Roger Marshal Presses Top HHS Nominee On The Impact Of Social Media On Mental Health Of Children

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During a Senate HELP Committee hearing last week Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) spoke about the impact that social media has on the mental health of children.

Transcript

00:00Senator Marshall. Thank you chairman and welcome Mr. O'Neill. It's good to see you again.

00:06I was excited yesterday to see the nomination for President Trump of Dr. Casey Means to be

00:11the Surgeon General and certainly she has been an expert on all things MAHA and nutrition and

00:18metabolism, importance of mitochondria and I want to relate that to you mentioned in your testimony

00:24that you're anxious to reform our food system to prioritize health and just kind of tell me

00:29what that vision looks like and how can you work with Dr. Means and the other folks there at HHS.

00:36Thank you so much for the question Senator and I really enjoyed our meeting a few weeks ago.

00:40You know I know that you mentioned the word mitochondria. I've noticed that three years ago

00:46people didn't know anything about that they remember from high school biology oh yes

00:50mitochondria the powerhouse of the cell but in the past few years thanks to a lot of

00:55uh smart people talking uh about metabolism much more than the past um people are starting to be

01:03interested um uh you know infectious disease is still a very serious challenge to a lot of people

01:09um but metabolism metabolic disorders chronic diseases are getting more attention and I think

01:14that's wonderful I hope they continue to get attention from researchers from physicians from patients

01:19um regarding the food system um the unfortunate situation today is that a lot of families really

01:28try hard to be healthier and have healthier habits and it's not easy um they go to the grocery store

01:33junk food is much cheaper than healthy food they're not even sure which food is healthy uh nutrition

01:39labels can be confusing official government nutrition advice the dietary guidelines that uh two departments

01:46issue every five years uh often seem to lag by decades uh actual nutrition science real nutrition

01:54science is so hard to do because there's so many stakeholders with an interest in particular outcomes

02:00I think it's essential that we have good nutrition research that is free from outside influence

02:09there's a metabolism lab at NIH that I visited where you lock people uh in a room with their consent

02:16for days measure every calorie that goes in right goes out exercise studies we need more of that there

02:21was a there was talk a year ago shutting that down I think we should have more of that okay

02:26uh you also mentioned uh prioritize health for our children and children and I want to just focus

02:31for a second on on mental health I'm not sure if you had the opportunity to read the book the anxious

02:35generation but if you haven't surely would support recommend that you do that what role do you think uh social

02:42media apps have played in this in the mental health of our children and young adults uh thank you senator

02:50that's a great concern so uh companies that develop apps have an interest in maximizing the amount of

02:57time that uh users spend on the apps the amount of engagement uh try to hook them into it uh that's expected

03:06given that they're you know trying to grow their business but that's not necessarily what's best for

03:12users especially young users and so uh there's more and more awareness that um social media can be an

03:19addiction and that it's it especially could have a profound lasting influence on on young developing

03:26brains brains uh seem to keep developing until age 25 so uh people that don't even think of themselves as

03:32children could still be well adults could also suffer negatively so um uh yes that that is a concern

03:39that that that hhs uh should have a role in researching and uh communicating uh best practices great

03:44certainly adds to the loneliness um as well maybe the little time we have left i just want to emphasize

03:50the importance of replicating previous studies again you mentioned that in your testimony over 20 years ago

03:57an nih study on alzheimer's took us down in the wrong direction uh and that study was never replicated

04:04so what does that look like i mean it you can't you don't want your your best buddy to do the

04:09replication of that surgery it needs to be another non-biased person so how do you implement that plan

04:16absolutely so um there's two ways uh a study could lead us on the wrong road one is outright fraud

04:23which has happened in alzheimer's research and the other is um you know it's kind of bad luck um you

04:28do one study there was no intention of fraud but the results uh you know were an unusual combination the

04:35stars were in a certain alignment and it's also not going to replicate so uh you know there's a lot of

04:40talk about the replication crisis in all of science about 10 years ago and it's still an unsolved problem

04:46uh i think uh nih should devote and the problem is no one has a financial interest in replicating studies

04:52uh so nih should do that um and i think that would be something that nih can do best uh whether that

05:00should be conducted operationally as one whole division of nih focused on replication or whether

05:06there should be a replication branch in each each uh institute uh i'm open to arguments both ways

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