[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 132 (Monday, September 28, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 28, 1998

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following address.

       Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to this 
     historic celebration--the commemoration of a 50 year 
     milestone in the advancement of public health in the United 
     States. No other community in America has ever contributed as 
     much to the health of all Americans as the town of 
     Framingham--a veritable medical mecca. We are here today to 
     honor you and the gift of life you have given to our country.
       I am pleased to be among so many friends and so many 
     experts in the fields of medicine and research. Framingham is 
     blessed with the very best State House delegation in 
     Massachusetts--State Senator Dave Magnani, and State 
     Representatives John Stefanini and John Stasik. And what a 
     great local government--represented today by Chairman of the 
     Board of Selectmen Chris Petrini. Our Master of Ceremonies, 
     Dr. Timothy Johnson, a modern day Marcus Welby--he's on ABC 
     now, but he was dispensing his outstanding medical advice to 
     all of us in Boston long before he made it really big--right 
     here on Channel 5.
       Jay Lander and the many other study participants and their 
     families whom we congratulate and thank today.
       The guardians of the Framingham Study--Doctors William 
     Castelli, Aram Chobanian, and Daniel Levy. One of the federal 
     government's top health experts, Dr. Claude Lenfant, Director 
     of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at NIH.
       And to this distinguished public health pantheon we welcome 
     a world leader, America's Doctor, the Surgeon General of all 
     of these United States, the Pied Piper of Prevention, Dr. 
     David Satcher. There is no kinder, wiser, more conscientious 
     or creative caregiver in the land, and we are grateful for, 
     and honored by his presence and his willingness to devote his 
     great talents to helping all of America's people lead 
     healthier and more productive lives.
       As I was preparing for today's event, it occurred to me 
     that the willingness of the people of Framingham to volunteer 
     for this monumentally important civic cause has proven to be 
     as critical to the promotion of our nation's health as the 
     Minutemen of Middlesex County were to the promotion of our 
     democracy. It is extraordinary to think in 1948, in a town of 
     only 28,000 people, nearly one out of five residents stepped 
     forward to answer the call for participation in this long-
     term affair of the heart. They devoted their lives to a 
     revolutionary undertaking, demonstrating the same deeply felt 
     spirit of voluntarism as their forebearers who took up their 
     flintlocks to beat back King George III.
       When the history of Western Medicine is written, every one 
     of those first 5,000 volunteers, and every one of the 
     subsequent wave of 5,000 offspring and spouse volunteers, and 
     every one of the more than five hundred Omni Study 
     volunteers, will be listed in the history books under the 
     heading of ``Public Health Patriots.'' Because for the past 
     50 years, you have opened your lives to save all of ours.
       Make no mistake about it, the Framingham Heart Study has 
     been revolutionary--changing the way our entire country 
     thinks about medicine and revolutionizing our understanding 
     of heart disease. Framingham has set the standard for the 
     very best in medical research, bridging the gap between 
     science and advocacy. It has made history as one of the first 
     major health studies to include women who had long been 
     neglected in the halls of public policy, in research studies, 
     and in clinical practice. Fully 55 percent of the original 
     cohort and 52 percent of the second generation ``Offspring 
     Study'' were women. This fact is significant because heart 
     disease was long believed to be only a man's disease--but 
     thanks to Framingham we know that it is in fact the #1 killer 
     of American women, that the symptiom presentation may be 
     different in women than men, and that there are important 
     steps that both women and men can take to protect themselves 
     from the dangers of cardiovascular disease.
       Research is medicine's ``field of dreams'' from which we 
     harvest new findings about the causes, treatments, and 
     prevention of disease. And we have harvested a great deal of 
     knowledge about heart disease from our national investment in 
     the Framingham Heart Study. In 1948, the United States Public 
     Health Service wanted to know why the rates of heart disease 
     were rising in America. Since then, the Study has been 
     answering that question, and for the first time in history 
     identified risk factors for heart disease. The federal 
     government's total contribution to the Framingham Study has 
     been just $43 million dollars--but that $43 million dollars 
     has produced 50 years of data and over 1,000 scientific 
     papers--the Holy Book for Healthy Hearts. I believe this is 
     one of the best investments our government has ever made, 
     because it has paid life-saving dividends: Since the time the 
     study began, the death rate from heart disease has declined 
     by 50 percent.
       Perhaps the most long-lasting contribution of the 
     Framingham Heart Study will be the way in which it turned the 
     attention of medicine inexorably towards prevention as a 
     strategy for reducing the ravages of disease and for 
     improving the quality and quantity of our lives. Framingham 
     has given us a public health model that extends well beyond 
     the heart and challenges the mind as well. You see, we are 
     finally waking up to the fact that only through lifestyle and 
     behavioral changes will Americans achieve optimal health.
       That is because at the turn of this century, in the year 
     1900, the average life expectancy in the United States was 48 
     years of age for women and 46 years for men. Americans died 
     of infectious diseases, and for women, also from 
     complications of childbirth. So, from the dawn of time to the 
     year 1900, we had added just a few years to the lives of 
     Americans. However, for a person born today, the average life 
     expectancy is 79 years of age for women and 72 years for men. 
     Over the last 98 years, through government sponsored public 
     health interventions including better sanitation, 
     immunization, and advances from our federal investment in 
     medical research, we have added thirty bonus years to the 
     lives of Americans.
       Today, the major killers of people in the United States are 
     chronic diseases--including heart disease, cancer, stroke, 
     chronic lung disease and diabetes, for which over 50 percent 
     of the cause are behavioral and lifestyle factors--smoking, 
     poor diet, lack of physical activity, alcohol and illicit 
     drug abuse, unsafe sexual practices, and not wearing a 
     seatbelt.
       As a result of the extraordinarily well-designed Framingham 
     Heart Study, our nation learned about risk factors and 
     adopted the prevention message that the Framingham Study put 
     on the map. Healthy diet and exercise will help prevent heart 
     disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some types of 
     cancer. Conversely, cigarette smoking is the #1 preventable 
     cause of death in America. It not only causes lung cancer and 
     chronic lung disease, but it is a leading contributor to 
     heart disease as well. Yet 1 in 4 Americans smokes, 1 in 3 
     high school seniors smoke, and one-third of them will die of 
     their addiction. Furthermore, there is a growing epidemic of 
     obesity and sedentary lifestyles in America.
       But today we spend only one percent of a 1 trillion dollar 
     health budget on prevention. I believe it is time to put 
     prevention on the front burner of our nation's health care 
     agenda where it belongs. Because more than any miracle drug 
     we could discover, changing health-damaging behaviors and 
     eliminating environmental health hazards could decrease 
     premature death in America by one half, chronic disability by 
     two-thirds, not to mention dramatically cut health care 
     costs.
       As we enter the 21st Century and adapt the Framingham Study 
     to help us better understand all of the diseases that affect 
     us today and into the future--diseases like Alzheimer's 
     disease, diabetes, cancer, and the genetics of many other 
     illnesses--the work of Framingham's Public Health Patriots 
     will go on and on, and the rest of us will have even more 
     reason to praise all of the volunteers gathered here this 
     afternoon and the thousands of others who are with us in 
     spirit.
       In closing, I'd like to share an ancient proverb: ``He, 
     let's also make that she--who has health has hope. And he who 
     has hope has everything.'' That's what this landmark 
     Framingham Heart Study and your important contributions are 
     all about--providing hope for a healthier future for the 
     citizens of Framingham, of Massachusetts and for all 
     Americans.
       I am proud to represent you, I salute you, and I thank you 
     with all of my heart for opening your lives to science to 
     save our lives and the lives of generations of Americans to 
     come.

     

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