(CNSNews.com) - Health care experts, including two former U.S. Surgeons General, said on Wednesday said that obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is a threat to security in the United States and abroad.

“Obesity is not just a health issue,” said Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general in the George W. Bush administration. Carmona is now with the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity Alliance (STOP), a coalition of consumer, government, labor, business, and health insurers that advocate “innovative and practical strategies” to combat obesity.

Obesity “affects our national and global security,” said Carmona. He said the U.S. has reached a “tipping point,” at which obesity “now impacts every aspect of our society, including the future of our health system.”

Obesity is crippling individuals and hurting American families, the workforce – even work productivity and the nation’s ability to be prepared for natural and manmade disasters: “When we look at one of the top reasons why young men and women fail to be retained on active duty in our uniformed services, obesity again rises to the forefront at a time when we need them more than ever.”

Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, a disease-prevention advocacy group, echoed Carmona’s concern about obesity, the military and national security.

“I want to pick up on something Dr. Carmona said about the growing problem of obesity, and this being one of the major causes of medical discharge from the military and how this is a national security issue,” Levi said. “Back in the ‘60s, one of the things that motivated Lyndon Johnson to support the Medicaid program -- and in particular the enhanced children’s health benefit within Medicaid -- was his shock that so many young men were being rejected for service in the military because they were underweight.

“And here we are, 40 years later, in a situation where we have quite the opposite problem,” Levi said. “So it’s a certain irony, but I think it underscores that this has to be something integrated into our discussion of health reform.”

The recommendations made by the panel include using “evidence based” guidelines for “clinical intervention” for obese individuals; monitoring the health of people who are already overweight or at-risk of becoming obese; community programs to encourage healthy lifestyles and focus on health literacy; and scientific research.

Health literacy is defined by the U.S. Health and Human Services as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

David Satcher, appointed U.S. surgeon-general by President Bill Clinton, now heads the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. He warned about America’s obesity problem in a 2001 report entitled, “Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity.”

“When I served as Surgeon General, obesity was a problem of epidemic proportions,” Satcher said in a prepared statement on the release of the recommendations. “Today, we are in a state of emergency when it comes to obesity.”

Satcher and Carmona said legislation addressing the obesity problem is necessary, given the way Americans live.

“The Stop Obesity Alliance is not just about stopping obesity. It’s about stopping the lifestyles that lead to overweight and obesity,” Satcher said. “It’s about investing in healthy lifestyles.”

“Many of us super-sized when we should have downsized our meals,” Carmona said. “We also drove cars to purchase processed food while we could have been getting exercise by growing our own fresh food.”

A news release outlining the recommendations said that 72 million American adults are now considered overweight or obese and that 9.1 percent of annual health care costs in the United States, or about $150 billion, are related to obesity.

In his speech on health care reform Wednesday night, President Barack Obama said nothing about Americans’ personal lifestyle choices contributing to the escalating cost of health care. But Republicans did:

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-S.C.), in the Republican response to the president’s speech Wednesday night, said insurers should be able to offer incentives for wellness care and prevention.

Boustany, a heart surgeon, said that topic is particularly important to him: “I operated on too many people who could have avoided surgery if they’d simply made healthier choices earlier in life,” Boustany said.

Christine Ferguson, director of STOP, advanced a similar argument at Wednesday’s panel discussion:  “Clearly, America cannot successfully reform the health care system without addressing obesity,” Ferguson, said. “While the situation is grave, the goal is attainable.”

Last update: 20-07-2011 22:25