I think if we could get obesity treatments to a situation like cholesterol where there are several different products, where one or two in combination might be successful, at least that would arm physicians with more than they have now.

It definitely costs an overweight person more.

The health system in general has largely ignored paying for weight-loss interventions up to this point. This is going to help them reconsider that.

Our technology has driven us to develop more and more labor saving devices and, with that, a lot more entertainment devices ? televisions, video games, DVD players. You create even a very small excess number of calories a day, say 10 extra calories, that's the equivalent over the year to a pound.

Most occupations today require very little physical activity. It used to be that that's where people would burn a lot of their calories.

We have millions of consumers who need assistance to better manage their weight.

We've been waiting to see how they responded to the surgical side. This will give us a cue as to where to go next. I think we'll start seeing Medicare start looking at other interventions.

As you get higher on the weight scale, you get more absenteeism, more sick days. The disturbing thing about the recent data is that [obesity is] starting at ever-younger ages, which means you're going to have a longer lifetime of diseases and costs associated with it.

This is very positive for millions of Americans.