Now is the time to make children’s health a priority
Interim Executive Director UCI Institute for Precision Health
We are at a true crisis point for childhood health in our country and around the globe.
Otherwise healthy children are at risk for lifetime illnesses, such as heart disease and stroke, simply because they are living increasingly sedentary lifestyles.
Children with serious health problems, even life-threatening diseases such as leukemia or sickle-cell anemia, are not getting the lifelong health benefits that appropriate exercise can provide.
But the knowledge gap between what we know about the health benefits of exercise in childhood — and what we need to know — is huge.
Pediatric science has not focused research efforts on gaining fundamental information about how something as seemingly simple as exercise can advance health.
The time to transform our approach, to change and to innovate is now. The Pediatric Research Center for Exercise Medicine can lead the nation in this effort.
Dan M. Cooper, MD
University of California Distinguished Professor, Pediatrics Interim Executive Director UCI Institute for Precision Health Associate Director – Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
Pediatric Center for Exercise Medicine – Clinical Informatics and Analytics Unit Director