Health commission meets at Marbles today

RALEIGH -- A national commission gathering information on overcoming obstacles to Americans' health is holding its first field meeting today in downtown Raleigh.

National and state leaders in early childhood programs are at the Marbles Museum this morning as part of a hearing for the the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America. After a two-year program of collecting information, the commission will recommend strategies to help improve all Americans' health.

The first of only three such events nationally, the hearing is designed to showcase promising early childhood programs and feature local initiatives. The subject is "non-medical programs that are making a positive difference in the health and wellness of children."

"Thank you, North Carolina for doing all the things you are doing for early childhood and have done for so long," said Alice Rivlin, a co-chair of the commission and former holder of several federal posts, including founding director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Before presentations by North Carolina leaders in childhood development, Dr. Jack Shonkoff, a Harvard professor of child health and development, told attendees that early experiences are literally built into children's bodies. Stress, especially hard-hitting "toxic stress" resulting from abuse and neglect, produces lifelong biological changes, he said.

"As the number of childhood adverse experiences increases ... the likelihood of having depression as an adult goes up," Shonkoff said

Not just depression, but heart disease, diabetes and cancer also go up based on the number of people's adverse experiences in childhood, Shonkoff said..

Solutions include basic medical services and good quality care and education to make early detection and intervention easier to bring about, he said. In addition, children going through high levels of stress need targeted services to relieve it.

Learn more:

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America www.commissiononhealth.org/Home.aspx

Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University www.developingchild.harvard.edu

Read more about the hearing in tomorrow's News & Observer.