Coronary Health Improvement Program

As the debate rages on how to "fix" our country's ailing health care system, a new understanding is dawning: At the root of our current health care crisis is a health crisis. A U.S. surgeon general's report in 1990 warned that 70 percent of all causes of death in America are lifestyle related—and therefore preventable. Ten years later, three studies showed the following to be avoidable: 71 percent of cancers, 70 percent of strokes, 82 percent of heart disease and 91 percent of type II diabetes.

Illinois Central College has a program to help reverse this alarming trend on a local level. Known as the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP), it is an intensive, science-based lifestyle change program with more than 50,000 graduates worldwide. CHIP classes are presented in a 12-week, two-hour-per-week format that includes video instruction by program founder Hans Diehl, a cardiovascular epidemiologist, and personalized instruction by a dietitian, exercise specialist and life coach. The program's goal is to markedly reduce coronary and other health risk factors through lifestyle changes, such as healthier eating, consistent exercise and not smoking.

Lifestyle evaluations taken before and after the program document a host of participant statistics, including weight, blood pressure, pulse, and fasting glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Documented results of CHIP programs are impressive. For example, a 2002 Rockford study of 470 CHIP participants showed blood cholesterol levels were lowered an average of 17 points and clinically obesity was reduced by 15 percent.

CHIP has been shown to be effective in preventing, controlling and even reversing many chronic diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, gout, arthritis, overweight, certain adult cancers, impotence, diverticular disease, constipation, heartburn and gall bladder disease.

Results include normalized blood pressure, lowered blood cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar levels, weight loss, and enhanced overall quality of life. Research studies documenting immediate and longer-term results of the program have been published in the American Journal of Cardiology (1998), the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2002 and 2005), Preventive Medicine (2004) and the Journal of The American Dietetic Association.

For more details about visit CHIP nationwide.