NFL Players Set an Active Example on Fitness

The children playing football next to the East River in Manhattan on Tuesday did not look like a demographic in trouble, just kids looking for a game after school. But they were the target audience for the N.F.L.’s annual day of service in support of Play 60, its effort to stop childhood obesity by encouraging children to be active for at least an hour a day.

Across the country, players rebuilt parks, conducted football clinics and, unintentionally or not, used their physical appearance to send a message: ignore the girth, even the biggest guys can move.

The N.F.L., full of 300-pound men and reliant on the high schools and colleges that propel more large boys into the pipeline, would seem an incongruous standard-bearer for the cause. Childhood obesity experts, however, say athletes present powerful body image role models, particularly for boys. And the N.F.L. picked the cause in part because it figured children would be more likely to listen to athletes on an issue that was clearly relevant to their success: taking care of their bodies.

“They can relate — we’re really just big kids playing the game,” Roberto Garza, a 6-foot-2, 310-pound guard for the Chicago Bears, said in a telephone interview. “In the N.F.L. before, you used to see a lot of big and out-of-shape guys. Now, you see a lot of offensive linemen who are really buff, and we say now you can move better. We’re trying to say you can be like N.F.L. players — you can be healthy and lead a better lifestyle.”

Play 60 was started a year ago with a goal of helping to reverse the obesity trend by 2012. A study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that childhood obesity rates, which have been climbing for more than 20 years, might be leveling off. Even if the halt in childhood weight gain is permanent, 32 percent of American schoolchildren are already overweight or obese, putting them at risk for weight-related health issues as they get older.

Dr. David Ludwig, the director of the childhood obesity program at Children’s Hospital in Boston, applauded the N.F.L. for taking on childhood obesity, but he said he hoped the league would broaden its message if it was serious about reversing obesity.

“The message needs to be consistent,” Ludwig said. “I would call on them to provide a more consistent and comprehensive message through equal attention to nutrition qualities, physical activity, getting rid of junk-food sponsorships. And lastly, role-modeling healthful behaviors, the players themselves. Healthy eating and a commitment to avoiding steroid abuse, which is related, because it affects body image and establishes these unreal images, especially for boys.”

Two studies published last year indicated that high school boys who played football — especially those who played on the offensive and defensive lines — had more weight problems than other boys. That would seem to be impact of the even-bigger-is-better ethos so apparent in the N.F.L. Some experts have even suggested that there should be weight restrictions at all levels of football, even the N.F.L.

“You never rule something like that out,” N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “But the reality is, kids are just bigger now than before. You’d have to think hard about that one.

“Whether in professional sports or outside, we all look different. It doesn’t mean you can’t be physically fit. Do we have a lot of big players? Yes. Do we have a few who have a little extra around the waist? Yes. It doesn’t mean they’re not physically fit.”

Professional athletes, of course, have decided advantages over children: state-of-the-art workout facilities, trainers to monitor their routines and nutritionists to guide their diets. Inner-city children have particular trouble, experts said. As school physical education programs dwindle, children may have little or no opportunity for safe physical activity during the day. And the living room offers enticements to stay sedentary.

“I tell them, It’s harder on you now than it was on me,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. “They’ve got all these cool games to play. That’s not exercising. We had a Nintendo, and we played that when it rained — that’s what the purpose of that was. I tell them, I promise you it’s more fun playing those games outside than it is inside on a video game.”

That is where the day of service came in. The Carolina Panthers planned to take children rafting. The Kansas City Chiefs were building a playground. Several teams were building fitness rooms at local community centers. In New Orleans, the Saints were planning to take part in a school’s field day.

“Maybe it’s all that Southern cooking, and it gets so hot, most people think they have to stay inside,” Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. “It’s even more important in those areas where you know people have a higher percentage of weight problems.”

He added, “Kids will never listen to their parents, but if you get an athlete or an entertainer, the message may get through.”

By JUDY BATTISTA

Diabetes rate doubles over 10 years, US says

ATLANTA – The rate of new diabetes cases nearly doubled in the United States in the last 10 years, with the highest levels in the South, the government said Thursday in its first state-by-state review of new diagnoses.

The highest rate was in West Virginia, where about 13 in 1,000 adults were diagnosed with the disease. The lowest was in Minnesota, where the rate is 5 in 1,000.

About 90 percent of the cases are Type 2 diabetes, the form linked to obesity. The findings echo geographic trends seen with obesity and physical inactivity, which are also tied to heart disease. Southern states rank worst in those measures, too.

“It isn’t surprising the problem is heaviest in the South — no pun intended,” said Matt Petersen, who oversees data and statistics for the American Diabetes Association.

But the study provides important new information on where new cases are emerging each year, giving a more timely picture of where the disease is exploding. The information should be a big help as the government and health insurers decide where to focus prevention campaigns, he said.

The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention covered most states.

More than 23 million Americans have diabetes. The number is growing quickly. About 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in people 20 or older last year, according to the CDC.

Some studies have offered state-specific estimates of diabetes cases, but this is the first to chart where new cases are being diagnosed.

“It’s important work,” said Angela Liese, a diabetes researcher at the University of South Carolina, who was not involved in the CDC study.

The study involved a random-digit-dialed survey of more than 260,000 adults. Participants were asked if they’d ever been told by a doctor that they have diabetes, and when the diagnosis was made.

The annual rate of new diabetes cases rose from about 5 per 1,000 in the mid-1990s to 9 per 1,000 in the mid-2000s, according to data gathered for 33 states for which CDC had complete data for both time periods.

The researchers had data for 40 states for the years 2005-07. West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee had the highest rates, all at 11 per 1,000 or higher.

Minnesota, Hawaii and Wyoming had the lowest rates.

It’s not completely clear why some states have a worse incidence than others. Older people, blacks and Hispanics tend to have higher rates of Type 2, and the South has large concentrations of older people and blacks. Texas has a large Hispanic population. However, West Virginia — the state with the highest rate of new cases — is overwhelmingly white.

The report only asked about diagnosed diabetes. Because an estimated 1 in 4 diabetics have not been diagnosed, the findings probably underestimate the problem, Liese said.

The underestimates may be particularly bad in the rural South and other areas where patients have trouble getting health care, she noted.

Diabetes is increasing everywhere, said Karen Kirtland, the study’s lead author, who said the rate rose in all states. “It’s a national problem,” she said.

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Write

Turning your clock back Sunday may help your heart

NEW YORK – Turning your clock back on Sunday may be good for your heart. Swedish researchers looked at 20 years of records and discovered that the number of heart attacks dipped on the Monday after clocks were set back an hour, possibly because people got an extra hour of sleep.

But moving clocks forward in the spring appeared to have the opposite effect. There were more heart attacks during the week after the start of daylight saving time, particularly on the first three days of the week.

“Sleep — through a variety of mechanisms — affects our cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who was not involved in the research. The findings show that “sleep not only impacts how we feel, but it may also affect whether we develop heart disease or not.”

The study was described in a letter published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute and Dr. Rickard Ljung of Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare.

Janszky said he came up with the idea for the study after last spring’s time change, when he was having problems adjusting.

“I was on the bus, quite sleepy, and I thought of this,” said Janszky, who has done other research on sleep and health.

They took advantage of Sweden’s comprehensive registry of heart attacks to see if the disruptions to sleep and the body’s internal clock caused by a time change had any effect on heart attacks from 1987 to 2006. They compared the number of heart attacks on each of the seven days after the time shift with the corresponding day two weeks earlier and two weeks later.

Overall, in the week after “spring forward,” there was a 5 percent increase in heart attacks, with a 6 percent bump on Monday and Wednesday and a 10 percent increase on Tuesday. In the week after “fall back,” the number of heart attacks was about the same, except on Monday, which had a 5 percent decrease.

“The finding that the possibility of additional sleep seems to be protective on the first workday after the autumn shift is intriguing,” the authors wrote.

Doctors have long known that Monday in general is the worst day for heart attacks, and they usually blame the stress of a new work week and increased activity. The Swedish researchers said their findings suggest that the minor loss of sleep that occurs at the end of ordinary weekends — with people going to bed later on Sunday and getting up early on Monday — might also be a contributing factor.

Last year, a study by American researchers found there were more pedestrian deaths during the evening rush hour in November than October as drivers and pedestrians adjust to the earlier darkness. They said the risk for pedestrians drops in the spring when clocks are set back and daylight comes earlier.

Daylight saving time in the United States ends this year at 2 a.m. Sunday. All states except Arizona and Hawaii will make the switch. Sweden and the rest of Europe turned back their clocks last weekend. More than 1.5 billion people worldwide live in countries that use daylight saving time, the researchers said.

Sweden has a moderate rate of heart attacks and is at a high latitude, but Janszky said he would expect roughly the same results elsewhere.

Sleep can affect the heart through changes in blood pressure, inflammation, blood clotting, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood vessels, Mosca said. She suggested that anxiety from changes in routine may also be a factor, in addition to loss of sleep.

Dr. Ronald Chervin, director of the University of Michigan’s Sleep Disorders Center, said this is a “sleep-deprived society,” and he advises taking advantage of Sunday’s time change and getting an extra hour of sleep.

In the spring, he suggests gradually adjusting to the one-hour loss by going to bed and getting up 15 minutes earlier for a few days before the time change.

“We spend a third of our lives sleeping and people forget how much effect it has on overall health,” he said.

By Stephanie Nano, Associated Press Writer