2007 America’s Health Rankings™ Show a Decline in
the Overall Health of the Nation

Analysis shows Vermont, Minnesota and Hawaii are nation’s healthiest states;
Mississippi and Louisiana rank as least-healthy states

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 5, 2007 – The overall health of the nation declined
over the past year, despite progress made in several key health indicators, according to a
report launched today by United Health Foundation, the American Public Health
Association (APHA) and Partnership for Prevention™. The 18th annual edition of
America’s Health Rankings™: A Call to Action for People & Their Communities
measures the overall healthiness of states and the nation using a comprehensive and
longitudinal set of related health determinants and health outcomes. The report indicates
that the overall health of the nation declined by a rate of 0.3 percent since last year.
While this report, and others, show there have been modest gains in reducing the rates of
cancer and cardiovascular mortality, these improvements continue to be dwarfed by
increasing obesity, increasing numbers of uninsured people, children in poverty and the
persistence of risky health behaviors, such as tobacco use and violent crime – all of which
have a significant impact on the overall healthiness of the nation.

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N E W S R E L E A S E: United Health Foundation
What can we do about this state of affairs? It's pretty simple, actually! Get more active! Go out and ride your bike, or take a walk, or a run. The benefits you reap will be wonderful!

What Will Exercise and Lifestyle Change Do for Me?

Surprisingly, or not, depending on how well informed you are about the benefits of exercise, there are several key factors that are going to be benefitted by exercise:

• Depression: Exercise stimulates production of key brain chemicals called Endorphins. These are good in that they help with your mood as well as management of pain in the body. It may also just be an increase in self esteem, though, in honesty. Whether it's an actual physiological effect or just an increase in self esteem, however, a pragmatic view suggests that if it works, use it!
• Clear Thought: Exercise has been demonstrated to stimulate the growth of new neural tissue and to help with clarity of thought. Some of my most creative thinking is done on a long bike ride. To me, it's a Zen process. I fall down inside myself and everything is reduced to patterns and breathing. My awareness of the world is still there, and I can react to traffic, etc, but most of my brain is simply processing in a meditative state.
• Better Cardiovascular Health: Simply put, your heart gets stronger, our cholesterol tends to reduce, and your CV system generally improves
• Better Pulmonary Health: Your lung function improves
• Sex Life: What can I say? It gets better, the healthier you are! If you aren't loaded down with Blood Pressure and cardiac medicines, you generally don't need Viagra! Now, if you do need these meds, don't discontinue them, but if you can get healthy enough to do without them AND YOUR DOCTOR APPROVES, then you too can reap these benefits!

You can change your personal paradigm. Life is what you make it.

By the way, Indiana is ranked at 32! We can do better than that!