really! What profound insight! Here we have an enormous admission: The U.S. public health service, and the medical care system in general, is only a part of the solution to a healthy nation. That's a refreshing admission coming from the sickness-care establishment.
Da Coach agrees. We don't need more money. What we need is better leadership at the local level. Real change must begin with me. Then you and me. Then you and me and a few friends. Then let's organize and let real health promotion ripple outward to heal the planet.
Allow Da Coach to put this study into historical perspective. The "healthcare" system (i.e. sickness care) is designed to treat people who do not exercise and eat properly. Sooner or later, many, if not most, of them will develop one or more chronic disease conditions. It's a highly predictable outcome among people who sit 95% of their waking hours. And who eat when not physically hungry or needing nourishment, but because they are mad, sad or glad.
These people are physical-education deprived. They don't know how to survive in an over-nourished, highly sedentary environment. How could they know? The people who claim to be responsible for their health and well-being, namely parents and educators, don't know either. It's the blind leading the blind.
The report goes on to explain the Obama administration has aimed to improve American's health by expanding insurance coverage. So what? That won't improve anyone's health, it just pays for their self-inflicted distress and disease. But in fairness, if we led the world in illiteracy and didn't teach reading in schools would anyone be surprised?
Probably not. Then why not try for a real solution: Insist on quality, daily physical education be put back in our schools?
Look guys, we're getting our ass kicked. Sickness care is draining our creative genius, our nation's financial health, and causing untold human suffering and premature death.
If public health was a football game, the U.S. would be dead last among wealthy nations. Being last sucks. But we won't begin to win unless we are so sick of being sick, we are ready to change things. And that doesn't mean just trying a new formula for financing disease.
It means to begin to specific steps to change our situation.
Being dead last is unacceptable. We need an entirely new game plan!
So Da Coach says, let's get back to chalk board and review some basic fundamentals. This means, demanding that our parents, PTAs, Boards of Education, and most of all folks who read blogs like this get off your ass and change their play books too.
Fundamentals folks! Running, jumping, dancing, skipping, lifting resistance, stretching and doing so with sufficient regularity and duration that calories are burned, spirits are lifted, aggressive behaviors and emotional distress is dissipated. And when you do it everyday, and understand why, it's FUN! And fun is healthy stuff. And so is positive leadership.
Oh, by the way, there was one positive finding in this study that showed Americans living past 75 have higher survival rates compared with similar countries and also had better survival rates for cancer and strokes.
Da Coach would like to see the data on the physical activity habits of those over 75. He says, "Chances are pretty good, the researches didn't think to ask the question. But I'll bet their difference was in their fitness habits."
Stay tuned for more of Da Coach's comments on this subject. He's overhauling his playbook to get you engaged in a local, grassroots proven effective campaign to get quality, accountable P.E. back in our nation's schools. Let's begin with your school district!