Prevention and partnerships are the keys to improving health and reducing chronic disease in the United States and throughout the Americas, a
Pan American Health Organization official said today.
In the keynote address at the Steps to a Healthier U.S. summit here, Dr. Joxel Garcia, PAHO’s deputy director, said, “The trends of obesity and overweight are increasing very significantly and present a grave health risk for our hemisphere.” He said it has become “an epidemic of obesity and overweight, with 60 percent of the population currently overweight, and this number is rising.”
Garcia said, “We need strategies to reduce chronic disease through partnerships between the governments, the private sector, and communities all over the Americas. We have problems of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer that in many cases can be prevented.”
“We have to move away from the “NO” approach to improving health, like saying don’t smoke, don’t drink, or don’t do that. We have to give people healthy choices and make them easy choices and get away from the paternalistic approach of saying no,” Garcia said.
“We are making a call for action to make the population healthier, to reduce obesity through increased physical activity, and to make healthy choices the easy choices,” Garcia told the 1,000 participants in the summit, which brings together policymakers and other officials to support programs that foster healthy behaviors and prevent disease.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson opened the health summit here yesterday, announcing a blueprint for action with steps to improve the overall health of Americas. “Much of the chronic disease burden is preventable,” Thompson said. “By engaging individuals, families, health care providers and professionals, we can attack this growing epidemic.”