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Abstract

Women�¢����s life expectancies throughout the south have been declining since 1983. In 2009 for example, the women in 58% of Tennessee counties lived shorter lives than previously. Additionally, the southeast is known as the stroke belt of the U.S. after enduring for generations�¢���� prevalence rates on average at least 10% higher than the rest of the country. This is thought to be linked to past girls and young women�¢����s malnutrition as far back as the Civil War and following which may have precipitated the related ensuing famine conditions. The participants in this program will take what they have learned home to their sisters, moms, aunts and grandmas and change the existing life expectancy trajectory and stroke risk in a positive direction through family education. Experts in the health care field have predicted that if present trends continue, over 2/3rds of today�¢����s American college-age women will be obese by the time they are in their 40s. Research also shows that the time period from age 18-29 and especially for college students is the time of greatest percentage of body fat gained over their entire lifetimes. We will instead empower them with more self-confidence and get our college women on a healthy pathway that will last them a lifetime and avoid this disastrous societal outcome. This improved fitness and overall wellness of our young mothers-to-be will improve offspring health. The average age of giving birth for the first time is 25.1, which is not that far off for most of our college grads. Fetal programming, the biological epigenetic mechanism by which the baby�¢����s and eventually adult offspring�¢����s health is affected over their entire lifetime by conditions in the womb has been discovered only recently by science. This profound insight will finally give us an effective and comparatively economic strategy for controlling chronic disease in future generations.

Biography