Obesity is a severe
And increasingly severe
Public health problem
In the United States
And across the world.
In the U.S., roughly one-third of adults
Are considered obese, by our current standards,
And about 17 percent of children.
And the prospects of this for what it will do
In terms of health care, in terms of human longevity,
Are of deep concern.
So this is a very high priority,
For the National Institutes of Health to address
With an effective strategic plan.
If the NIH has its mission
To try to promote human health,
Obesity is right in the middle of that.
So of all the organizations you can think of
Probably NIH appears on that very short list
Of the most important ones to tackle this problem.
And we embrace that.
And aim to try to live up to that responsibility
By promoting excellent science
That gives rigorous results
That then can be applied to the public.
I think some people look at the obesity problem
And say, well, you know,
It's just because people eat too much
And don't get enough exercise,
So what's the science here?
Well, there's a lot of science.
And a lot of things that we could learn more about
In a way that would help the situation
Beyond simply wagging fingers at people
And telling them to behave.
The strategic plan is rather sweeping
In its set of goals.
Going all the way from basic science understanding
Of what are those signals,
That actually trigger hunger
And satiety,
And also exactly
What are those genetic influences
That play a role in the tendency towards obesity.
And what about the microbes,
That may be playing a role as well.
But it goes much further than that,
To questions about the environment.
What influences there that we know about,
Or don't know about, are also triggering the risk
Of obesity.
But it focuses quite heavily, then,
On interventions.
How do you design trials with creative new ideas
About how to prevent or treat obesity.
And then, once you've identified
Possible strategies, how do you develop an approach
To find out whether they work in the real world?
Because a clinical trial under very closely
Controlled circumstances is exciting
If it gives you a good result,
But it doesn't guarantee that
That's something you can apply to millions of people
In a less controlled situation.
That's part of NIH's job, too.
Is to look at that kind of implementation question,
And that's very much part of this plan.
Obesity has many
Health effects that are potentially quite serious
Most notably diabetes.
That the very rapid rise in the incidence
Of so-called type 2
Adult-onset diabetes
Is largely attributable to the epidemic of obesity.
The fact that this disease, which we used to call
Adult-onset diabetes
Now is turning up in kids
Who are nine or ten or 11 years old,
Because of obesity,
Is truly frightening.
'Cause diabetes has a wide range of long-term effects,
In terms of blindness,
In terms of kidney failure,
In terms of heart attacks,
Strokes,
Amputations.
That's probably the most obvious and immediate effect
Of obesity but there are many others as well.
Obesity also predisposes,
Obviously, to lots of musculoskeletal problems
In terms of joints,
That get worn down.
The need for joint replacements.
It predisposes to heart attacks,
To strokes.
It predisposes to cancer
In ways that are actually quite puzzling.
The National Institutes of Health
Is our nation's investment
In biomedical research,
To try to understand the causes of disease,
And theways to prevent and treat.
Obesity is a very significant cause
Of current illness in our country,
And becoming more significant all the time.
The National Institutes of Health is determined
To take the resources that we've been given
By the taxpayers
And learn everything we can
About this epidemic
In order to turn it around.
We aim to be no less than completely innovative,
Ambitious, bold and creative
In generating the evidence
That we need to get the answers
That will lead to a better future.