By Staff
On Feb. 3 Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, Michigan Surgeon General, teamed up with First Gentleman Daniel Mulhern, the Detroit Pistons and Shock and the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Sports, and Health to launch the Michigan Steps Up campaign, a statewide healthy lifestyles campaign designed to improve the health of Michigan citizens by moving more, eating better and avoiding tobacco use.
You may have heard about the Surgeon General's vision to move Michigan from one of the heaviest and unhealthiest states in the nation to the healthiest.
Unfortunately, if we held up a mirror in front of our state today, we would see a bulging reflection.
About 62 percent of Michigan's adults are overweight or obese, which increases their risk for over 30 preventable chronic diseases and conditions, including the leading causes of death in Michigan: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.
These diseases are rooted in three unhealthy lifestyles: unhealthy eating, physical inactivity and tobacco use.
These unhealthy behaviors also take a serious toll on our economy.
For example, physical inactivity in over 4 million Michigan adults cost almost $8.9 billion in 2002, and the dollars spent on Medicaid for physical inactivity could fund a school nurse in every public middle school and high school.
The good news is, much of what we're seeing in the mirror is preventable.
It is time for a common vision and unified stand from one corner of our state to the other against obesity, chronic disease and unhealthy lifestyles and their serious toll on our economy and quality of life.
Through her travels across the state, the Surgeon General has learned that people want to make a change and are willing to work to improve the health of their community.
We now have a vehicle with which every Michigan citizen can begin down the road to a healthier, longer life.
Individuals can get started by visiting the Michigan Steps Up Web site at www.michiganstepsup.org.
The Web site contains all the tools needed to start improving personal health, including personal planning tips that help individuals set and track goals, free healthy recipes and snack ideas, ideas for making healthy choices when eating out, daily health tips and links to hundreds of health-related resources.
Soon, every business, school, health care organization, faith-based group and community group will have access to recommendations and tools through the Michigan Steps Up Web site to learn how they can create change and implement policies that support healthy lifestyles.