As a nurse practitioner at the Oxford Adult Care and Weight Loss Center, Kanina Crosen sees Alabama's obesity problem firsthand. To her, obesity is more than a condition that 30 percent of adult Alabamians live with every day, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a disease. The American Medical Association, the largest physician group in the country, agrees, and officially recognized obesity as a disease Monday during its annual meeting in Chicago. But while the organization has no legal authority to dictate how obesity should be treated, some local health experts say the decision could spur physicians to more aggressively attack the problem and encourage insurers to offer more coverage for treatments and prevention. "I honestly do think it's a disease," Crosen said. "We try every possible angle to prevent it, the same way we might treat someone who has high blood pressure ... it's a problem we're trying to prevent." The AMA, specifically its house of delegates, voted to categorize obesity as a disease during its annual meeting in Chicago Monday. The decision went against the conclusions of the association's Council on Science and Public Health, which studied the issue the past year. The council determined obesity was not a disease since the body mass index, the measure used to define obesity, is overly simplistic. Statistics from the CDC show that obesity is a growing epidemic, with more than one-third of American adults being categorized as obese. About 17 percent of U.S. children are obese, the statistics show. The situation is particularly dire for Alabama, which is among the three states with the highest rates of obesity for adults. Obesity can lead to a variety of conditions, from diabetes to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Lewis Doggett of Anniston Pediatrics, who focuses on childhood obesity and is working to create a childhood obesity clinic for the area, said obesity has been treated like a disease for some time. "I think whether they call it that or not, we certainly treat it like it's a disease," Doggett said. "It's got obvious medical morbidity attached to it and there's definitely prevention efforts with it." Doggett said he hoped AMA's decision will lead to more intervention and prevention of obesity among the medical community. At Anniston Pediatrics, Doggett tells parents to feed their children five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, cut out sweets and sugary beverages and encourage them to engage in one hour of activity each day. Crosen said she hoped the disease designation will encourage insurers to cover more treatments for obesity. "I hope insurance will cover more things like appetite suppressants, weight loss treatment and even gym memberships," Crosen said. Crosen said prevention of obesity is the key to dealing with a host of other diseases that many Americans have, such as diabetes. "You've got to start at the root of the problem," Crosen said. Dr. Jeff Terry, chairman of the Alabama delegation to the AMA and past president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, said he was not sure what, if any, effect AMA's decision will have on the medical community. "We want to acknowledge that obesity is a terrible problem affecting over 30 percent of our population, however, the council felt it did not meet the true definition of disease," Terry said. "This does not affect how we take care of obesity ... it is not important as far as how physicians take care of the patient." Don Williamson, Alabama’s state health officer, who attended the AMA meeting, said he had mixed feelings about the decision. "If it encourages insurance companies to cover preventive care, that's a positive development," Williamson said. However, he added that the disease label could encourage some people to take less responsibility for their own fitness. Dr. Timothy Garvey, chairman of the department of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said he considered obesity to be a disease with genetic, behavioral and environmental causes. "I very enthusiastically welcome this decision," Garvey said. Garvey said the AMA decision could accelerate changes in society's understanding about obesity, and he hopes it will improve coverage offered by insurers. Garvey said insurers will cover bariatric surgery, a procedure involving the removal of a portion of the stomach to treat obesity, but not many lifestyle interventions like weight-loss programs. "We need to use all the weapons we have to treat this disease and it would help if insurers help cover prevention," Garvey said. Staff writer Patrick McCreless: 256-235-3561. On Twitter @PMcCreless_Star. Capitol and statewide reporter Tim Lockette contributed to this report.

JACKSONVILLE — On the floor of a converted warehouse Wednesday, Jana Tolliver steadied a light on a long, metal pole so it shone on an expanse of green-painted plywood. Also pointing at the green walls and floor were about a dozen other lights and one camera, waiting for action. Tolliver, 24, was one of a dozen teens and young adults in the warehouse to learn the basics of film production in a week-long camp hosted by the Northeast Alabama Film Initiative, a nonprofit established by Jacksonville State University to train a workforce to staff a local film industry. It’s hoped the effort will help attract filmmakers to take advantage of a 2009 tax-incentives law aimed at movie and television projects. For Tolliver, who hopes to become an animator, the camp is a chance to get her hands on movie-making equipment and learn how to tell stories through film. “I’m building an extra skill that might help me get a job related to what I want to do,” she said. The converted warehouse is the home of Longleaf Studios, the initiative’s facility in western Jacksonville. The green-painted plywood, according to program director Pete Conroy, is the largest green screen in an Alabama studio. Actors are filmed performing in front of the screen, and producers later replace the images of the green surfaces with other images so the actors can be made to appear anywhere in the finished film. Conroy said he hopes the program encourages some of the students to consider enrolling in film classes at Jacksonville State University being taught by Jeffrey Nichols, an artist in residence there. Nichols and Louisiana native Chuck Bush were leading the instruction at the camp on Wednesday. “This is round one,” said Bush, who broke into the entertainment industry as an actor in the 1985 film “Fandango.” “I teach them whatever they need to know.” On Wednesday, the students learned the basic framework of visual storytelling. Earlier in the week, they learned to use digital video cameras and how to set up studio lighting. By the week’s end they’ll have produced short films with help from the instructors. “It gives students a big heads up,” said one participant, 32-year-old Jonathan Garland, who has worked behind the scenes at WJXS-TV 24. “It amazes me that it’s in Jacksonville.” The Northeast Alabama Entertainment Initiative is being supported with state tax money routed through JSU. The 2014 Education Trust Fund budget includes $226,194 for the program, down from $426,194 in 2013. The cost for each student to attend this week’s film camp was $650, $300 of which is paid by the initiative, leaving the students to pay $350. The funding is intended to help the local economy cash in on the 2009 tax incentives bill, modeled on a Louisiana law that has grown a film industry in that state. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, 8,655 people have jobs directly related to the film industry in Louisiana, 3,400 of them in production-related work. The state has provided filming locations for movies including the 2013 releases “Now You See Me,” “This Is the End” and “Snitch.” In Alabama, 3,529 people work in the industry, according to the MPAA, 540 of them in production jobs. While some of the students in Jacksonville this week, including Tolliver, said they were drawn to filmmaking as a form of creative expression, the focus at Longleaf this week has been on the basic skills for workers behind the scenes. “It’s called show business, not show art,” Bush told a reporter Wednesday. Staff writer Laura Gaddy: 256-235-3544. On Twitter @LJohnson_Star.