Perdue emphasizes importance of healthy behavior in N.C.

On Friday, Gov. Beverly Perdue, along with several North Carolina elected officials, joined the kick off at ECU's Heart Institute to announce the new partnership between North Carolina and the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, or PFCD.

Perdue, members of ECU's Heart Institute and faculty from the Brody School of Medicine took this event as an opportunity to promote the new partnership and to give detailed information about the extreme seriousness of chronic illnesses and how they have been affecting the state.

"We stand strong and highly support Perdue," said Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood, Jr., director of the East Carolina Heart Institute. "She has been working hard to fight for better healthcare in this state with the PFCD and we are highly appreciative of her efforts."

The PFCD was enacted in hopes to save lives and health care dollars. It is a national coalition of providers and community organizations, business and labor groups and health policy experts committed to battling the No. 1 causes of death--disability and rising health care costs in the United States.

Approximately 1.7 million Americans die from chronic diseases a year and these costs add up to more than $1.5 trillion. This is devastating to North Carolina and is continuing to get worse. According to Perdue, seven out of every 10 deaths in the United States are due to chronic diseases and in North Carolina, 50,000 people a year die from them.

Before becoming a politician, working as a lieutenant governor for eight years under Gov. Mike Easley and now governor of the state, Perdue worked as a hospital administrator and consultant.

"I don't like the data about healthcare," said Perdue. "This is what got me into it. We'll get through these times and we need to be hopeful in preventing economic erosion."

According to Perdue, North Carolinians must stop "the killers," including cancer, heart disease, obesity, asthma and other chronic diseases by engaging in healthy eating and wellness behavior. This new partnership with the PFCD has helped put together a strategy to save lives.

Several specific groups are particularly affected by these chronic diseases.

"Recent information has shown that a black baby has seven fewer years to live and also cancer deaths are 35 percent higher for women," said Dr. Paul Cunningham, dean of the Brody School of Medicine.

"We need to provide healthcare in the right time, the right place and with the right plan," Perdue said. "With this being said, we have to realize that if we have a problem here in North Carolina, the solution is here, too."

However, the state and nation cannot control healthcare costs until they can reduce the spread of astronomically expensive chronic diseases.

"Seventy-five cents of every health care dollar goes to heart-related causes," Perdue said. "One question we might ask ourselves is, 'how do we get people to change the way they live their lives?'"

North Carolina, along with several other states, has devised a plan that requires a surcharge for smokers and other people who engage in unhealthy practices.

"We want to teach people that if they're going to take part in unhealthy behavior, we are going to charge them for it. Although it may seem like a punishment, our main goal is to help people live longer, healthier lives," Perdue said.

There are currently 39 organizations in North Carolina teamed up with the PFCD to fight chronic diseases. Several states already hold a partnership with the PFCD, including Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado.

"The people in organizations joined up with the PFCD are doing what they are asked to do," said Thea Monet, executive director of the Old North State Medical Society, "and in this we hope to bring communities together to fight against chronic illnesses and to get people to engage in healthier behavior."

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.