photo by steed media service |
Surgeon/Founder, HealthCorps
Although he is a cardiothoracic surgeon by trade, Dr. Mehmet Oz has become a household name in recent years thanks to his frequent appearances on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” However, when he’s not explaining the ins-and-outs of massive tumors to a studio audience, he’s channeling his energy into HealthCorps, a service organization he launched in 2003 to address obesity and inactivity in today’s youth.
Modeled after the Peace Corps, Dr. Oz’s HealthCorps places recent college graduates with an interest in health, in high schools across the country to help encourage a more healthy and active lifestyle. Students are given pedometers and offered after-school yoga and fitness classes. “We knew that the most valuable resources a nation has are its youth,” he explains. “We take energetic young kids [and] put them in high schools so that they become mentors, big brothers and sisters to change the lives of the kids in our nation’s schools.”
Dr. Oz says that getting the public to become more active can help improve the overall health of the nation. “The reason I care so much about physical activity is [because] it’s one of the best ways to beat diabetes. Diabetes is like glass shards scraping the arteries of your body and by messing up those roadways, you rust the tubes of your body,” he describes. “But if we get rid of diabetes, we’ll dramatically change the health of our nation. – ivory m. jones
