from KPRC 2.
This is Houston newsmakers with khambrel,
Marshall and good morning and welcome to
Houston newsmakers. I’m excited in more ways than one to introduce my
first guest this morning to talk about a groundbreaking new effort
to
Create Equitable opportunities for good health, and Houston is
called fit Houston
and to talk about what it means that, who will benefit Teresa Jacobs is
the board president founder and executive director,
dr. Stephanie, Coulter is the assistant medical director of the Texas
Heart Institute and the founding director of The Women’s Center for
Heart and Vascular Health, good morning to both of you and
congratulations to you mr. Issa on
getting this point
so for people don’t know, explain to viewers what the concept
is and how it came about.
Yes well thank you so much for
Having us on the show, we’re super excited. You
know, team fit. Houston was actually part of an
effort by Houston. 2036 task force on Equity.
It was really an incubator of sorts bringing all kinds of leaders
from all over Houston. 36 of us to be exact and just
divided us into six groups and we made up these teams
and try to figure out what can we do to really get Houston
healthier. There are other topics that we covered such as education
environment, but our area of concern for fit, Houston
was
And so, you know, we thought about what’s the one thing that people could do
every single day, that could be free
to improve their health Stave off, chronic disease, and it was really physical
activity.
Move a little. Do you find that there was a disparity
in the ability for various
we can all come up with excuses not to be healthy.
But within the communities, that were around Houston. Did you find that
there are different areas where there’s just not that availability, and there’s more of an excuse
not to do
ya, think that’s a great question because, you know, I spent a lot of time
in the community and
A lot of the feedback from residents
has been that. It’s either hard to get to a gym or they can’t afford it or
there’s not one close by, or
they need ideas for being physically active. So,
you know, just a lot of listening sessions and many different communities,
and it really does point to One Direction, which is, we need to
exercise, dr. Cole to, why is the Texas Heart Institute
invested in involved in wanting to be a part of this kind of effort?
Well, when we first heard about this initiative, we’d already
been involved in the community and we’d worked with many of the players.
team on this team.
So, the first I heard of it. I was like, we’re full on in.
We’re
in for all the right reasons.
I’d like to add covid to the other problem
with why people quit going to the gym and honestly,
some people don’t have time working moms.
There’s not time to go to the gym. I
remember a cataclysmic event for me, and my life was when my children were
big enough that I can leave them in the house alone so I could run alone,
okay?
Okay,
so you need something that you can encourage people
to do. That doesn’t cost money
that they can do in their own home with their children.
So
you can walk. You can play, you can run,
you know, so I’m for the least time spent, I don’t have time
really, to go to a gym. We know it seems logical enough that exercise is the
good things. The statistics make that very clear. For example, Johns Hopkins,
medical medicine.
Listen number of benefits
among those lower blood pressure, help sway control, help strengthen muscles
helps.
Lower stress. We all of us can use that
and slows development of diabetes. So now
the challenge of trying to convince people to do
what they need to do to try to get some of those benefits.
That’s
kind of much easier said than done, isn’t it?
But humans love to copy one another. So
when
you have a big group of people participating in something
particular,
like, we’ve launched this challenge where we’re going to
have an app,
which we encourage people to
Tain.
And it’s one way of comparing yourself to
your friend groups,
your family members. So there’s a lot of opportunities
to
compete. So the Risa, let’s talk about the January plans
for the kickoff of this and how, you know, dr. Coulter’s
saying that it’s going to be kind of a good thing.
Yes. Well, you know, we should be active for about 150
minutes every week and what that could look like is a 30
minute walk every day. It’s actually five days a week, but we
can walk 30 minutes every single
All day. And so
the health campaign that we’re running across the city. It’s a Citywide
Health campaign,
it’s called hashtag walk 30.
The app is through. Moves spring were very excited to work
with them and it’s the same app that City of Houston
uses for their employees. And so, it’s been really nice because
people are already using it.
We want people to download the app, they can go to our website and
learn more. But, you know, once you do that, you can see how much
you’ve been walking. How many steps you’ve gotten. And I think also distance
you’ve put a lot of effort
into the website that talks about some of the issues evidence-based information
is already there, as well.
I found an interesting couple of graphics on your website illustrate, some of the Harris
County problems. For example,
the colors that are darker colors. Reds. That’s the diabetes,
for example,
adults, with diabetes,
darker color, show the communities the percentage where it’s higher.
And also, there’s another graphic to illustrate
the area where there’s low activity
and there’s no real shock that the areas where there’s low activity
corresponds with the areas where there’s higher diabetes. And so you see that out
there
It’s like a win-win. It kind of
helps you doesn’t the doctor closer to get that conversation started and say, look,
this is evidence that if you just do more you can be more
healthy. Well, I use it every day because I see patients
every day and you can’t decide
in the morning
if you can lose 20 pounds a day
because it’s not possible,
but every single day
you can walk,
you can walk 30 minutes.
We’re encouraging everyone to walk because if you walk
you’re going to feel better.
Your blood pressure is going to be better.
Better,
your glucose numbers are going to be better. You’re going to use less insulin.
Your pancreas is going to last longer in life.
So every day that you walk, you’re prolonging
the life of your pancreas. So now you have this
challenge
fit, Houston
long-term goal for you and the organization. At this point,
we would like to see the city of Houston and Harris County. And
in all areas, all people everywhere, be physically, active and vibrant.
We want people to feel better.
We want people to know that movement really is
what you need is the perfect ingredient for a good life and good quality
of life. So move every day,
you know, somebody recently said,
I think I saw this on the news that there was somebody famous saying you know,
if I don’t move, I freeze as I’ve gotten older if I don’t move,
I freeze. So let’s unfreeze everybody to get moving.
So what’s the best way for people to get involved to take part in this?
Yes, join the challenge. It’s for January. Hashtag.
Walk 30,
go to our website fit, Houston dot-org.
You can find out more about how to download the app there.
We do have a code available it’s on the website. So you know join
us walk post a selfie please.
Show us your selfie and
you know hashtag us. Follow us on Instagram at at fit Houston
one.
Well you know I’m going to put all this information on the
news makers page. That’s the cares about cam. Thank you. We do that
all the help
taking great advice from you. I always listen to my doctor
and you’re my doctor now for this morning,
that’s a cultural Arisa. Thank you so much. Good luck in 2023.
Thank you very much master.
Merry Christmas to all of you as well.