Category Archives: Chronic Disease

Informing Life’s Decision Makers

Brenna Burke describes herself on her blog: I’m the mama of three, trying my best to live a green life, pursue greater health and well-being for my family and the planet, and teach my children well enough so that they will all grow up successfully and leave me… I am passionate about children’s and environmental health. I do my best to pursue the best decisions for my family based on the latest, evidence-based research and watch out for when I get up on my soapbox. I’ve followed Brenna on Twitter for quite some time now. If you look at her blog, you can see she’s like many online moms: smart, creative, and fiercely loyal to her kids. She tries very hard to live by the values she holds dear. So I definitely took notice when she had this to say.

Posted on Monday, September 24th, 2012 By HealthScope
Also posted in Infectious Disease, Nutrition | Tagged Brenna Burke, digital revolution, Emily Willigham, mommy blog, science, science communication, ScienceOnline | 1 Comment

When Solutions Are Obvious

When I was a kid back in the 1970s, we had physical education (PE) class once a day. We filled a full hour running around playing dodge ball, red rover and tag. We ate our share of junk food, but few of us were overweight, and almost none of us struggled with lifestyle-induced diseases. It’s no secret that during the past two decades, physical education in schools has been drastically cut back. Today my fourth-grade son has gym class once a week, and recess – the one chance to get moving – has been cut back to fewer than 20 minutes a day. The shift away from PE was intended to save money and allow school systems to dedicate more time and resources to “important” core subjects like math, science and English.

Posted on Friday, May 11th, 2012 By Kirsten Thistle
Catogories Chronic Disease | Tagged exercise, Naperville, obesity, PE, physical education, STEM, TIMSS | 3 Comments

Thank You, Nurses!

In celebration of National Nurses Week, we here at APCO gathered a few stories about our favorite nurses. As it turns out, many of them happened to be our mothers. Join us in celebrating the amazing men and women on the front lines of medicine by sharing your own memories in the Comments section below. My [...]

Posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 By HealthScope
Also posted in Health Policy, Infectious Disease, Nutrition | Leave a comment

A New Look at How We Count Calories

Melissa Musiker is a registered dietician and a member of APCO’s Washington, D.C., health policy team.Last week the American Society for Nutrition released a consensus statement on energy balance and implications for body weight regulation. In general, the statement supports much of the currently held notions about the importance of maintaining appropriate energy balance over [...]

Posted on Monday, April 9th, 2012 By Melissa Musiker
Also posted in Nutrition | Tagged 500 calories, ASN, calories, CBO, consensus statement, counting calories, energy balance, obesity, soda tax, weight | Leave a comment

Welcome to HealthScope!

I am pleased to kick off HealthScope, an APCO Worldwide online forum on leading health issues around the globe. Our writers are experts from diverse backgrounds and include former Capitol Hill staff, HHS and FDA officials, executives from the health care industry, reporters, and policy analysts. Our goal is to post meaningful discussions on issues of interest in health care and offer critical insight.

Posted on Monday, April 9th, 2012 By Robert Schooling
Also posted in Health Policy, Infectious Disease, Nutrition | Tagged blog launch, healthscope | Leave a comment

Improving Health Through Prevention

Leaders from the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council hosted a press conference yesterday to release the National Prevention Strategy, the first-ever cross-sector, integrated national strategy to improve health through prevention. The document was developed with input from wide range of federal agencies and an advisory board of stakeholder groups. It has four areas of strategic focus: health and safe community environments; clinical and community preventive services; empowered people; and elimination of health disparities.