State of Nation's Health

For too long, we have expected medical professionals to “fix us” after we’ve neglected our own responsibilities for self care. Until recently, we could have blamed ignorance, but now we have no excuses. Medical science has turned the spotlight on us, as individuals, and proven that most of our medical maladies are a direct result of our lousy lifestyle choices. The statistics below illustrate just how far we’ve gone down the wrong path:

Obesity

Lifestyle

	17% of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight. (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2004)

	Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight and of them, half are obese; therefore, one-third of American adults are obese. (CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2005)

Heart Disease, Diabetes and Cancer
	This year about 1.2 million Americans will have a first or recurrent coronary attack. About 479,000 of these people will die. Coronary heart disease is the nation’s single leading cause of death. (American Heart Association)

	20.8 million children and adults in the United States (or 7% of the population) have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease. (American Diabetes Association)

	Each year, about 550,000 Americans die of cancer; fully one-third of these deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying excess weight. (American Cancer Society)

	At least 80% of all cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and more than 40% of cancer, could be avoided by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and avoiding tobacco. (The World Health Organization)

	Junk food accounts for nearly one-third of the average American’s diet. (Study by Gladys Block, professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley)

	In 1999-2000, only 40% of Americans ate an average of five or more one-half-cup servings of fruits and vegetables per day. (Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, US Department of Agriculture)

	In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths; this amounted to an estimated 438,000 premature deaths each year between 1997 and 2001. (American Cancer Society)

	Nearly half of young people between 12 and 21 years old are not vigorously active on a regular basis. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

	More than 60 percent of adults do not get the recommended amount of regular physical activity; and 25 percent are not active at all. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)