Starting October 4, all UCSC staff and faculty--and their families--can enroll in the online Alive! program at no charge. Alive! supports people in increasing their physical activity and adopting a healthier diet through weekly e-mails that ask you to commit to one of several individualized goals for the coming week. Little by little, those weekly changes have been shown to yield significant--and sustained--improvements in areas vital to health and well-being.
A large research trial supported by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control has shown that Alive! is effective. Participants showed statistically significant improvements in all key outcomes: minutes of moderate physical activity, increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, and decreased consumption of saturated and trans fats. Alive! has now been enhanced, including a trial for people over 50 sponsored by the National Institute on Aging to develop a means to help people improve their habits before they become ill.
UC Berkeley professor Emerita Gladys Block is the driving force behind Alive!. Block has been a pivotal figure in demonstrating the serious impact of diet on disease. Her paper on fruits and vegetables became the basis of the National Cancer Institute's well-known Five a Day program, and of many other efforts to help change America's eating habits. Dr. Block says, "I've also done extensive research on what Americans aren't eating, as well as their not-so-good physical activity. By now, most of us know what we should do--we just aren't doing it! Realizing that, I and my small business, NutritionQuest, developed this email-delivered program that recognizes our barriers and helps us move along in spite of them. I'm excited that the latest version will be tried out by UC staff and faculty around the state.
"I especially hope that those 50 or over will help perfect the system by joining the trial. Some will be asked to test out enhancements like print and automated phone coaching, developed with leading health behavior experts at Kaiser Permanente, Stanford, and Brown."
Participation starts October 4 at UCSC and four other UC campuses, with enrollment open through October and early November.
For information:
• Go to www.nutritionquest.com/UCAlive or
• Contact Lizzie Yasser, employee wellness coordinator, at eyasser@ucsc.edu or 502-7375.
Also, visit wellness.ucsc.edu to learn more about the award-winning UCSC employee wellness program.
