A new national declaration headed by ANH-USA calls for rethinking how we prevent and treat chronic illness that affects 3 in every 4 US adults. Add your name to support reform. Take Action – Co-Sign the Declaration Now!
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THE TOPLINE
- On February 10–11, 2026, we convened a summit comprised of healthcare, legal, scientific, and policy leaders in Scottsdale, Arizona, which culminated in the drafting of a declaration calling for structural reform of how America addresses chronic disease that is at risk of crippling society and breaking health systems.
- The Arizona Statement outlines legal, regulatory, and economic barriers that can limit access to preventive and non-pharmaceutical approaches—and proposes a path forward.
- This is a growing national effort that was among RJK Jr.’s key priorities when appointed HHS Secretary. He can’t do it alone. Add your name to help demonstrate public support for change.
The Arizona Statement has been released today!
The United States spends more on healthcare per capita than any country in the world—yet continues to struggle with high rates of chronic disease.
Conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity now affect a majority of American adults. At the same time, many researchers and public health experts agree that a significant share of this burden is linked to diet, lifestyle, and other modifiable factors.
So why does prevention so often take a back seat?
The answer is complex. But many clinicians, researchers, and policy experts point to a common theme: the way our healthcare system is structured can make it harder to prioritize prevention and early intervention.
Natural and preventive approaches to health are at the margins of healthcare through the deliberate structure of legal definitions, regulatory enforcement, and professional gatekeeping that has been constructed—and defended—over decades.
That’s the challenge at the heart of the Arizona Statement on Reversing America’s Chronic Disease Epidemic, developed by ANH-USA with the help of a cross-disciplinary group of experts who met in February 2026 and have collaborated since. Now, we’re asking grassroots activists to help build momentum behind these ideas.
While an Executive Order established the Make America Health Again (MAHA) Commission in February 2025 and a 120-initiative strategy was launched in September 2025, to date the focus has been primarily on children’s health; the structural problems that impact informed choice and health freedom relevant to America’s 277 million adults has largely been avoided. Not only that, the chronic disease epidemic cannot be fixed by top-down government policy alone. It requires all layers of society to be involved and the removal of structural barriers that have accumulated over decades that work to protect Big Pharma and Big Food—with US citizens paying the price both in health and economic terms.
What the Arizona Statement Argues
The Statement does not reject modern medicine or the role of pharmaceuticals. Instead, it argues that the current system often underutilizes lower-cost, lower-risk approaches—including nutrition, lifestyle interventions, sanitation, and natural products—due to a combination of regulatory constraints and economic incentives.
Among the issues it raises:
- Individual liberty and informed choice. Every person has the right to receive truthful information about nutrition, lifestyle, and lawful health options—and to choose among them on the basis of fully informed consent. That right is currently being violated by a regulatory regime that decides what you’re allowed to know and what medicines you can access.
- Modern, science-based definitions. The legal definitions of “food” and “drug” that govern what can be said and sold in the American marketplace were not written with 21st-century nutritional science in mind. The Statement calls for modernizing these definitions so that foods, botanicals, and dietary ingredients with demonstrated therapeutic effects can be researched, discussed, and recommended without being classified as unapproved drugs.
- Prevention, root-cause care. America’s great gains in life expectancy over the 20th century were built on sanitation, nutrition, hygiene, and public health — not on pharmaceuticals. The Statement calls for restoring prevention and root-cause medicine to their rightful place at the center of health policy.
- Barriers to access and reimbursement. Many preventive or root-cause approaches are not covered by insurance programs, making them less accessible—even when they may reduce long-term health costs.
These ideas are not about replacing conventional medicine, but about broadening the toolkit available to patients and practitioners.
Why This Matters in Practice
For many Americans, this debate is not abstract. It can mean the difference between having insurance cover a medication that brings side effects, but not a safer nutrition-based intervention. It’s the difference between treating symptoms rather than the underlying or root causes. It’s about having the right to be informed about, and to choose, non-drug approaches to health.
The Arizona Statement argues that a more balanced system could improve outcomes, expand choice, and reduce long-term costs.
A Growing Coalition—And a Chance to Add Your Voice
The Statement has already been signed by a number of clinicians, researchers, attorneys, nonprofit leaders, and health advocates. The goal now is to demonstrate that these concerns extend beyond professional circles.
Your signature helps show policymakers, regulators, and the media that there is broader public support for rethinking how we approach chronic disease.
This list of signatories will support ongoing legal, regulatory, and legislative efforts aimed at expanding access to preventive and integrative approaches.
Add Your Name to the Arizona Statement…
- If you believe prevention should play a larger role in healthcare…
- If you support greater access to information and a wider range of options…
- If you think the system can do more to address the root causes of chronic disease…
Add your name to the Arizona Statement TODAY.
Once you’ve done this – please forward this email or share the URL arizonastatement.org. Help build the momentum for a more balanced, prevention-focused approach to health.
You can also find out more by tuning in to the Robert Scott Bell Show today at 3 pm ET (noon PT) and listen to our General Counsel Jonathan Emord and Executive & Scientific Director Rob Verkerk, the key authors of the Arizona Statement.
