Making America Healthy Again
It is laudable that our federal government wants to Make America Healthy Again. The MAHA Commission’s goal of reducing chronic diseases is imperative. Chronic disease prevention requires identifying and addressing known risk factors, including nutrition, physical activity, tobacco, alcoholic beverages and air pollution. Smoking and alcohol consumption are leading causes of death, and both are typically initiated during adolescence. Firearms kill more children and teens than any other cause including car crashes and cancer. However, rather than addressing these well known risk-factors, the MAHA commission assessment ascribes the pediatric chronic disease epidemic to the secretary of Health and Human Service’s concerns: ultra processed foods, environmental chemicals, digital behavior and over-medicalization of children’s health concerns. While these problems are of great interest and should be explored and addressed, it is vital to restore and advance actions to address the known risk factors for chronic disease with proven strategies.
As pointed out by Dr. Peter Lurie and Attorney Lawrence Gostin in a recent publication in the Journal of the America Medical Association Network, a better path forward would be for U.S. to “adopt proven ways to prevent the leading causes of chronic diseases: tobacco (reduce nicotine levels to prevent addiction); alcohol (increase taxes and reduce sale hours, locations, and marketing); sodium (reduce content in packaged and restaurant foods); sugar (taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages); and air pollution (restore EPA emissions rules).”
State and federal leadership, in the form of regulations and funding, are needed to Make America Healthy Again.