U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has released a report, the Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation, which recommends ways to improve nutrition and physical activity, include school wellness policies, reduce junk food marketing to children and support walking and biking infrastructure. Yet the report hasn't gotten the same media hype as when First Lady Michelle Obama made it her personal goal to fight against childhood obesity (earlier this week, the first lady met with lawmakers on the issue). But the surgeon general's report has merit, says a Washington Post blogger:
...[the report] talks about personal responsibility, about communities working together, about grassroots efforts. It places the onus for weight loss squarely on the shoulders of individuals. ...
Temperatures soared higher than 100 degrees this July in South Padre Island, Texas, but it didn’t matter to Greg Ayer and his 19-month old daughter, Pamela (pictured). Pamela, who has neuroblastoma, a type of cancer, was thrilled at her first trip to Schlitterbahn Waterpark. “She had a blast for being 19 months old. She rode four rides,” said Greg Ayer, who brings Pamela to her doctor’s appointments in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley. “Two months before that, she wasn’t even walking!” The Ayers were among 220 patients and families from Driscoll Children’s Hospital Specialty Center in Brownsville who went to Schlitterbahn on July 30 thanks in part to the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind ...
The Safe Routes to School State Network Project has produced a final report to highlight progress achieved in implementing policies for safer routes to schools, leveraging additional resources and building a supportive environment for Safe Routes to School through other state-level policies. The project included California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Major project accomplishments included: Improving state DOT Safe Routes to School programs;
Leveraging millions of additional dollars to address traffic safety, education, public health and infrastructure;
Spreading the word about the process of establishing a network and their accomplishments; and
Securing policy changes in school siting, ...
“Daddy, you smell ugly. You smell like smoke.” These words, spoken by his daughter, helped Vicente Escobedo quit smoking.
Vicente, a 21-year-old, hardworking San Antonio native and father of two daughters, is a resource specialist for the San Antonio Fatherhood Campaign, where he helps mentor young fathers to make healthy, strong families. He began to realize that he was doing something that wasn’t making his own family strong or healthier – he was smoking.
Vicente first tried cigarettes at age 16. By 18, he was smoking two packs a week. But his daughter’s urging and the soaring price of cigarettes led Vincente to stop smoking.
In the 10 months since he has quit, he has seen how young people think smoking cigarettes makes them cool and macho, and he doesn’t want his daughters ...
