We Can! Program Takes Aim at Childhood Obesity

The national partnership wants to create a healthier America

By Steven Reinberg

THURSDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Association of Children's Museums are teaming up on a program to combat the obesity epidemic among America's children.

The program -- called We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition) -- was introduced Thursday in Boston, Las Vegas and Pittsburgh, which have been designated as We Can! cities.

Other We Can! communities include Armstrong County, Pa.; Carson City, Nev.; Gary, Ind.; South Bend, Ind.; and Roswell, Ga.

"I am really confident that this partnership among the federal government, the We Can! program, the Association of Children's Museums and civic organizations is ultimately going to lead to healthier children in the United States, healthier families and better health-care outcomes for everybody," acting U.S. Surgeon General Rear Admiral Dr. Steven K. Galson said during an afternoon teleconference.

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, said childhood obesity has reached "crisis" proportions.

"We are facing a crisis, and we must find ways to change the tide that is facing us and affecting our children," Zerhouni said during the teleconference.

There are more than 12.5 million overweight children and teens in the United States. Galson said obesity is a big contributor to such childhood health problems as high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and asthma.

"Chronic diseases cause seven out of 10 deaths," Galson said. "And the costs are staggering."

Galson noted that portion sizes have increased while life in America has become more sedentary. "Our kids are growing up with unhealthy lifestyles, the consequences of which could be with them for the rest of their lives," he said.

"Reversing this epidemic does not have one answer," he added. "It's going to take a concerted action by all of us. We need to focus our activities on prevention -- on what we can do today."

We Can! can be a model for overcoming the challenges of childhood obesity and overweight, Galson said. "Its partnerships are demonstrating how physical activity and sound lifestyle choices can make a difference and how communities can work together to make those lifestyle choices real," he said.

We Can! is an education program to help children aged 8 to 13 years old to maintain a healthy weight. It's being implemented in more than 450 communities in 44 states.

Zerhouni said getting kids away from the TV and the computer is key to improving their health. Increased activity, better food choices and smaller portions complete the arsenal for fighting the obesity epidemic, he said.

The three new We Can! cities announced Thursday are introducing the program to city employees, community groups, corporate wellness programs, health professionals and schools.

While improvement in childhood obesity is vital, the results may not be seen for decades, Galson said.

"It's a national necessity with profound implications -- we all have a stake in the outcome," he said. "The result may not be apparent for many years, but it's going to be a fitter, healthier, more physically active nation in which the epidemic of childhood obesity slows down."

In addition to the Association of Children's Museums, 40 national and corporate partners are starting We Can! programs in community centers, schools, health-care settings, corporate wellness programs and faith-based organizations, officials said.

A study this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that after increasing for the last 25 years, the prevalence of obesity among adults has not risen in the past few years. Still, 34 percent of Americans aged 20 and older are obese.

"In view of these alarmingly high rates of obesity in all population groups, [the] CDC has made the prevention of obesity one of its top public health priorities," Janet Collins, director of CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said in a prepared statement. "We are actively working in partnership with state and local public health agencies, the nation's schools, community organizations, businesses, medical systems and faith communities to promote and support healthy eating, physical activity and healthy weight."

More information

To learn more about the We Can! program, visit the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.


SOURCES: Nov. 29, 2007, teleconference with acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H.; Elias Zerhouni, M.D., director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

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Childhood Obesity Epidemic a Long-Term Challenge

It may take decades to reverse the health threats, experts say

By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Sept. 20 (HealthDay News) -- In the 1980s and '90s, Americans tried to control their weight by watching their cholesterol by cutting dietary fat and substituting carbohydrates. They paid little mind to total calories and physical activity. And guess what happened to their waistlines -- and their children's?

"It was just an end run around the issue of health maintenance," said Dr. Henry C. McGill Jr., senior scientist emeritus at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas. "And, of course, it crept over into kids, especially kids subjected to all of the advertising and offerings of high-density caloric food -- opportunities to avoid physical activity, attractions to television viewing and net surfing."

Today, more than one in three children and adolescents in the United States -- some 25 million kids -- are overweight or obese, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which recently announced an unprecedented effort to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. The Princeton, N.J.-based philanthropy said it plans to spend at least $500 million over the next five years on public health efforts focusing on kids and families in underserved communities.

It's the foundation's largest commitment ever. While the foundation has spent roughly as much in the area of tobacco over the years, "we never made the scale of that commitment up-front and public like we have with this," said Dr. James S. Marks, senior vice president and director of the foundation's health group.

"If we don't deal with children," he added, "this could be the first generation that will live sicker and die younger than its parents."

Scientists, physicians and public health advocates know that efforts to prevent obesity must start in childhood, because the problem leads to increased risk of coronary heart disease and other health hazards in adulthood. In fact, there's substantial evidence that obesity and related diseases, including diabetes and hypertension, can begin to exact damage during the teenage years.

In one landmark study, a group of researchers from across the United States analyzed post-mortem blood samples and evaluated atherosclerosis in coronary artery and aorta specimens from roughly 3,000 15- to 34-year-old men and women who died from causes such as accidents, homicide or suicide. One of the surprising results of the study, according to McGill, was that an elevated blood sugar -- as measured by levels of "glycohemoglobin" -- was associated in the late 20s and early 30s with about an 8-fold increase in advanced lesions in the coronary arteries. "It was a whopper of an effect," he said.

In another study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers documented a significant upward shift over the past 16 years in blood pressure levels of children and teens aged 8 to 18. Lead author Paul Muntner, an epidemiologist at Tulane University School of Medicine, and colleagues said the increase in blood pressure levels is partially due to the increased prevalence of overweight in the United States.

And British researchers recently reported that children who are overweight at age 11 continue to have weight problems through their teenage years. Rates of overweight and obesity were highest among girls and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The authors said the study highlights the need to target efforts to prevent obesity in the early years.

But even as more money and manpower are devoted to obesity prevention, McGill said it may take many years to erase the epidemic. And, he added, it will take action on many different fronts, from educating children and physicians to improving the health-care financing system to include more preventive medicine.

"It was 1964 when the first U.S. Surgeon General's report came out, and just now, there's talk about the tide turning on cigarette smoking," he observed. "Obesity's perhaps going to take that long to get the tide turned."

More information

For more on childhood obesity, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCES: Henry C. McGill Jr., M.D., senior scientist emeritus, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas; James S. Marks, M.D., M.P.H., senior vice president, director, health group, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, N.J.; Feb. 24, 1999, May 5, 2004, and April 25, 2005, Journal of the American Medical Association; May 5, 2006, British Medical Journal

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