SMOA vKLl.4 rKlUAY, JUNE 2% lv#Z

Take Good Care of BodJ?&ult Could Be Lower Health Costs

  ' By JAN HOWARD
   World Medical Write+
Taking good care of your body is
the%& way to lower health costs,
advIsed Dr. C. Everett Koop. sur-
gs@ genera1 and deput
s&rotary for health nf t x assistant
            e Depart-

ment of Health and Human Ser-
vitjes,`during a press conference at
the Excelsior Hotel Tbursda
Koop said Americans rece ve the
        I
best health care in the world but
thatcosts will never drop unless the
system turns to preventive health
care instead of the current trend of
"cdntinual repair" to the body.

"A psrson is a trinity of body.
mind and spirit and as
we should treat the  P hysictans.
         who e person,"

said Woop. This attitude carries into
the goals he has set for his tenure in
offfee. He was sworn in Jan. 21 as
~~~;s~feneral and received his
pm ion m the department in Feb

F&r&&. he hopes to improve
ublic awareness of the Public
!!%&%~!%~f?as$nd~$
ment service for catastrophe. This
group is now I.200 memben stron
andhas been called out to assfst a `I
Lovd Canal, the toxic waste stte,
and `pbree Mile Island.
Kob'p needed special  rmission
to assume command o r the carp
smce he is at an age, 65. disqualffy-
infgn for Bag rank under present

   C. Everett Koap     ,
education to acbii thst 6001. An-

for underprivlfedged countrtes.

A "Magna Carta" Is needed to   In his push for preventfva health
improve the quality of life for the Care, KOOP has been vocal on the
disabled. said Koop. who will work
with the departmenfa of health and deadly effects of tobacco. He is
              purbtng for fegiSlatiOn to force

Surgeon General Practices Preventive Medicine in Tulsa

targer warnmgs on cinarette wck.

ages.

on mlantfclde" and denounced eu-
thanasia technioues used recentlv

"Smoking will kill 830.000
Americans next year," he said. But
he supports the government's to-
bacco price supports.
"It's not ironic" for the gover-
ment to warn people of smoking
and legislate prme supports. Price
supports don't make PWP~?. aheth-
er-young or old, smoke. -
If the rice supports were

to allow a sever&y handicapped i&
fant to starve to death. Because of
this and other incidents, the govern-
ment has now adopted a P licy to
without federal fundinn ram the

dropped, t R en the prfce of tobacco
would go down. If tobacco prices go
down, then the farmer mus, grow
more tobacco to maintam her in-
come. Many more cigarettes would
be available at a much lower price.
he explained.

"If we are willing to let a chfld
starve to death because his quality
of life isn't up to ours - how soon
will we let that work for the efder-
ly?" he asked.

razgytg $-g$? ;*;
thing a physician can do to help the
family and the patfent through such
a trauma is beneficial to the entire
medical profession. be safd.   .
The phystcian must lessen the
P in and guilt of the chlfd's death
elt by the family and to help them
"close the circle" of that eaperf-
ewe.

"We know the cause but we don't
know the mechanism of the produc-
tion of a cell to a cancer cell." he
said when questfoned if there was
new evidence that smoking causes
cancer.

Another controllable Cause of
death in the United States is alco-

Services, that he would not use hfs
new job as a pulpit to speak against
abortion.

He does call himself the "most
outspoken physician In American

He does believe in death with dig-
nity, saying he has always praCtiCed
medicine to give them the best
available care but not to prolong
the act of dying. I-

He addressed tbtS.dUrtng a

his entire surgical practice to pedi-
atrics. Koop has developed most of
the surgical procedures on infanta
that now boast a ~5 percent rurviv-
al rate.

fcoopwasinTufsattspeagata
joint session of the Ame.~ean Ass+
rlatmn Of Co1lenes Of osteoosthio
Medicine, the National Asso6iaUon
of advisors for the Health Profess-
_. ._-._.__. .~.
ions and the Central Association of
Advisors for the Health Profess-
ions. The theme of the oOnferent% la
"Beyond Competence: Tbe Corn-
plete Physician."

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