Editor’s note

For this year’s annual health and fi tness issue we took inspiration from last fall’s “Physician Wellness Conference” held by the Sangamon County Medical Society. You’d think doctors would already know to take care of themselves, but it turns out, not so much. Their helping-others profession has a tradition of self-neglect, and the high stress makes it easy for health care workers to claim they don’t have time. Now with the government bearing down on the medical world, it’s a wonder that even a few docs have broken free to get fi t. We profi le two of them – Dr. Craig Backs on page 12 and Dr.

Brian Moore on page 18 – who have learned to practice what they preach.

With this issue we introduce Jacqueline Muhammad, our new editorial intern from the public affairs reporting master’s degree program of University of Illinois Springfi eld. A Chicago resident, she majored in agriculture at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where she graduated last May. She will be reporting for IT on a wide range of news subjects over the next six months. Read her work this week on pages 8 and 18. Welcome, Jackie.

–Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher