Recently I wrote about the website OnDayOne and how I was excited that this existed for people to become even more involved in speaking up about how the President began their term.

I just posted my Idea suggestion for the website - obviously focused on some aspect of health.

As an advocate for public health education, I would want the President to boost publicity about the National President’s Challenge - a nationwide physical fitness program aimed at getting kids, teens and adults living healthier. This year will be the 52nd year of the Program, started by Eisenhower and it’s no secret that the country is in need of a fitness/healthier lifestyle boost. Let’s unite the country in good health!

You can find the post here on the site. Some pretty interesting ideas have been posted and hopefully you can also join in. Web technology is enabling us all to do so much, I love it.

Hmmm…might be time for me to cutback on the red meat. In recent news, the USDA just ordered the nation’s largest recall of beef.

How large is large you ask? Well, they are recalling 140 million pounds of meat - which you know, I tend to believe is a pretty high number, considering the recall before that was a mere 35 million pounds. Am I missing something or am I correct in thinking that with all the advances we have made in the food industry that this sort of thing shouldn’t happen?

Basically the premise of the need to recall this beef is that there has been an undercover investigation that exposed the manufacturing farm as passing along cows that failed to receive complete inspection.

From the article:

“Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.”

Are you getting that feeling in your stomach too? You know, the feeling of dread when you decided too late that you shouldn’t be on this rollercoaster?

Remember when you were in elementary school or middle school and you were given an assignment that you knew was going to smack you upside your head with confusion but you tried anyway?

Right. That’s kind of how I feel about the recent law being passed in New York City forcing fast food chains to display calorie information next to the food items on the menu. The chains being affected are those that have at least 15 separate outlets in operation. So I’m guessing we are looking places like McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s.

State public health officials cracking down on the obesity epidemic and saving the world! Right?

Well….in my opinion, not so much.

Here’s why:

1. You are going into a fast food restaurant and not HanGawi. Let’s be real here.
2. By the time you are in that McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Burger King - you have already (most likely) made the conscious decision to get a hamburger, chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, French fries or a combination of those.
3. The people coming into the restaurant are not stupid, they’re lazy. Hence the term “fast food”.
4. Nobody cares about calories when they come here, Exhibit A, Exhibit B and come on, not even the restaurants care! Seriously, did these places lose that much money when Super Size Me came out in theaters?
5. Finally, how many people know the amount of calories they should be eating in one day? On several of the fast food websites, they include their nutritional information but that’s meainngless if you don’t have context. Ok, the Quad Stacker at BK is going to set me back 1000 calories (yes it will), I might joke about the large number but how is it really going to affect me? If I should be consuming 2,000 calories in one day - that’s half of it gone right there. And that’s just the sandwich folks, you KNOW you usually want to get that whole meal!!

Don’t get me wrong, any steps taken to prevent the obesity rate from increasing is a good thing. And no I don’t have all the solutions but one thing I do want to point our is that we are all responsible for our choices. Rather than throwing some numbers on a menu and hope that people will see it and make sense of it pales in comparison to spending money in school systems and in the workplace to educate people about the wonders of healthy eating.

This is not going to be a quick fix. By a long shot.

Have you constantly had CNN on the tube or CNN.com as one of the permanent tabs on your Firefox browser lately? I have!

It’s been a fun ride so far, listening to what the candidates have to say to us as a country as well as to each other while they stand a few feet apart on a stage. After it’s all said and done, we will have another Commander-in-Chief who will lead our nation for 4 years.

Here at Antibio.tech, I try to focus on health issues on the personal and community levels. But when it comes to the nation’s health, that’s a big bear to tackle - it’s no secret that our nation’s health has been declining due to factors such as: obesity-related diseases, increased cardiovascular disease and a host of infectious diseases. However, I want our next President to saddle up, put on some Davy Crockett gear and make that bear say “uncle”!

One of my friends has been working with the UN Foundation here in DC to hold our next leader accountable On Day One of their term (the site is here: www.ondayone.org). The reason I wanted to write about it here is twofold:

1. Social Media is only as useful as its ability to bring change or action in the real world. Whether it is as simple as connecting with an old friend, or as complex [and important] as getting more young people to vote… social media should be a tool that promotes connections and real life action. As you can see from the On Day One site, their goal is simple and clear: send a message to the President — On DAY ONE — about which topics are the most important to address. Because the UN Foundation is involved with this site, I feel like these messages might actually make it to the Oval Office!
2. This is exactly the kind of stuff that Antibio.tech is about. Providing a solution and a cure (like antibiotics!). While the On Day One site isn’t trying to be the next glamorous Web 2.0 buzz machine, what it is trying to do is combine Web 2.0 tools with an actual purpose. The icons are pretty well designed and it seems like their beta launch has already brought in some traffic. Good design (check!) and a worthwhile mission (check!) — are you in?

So, readers and social media mavens, what do you think that the President should do On Day One? Should it be about Iraq exit strategies? Women’s Rights? Darfur? Improving out tattered image on the Global Stage? You already know what my interests are…whatever happened to people knowing about the Presidential Health Challenge? Check out On Day One and post your thoughts here/there… let’s show the world that social media is more than just for pajama wearers.

On Sunday, I had the great opportunity to visit the 2008 NBC Health and Fitness Expo at the Convention Center in Washington, DC. This is my third year going (this is the 15th year of the event) to the expo and every time I go, I get blown away at the vendors and the sheer amount of attendees that show up.

According to the NBC 4 website, over 85,000 people showed up to take part in the variety of giveaways, health screenings, and even activities like salsa dancing! The expo was held on Saturday and Sunday but unfortunately I was only able to make the tail end of Sunday - as they say, better late than never right?

As soon as you enter the Washington Convention Center, there were clear signs leading you to the event. When you got to the top of the escalator platform, you got a clear view of what was happening - it was awesome.

Despite having limited time, I did manage to get around to some great booths. The most interesting exhibit I came across was Mark Marten’s FitClub demo. Mark heads up Pantometrics, a company that develops exercise technology for fitness equipment. As I was walking past his booth, I couldn’t help but notice a young girl on a stationery bike looking at a screen that basically looked like a virtual Tour de France!

How cool is that?!

I was very impressed and had to stop by and chat with Mark for a few, getting his insight into the product and what motivated him. I’m going to try to get an interview with him so stay tuned for that. This is exactly the kind of innovation that we need to be working on in order to merge together popular technology and the benefit of healthy living!

As the event began to wind down, I got the impression that thousands of people left the facility a little more enlightened about staying healthy and became aware of the different organizations in the area that are devoted to ensuring that it stays that way. Next year I hope to visit the expo on both days and cover more events.

There was an article I found on the NBC 4 website that highlighted a man who said that the event saved his life. Here is a snippet:

…A 61-year-old Maryland man said if not for free medical screenings he received at NBC4’s Health and Fitness Expo about eight years ago, he might have died.

Banjo player Frank Cassel said he knew his health was in jeopardy, but he hadn’t seen a doctor. He went to the Health and Fitness Expo, where medical experts performed a battery of tests for free.

“They found out that all my levels of sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides were all severely elevated,” Cassel said…Cassel was diagnosed with uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes. That diagnosis prompted him to make some major changes in his life, like eating healthier to control his diabetes and starting a regular exercise program. Now his blood sugar is under control and his cholesterol is down.

“If I hadn’t gone to the Health Expo and gotten tested, it’s very possible I would have died,” he said. Cassel was so thankful for the Expo that he wrote a song about it…

Amazing. One of the things I was taught while learning about Community Health in college (and that I still hold onto), is that even the smallest success in someone’s life is a huge victory. And as we all know the world is getting smaller, each victory has the potential to spread into larger victories through word of mouth. What if Mr. Cassel decided to sing the praises of the Expo to his family and friends (as you can see, he DID write a song about the event!)? What if they decided to check the Expo out next year or better yet, decided to make some changes in their own lifestyle to promote better health?

Kudos to you NBC and to the rest of you deciding to make small steps to better yourselves.

It’s never too late to start.

*see more pictures from the event here

APHA keeps it moving with a blog for next year’s Public Health Week:

http://www.nphw.blogspot.com/

Looking forward to spreading the news..National Public Health Week happens April 7-13, 2008

Ok so I decided to check what’s been going on Twitter and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the APHA twitter feed has been updated!  That’s what I’m talkin about!

In case you were wondering what the “twit” was, they just recently put up a website for National Public Health Week going on next year. Can’t wait!

For those who aren’t up to speed on what Twitter is - it’s basically a platform that allows you to do micro-blogging, letting people know what you are up to or what you are thinking at any given moment. Now I must admit, in the beginning I was skeptical about the usefulness but after diving in and meeting people/exchanging ideas, it became another tool to put in my box. Need a question answered? Send it out on Twitter and see how many people write you back with ideas. It was especially interesting to see how it was useful in the recent California fires.

Kudos once again to the American Public Health Association for breaking into the niche social media trend!

Ryan over at the Brewing Culture blog, wrote some thoughts on a recent news item regarding the amount of media that will be user generated in 5 years. With the pace of websites like YouTube and Myspace creating online celebrities, it sort of makes sense!

Here’s a thought along those lines:

1. Not too long ago, the people in control of media and what we saw, heard and read, were sitting high and pretty because they were the ones producing all the content.
2. Today, the consumer is now creating content that people can see, hear and read all over the world. User-generated content is quickly becoming an important part of all entertainment and media.
3. Public health/health education aims to prevent disease and encourage the ongoing health and well being of all (stay with me now…)
4. Physicians and hospitals are the people in control of treating illness and curing disease. When you are sick and suffering, the patient heads to the hospital to be (more or less) cured - because, they have the answer to why you are feeling the way you do.
5. Today, the consumer is able to visit websites such as WebMD, to gain knowledge on a condition or disease. There are also blogs popping up on the radar that address health concerns such as DiabetesMine, The Health Wisdom Blog, and one of my new favorites The Health 2.0 blog.

How is this all connected you ask? Well, we are living in a time where the traditional “head honchos” are no longer completely running the show. And I’m not exactly pumping my fist in the air and screaming how much we should fight the power, I’m just realizing that there is potential in the public health and health education sphere for spreading knowledge on living well and increasing healthy behaviors. Now more than ever, we can begin to stop complaining when we think to ourselves “shouldn’t they know better?” I plan on doing something about it.

Doing good things should be high on everyone’s list. Now of course, we all can’t start a foundation to increase the literacy of children across America or better the science and technology skills of the underprivileged - but simple things we can do.

A few days ago, I was reading through Beth’s blog and came across this online game that she was playing with her children. It sounded pretty interesting, so I bookmarked it in plans to check it out. Yesterday, I finally got around to checking out Free Rice, the English language trivia game that not only increases your knowledge of words but sends rice to the hungry through the UN.

Now, I did pretty decently on my verbal SAT but wow, there are some serious words going on here! One of my favorite words, basilisk [a legendary reptile] popped up last night but the word blazon - definitely wasn’t in my vocabulary. It means “coat of arms“. And now that I think of it, the world emblazoned is in my vocabulary and I was upset that I missed the opportunity to add 20 more grains of rice to the bowl. Anyhow, the website also includes a history of rice donated from when the website began. It’s really interesting to see how interest in the game has exploded and I’m pretty sure it’s due to word of mouth (WOM).

With the advent of social media and the importance of creating community amongst peers, it’s no wonder that word of mouth is one of the most effective ways of marketing a product or in this case, a worthy cause. Heck, there is even a whole association based around it! Global hunger is a public health issue - inadvertently, the creation of the Web 2.0 phenomenon has made a way to connect people to many great causes. The potential is seemingly endless and I want to tap into it and make some changes.

It’s an exciting time now people!!

http://www.publichealththankyouday.org/

I wish I had known about this event much earlier! This is exactly the kind of resource we need to promote and get on the news in FRONT of the latest high blood pressure drug that will eventually cause you to get high cholesterol…

Prevention is better than cure folks - our parents told us this but oh how aptly it applies to health.

I’ll be all over Public Health Thank You Day next year!