By eating right, exercising more and maintaining a healthy weight, communities across Missouri are changing habits to stay healthy and improve their quality of life.
The Adair County Health Department is urging Adair residents to embrace healthy lifestyles. Smart choices improve the lives of their families, their communities and themselves. And they help prevent Missouri’s leading causes of premature death and disability – heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer.
April 5-11 marks National Public Health Week, with the theme, A Healthier Missouri: One Community at a Time.
“Healthy communities start with healthy individuals,” said Lori Guffey, R.N., “We all need to do the things that not only improve our health and add years to our life, but add to the health of our community as a whole.”
According to the Health Department, a recent study developed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin, Adair County ranks 54th among Missouri’s 115 counties in terms of Health Outcomes. In this study health outcomes are measured in terms of mortality and morbidity with a rank of 1 being the healthiest county. Furthermore, Adair County ranks 19th in the State in terms of Health Factors including health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment. Please go to the Adair County Health Department website http://adair.lphamo.org to view the complete report on Adair County and Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and the Adair County Health Department promotes the idea of building healthy communities by encouraging individuals with its “Live Like Your Life Depends On It program”. Here’s what each person can do:
• Eat smart. A healthy diet should include plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free milk and milk products.
• Move more. Health experts recommend 30 minutes or more of physical activity on most days of the week.
• Be tobacco free. Avoid smoking and breathing secondhand smoke, which can contribute to lung cancer, heart disease, asthma and other health problems.
• Get recommended health screenings. When problems are detected early, they can be more easily and successfully treated. Recommended screenings include tests for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, colorectal cancer, and – for women – breast and cervical cancer. A health-care professional can recommend the right time for each screening.
• Maintain a healthy weight. Eating right and being physically active can help prevent obesity, which contributes to many chronic diseases.
“Right now, America’s health system ranks 37th in the world. We believe that by building the health of our communities through what each individual does, we can improve that ranking to first within a generation,” Guffey said.
More information about healthy choices and the Live Like Your Life Depends On It program can be found at: www.lifedependsonit.com.
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