“Taken together these behaviors increase blood pressure, increase obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other illnesses that diminish the quality of and shorten the length of our lives.”
Dr. Stack has this challenge for all of us over the next 12 months, hoping it will create lifelong changes.
“So, the overarching year-long goals of the ‘Our Healthy Kentucky Home’ campaign are to eat two servings of fresh fruits or vegetables daily, to exercise at least 30 minutes three times per week, and to engage with others and stay connected.”
According to the United Health Foundation's yearly health rankings, Kentucky was 41st in the country in 2023. WUKY asked Dr. Stack how he hopes 'Our Healthy Kentucky Home' will change those stats.
“A year from now if we’re doing those simple things,” Stack said, “if we drill that in all year long and we really support each other and partners help to promote this in other ways, I think that we would look a couple of years down the road after that and I think we will see things like obesity declining and some measures of improvement in hypertension and diabetes. And if you eat fruits and vegetables, it actively lowers your cancer risk. So, I think over a period of years we could even see benefits there. The challenge is it takes effort now that’s simple, consistently done over a long period of time and I think we could have Kentucky be fantastically healthier than we are now.”
The initiative includes a monthly call to action guide to help you stay on track with exercising goals, dietary goals, and health screening reminders.
To access all those resources in one place visit www.ourhealthykyhome.ky.gov
