NIH Launches Worksite Wellness Lectures

“As NIH employees, you are all ‘ambassadors for health’ when you interact with your families and people in the community,” said Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers, Deputy Director of NIDDK, at the March 17 kick-off of a worksite wellness lecture series. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research Services (ORS), in collaboration with NIDDK, sponsored the lecture on the benefits of healthy eating and regular physical activity.

Dr. Rodgers briefly discussed NIDDK’s research efforts in diabetes, obesity, and physical activity. “This is a wonderful opportunity for NIDDK and other institutes to offer employees access to information that could improve their health,” said Rodgers, who encouraged audience members to share their new knowledge with others.

Following Dr. Rodgers’ comments, Karen Regan, M.S., R.D., a program analyst for NIH’s Division of Nutrition Research Coordination (DNRC), talked about weight-loss and nutrition myths. “Fad diets such as low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets work, but only for short-term weight loss,” explained Regan. “Controlling how much food you eat by carefully reading nutrition labels and exercising regularly are the best ways to lose weight and keep it off.”

In keeping with the theme of the lecture, ORS and NIDDK offered healthy refreshments and raffled off t-shirts, pedometers, and fitness memberships to NIH’s Recreation and Welfare Association. This and future lectures are designed to provide NIH employees with information on various health topics central to NIH’s biomedical research portfolio. s