About CFHE

History of Organization

Council for Family Health Education (CFHE) was established in December 2005 as a grassroots organization to promote health education and physical activities for people of all ages.

Americans have become more sedentary than any other time in its history. Sedentary lifestyles lead to major medical expenses. Expenses like the treatment cost for type II diabetes, many forms of cancer, heart disease, stroke and numerous joint ailments. These costs of treatment are becoming increasingly dangerous for a society where fewer and fewer of its citizens are covered by medical insurance. This leaves society at large to pay the bill.

Sedentary lifestyle costs can also be seen impacting the bottom line for corporations across the country in the form of loss of productivity due to missed work days for illnesses. Houston is one of the most sedentary cities in the nation due, in part, to traffic packed roads and highways, limited infrastructure for alternative transportation like bicycle paths and mass transit systems.

Defining the Problem

According to national estimates, more than 65% of the population is either overweight or obese. All indications are that these numbers have not peaked and are steadily rising.

Incidences of strokes, heart conditions, type II diabetes and joint problems are occurring in younger and younger individuals every year. Compacting the problem more young people are adopting a sedentary lifestyle at earlier ages. School funding for physical education is diminishing or no longer exists.

Ultimately, parents are responsible for what their children eat and how they are exposed to physical activity. Therefore, merely targeting childhood obesity does not effect the entire sedentary population.

Our biggest challenge is people do not die from obesity. They die from obesity related illnesses, due in part to sedentary lifestyle choices. Although, the professionals fully understand this link, educating the population is lacking.

The challenge looms largely because of the stigmatism that the words overweight or obesity carries in society. Americans still foster sophomoric attitudes about weight.

While overeating and abstaining from physical activity are personal choices, the fact that so many Americans are choosing this way of life brings us to the brink of a medical system catastrophe.

Communities lack the educational awareness of the enormous cost of doing nothing. This cost includes the rising medical care cost for critical care treatment. Cardiac arrest, diabetes, strokes, other illnesses and injuries can be drastically reduced by preventative measurements.

Our Solution

Prevention is where we need to place our efforts. The financial and personal cost will reach astronomical proportions within just a few short years, leaving governments, businesses and individuals devastated.

The idea is to bring groups together in a collaborative work for the benefit of the entire community. So much of what we are, what we are to become, and how we view ourselves is connected to the family unit. Family participation in activities and events are the basic building blocks for any family unit. Children model their parents. Children who are sedentary have a greater likelihood of being sedentary adults.

CFHE aims to work with the entire community including public and private schools, churches, civic community service organizations and employers who are interested in the wellness of their employees.