A Proclamation

WHEREAS, chronic illnesses account for approximately 75% of all deaths in Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, Mississippi’s cardiovascular disease mortality is the highest in the nation with some 11,000 Mississippians dying from heart disease each year, more than from any other cause in the state and smoking is the single most modifiable risk for this deadly disease; and

WHEREAS, Mississippi has the third-highest rate of death due to all cancers, and the third-highest death rate due to lung cancer, with 21% of all deaths in the state attributable to cancer; and

WHEREAS, 2,000 Mississippians die from stroke annually, making it the third leading cause of death; and

WHEREAS, more than 285,000 Mississippians have diabetes; one third of them are undiagnosed; an estimated 1,700 Mississippians each year suffer significant diabetes-related complications like lower extremity amputations or blindness and 1,600 die from diabetes annually; and

WHEREAS, approximately 900,000 Mississippians have hypertension—one third of them undiagnosed—30% of adults in the state report high cholesterol; Mississippi ranks number one in the number of overweight adult citizens; and only one in five Mississippians from high school through adulthood gets any physical activity on a regular basis:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Haley Barbour, Governor of the State of Mississippi, hereby proclaim March 3rd, 2004, as

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS DAY

in the State of Mississippi and urges all Mississippians to be physically active, avoid tobacco use and know their blood pressure, blood glucose, blood cholesterol and body mass index to develop and secure a healthy life.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Mississippi to be affixed.

DONE in the City of Jackson, on the twenty-fifth day of March in the year of our Lord, two thousand and four, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and twenty-eighth.

HALEY BARBOUR
GOVERNOR

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