WIMEME

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Oakland County health
organizations cut through
the fat to reduce heart disease.

MEGAN SWOYER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Today Dr. Gordon, 67, exemplifies
how someone can reverse his lifestyle.
No longer a regular red-meat eater ("I
was even a vegetarian for a while"), he
now heads up the Oakland Heart
Health Coalition (OHHC), a group of
about 50 organizations working to re-
duce the risk factors of heart disease,
including smoking.
Hospitals, businesses, community
representatives and the Oakland Coun-
ty Health Division have been on a unit-
ed mission since 1992.
"It [OHHC] was set up as part of the
governor's move to provide funding for

prevention of chronic diseases in the
state of Michigan," explains Dr. Gordon.
"It became possible because of the to-
bacco tax increase at that timersome of
which was diverted to these types of pro-
grams."
Dr. Gordon believes the OHHC, now
in its fifth year, is essential. "Heart dis-
ease is the major cause of death in
Michigan," he says. He is director of
Beaumont Hospital's Cardiac Rehabil-
itation Center in Birmingham.
In fact, heart disease and stroke kill
more Michiganians than do cancer, ac-
cidents, pneumonia, influenza, AIDS,
• homicide and suicide combined. And
one out of every two deaths in Michi-
gan is due to cardiovascular disease.
Fifty groups in the OHHC is not
too many, according to Dr. Gordon,
who believes that the more repre-
sentatives involved, the better the
success rate. "OHHC is successful
from the standpoint that there is
broad community participation," he
says.
The OHHC is divided into three
risk-factor committees: nutrition,
tobacco reduction and fitness.
One of its more successful en-
deavors was the tobacco committee's
restaurant research results. The
OHHC surveyed restaurants to find
out which were completely non-
smoking. "That research has been
taken over by the state, which now
publishes a Michigan guide to
smoke-free restaurants," he says.
"We also survey Oakland Coun-
ty restaurants on a regular basis to
find out which offer low-fat, heart-
healthy items," says Dr. Gordon.
From the survey results, the group ti
publishes a restaurant honor roll C)
a)
available to the public from the Oak-
land County Health Division.
(=>

PH OTOS BY DANIEL LIPPITT

Dr. Gordon directs a county-
wide campaign.

lmost 15 years ago, Dr. Seymour Gor-
don, a cardiac specialist at Beaumont
Hospital in Royal Oak, wasn't prac-
ticing what he was preaching. Al-
though he knew that tobacco and
nicotine were major contributors
to heart disease, he was hooked on
the little white sticks for several
years.
That is until 1983 when he was
named the president of the Michigan
Chapter of the American Heart Associ-
ation. "I've had a few smoking setbacks
in between," he admits. "But not re-
cently."

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