Local medical professionals gathered at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler on Monday afternoon to address the health concerns East Texans face.
NET Health CEO George Roberts says people in East Texas need to take steps to cut back on their everyday health risks by eating right, exercising and refraining from smoking.
"Risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer can go down, diabetes go down," Roberts said.
One of the most important issues brought up during the discussions was the alarming rise in obesity in East Texas.
"We've been fighting this whole issue of obesity," Roberts said. "Our obesity rates just jumped up in Smith County 33 percent of our public is obese."
Roberts also says as a community, East Texans need to make sure people understand smoking risks go well beyond cancer.
"If Northeast Texas was considered its own state, we'd be 51 percent in some areas including cardiovascular disease, stroke, etc," Roberts said. "And a lot of that is due to smoke."
Roberts and the rest of the panel also spent time talking about best practices for health experts to get the word out to the public about health risks facing the community.