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Leaders in business, healthcare, education and local government in Maine got a wake up call recently about why there is a critical need to reverse the trend toward heavier and less active Mainers and how the problem is the key to the state’s future.

Maine is on a collision course for increased levels of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and some cancers if we do not become more physically more active, Dr. Erik Steele, chief medical officer for Eastern Maine Health Systems, told some 300 executives. "We are staring in the face of public health disaster in the future if we do not make improving population health the highest priority," said Dr. Steele.

Excess weight and physical inactivity are emerging as the leading cause of death from chronic diseases triggered by these conditions. Rising rates of childhood obesity have caused rates of Type II diabetes to dramatically increase in adolescents and young adults. Studies show that nearly half of Maine adults are physically inactive and that nearly 44 percent are overweight.

During the conference called "Reversing the Tide: Creating a Healthier Maine -- The Role of Communities," speaker after speaker encouraged Maine to plan and build communities that encouraged walking and bicycling and other physical activity and make healthier dietary choices. The conference was organized by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

The focus on the obesity epidemic by the media misses the point, said Mark Fenton, often called America's leading expert on walking and fitness. "As a nation, the focus needs to be on reintroducing ourselves to physical activity to burn the calories we are taking in. That means re-thinking how we design towns and cities to encourage pedestrian-friendly transportation like walking and bicycling."

Margo Wootan, director of Nutrition Policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that the billions of marketing dollars influence children to choose high sugar and high fat foods over healthier diets and contributes to increasing rates of childhood obesity. "We must do more to improve healthy food choices in schools and throughout our communities to support parents and protect kids."

The final speaker, Christina Economos, from Tufts University, spoke about her work in Somerville Massachusetts and how the entire community is focused on combating childhood obesity. Shape Up Somerville is a multi-year effort to engage the entire community in improving physical activity levels, offering healthier food choices and designing communities to encourage walking and bicycling.

"Increasing physical activity and achieving a healthy weight are the best steps we can take to improve overall health and quality of life in Maine," said Erin Hoeflinger, President, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. "We simply must are verse the tide' of heavier, less active Maine children and adults if we are to begin to solve the health care cost crisis impacting our state."

The conference, part of Anthem's Health Care Leadership Series, was co- sponsored by Let's Go, a community-based initiative to promote healthy lifestyle choices for children, youth and families in the Greater Portland area.

The conference followed release of an Anthem and MaineHealth-funded study that calculated the combined direct and indirect cost of physical inactivity, overweight and obesity to Maine's economy was more than $2.56 billion in 2004 dollars. A copy of the report can be found at www.anthem.com/maine/weightstudy. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Maine is an operating subsidiary of WellPoint Inc.