Citizens, health-care professionals and community leaders concerned about health in Surry County gathered Friday for the annual Healthy Carolinians luncheon sponsored by Healthy Surry Partnership.

It was the second luncheon held by the partnership. Rebecca Thompson, health educator and Healthy Carolinians coordinator for the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center, said the event is growing. Close to 40 people attended this year’s luncheon, which focused on heart health, physical activity and childhood obesity prevention.

Representatives came from each of the schools, the school systems, the health department, parks and recreation, local hospitals and other agencies. Members of the five subcommittees of Healthy Surry also attended.

“Healthy Carolinians is really a community-based organization,” Thompson explained.

Heart health

While attendees enjoyed a catered meal, Celena Watson, health promotion supervisor for the health department, started off the presentations. She gave the group tips on heart health.

Watson said that one in three North Carolinians have cardiovascular disease, and 32 percent of the deaths in the state are caused by cardiovascular disease. Surry County has an even higher cardiovascular disease mortality rate.

To help get those numbers down, Watson gave 10 tips for people to pass along. The tips were to stop smoking, cut down on salt, watch one’s diet, monitor one’s alcohol, get active, manage one’s weight, get one’s blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked, manage one’s stress, check one’s family history, and know the early signs of a heart attack.

Physical activity

The next speaker was Susan Tumbleston, director of the Be Active - Appalachian Partnership. She introduced them to this partnership, which is grant funded. It was created in 2005 with the mission “to empower the citizens of western North Carolina to live healthy, physically-active lifestyles.”

“We have worked very hard to get people up and moving,” Tumbleston said.

The speaker encouraged the crowd to get moving every day. She called physical activity a “super-medicine,” explaining that it reduces the risk of certain kinds of cancers and things such as Alzheimer’s Disease. She got the group to shout out some of the benefits of physical activity.

“If you’re thinking the only thing it does is keep you thin, then think again ... It’s one of the best kept secrets,” Tumbleston exclaimed.

The motto of her partnership is “more people, more active, more often.” She travels throughout western North Carolina to educate and promote physical activity. Tumbleston talked about ways that Be Active could partner with the county.

So far the organization’s involvement in Surry has been limited, but Tumbleston said, “I want us to become more involved in Surry County.”

She told the crowd about programs that could benefit the citizens of Surry. One new program is “Matter of Balance,” which helps seniors with their balance. A study done by the partnership found that 25 percent of women ages 50 to 70 don’t exercise because they’re afraid of falling.

Be Active - Appalachian Partnership also trains teachers to get their kids exercising in the classroom. The group trained more than 500 teachers and 300 future teachers last year.

In the spirit of Tumbleston’s lecture, Carmen Long with the Surry County Cooperative Extension office led the group in a short exercise after the presentation. Luncheon attendees walked, danced, jumped and ran around the room.

Childhood obesity

The final speaker of the day was Dr. Cecil K. Thoppil, who has been a pediatrician in Mount Airy for 15 years. He spoke about childhood obesity and ways to prevent it.

According to Thoppil, the United States spends $150 billion ever year to treat obesity. Obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years. Due to this, Thoppil said “our children may have a shorter life span than us.”

The physician talked about how it is sometimes culturally acceptable to be overweight. He tossed around phrases like “live to eat” or “meat and potatoes is a guy thing.”

“This is what you battle — to change some of that,” said Thoppil.

Then he talked about the many excuses people give for not being able to exercise, and he had the crowd laughing as he read a long list of common excuses.

Thoppil gave practical tips for how parents can help prevent their children from getting overweight. He advises them to put their child into a sport. If their child is not very athletic or competitive, then he suggests putting them in an organized non-competitive sport.

He also suggested that parents should take their children with them grocery shopping. Children are often more willing to try foods that they helped pick out. Some other tips for parents are to limit time in front of the television or computer and increase time playing outside.

After the presentations were completed, Thompson ended the luncheon by encouraging people to participate in Healthy Surry Partnership, which is part of the statewide Healthy Carolinians initiative. Healthy Carolinians is designed to be in every county. It can now be found in 83 counties in the state.

“We go into the community and make change happen,” said Thompson.

Healthy Surry’s priorities are childhood obesity, child safety, diabetes, healthy aging and substance abuse prevention. In the past few years, the partnership has contributed to the community by creating resource directories, sponsoring safe kids programs and alcohol abuse prevention programs, working on tobacco free and wellness policies, holding health fairs, and more. Healthy Surry committees meet throughout the year to address health concerns in the county. Each committee focuses on a specific priority of the partnership.

More information about the group can be found by calling the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center at 401-8400 or visiting www.surry.com.

Contact Meghann Evans at mevans@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.