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New Mothers Who Don’t Follow Breastfeeding Guidelines Cost Us Billions

Poor compliance with breastfeeding recommendations costs the nation at least $13 billion each year, with nearly all of the cost related to infant morbidity and mortality, according to a comprehensive economic analysis.

If 90% of new mothers followed guidelines for six months of exclusive breastfeeding for their children, an estimated 911 deaths would be prevented annually, said authors Melissa Bartick, MD, MSc, of Harvard Medical School, and Arnold Reinhold, MBA, of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, both in Boston. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

Colorado’s Solution To Childhood Obesity: The Renegade Lunch Lady

Cecelia and I just finished watching the movie Food Inc. It is a movie worth watching.

I was upset seeing the abuse of our food chain by big food corporations. There is little respect for America’s food safety.

America’s obesity epidemic is caused, in part, by the food industry’s ability to produce cheap food. Fifty years ago, when I was at Columbia College, the solution to America’s impending food shortage was debated. The predication was the nation was going to face a food shortage in the next 50 years. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*

Dr. Val On ABC News: Boys & Girls Clubs Combat Childhood Obesity

I recently joined SVP of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Judith Pickens, at ABC News to discuss the childhood obesity crisis and what can be done about it.

Find out more about Triple Play or download the parents game plan here.

The Boys & Girls Clubs Of America Fight Childhood Obesity

Dr. Val & Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson

Dr. Val & Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson

Because of obesity, this generation of children may be the first in US history to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The CDC reports that teen obesity rates are growing exponentially, having tripled in the past 20 years. We also know that 70% of obese children become obese adults, and that 75% of our healthcare dollars are spent on chronic disease management – diseases that are 80% preventable with lifestyle modifications. Efforts to curb healthcare costs are unlikely to succeed without addressing America’s obesity epidemic.

So who is addressing the obesity crisis now? One shining example is the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). They recognized the impact of obesity on their club members and looked for ways to increase physical activity levels, encourage healthy eating, and repair self esteem in America’s underprivileged youth. After consulting with the Department of Health and Human Services (and obtaining funding from the Coca-Cola company), the BGCA created a multi-faceted initiative, called Triple Play, to combat overweight and obesity. The results are very encouraging.

After 2 years, an analysis of over 2,250 club members suggests that 90% of youth enrolled in the program met the daily, federal physical activity recommendations while a significant number improved their nutritional status, choosing to eat significantly more fruits and vegetables. Perhaps most interestingly, the participants also scored higher on tests of “self-mastery” which are correlated with self esteem and social skills. Overall, girls were impacted more strongly by the program than boys, though the reason for this is unclear.

I had the honor of moderating a panel of experts who discussed the impact of Triple Play on BGCA members. In attendance were Olympic gold medalists Shawn Johnson, Dominique Dawes, and Dr. Tenley Albright in addition to SVP of BGCA, Judith Pickens, former Club kid and Youth of the Year, Stacey Walker, and Chris Spain from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. It was heartening to see that there are programs that can bend the obesity curve – because success in this area of disease prevention has been hard to come by.

I hope that healthcare reformers will carefully consider the impact of obesity-driven chronic disease, and look to program success stories like Triple Play as a means to affect long-term improvements of America’s health. Our kids’ lives and the future productivity of our country are dependent upon the implementation of prevention programs that work. Cheers to BGCA for leading the charge against childhood obesity!

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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