PALM is proud to bring the
Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP)
to the Peoria area.


About CHIP
As the debate rages on how to "fix" our country's ailing health care system, a new understanding is dawning: At the root of our current health care crisis is a health crisis. A U.S. surgeon general's report in 1990 warned that 70 percent of all causes of death in America are lifestyle related—and therefore preventable. Ten years later, three studies showed the following to be avoidable: 71 percent of cancers, 70 percent of strokes, 82 percent of heart disease and 91 percent of type II diabetes.

The Peoria Area Labor Management Council (PALM) has a plan to help reverse this alarming trend on a local level. Known as the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP), it is an intensive, science-based lifestyle change program with more than 50,000 graduates worldwide—including some 4,500 in nearby Rockford, where PALM representatives were trained to become CHIP facilitators.

CHIP classes are presented in a 12-week, two-hour-per-week format that includes video instruction by program founder Hans Diehl, a cardiovascular epidemiologist, and personalized instruction by a dietitian, exercise specialist and life coach. The program's goal is to markedly reduce coronary and other health risk factors through lifestyle changes, such as healthier eating, consistent exercise and not smoking.

Lifestyle evaluations taken before and after the program document a host of participant statistics, including weight, blood pressure, pulse, and fasting glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Documented results of CHIP programs are impressive. For example, a 2002 Rockford study of 470 CHIP participants showed blood cholesterol levels were lowered an average of 17 points and clinically obesity was reduced by 15 percent.

CHIP has been shown to be effective in preventing, controlling and even reversing many chronic diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, type II diabetes, gout, arthritis, overweight, certain adult cancers, impotence, diverticular disease, constipation, heartburn and gall bladder disease.

Results include normalized blood pressure, lowered blood cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar levels, weight loss, and enhanced overall quality of life. Research studies documenting immediate and longer-term results of the program have been published in the American Journal of Cardiology (1998), the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2002) and Preventive Medicine (2004).

To share the CHIP experience in a brief format, PALM/LMC Health Programs offered a two half-day executive brief of the nationally accredited CHIP program on February 24 and 27, 2004. This CHIP Executive FastTrack brought together more than 70 busy executives, human resource professionals and health care and insurance providers to learn more about how the CHIP lifestyle change program can improve the lives of their employees, members or patients, while also lowering health care costs. Dr. Diehl himself led participants through the two four-hour sessions. Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, OSF Saint. Francis and Proctor Hospital joined other local organizations in co-sponsoring the program and provided health assessments for program participants.

The CHIP program is currently conducted in more than 150 cities. PALM and Methodist Medical Center of Illinois are the Peoria area's licensed leaders for CHIP programs and activities.

For the latest Peoria-area CHIP offerings, visit our "Events & Activities" page.

For more details about CHIP nationwide, visit www.chipusa.org.