NIH Radio
Environmental Solutions to Obesity in America's Youth
Brief Description:
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is sponsoring a conference aimed at examining how a child's environment can increase their risk for obesity.
Transcript:
Akinso: Remember when your parents would tell you about the "good old days", when they didn't have TV and they played outside in the fresh air and got the exercise you weren't getting, because you were glued to the TV watching cartoons? Experts say things are even worse now: kids still tend to sit around watching TV — and the only exercise a lot of them get is when they use the controllers on their video games. These are just some of the issues that will be discussed at the Environmental Solutions to Obesity in America's Youth conference, sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. On June 1st, national and community leaders will join researchers to sort out how a child's environment increases the risk for obesity — and also to find a solution to address this health epidemic — according to Doctor Allen Dearry, Associate Director for the Division of Research Coordination, Planning, and Translation at the NIEHS.
Dearry: It really is a devastating problem in this country — as well as the rest of the world — at this point. And, we all need to be able to address it, in terms of the best means of prevention and treatment.
Akinso: Doctor Dearry said that goals for the conference include: defining better interventions to prevent childhood obesity, and getting the word out to parents and family-health-care providers. There'll be some familiar names at the conference, including: National Football League Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swann; Director of the NIEHS, Doctor David Schwartz; Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt; and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. This is Wally Akinso, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
About This Audio Report
Date: 5/29/2005
Reporter: Wally Akinso
Sound Bite: Dr. Allen Dearry
Topic: Obesity
Institute(s): NIEHS
Social Media Links