I'm mad and you should be too!

Earlier this week, a friend emailed me this report from WWMT:

"New report breaks down health rankings county by county"

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just published a county by county health ranking.  The report looked at things like rates of childhood poverty, rates of smoking, obesity levels, teen birth rates, access to physicians and dentists, rates of high school graduation and college attendance, access to healthy foods, levels of physical inactivity, and percentages of children living in single parent households.

All that being said, Kalamazoo County ended up coming in #46 out of 82 in Michigan!  Really?!  This is the best we can do?!

We have a GREAT county!  Kalamazoo has 29 parks and linear trails (and perhaps more because this list may not be completely up to date),  6 county parks, numerous city parks, hundreds of miles of sidewalks and bike trails.  Two fabulous hospitals (although you know I am more partial to one than the other ;)  Dozens of professionals to help you create a healthy lifestyle.  Educational opportunities...grocery stores...farmers markets...cooking lessons...an economy that is on the mend (household income is highly related to health outcomes).

But look at what RWJF was measuring:

• Childhood Poverty
• Rates of smoking**
• Obesity levels**
• Teen birth rates**
• Access to healthcare professionals
• Education rates
• Access to healthy food
• Levels of inactivity**
• Single parent households

Now let's just take the ones I **ed .  THESE are ALL items we can do something about ON AN INDIVIDUAL LEVEL!!!  We are in control of almost half of these (I also feel we are able to do something about education rates but just for the sake of argument, let's just go with the **ed ones).

To a great extent, we are in charge of our health.  Sure, there are always those situations that crop up that we can't control -- but these WE CAN.

The fact that Kalamazoo (with its great small towns, festivals, fun city center, great music and arts scene, and I could go on....) is only 46th feels like a personal and professional failure to me!  Kalamazoo county should be at the TOP of that list!  There is no reason it can't be....

Except that you and I are going to need to get to work.  We need to exercise, spend more time in our own kitchens, make use of the great opportunities for education, professional growth, and healthcare.  We need to start taking care of ourselves if we want to improve the health outcomes for our next generation -- they are picking up our habits (both the good ones and the bad ones).  We need to pull our friends and neighbors into our healthy causes -- get outside and play for goodness sake!

I don't like being 46th out of 82.  That's C range -- and for any of you who know me, you know I am  an overachiever A student and I love gold stars!  There are no gold stars for any of us here :( 

But we can get there -- both individually and as a community.  We have a GREAT start and a lot of infrastructure in place to help us on the road to better health.  We just need to make use of it.

So tell me:  Are you with me?  Are you ready to make health a greater priority in your life?  Are you ready to "Love where you live" because it supports greater health?  I am.  Let's get started!!!