 It's July and it's getting hot, just like the deals at Appalachian Wireless. All months get the Samsung Galaxy S8 for just a penny with a two-year agreement. But don't wait because the deal ends soon. Better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless. The Appalachian Regional Commission, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky today released a report on the health of Appalachian counties. While much of the attention and national coverage has been focused on bright spots where health statistics are trending better than expected, none of those communities were in our immediate area. As a whole, all of Appalachia continues to struggle with signs of poor health. The region has some of the nation's highest rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. However, the most troubling statistic is one with a grim name, years of potential life lost. The number is calculated by adding the total years lost by residents prior to age 75. Every county in our coverage area has rates that are nearly double the national average or even higher. There are certain things that you can focus on that tend to improve the overall health of the community and there were four things that stood out particularly. One was focusing on having fewer teen birds, another was focusing on lowering the smoking rate in the community, a third one was increasing physical activity, and a fourth one was trying to work on curbing the substance abuse rate. You've got high levels of all of those things that we're particularly concerned about. Now why are those levels high? Obviously, some of it has to do with what we call social determinants of health. Poverty levels tend to be somewhat higher, it's more difficult to get a job. In some cases it's hard to acquire an education, it's also hard environmentally to be able to get as much exercise. Chandler adds that the report gives local communities a picture of the health challenges they face which will allow them to devise strategies for making improvements. And he says bright spots such as nearby Morgan County show that those efforts can pay off. In Pikeville, Shelby Porter, EKB News.