our meetings in cambodia, and i especially want to thank our thai friends of being so supportive which should be the premiere form for discussing regional challenges including maritime security. so once again, madam prime minister, i want to thank you for your hospitality and your partnership. because of the progress we've made today, i think we've pud the u.s./tie alliance on an even firmer footing for many years to come and tonight i look forward to celebrating the bonds of friendship between our peoples and alsz enjoying some thai food which is one of my favorites. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, mr. president. and now we will take a few questions from the floor. i would ask if i have not already mentioned so to ask you to identify your name and affiliation. we have about four questions. and so the first question is to

the thai media. so could i have the first question, please? >> good evening. i represent the local newspaper here in thailand. this question goes to both of you, mr. president and prime minister. you both talk about democracy in thailand but my question is this. are you both satisfied with how democracies work -- the situation of democracy in thailand? i'm talking about the situation of those who are responsible for 2010 incident. you have many political prisoners and recorded human right abuse. i mean in your opinion, do you call the satisfying? and mr. president, which thai cuisine dish is your favorite?

could you be specific? thank you, sir. >> prime minister may answer the question first. >> let me answer the question on democracy today. i think our destination is the stabilization ofl democracy. because of it will there be economic growth in the future. the destination to go with that vision is that provisional conciliation. but i think we will speak with a true democracy by using the outcry and the due process and make sure that all things will be equal and fair. and in thailand also we aim for -- we like to see additional reconciliation. so our opposition will be with the passion and peaceful way. a democratic way will be the place to solve the problem, thank you. >> let me just say first of all

that, you know, democracy is not something that is static. it's something we have to constantly work on. the u.s. is the oldest democracy in the world, but we constantly have to, as citizens, work to make sure that it is working to include everybody, to make sure that the freedoms that are in our constitution, the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, that those are practiced and observed. so the work of democracy never stops. i think that what you're seeing here in thailand is a democratically elected prime minister who's committed to democracy, committed to rule of law, committed to freedom of

speech and the press and assembly. but obviously what's true in thailand as is true in america is that all citizens have to remain vigilant, and there's always improvements to be made, and i very much congratulate the prime minister on her commitment to democracy, and i know many of the forms that she continues to be interested in will strengthen democracy in thailand and will serve as a good example for the region as a whole. in terms of thai cuisine, i like it all, and i've looked over the menu for this evening's menu, and it looks very good. it looks good because i'm also very hungry. so i think -- i saved my appetite, and i'm looking forward to having some authentic thai food. >> thank you very much.

the second question comes from the u.s. media. i'd like to call on "the washington post," please. >> thank you very much. madam prime minister, thank you for hosting us, the american media as well as the rest of the president's delegation. mr. president you will make history tomorrow as the first u.s. president to visit burma but human rights activists warn that your visit is premature given the escalating vie lanes that has left hundreds dead and hundreds more displaced. people are, quote, living in fear and terror. why are you moving so quickly to endorse the burmese leadership and reward them with a personal visit, and with some of the recent setbacks and movements in the middle east, why are you so confident burma will move down the path of reform. and to madam prime minister as well, as a u.s. ally and neighbor of myanmar and burma,

are you certain and do you believe president obama's visit is premature or appropriately timed? thank you? >> well, first of all i think it's important to recognize, david, this is not an endorsement of the burmese government. it's an acknowledgen't there's a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half ago, two years ago nobody foresaw. president hussein is taking steps that move us in a better direction. you have aungi san suu kyi.

you've seen prisoners released. there's an articulated commitment for political reform. but i don't think anybody's under the illusion that burma's arrivinged, that they're where they need to be. on the other hand, if we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting an awful long time. and one of the goals of this trip is to highlight the progress that has been made but also to give voice to the much greater progress that needs to be made in the future. so when i address the burmese public as the first president who's ever visited that country, what they'll hear from me is that we congratulate them on having opened the door to a

country that respects human rights and respects political freedom. and it is saying that it's committed toward a more democratic government. but what you'll also hear is that the country has a long way to go. and, you know, i'm not somebody who thinks that the united states should just stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there's an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country. and in part i'm taking my guidance from aung san suu kyi. >> you've been listening to a live conference between

president obama and prime minister yingluck shinawatra. the president's on his three-day tour in asia. burma tomorrow and then cambodia. we're going to now join sanjay gupta m.d. in progress. a bit of a technical issue. we're going to continue to listen to the president's answer to a question. his sitting as a president. is this rewarding burma with a presidential visit. the president said just a moment ago this is not an endorsement of the burmese government but an acknowledgement of the process and reform.

let's continue to listen. >> then we're in a position to respond appropriately. but my hope is that, you know, we will continue on a positive track, and hopefully my visit will be able to encourage that. >> for myself, i think on the case of the myanmar situation, thing now i think now we can see from my observation and also i have had several chances to -- in myanmar, we see a lot of progress on the political reform from the government. and i think from the basic that we have been told, i think we believe that the fundamental of economic growth and -- >> all right. let's go back once more, try this again to join "sanjay gupta m.d. in process." >> that's all i can tell you. he grew up, he was big, strong, handsome, smart, and wanted to make something of his life.

he was industrious, but he was normal. he liked to have a good time. i promise you that night, he had no idea that he was turning out the lights, none, and if it's true of him, it's got to be true of a lot of other people. >> when you called me, i still remember this. i wrote this down. you said -- you put it like this. you said, nobody thinks drinking a few beers and having an oxycontin is a good idea, but you also don't expect to die. ben's a smart kid. a lot of these people are smart folks. do you think he had any ideas of the dangers at all? >> no. i don't think he had any idea of what the biochemistry of his brain was. in your words, that would kill that part of his brain for a while that tells you to keep on breathing when you're asleep. there is no way in the wide world he would have done that had he known it, nor do i believe the young woman who was with him had a clue. he was a really smart educated

guy. all of us, the whole culture, we need to start thinking about this. this is crazy. not a single solitaire one of these people has to die. >> do you think that doctors such as myself should be saying, look, this is no joke. if you take this with alcohol, you could die. >> yes. >> does it need to be that dramatic? >> i think so. people see this stuff on the warning bottles all the time. they think, i work, i'm strong, i'm fine. they have no idea of what the biochemistry is and the interaction of alcohol and the oxycontin or whatever it is in the brain. they just don't know. so i think that they should be explaining much more common explicit language than those warning labels do. and i'd like somebody to look me in the eye and say, you cannot do this, this, and this. if i were you, i wouldn't have a glass of wine with this. you can't control what happens to you when you fall asleep. >> this may be a statistic that

you know. i was surprised by it. but 80% of the world's pain prescriptions are in this country. 80%. does that surprise you? >> i didn't know that. no, because -- >> is that a cultural problem? >> yes. it is cultural. you know, people think, oh, you know, i've got a headache or i've got this or my elbow's sore, whatever. look. i don't want to minimize this. there are a lot of people who live courageous lives in constant pain. they're in pain all the time for reasons they can't control. they need relief, and they should get it. but there's no question that since we represent 5% of the world's people and far less than 80% of the world's people with above average incomes, we've got no business popping as many pills as we do. >> the clinton foundation has now announce add five-year campaign to address this issue with a lot of education to try to prevent a lot of these

deaths. and ben's father has pledged a million dollars to help support this. coming up just in time for thanksgiving, some can't-miss-advice on,000 avoid food poisoning. [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac!

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you know, for many people, and i include myself in this category, leftovers are the best part about thanksgiving. next to summertime, the holidays are the busiest time of year for them. they field a lot of questions about food poisoning and safety. so i wanted to give you a simple tip to help you from making one of those calls next week. just remember this, the 2-2-4 rule. refridge yat your leftovers within two hours of cooking. store your dishes in shallow dishes to cool it quickly and eat refrigerated leftovers within four days or toss them out. since he was 17 years old, rich clifford wanted to travel to space. after graduating from west point clifford's dreams came true, but after two missions he was diagnosed with a debilitating

degenerative brain disease, but he refused to let that stop him from flying again. for most of us, this view is the closest we'll ever get to outer space, but it's this view that rich clifford had three times. when he blasted in the spate shuttle "discovery" in 1992, "on "endeavour" in 1994 and another. >> i didn't have any symptoms other than my right arm didn't swing naturally when i walked. >> he had just been given an annual physical but when he told the doctors his arm was affecting his racquetball game, they sent him to a neurologist. >> i said i wanted to fly again. >> nasa cleared him and nine months later he was headed to

space aboard "atlantis." >> i walked with my left arm swinging and my right arm hanging there. it didn't go away but it didn't interfere with my flight. >> the commander cleared him. >> it was good enough for them. >> and with that flight came a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. a sex ix-hour space walk. >> it was fantastic. a space walk is a privilege and something every astronaut wishes for. >> six years ago the trembling began followed by head bobbing. his neurologist tried to get him to go public with the story many times. last year, 17 years after being diagnosed he did. >> i got diagnosed with parkinson ee

parkinson's was 42 years old. >> now he travels the country to talk about it. >> i encourage people not to let it get you down, live life to the fullest, keep focused on what it is you want in life and seek down that path. nothing should hold you back. >> clifford is now on a new mission to raise understand and awaerns of parkinson's disease. the story has been told in a new documentary that's currently in production called the astronaut secret. it's hard to miss this guy, shaquille o'neil. he joins me next. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head? can curlers! tomato basil, potato with bacon... we've got a lot of empty cans. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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nba legend, he immediate no introduction, shaquille o'mooel is here to talk about a solution for one of the biggest killers in america, diabetes. it's a growing problem. one in three people by the year 2050 expected to have diabetes in this country. one-third of all americans. what do you think when you hear that? >> we as american people immediate to try to help prevent the issue. you know, try to stay healthy. there's a lot of healthier alternatives rather than just

eating candy all the time. >> how is your health? obviously, as a professional athlete, you're exercise aing lot. you every now and then would take some flack for not being able to control your weight as well. how is it going for you now? >> it's going pretty good. i know have always been known as the freak of mate. when you hear guys 350, of course, you know, regular people when you hear 350 you automatically think obese or super obese, but, you know, as you can tell by my playing career, i'm fifth in scoring and won a lot of choep championships, so they would automatically go to he is out of shape, and i admit sometimes i wouldn't come in in basketball shape because that was my method of madness. i wanted to just relax on the summer and hang out with the family and then work my way into playing shape, but i have never been obese. even now my body fat is only 13%. >> how big are you? you're 7'1"? how much do you weigh? >> about 310.

>> give or take a little bit? >> give or take a little bit. >> i don't know if you can tell, but we're actually the same size. you can't tell when we're sitting, but we're very similar. obesity is often something that leads to type ii diabetes. we talk about the diabetes statistics. two-thirds of adults in this country are either overweight or obese. we didn't always used to be this away ms country. why do you think culturally we arrived at this place and why did it become okay? >> i think now, you know, especially when it comes to dealing with children, there's more temptations to make you stay at home. when i was coming up, there was no iphone, there was no twitter, there was no social media network. there was come home, go outside and play, aka, burn calories, stay in shape, come back in the house. now, you know aring because of what's going on in our society, i once did a special with five kids, five obese kids and tried to whip them back in shape, and one of the parents said we live

in a dangerous neighborhood. i would never let my kid go outside and get per size. one parent said i blame it on the schools. they're cutting the p.e. programs. it's a different world we live in. i always encourage parents if you can try to eat healthy, try to help your kids get exercise, and, you know, try to keep them in shape. >> how personal is this for you? i mean, you talk about this within your own family, friends? >> it's very personal because i see the struggle. i have to do certain things to keep up with it, so, again, if i can help in any way, you know, i want to be this person to say, you know what, shaq said do this. fwluk yoes, quick stick alternative instead of eating candy. hey, i'm many. >> your family members who you are concerned about, do they listen to you? >> they listen to me. you know, eisenhower said the greatest leaders are the ones smart enough to hire people

smarter hand them, so, of course, when they tell me they have diabetes, i get on the phone and i call people like you, have conservativeses with them and tell them the conversations. they tell it to me, i tell it to them. it's not me making it up. dad, i talked to this guy or uncle, i talked to this guy or sister, i talked to this guy, and this is what he said. >> your own health, you said you're doing well. you look fit. i imagine that it would be hard to keep the weight off especially when you're not playing sports, but just your regular day do day die elt, how much are you eating? how well are you monitoring yourself? >> i mefr ate a lot. >> is that right? >> i've cut down the bread. i can't stop eating my brownies. i'm not going to lie to you, america. no, i cut down on the bread. in the morning i wake up, i have an omelet, and then for lunch i have a salad, and then for dinner i'll either have steak or fish. then i try to stay away from the sodas and the candies. i try to at least get an hour on

the treadmill every day. >> you ever done a triathlon? >> no, never will. >> why not? >> because i'm a great athlete, but i'm want that great of an athlete. >> no? >> those athletes, they don't get a lot of credit, but they are a super exceptional athlete. >> we have a program where we actually recruit viewers from around the country to join us to do a triathlon. i've been doing this for a few years, and i troo toy practice what we preach. you don't have to be an nba super star to do a triathlon or to value fitness. a group of people -- take a look there. these are people who had mefr done a triathlon before, everyday viewers like people watching at home who simply wanted to make a hang in their lives, so we hook them up with bikes and with wet suits, trainers, training trips as well all over the country, and just a few weeks ago you get to see them all across the finish line, every single one of them at the nautica malibu triathlon. go to our website right now cnn.com/fit nation. you can be part of next year's challenge, send in youreo