5 days Ago
Year after year, the Hoosier state ranks well below the national average for overall health, most recently ranking 36th, according to the latest America's Health Rankings report. Indiana has higher rates of chronic diseases and a lower-than-average rate of access to healthy foods and physical activity, not to mention ranking 42nd in mental health and 45th for infant mortality. But not to worry.
Our state and federal governments have a solution. On Tuesday, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun announced the new health initiative, “Make Indiana Healthy Again,” alongside the Trump administration’s top two health officials — U.
S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Watch a video at NWI.
com .) “We’re talking about how to change the culture of promoting chronic disease through the way we produce our food by preventing chronic disease in the first place,” Braun said from the Indiana State Library as Kennedy and Oz watched on. “So I came out with nine executive orders today , finally, to where you can do something rather than just talk about it.
” This was the first red flag hoisted at the press conference — presuming that most Hoosiers want to do something about their health rather than just talk about it. How many times should we be reminded to not overeat, get more exercise, drink in moderation and care more about our bodies than our politics? Make Indiana Healthy Again? I don’t recall our state being healthy at all in the recent past. A survey from 15 years ago, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, ranked Indiana 45th in health and well-being, barely edging out our nation’s fattest and unhappiest states: Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Since then, federal data has historically ranked our state in the bottom third for health-related metrics. “Today's nine executive orders reflect a new approach to health policy in the state of Indiana, focused on empowering everyone to live a healthier, happier, longer life. And today is where we begin,” Braun said to rounds of applause.
For decades, Oz has preached to Americans about the importance of a healthy diet, a phrase that has become an oxymoron in Indiana. The 64-year-old longtime cardiologist and former TV pitchman told U.S.
senators at his confirmation hearing that he plans to incentivize Americans to make healthier lifestyle choices. "This is a monumental day, not just in Indiana but for this great nation," Oz said at Tuesday's press conference. "Nine executive orders addressing Make America Healthy Again initiatives I think breaks the record.
" "By far," Kennedy added from off-stage. Our country is going in the wrong direction regarding public health, Oz noted. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts "Why? Chronic illness," he said.
"It drives 70% of the total healthcare budget." "It turns out that the most patriotic thing you can do these days is to get healthy," Oz said. Long before he politicized his career, Oz shared with me health recommendations during phone interviews for a handful of my newspaper columns.
He also agreed to give a front-cover testimonial for my first book, “Connections: Everyone Happens for a Reason.” “I’ve learned that everyone really does happen for a reason,” Oz told me nearly 20 years ago in between recordings of “The Oprah Winfrey Show." His close connection to Kennedy seems to prove what he told me back then.
Our country’s high-ranking public health officials appear to be on the same page in the same book regarding their stances on revolutionizing Americans’ lifestyle habits. "We're in a crisis today," Kennedy said, hinting at newly released numbers of autistic children in our country. "Again, they've gone up dramatically, just in two years.
And this is just one disease. This whole generation of kids is damaged by chronic disease." There are at least 100 million Americans who are considered to have prediabetes, he said.
"This is unknown in human history." The U.S.
is currently the fourth most obese country in the world, he noted, and we have something else unique in human history. "We have people who are obese and at the same time malnourished," Kennedy said. "We are the sickest nation.
" He encouraged governors across the country to follow Indiana's lead with public health reform and executive orders to get it accomplished. "I'm very very proud of you, governor," Kennedy said, looking at Braun. "He's an important partner in the MAHA movement.
And I'm very grateful to you for taking this ambitious step." Oz said our state and our country have a "generational opportunity" to make this nation as healthy as it should be. And the person who represents this more than anyone else is Kennedy, he said.
"I met him on my TV show, and many did not want him to appear because they thought he had far-out ideas that were so bad they shouldn't be heard," Oz said. Kennedy shared some of these ideas Tuesday in Indianapolis. In my next column, I'll share something he said that made obvious sense, and I'll also share what Oz recommends for Hoosiers to improve their overall health immediately.
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