By Diva Bonnie
We're Eating
Ourselves to Death
By LINDSEY TANNER
CHICAGO (AP) - Inactive Americans are eating themselves to death at an
alarming rate, their unhealthy habits fast approaching tobacco as the
top underlying preventable cause of death, a government study found.
In 2000, poor diet including obesity and physical inactivity caused
400,000 U.S. deaths - more than 16 percent of all deaths and the No. 2
killer. That compares with 435,000 for tobacco, or 18 percent, as the
top underlying killer.
The gap between the two is substantially narrower than in 1990, when
poor diet and inactivity caused 300,000 deaths, 14 percent, compared
with 400,000 for tobacco, or 19 percent, says a report from the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This is tragic," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC's director and an
author of the study. "Our worst fears were confirmed."
"It's going to overtake tobacco if the trend continues," Gerberding
said. "At CDC, we're going to do everything we can to prevent it," she
said. "Obesity has got to be job No. 1 for us in terms of chronic
diseases."
The researchers analyzed data from 2000 for the leading causes of death
and for those preventable factors known to contribute to them. Like
tobacco, obesity and inactivity increase the risks for the top three
killers: heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular ailments including
strokes. Obesity and inactivity also strongly increase the risk of
diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death.
The results appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials discussed the
findings Tuesday at a Washington news briefing where they announced a
public service ad campaign using humor to get Americans to pay
attention to the dangers of inactivity and obesity.
"I am working very hard at CDC to walk the talk," Gerberding said in a
telephone interview, noting efforts the agency has made at CDC offices
to improve the health of its 9,000-plus employees.
They include putting music, lights and fresh paint jobs in stairwells
to encourage employees to use the stairs for exercise. Also, besides
the current indoor smoking ban, CDC will ban smoking from outside all
of its buildings starting later this year.
In order, the leading causes of death in 2000 were: Heart disease,
cancer, strokes and other cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower
respiratory disease, unintentional injuries, diabetes, influenza and
pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease, kidney disease, and septicemia.
The underlying preventable causes of death were, in order: tobacco,
poor diet and physical inactivity, alcohol, microbial agents, toxic
agents, motor vehicles, firearms, sexual behavior and illegal drug use.
Together, these accounted for about half of all 2.4 million U.S. deaths
in 2000.
An editorial accompanying the study in JAMA says national leadership
and policy changes are needed to help curb preventable causes of death.
"After all, wisdom is knowing what to do next. Virtue is doing it,"
said editorial authors Drs. J. Michael McGinnis and William Foege.
McGinnis is with
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Foege is with the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation.
On the Net:
JAMA:
http://jama.ama-assn.org
CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov
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