Leaders discuss health initiatives for West Tennessee

JACKSON, Tenn. — According to HealthierTN, Tennessee is one of the 10 least healthy states in the nation.

“Tennessee has some of the highest rates of behavior-related chronic diseases of any state in the nation, and those include type 2 diabetes, hypertension, COPD and asthma, and cardiovascular disease,” said Rick Johnson, president and CEO of the Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness.

According to the Sycamore Institute, Tennessee’s high rates of those diseases cost about $280 million in lost productivity per year. “Then, we’re absent from work more, we’re less productive when we’re at work,” Johnson said.

Tuesday, leaders in West Tennessee met to discuss how to solve this problem. “We’ve had great input from Jackson and Madison County and the surrounding counties today,” he said.

They discussed how to encourage people to want to be healthy. “One of the things we talked about in this group is that it starts at home, just like education does,” Jackson Chamber President and CEO Kyle Spurgeon said.

On HealthierTN.com, you can find resources for yourself, your kids and your community to work to be healthier.

“We have to be able to, as a community, help folks understand that creating that healthy lifestyle for your kids is going to pay off in the future,” he said.

They say a healthy lifestyle leads to a better life.

“A healthier person is going to have a more, a better opportunity to become a better educated person, thus they’re going to have the opportunity to get a better job and be more productive in that job,” Spurgeon said.