I found an interesting article the other day in Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association. The article laments the fact that despite a whole lot of evidence showing how being out of shape is killing us, most people are not changing their habits.
I suspect that one of the reasons that this is so is because the article is so full of jargon and “edu-speak” that the message is getting lost. Yes, the Journal is for medical professionals and all, but learning to speak the language in a manner that the common man can understand is an important first step in communicating such an important message.
Your average reporter isn’t going to wade through this report and boil it down to something understandable for “the rest of us”!
I’m not your average reporter. 
This is my interpretation of only one paragraph in an article that spans 37 pages including tables, charts and 228 footnotes!
I’m putting the original words in italics; my comments will be in brackets in bold text [like this]. I have taken out the footnote references and have broken this single paragraph into it’s 5 individual sentences.
Here we go then:
There are considerable published data to strongly support the benefits of PA [Physical Activity] and dietary changes as a means to decrease the morbidity and mortality of CVD and stroke in adults. ["Morbidity" is a fancy way of saying "having the disease" and "mortality" refers to dying from it. CVD stands for Cardio Vascular Disease. Cardio means heart and Vascular refers to the blood vessels like veins and arteries. Heart attacks, strokes and Atherosclerosis - that's when the arteries are clogged up with junk like cholesterol- are the major Cardio Vascular Diseases.] [What this whole sentence says is that doctors and scientists have done a lot of studies and published their results about how staying active and eating better can keep heart attacks, strokes and related diseases at bay.]
Such data are presented and discussed in detail in the statements from the American Heart Association (AHA) and other sources. [A fairly straight forward sentence explaining that these published studies are quite common.]
Notable statements and studies include, but are not limited to, the statement on exercise (AHA), the statement on PA intervention studies (AHA), the statement on diet and lifestyle recommendations (AHA),10 the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and the recommendation on PA and public health. [Here are a few of the more important articles on Physical Activity and Diet, mostly from the American Heart Association - these were all footnoted, many with links, too.]
Despite the abundance of data supporting the benefits of lifestyle changes for CVD, it is striking that Americans are increasingly more challenged with the growing burdens of excess body weight, limited PA, and suboptimal dietary habits. [Here's the worst jargon. What this sentence says is that despite all the information available on how eating better and exercising more will help stop, prevent and even reverse Cardio Vascular Disease, us Americans are too fat, too lazy and enjoy our snack foods too much to make any changes.]
These lifestyle problems are also associated with many chronic diseases other than CVD and stroke, including type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, and many cancers. [The fact that we're so fat, so lazy and so addicted to twinkies makes us vulnerable to more than just heart problems. Cancer, bone loss, mental problems and diabetes are also just around the corner for many of us.]
So, the next time you’re sitting around the house and find yourself saying to your significant other, “Honey, I’m feeling increasingly more challenged with the growing burdens of excess body weight, limited PA, and suboptimal dietary habits…”, you might want to just put that twinkie down and go for a nice long walk!
Disclaimer: I do have a college education – in Music Ed – so science might not be my strong suit. However, I have been in the Physical Education business for more than a decade. This interpretation is entirely my own. Feel free to re-post and re-interpret my interpretation.
And, no, the AHA didn’t actually mention twinkies specifically!
Circulation published online Jul 12, 2010;
http://circ.ahajournals.org
