US Surgeon General to Newsmax Health: My Own Family Tragedies Push Me to Make America Healthier

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is on the front lines of fighting America's most pressing health problems, and her crusade against preventable diseases is bolstered by a family history of health tragedies that could have been prevented � her brother died of HIV/AIDS, her dad died of high blood pressure and diabetes, and her mom died of lung cancer.

"All three of my family members died of preventable diseases, and they would be here with me today if we had prevented those illnesses � if my mother didn't smoke, if my dad had kept his blood pressure under control," Benjamin said in an emotional interview with Newsmax Health. "I don't want other people to have to suffer those losses in their families, and my priorities in this job have been on prevention and health and wellness."

Benjamin's family is never far from her thoughts and provides motivation in her current job. "I know they are always with me," she said. "They are here and make me stronger."

One of the country's biggest problems is the epidemic of obesity, and children are a special concern. Benjamin has joined with first lady Michelle Obama in promoting "Let's Move," an initiative to help prevent childhood obesity. "It's our desire and hope that more kids will become much more active and much more fit," she said. She's seen evidence that the program is working when she visits schools and sees children having fun exercising and doing the "Let's Move" dance.

Benjamin has also tried to reach into minority communities to promote health and wellness by using hairdressers as health ambassadors. Realizing that some women forgo exercise because they don't want to spoil their hairstyles, she helped initiate an exercise-friendly hairstyle competition to develop exercise-resistant hairstyles "so that women could have options to overcome one of the barriers of exercising � so they wouldn't have to mess up their hair." She enlisted the 60,000 hairdressers that supported the competition as health ambassadors in their communities.

"They can become ambassadors to teach their clients about health," Benjamin said. For example, they can make sure their clients know the four simple ways to avoid heart disease � don't smoke, take an aspirin once a day, check their blood pressure, and make sure their cholesterol is under control.

"Those are the kinds of things that the hairdressers can get out in the community to people that I can't reach," she said.

She has sound advice for Newsmax readers for living a healthier life. "Have fun," she said. "Enjoy your family, your life, and your work. Mental health is just as important as exercise and nutrition. While you're doing that, exercise and eat right."

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