Published: September 30, 2009 12:21 am         

2009 INShape Indiana Health Summit in town

TERRE HAUTE — Indiana is making “steady progress” in its effort to improve the health of its citizens, Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday.

“We’ve been moving down the list rapidly in the most overweight states and we’ve made a significant dent in cigarette consumption,” he told media prior to his appearance at the 2009 INShape Indiana Health Summit at Hulman Center.

But making wholesale improvements throughout Indiana “is a long, long march,” he said. He praised the efforts of those attending the summit to help improve the health and lifestyles of Indiana citizens. “The need for what we are doing is great,” he said.

Daniels launched INShape Indiana in 2005 to challenge Hoosiers to eat better, move more and avoid tobacco.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Healthy Lifestyles, Healthy Communities,” showcasing strategies and resources available to improve the health of smaller communities. ISU hosted the conference.

Daniels described some positive indicators.

“We are drifting down significantly on the list of the most overweight states,” but it’s not because residents are getting thinner yet, he said. Indiana is “leveling off” while citizens in other states “are still putting on pounds,” he said.

In another development, cigarette sales have declined about 20 percent over the last three years. The caveat, he said, is that smokers are smoking less, but they are not quitting.

An especially promising sign is that the rate of smoking among young people “has really taken a drop,” an important predictor of improved health in Indiana’s future, he said.

Referring to the national health care debate, Daniels said the most important thing Indiana citizens can do is to take better care of themselves so they don’t require as much health care in the first place, he said.

“The greatest health care reform imaginable would be to reform person by person, school by school, town by town, business by business in the way we live our lives in the first place so we need less health care at each stage of life,” he said.

Also speaking at the summit was Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the “father of aerobics.”

More than 41 years ago, he introduced to the world the concept of aerobic exercise when he authored his first bestseller titled “Aerobics.” Cooper has since dedicated his life to promoting fitness worldwide.

Cooper and his team at The Cooper Institute developed fitness tests administered to more than 2.4 million students in Texas schools during the 2007-2008 school year.

The test results showed that while 78 percent of fourth-grade students were considered healthy and fit, only 20 percent of high school seniors possessed the same level of cardiovascular fitness.

A fitness study also indicated that students who are physically fit are more likely to do better academically, have better attendance rates and have fewer disciplinary problems, Cooper said.

“We’ve got to bring PE [physical education] back in the schools,” Cooper said. “No question about it.”

While more and more youth are becoming overweight and obese, there is a window of opportunity to make needed changes, he said.

“If we don’t do something now, we’ll regret it,” he said.

He suggests that the rates of those developing diabetes will skyrocket unless current trends are reversed.

“There’s an opportunity here now, but no one is paying attention to it,” Cooper said.

The Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Rural Health Association helped organize the fifth annual INShape summit.



Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

     

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