Benton Harbor Herald-Palladium

The Newspaper for Southwest Michigan

Thursday, April 05, 2001

News from Southwest Michigan

Surgeon general hopeful wants tax incentives for people to stay fit

By LYNN STEVENS / H-P Staff Writer

BENTON TOWNSHIP - If named the nation's next surgeon general, Kenneth Cooper will push for a tax credit of $1,000 per year for every person whose body mass index is in the normal range, whose blood pressure is below 200, whose cholesterol is in the safe range and who doesn't smoke.

Cooper told the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan on Wednesday night that those factors and physical fitness contribute so much to health and longer life that they should carry economic incentives.

Maybe the tax cut idea evolved by association with President George W. Bush.

Cooper, whose practice is based in Dallas, has been personal physician to the president and Mrs. Bush for 12 years. That close association may be a reason why Cooper was traveling to Washington D.C. after his speech to talk to congressional leaders about becoming surgeon general. He is on Bush's short list for the post, and Wednesday night he hinted if Bush offers it, he would take the job.

In the question-and-answer session following the speech, Cooper said if he were surgeon general, he would urge tax benefits for corporations that establish some kind of employee-wellness program. He said a program that allows employees to get out of their cubicles and away from their work stations to exercise would reduce health care costs, reduce absenteeism due to illness, make employees more productive on the job and attract the best job applicants.

Aside from the tax cuts, Cooper took a hard line on government involvement in health care.

"Health is not your government's responsibility, it's your responsibility," he said.

When Cooper says health, he means preventive health behavior. He said he would like to return to the attitude the ancient Chinese had: They paid their doctors as long as they stayed healthy and did not pay when they got sick. He said by living a healthy lifestyle - including regular exercise, maintaining optimum weight, avoiding cigarettes and alcohol - people can improve their health and maintain independence into their 70s, 80s and 90s.

Cooper is a walking advertisement for his program's effectiveness. He speaks very fast and with great energy. He looks at least a decade younger than his 70 years. He mentioned that he spent six hours downhill skiing on March 4, his 70th birthday.

Cooper is an internationally known fitness advocate, but he referred to his medical specialty Wednesday as "wellness." Although he heads the multimillion dollar Cooper Institute in Dallas, he said wellness was not a profitable specialty when he began it 30 years ago after a careers as a military and NASA doctor.

"Wellness is the Cinderella of medical specialties because there is no profit in health," Cooper said. "It costs you nothing to do something for yourself."

First on his list of things to do for yourself is to get moving. He is credited with coining the word "aerobics" in 1966.

He invented the word for a chapter heading in his first book. The publisher liked it so well, he changed the book title to "Aerobics." In it, Cooper extolled the benefits of jogging, and a fitness movement was born.

Cooper said neither "aerobics" or "jogging" translates well into all languages. In Brazil, for example, the Portuguese equivalents are so cumbersome, people use "cooper" instead to mean "jogging."

Next on his list is getting down to ideal weight. Although he said that should be defined for each individual, he used the body mass index generalizations in the series of statistics he showed Economic Club members.

Cooper said using the body mass index, a ratio of height to weight, 53 percent of the U. S. population is overweight. And within that 53 percent, 34 percent are obese.

One quick change that can help reduce weight is to abandon the typical American practice of consuming 60 percent of one's daily food intake at dinner. Instead, Cooper recommended eating 25 percent at breakfast, 50 percent at lunch and 25 percent at dinner. He said metabolism reaches its peak four to six hours after a meal. If a person is sleeping instead of moving, the body stores that energy as fat instead of burning it as fuel.

He showed a study that grouped people by activity level. The sedentary but healthy died at about 73. The group that was moderately fit lived to about 79. Those in the most-fit group lived into their 80s.

Cooper joked his private medical practice is becoming a geriatric practice - his patients' average age is 77.

But he said quality of life is at least as important as the length of it. He said personal independence, defined as the ability to do various daily activities without help, is important. Within the three physical fitness levels, he said the most fit men and women in the 65-69 group were able to do as many daily activities for themselves as men in the least fit 40-44 group.

Cooper stressed it is never too late to start getting fit. He showed study results proving people who begin getting more exercise after age 60 can cut their risk of death from disease by three-fourths.

However, Cooper said he has changed his mind since the 1960s about how much exercise is good.

"I used to think it was not possible to overdo," he said. "But if you're running, for example, after 15 miles per week, there is marginal cardiovascular improvement and an exponential increase in injuries."

He also promoted proper diet. Cooper condemned extreme diets, such as the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets that are currently popular. He said they work temporarily because they are low calorie and also they are diuretics - increase the excretion of urine. Instead, he advocated American Heart Association guidelines.

He also urged vitamin supplements, though he warned there are no standards for supplements and some have been found to contain none of the elements their labels promise. Cooper said he hopes legislation will correct that. Pressed for specific brand recommendations, Cooper said he is developing his own line of vitamin and mineral supplements.

His final recommendation was to never start smoking or to quit. He called smoking "the worst health hazard in the world today" and would work against it if named Surgeon General.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Answers

so, he wants to give 1000 tax credit if you meet his 4 requirements.

That works out to 250 per. Can we get a 750 if we are three out of the four?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

I wondered the same thing myself, lol!

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Calculating your Body-mass Index:

http://www.kcnet.com/~marc/bmi.html

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Don't need no steenking Body Mass Index--I can see it!

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

I thought Body Mass are the prayers you say before you step on the scale!

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001