Tuesday, July 28, 2009

NEWTON, MA—As Americans grow their waistlines to an average of 23 pounds too wide, one singing doctor has staged a musical intervention.

Dr. Mache Seibel, who once performed the first successful in vitro fertilization in Massachusetts, has created a musical approach to health education: HealthRock. Specifically, Dr. Seibel writes and sings award-winning songs that teach people how to stay healthy. In order to reach out to different demographic groups, he uses a variety of musical genres that range from gospel to pop.

One of Dr. Seibel's hip hop songs, "Phat Fat Rap," raises awareness about how to prevent obesity. "How you look ain't the problem Jack/ It's just unhealthy being fat," the song explains. It continues: "Turn off your computer/ Turn off the TV/ Go easy on the junk food/ It's empty calories." Dr. Seibel has released other obesity-related songs as well, such as "Exercise."

Notably, a study by researchers at RTI International, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that obesity is responsible for over 9% of all U.S. health care spending. Specifically, obese Americans spend 42% more on health-related expenses than people with healthy weights do, the study showed.

Yet in most cases, obesity (and all of the additional health care spending it leads to) is preventable. Dr. Seibel says he focuses on prevention because "it's better to stay well than to get well." Preventing avoidable conditions like obesity would help Americans keep extra money in their pockets and extra years in their lives.

In addition to fighting obesity at the grass-roots level, Dr. Seibel's songs promote a wide array of healthy behaviors such as getting screened for cancer and brushing teeth properly.

With the help of his cartoon persona, DocRock, Dr. Seibel makes health education entertaining, understandable, and actionable. As Dr. Seibel says, "If you can sing about it, you can talk about it. If you can talk about it, you can act on it."

To learn more, or to watch the "Phat Fat Rap" music video, visit http://www.healthrock.com

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