Physical Activity in the US: Too Little, Too Late?

A bill was submitted to the US Congress this week, calling for the creation of national guidelines for physical activity. With sponsors from both parties and both the Assembly and Senate, it has excellent chances of passing. The only real question is what took so long? And when will something with real teeth be proposed on a federal level? After all, the federal government already issued guidelines in October 2008: the problem is how few people noticed.

Alarm bells have long been ringing in the USA about the problems engendered by a lack of physical activity. It's been six years since the Centers for Disease Control drew widespread attention to the type 2 diabetes epidemic. The CDC predicted that fully one third of children born in the year 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes during their lifetimes, many of them at much younger ages than in the past. Those children are now nearly ten years old. Their physical activity patterns are already becoming hard wired. Muscle memory is forming and there's pitifully little to remember.

Passing the Physical Activities Guidelines for Americans Act would lead to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) preparing and promoting physical activity guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. Its the promoting part that is most important. Will it be more than just talk?

There has been no shortage of rhetoric from the White House, regarding physical activity, for more than fifty years. The problem, as with some many other issues in the US, has been a historical lack of willingness when it comes to real intervention:

“I believe you and I share the feeling that more and better coordinated attention should be given to this most precious asset – our youth – within the Federal government. By this I do not mean that we should have an over-riding Federal program. The fitness of our young people is essentially a home and local community problem...", Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“We want a nation of participants in the vigorous life. This is not a matter which can be settled, of course, from Washington. It is really a matter which starts with each individual family. It is my hope ... that the communities will be concerned...", John F. Kennedy

In more recent times, the Council has been seen as a source for photo opportunities, but given little means to effect real change. Bush Sr. appointed steroid-abuser Arnold Schwarzenegger to chair his council. Clinton appointed Florence Griffith-Joyner, the glamorous sprinter whose incredible achievements were marked by doubts over steroids. She served alongside bodybuilder Lee Haney ("steroids are dangerous only when misused..."). George Bush Jr appointed Marion Jones. At time of the 2008 election, the council was chaired by John Burke of Trek Bicycles, maker of the bikes ridden by Bush idol Lance Armstrong. Burke gave the maximum allowable $4,600 to the Obama campaign almost immediately after the latter won the Democratic nomination. He has continued to chair the Council since the election.

The time for photo opportunities and window dressing is over.  Government in the US must roll up its sleeves, underpinned by a recognition that the market and our society have created an environment and a set of lifestyle habits that will see today's children live shorter, less active and sicker lives than their parents. What is the point, after all, of expending so much energy on debating healthcare without a concurrent effort to improve health itself?