The Checkup: Michael Jordan Gatorade Ad Ruffles Feathers

• A health advocacy group is all up in arms over a new Gatorade ad, which features a circa-1997, flu-ridden Michael Jordan chugging Gatorade during a playoff basketball game. During that game, Wikipedia tells me, Jordan managed to put up 38 points, including a game-deciding three-pointer with 25 seconds left on the clock—all while battling a wicked stomach virus. The Public Health Advocacy Institute wants Gatorade to pull the ad because it “promotes engaging in vigorous physical activity while suffering from a very high fever, in Jordan’s case 103 degrees.” The nerve! (I think what’s shadier is the implication that the electrolyte-loaded sports drink can somehow magically rid a person of the flu in a manner of seconds, returning him or her to a superhuman-like state of health, but nobody asked me.) The group sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking them to take action, but officials there have yet to do anything about it. I’ve embedded the commercial in question below for your viewing pleasure. Thoughts?

• Tsk, tsk, America: Adults in our country engage in just 17 minutes a day of dedicated fitness activity. That’s according to a new analysis of government data, which also found that kids and teenagers average 41 minutes and seniors just 13. What’s funny is that even though our two hours of exercise a week is half as much as we’re supposed to get by CDC standards, we’re still getting almost three times more exercise than Americans 40 years ago. Silver lining?

• Our congrats to HUP’s Heart & Vascular ICU nurses for being honored as one of the 10 best nursing teams in the country Advance for Nurses. Think they slip you an extra Jell-O if you’re a good patient?