Willie Sena Moore, resident, works out under the supervision of Dr. Warren Jones, visiting wellness authority, in the fitness center at Still Hopes. After speaking to a medical convention at Myrtle Beach, Dr. Warren A. Jones visited in the Midlands with media and more medical representatives, always pushing for wellness overall and always fighting chronic disease in all forms. He dropped in at Still Hopes for a tour and for an interview on Thursday morning, May 21.

Jones is a family physician and retired captain in the U.S. Navy. He is the founding executive director of the Mississippi Institute for the Improvement of Geographical Minority Health Disparities at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He is also a professor of family medicine and a distinguished professor of health policy and a senior health policy advisor. Jones is an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

He is past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), a 94,300- member primary care specialty society. He served as chair of the AAFP's board of directors and as chair of the Maternal Child Council. In 2001, he was the medical director of the over 10- million-member TRICARE Military Health Program.

As part of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, Jones brought his expertise to Still Hopes to discuss his campaign against chronic disease. His warning is the pending rise in health care's percentage of the gross domestic product: now 16 percent and heading towards 22 percent in the near future. Or, put as a continuity, the highest in the world is rising even higher. Most countries in the First World average about half what the U.S. pays in health care as a percentage of GDP.

Among us chronically ill Americans, much of the blame rests with ourselves and our lack of control in habitual eating and lack of participation in habitual exercise.

Jones says chronic disease accounts for 75 cents of every dollar in health care costs in the country.