By Statepoint

From one corner of a city or county to another, life expectancy can vary by five, 10 or even 20 years, according to a report from the Center on Society and Health.

“What would it take to close those gaps across our community and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible?” asks Dr. Clyde Yancy, M.D., American Heart Association past president and chief of cardiology at Northwestern University in Chicago. “For many communities, it requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty and discrimination.”

Thirty million people in neighborhoods nationwide have little or no access to healthful food like fruits and vegetables, and almost two-thirds of teens living in the United States don’t get the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. While progress is being made to help children grow up healthy, every state has communities with greater gaps and racial disparities.

To make sure all kids can lead a long and healthy life, a new campaign called Every Child Needs is shedding light on the types of resources schools and communities need to create healthy environments that help children succeed. As a result, more than 20 organizations dedicated to improving nutrition and increasing physical activity among children, have come together to build a foundation for a healthy future.

Experts involved have identified the following key elements that every child needs to grow up healthy.

A Healthy Start:

• At hospitals and worksites, moms need support and guidance for breastfeeding to help ensure infants receive the best nutrition.
• At home and in centers for early care and education, children need age-appropriate play and space to roll, crawl, wobble and run.
• All kids require healthful drinks and food such as milk or water, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

A Healthy School:

• Nutritious school lunches and smart snacks, and a school free from marketing of junk foods and sugary drinks, are crucial.
• Children need time to be active at recess; physical education and bursts of energy through classroom movement activities.

A Healthy Community:

• On the way to school, every child needs safe sidewalks and street crossings to bike or walk.
• After school, every child needs nutritious snacks, healthful beverages, and time to be active and play in afterschool programs.
• Throughout the neighborhood, every child needs safe places to go for a walk, play at a park and ride on a bike; and grocery and corner stores stocked with appealing nutritious foods and drinks.

Community leaders: to get free tools, guidance and support to improve health in your community visit voicesforhealthykids.org. Parents and families: to participate in the conversation online about what children need in your community to grow up healthy, and to learn about joining a state or local coalition to be an advocate for change, visit voicesactioncenter.org.

“Every child needs and deserves the opportunity to grow up healthy,” says Yancy “Fortunately, we have the tools to improve health across the lifespan by ensuring every child has nutritious foods to eat and safe places to be active.”

By StatePoint

Arthritis includes more than 100 rheumatic diseases and conditions that affect joints. If you are living with arthritis, here are a few things you should consider.

1. Arthritis can affect people of all ages. Many people think of arthritis as an affliction that only affects adults as they reach old age or athletes who have suffered an injury (known as osteoarthritis). Although the incidence of arthritis does increase with age, younger people can also be affected by the disease. Autoimmune forms of arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, often strike people by the time they are middle-aged. Overall, it’s estimated that nearly one-fourth of all adults in the United States (22.7 percent, 54.4 million) have doctor-diagnosed arthritis. Seven percent of 18-44 year olds and 29 percent of 45-64 year olds report doctor-diagnosed arthritis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2. You can now track your condition better and get support. Being diagnosed with a lifelong, chronic disease like arthritis can be overwhelming. Finding support, from friends, family, colleagues and online communities can help. For example, ArthritisPower, accessed online or downloaded as a free mobile app for android and iPhone, allows people with all forms of arthritis to track symptoms and treatments to see how they are doing over time. Users can send their results to doctors in advance of appointments to encourage more personalized and productive discussions. Note that ArthritisPower is a research registry. That means people must sign an informed consent to donate their data to researchers and learn more about other specific research studies announced in the app. The more people who participate in the registry, the more scientists can discover about arthritis. To learn more, visit arthritispower.org.

3. Surgery can help. In healthy joints, cartilage covers the ends of bones, allowing them to move smoothly and without pain. When arthritis (all forms) wears away or damages the protective cartilage, and other non-surgical treatments have proved unsuccessful, joint replacement (usually of the knee or the hip) is typically recommended, according to the American College of Rheumatology.

When an orthopedic surgeon replaces a joint, it involves removing worn out cartilage from both sides of the joint, followed by resurfacing of the joint with a metal and plastic replacement implant that looks and functions much like a normal joint. Over the past two decades, the safety and effectiveness of surgery, and the variety of hip and knee joint replacement devices has improved, thanks to research driven by surgeons and device makers. What’s missing, say experts, is a better understanding of patient experiences and preferences, particularly regarding what they value when making the decision to undergo surgery, pick a surgeon, and select a device.

“The good news is that this research is underway by patient-led research communities, such as ArthritisPower,” says W. Benjamin Nowell, Ph.D., Director of Patient-Centered Research at CreakyJoints, the online patient support community.

If you need joint surgery, it’s important that your preferences are central to your decision making at every step of the way, from timing of surgery, surgeon, implant device and recovery plan. Make sure to ask questions, get second opinions, and seek support. Surgery and recovery can be hard, but talking about them shouldn’t be.