UNDATED (AP) – America’s newest veterans are filing for disability benefits at a historic rate, claiming to be the most medically and mentally troubled generation of former troops the nation has ever seen.

A staggering 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related. That is more than double the estimate of 21 percent who filed such claims after the Gulf War in the early 1990s, top government officials told The Associated Press.

What’s more, these new veterans are claiming eight to nine ailments on average, and the most recent ones over the last year are claiming 11 to 14. By comparison, Vietnam veterans are currently receiving compensation for fewer than four, on average, and those from World War II and Korea, just two.

It’s unclear how much worse off these new veterans are than their predecessors. Many factors are driving the dramatic increase in claims — the weak economy, more troops surviving wounds, and more awareness of problems such as concussions and PTSD. Almost one-third have been granted disability so far.

Government officials and some veterans’ advocates say that veterans who might have been able to work with certain disabilities may be more inclined to seek benefits now because they lost jobs or can’t find any. Aggressive outreach and advocacy efforts also have brought more veterans into the system, which must evaluate each claim to see if it is war-related. Payments range from $127 a month for a 10 percent disability to $2,769 for a full one.

As the nation commemorates the more than 6,400 troops who died in post-9/11 wars, the problems of those who survived also draw attention. These new veterans are seeking a level of help the government did not anticipate, and for which there is no special fund set aside to pay.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is mired in backlogged claims, but “our mission is to take care of whatever the population is,” said Allison Hickey, the VA‘s undersecretary for benefits. “We want them to have what their entitlement is.”

The 21 percent who filed claims in previous wars is Hickey’s estimate of an average for Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The VA has details only on the current disability claims being paid to veterans of each war.

The AP spent three months reviewing records and talking with doctors, government officials and former troops to take stock of the new veterans. They are different in many ways from those who fought before them.

More are from the Reserves and National Guard — 28 percent of those filing disability claims — rather than career military. Reserves and National Guard made up a greater percentage of troops in these wars than they did in previous ones. About 31 percent of Guard/Reserve new veterans have filed claims compared to 56 percent of career military ones.

More of the new veterans are women, accounting for 12 percent of those who have sought care through the VA. Women also served in greater numbers in these wars than in the past. Some female veterans are claiming PTSD due to military sexual trauma — a new challenge from a disability rating standpoint, Hickey said.

The new veterans have different types of injuries than previous veterans did. That’s partly because improvised bombs have been the main weapon and because body armor and improved battlefield care allowed many of them to survive wounds that in past wars proved fatal.

“They’re being kept alive at unprecedented rates,” said Dr. David Cifu, the VA’s medical rehabilitation chief. More than 95 percent of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have survived.

Larry Bailey II is an example. After tripping a rooftop bomb in Afghanistan last June, the 26-year-old Marine remembers flying into the air, then fellow troops attending to him.

“I pretty much knew that my legs were gone. My left hand, from what I remember I still had three fingers on it,” although they didn’t seem right, Bailey said. “I looked a few times but then they told me to stop looking.” Bailey, who is from Zion, Ill., north of Chicago, ended up a triple amputee and expects to get a hand transplant this summer.

He is still transitioning from active duty and is not yet a veteran. Just over half of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans eligible for VA care have used it so far.

Of those who have sought VA care:

—More than 1,600 of them lost a limb; many others lost fingers or toes.

—At least 156 are blind, and thousands of others have impaired vision.

—More than 177,000 have hearing loss, and more than 350,000 report tinnitus — noise or ringing in the ears.

—Thousands are disfigured, as many as 200 of them so badly that they may need face transplants. One-quarter of battlefield injuries requiring evacuation included wounds to the face or jaw, one study found.

“The numbers are pretty staggering,” said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who has done four face transplants on non-military patients and expects to start doing them soon on veterans.

Others have invisible wounds. More than 400,000 of these new veterans have been treated by the VA for a mental health problem, most commonly, PTSD.

Tens of thousands of veterans suffered traumatic brain injury, or TBI — mostly mild concussions from bomb blasts — and doctors don’t know what’s in store for them long-term. Cifu, of the VA, said that roughly 20 percent of active duty troops suffered concussions, but only one-third of them have symptoms lasting beyond a few months.

That’s still a big number, and “it’s very rare that someone has just a single concussion,” said David Hovda, director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center. Suffering multiple concussions, or one soon after another, raises the risk of long-term problems. A brain injury also makes the brain more susceptible to PTSD, he said.

On a more mundane level, many new veterans have back, shoulder and knee problems, aggravated by carrying heavy packs and wearing the body armor that helped keep them alive. One recent study found that 19 percent required orthopedic surgery consultations and 4 percent needed surgery after returning from combat.

All of this adds up to more disability claims, which for years have been coming in faster than the government can handle them. The average wait to get a new one processed grows longer each month and is now about eight months — time that a frustrated, injured veteran might spend with no income.

More than 560,000 veterans from all wars currently have claims that are backlogged — older than 125 days.

The VA’s benefits chief, Hickey, gave these reasons:

—Sheer volume. Disability claims from all veterans soared from 888,000 in 2008 to 1.3 million in 2011. Last year’s included more than 230,000 new claims from Vietnam veterans and their survivors because of a change in what conditions can be considered related to Agent Orange exposure. Those complex, 50-year-old cases took more than a third of available staff, she said.

—High number of ailments per claim. When a veteran claims 11 to 14 problems, each one requires “due diligence” — a medical evaluation and proof that it is service-related, Hickey said.

—A new mandate to handle the oldest cases first. Because these tend to be the most complex, they have monopolized staff and pushed up average processing time on new claims, she said.

—Outmoded systems. The VA is streamlining and going to electronic records, but for now, “We have 4.4 million case files sitting around 56 regional offices that we have to work with; that slows us down significantly,” Hickey said.

Barry Jesinoski, executive director of Disabled American Veterans, called Hickey’s efforts “commendable,” but said: “The VA has a long way to go” to meet veterans’ needs. Even before the surge in Agent Orange cases, VA officials “were already at a place that was unacceptable” on backlogged claims, he said.

He and VA officials agree that the economy is motivating some claims. His group helps veterans file them, and he said that sometimes when veterans come in, “We’ll say, ‘Is your back worse?’ and they’ll say, ‘No, I just lost my job.’”

Jesinoski does believe these veterans have more mental problems, especially from multiple deployments.

“You just can’t keep sending people into war five, six or seven times and expect that they’re going to come home just fine,” he said.

For taxpayers, the ordeal is just beginning. With any war, the cost of caring for veterans rises for several decades and peaks 30 to 40 years later, when diseases of aging are more common, said Harvard economist Linda Bilmes. She estimates the health care and disability costs of the recent wars at $600 billion to $900 billion.

“This is a huge number and there’s no money set aside,” she said. “Unless we take steps now into some kind of fund that will grow over time, it’s very plausible many people will feel we can’t afford these benefits we overpromised.”

How would that play to these veterans, who all volunteered and now expect the government to keep its end of the bargain?

“The deal was, if you get wounded, we’re going to supply this level of support,” Bilmes said. Right now, “there’s a lot of sympathy and a lot of people want to help. But memories are short and times change.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The hospital says it has notified patients who may have been affected by the potential breach.

Hospital officials say a file that had been emailed to the computer contained names, medical record numbers, birth dates, diagnoses, procedures surgery dates for 2159 patients.

No Social Security numbers were involved in the possible breach, according to the hospital.

“We deeply regret and apologize for any concern or inconvenience this situation may cause our patients and families,” the hospital’s Chief Information Officer Dr. Daniel J. Nigrin, said in a statement. “We take great measures to ensure that Protected Health Information is never inadvertently released, and we are undertaking additional steps to prevent breaches such as this in the future.”

Patients and families with questions or concerns can contact the hospital at 855-281-5730 during regular business hours.

Gov. Deval Patrick and congressional leaders said in a statement Tuesday that the funding will be used to develop integrated care programs, alternative payment methods and speed the transition to electronic medical records.

The so-called “safety net” hospitals are Boston Medical Center, Cambridge Health Alliance, Holyoke Medical Center, Lawrence General Hospital, Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital and Steward Carney Hospital in Boston. All seven treat a high proportion of Medicaid and other low-income patients.

The funding stems from a three-year, $26.7 billion Medicaid waiver deal the state struck with the Obama administration in December.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Diane Stern spoke to Mass. General Hospital Dr. Andrew Chan about the study:

Many doctors recommend a more complete test — colonoscopy — but many people refuse that costly, unpleasant exam. The new study shows that the simpler test, flexible sigmoidoscopy, can be a good option. Although it may seem similar to having a mammogram on just one breast, experts say that even a partial bowel exam is better than none.

Read: Screening guidelines

As one put it, “the best test is the one that gets done.”

The study was published online Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine and was to be presented at a digestive diseases conference in San Diego.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the fourth worldwide. More than 143,000 new cases and 52,000 deaths from the disease are expected this year in the U.S. alone.

People ages 50 to 75 who are at average risk of colon cancer are urged to get screened, but only about 60 percent do. Government advisers recommend one of three methods: annual stool blood tests, a sigmoidoscopy every five years plus stool tests every three years, or a colonoscopy once a decade.

In a colonoscopy, a thin tube with a tiny camera is guided through the large intestine. Growths can be removed and checked for cancer. Patients are sedated, but it requires drinking strong solutions the day before to clean out the bowel.

Sigmoidoscopy is not a popular choice in the United States but it’s the one used most often in England. It also uses a thin scope and tiny camera, can be done in an ordinary doctor’s office, requires much less bowel preparation and costs just $150 to $300 versus $1,000 to $2,000 for a colonoscopy.

One drawback: It’s done without anesthesia. The test usually isn’t painful, but patients feel cramping and some discomfort, said Dr. Durado Brooks, the American Cancer Society’s colon cancer expert. It also sees only the lower one-third of the colon, “but that is an area where probably half of polyps and cancers develop,” Brooks said.

The new study, led by Dr. Robert Schoen of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, tested how well it works.

From 1993 to 2001, about 155,000 people ages 55 to 75 were assigned to get the simple scope exam at the start of the study and three to five years later, or usual care — screening by any means only if they or their doctors wanted it done. Any patients with suspicious findings were sent for a colonoscopy.

After about 12 years of follow-up, there were 21 percent fewer cases of colon cancer and 26 percent fewer deaths from the disease in the group assigned to get sigmoidoscopy.

Of the cancers in that group, 243 were considered to have been caught by sigmoidoscopy (many others were found because of symptoms or other tests). Researchers estimate that 97 more would have been detected if colonoscopy had been the main screening method instead of the simpler scope exam, said study co-leader Dr. Christine Berg, chief of early detection research at the National Cancer Institute, which sponsored the research.

“My opinion is that there’s no doubt that colonoscopy would be better in detecting more total cancers,” she said. “A sigmoidoscopy could be used in situations where people are afraid of having the bowel prep,” or when anesthesia is a risk, she said.

In the study, about half of the group assigned to usual care wound up getting some type of scope exam anyway. That was far more than study leaders expected, and it could have diminished the true benefit sigmoidoscopy gave to the screening group, Dr. John Inadomi of the University of Washington in Seattle wrote in an editorial in the medical journal.

A patient’s choice of tests must be respected, he added. “In this case, the best test is the one that gets done.”

Dr. Andrew Chan was not a researcher in the study.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The Massachusetts Medical Society approved a resolution at its annual meeting this past weekend opposing legalization of medicinal marijuana without scientific studies proving it would be safe and effective.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Laurie Kirby reports

The organization’s House of Delegates also backed a second resolution opposing any legislation that would involve doctors prescribing marijuana to patients except for scientific studies or clinical trials.

The group representing about 24,000 doctors did call on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana to permit more studies on its possible medical benefits.

The question proposed for the November state ballot would allow patients with debilitating medical conditions to get permission from their doctors to use marijuana.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn’t matter.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens reports

The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it’s a guilty pleasure that may do harm.

“Our study suggests that’s really not the case,” said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. “There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking.”

No one knows why.

Coffee contains a thousand things that can affect health, from helpful antioxidants to tiny amounts of substances linked to cancer.

The most widely studied ingredient — caffeine — didn’t play a role in the new study’s results.

It’s not that earlier studies were wrong. There is evidence that coffee can raise LDL, or bad cholesterol, and blood pressure at least short-term, and those in turn can raise the risk of heart disease.

Even in the new study, it first seemed that coffee drinkers were more likely to die at any given time. But they also tended to smoke, drink more alcohol, eat more red meat and exercise less than non-coffee-drinkers. Once researchers took those things into account, a clear pattern emerged: Each cup of coffee per day nudged up the chances of living longer.

The study was done by the National Institutes of Health and AARP. The results are published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Careful, though — this doesn’t prove that coffee makes people live longer, only that the two seem related.

Like most studies on diet and health, this one was based strictly on observing people’s habits and resulting health. So it can’t prove cause and effect.

But with so many people, more than a decade of follow-up and enough deaths to compare, “this is probably the best evidence we have” and are likely to get, said Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. He had no role in this study but helped lead a previous one that also found coffee beneficial.

The new one began in 1995 and involved AARP members ages 50 to 71 in California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Atlanta and Detroit.

People who already had heart disease, a stroke or cancer weren’t included. Neither were folks at diet extremes — too many or too few calories per day.

The rest gave information on coffee drinking once, at the start of the study. “People are fairly consistent in their coffee drinking over their lifetime,” so the single measure shouldn’t be a big limitation, Freedman said.

Of the 402,260 participants, about 42,000 drank no coffee. About 15,000 drank six cups or more a day. Most people had two or three.

By 2008, about 52,000 of them had died. Compared to those who drank no coffee, men who had two or three cups a day were 10 percent less likely to die at any age. For women, it was 13 percent.

Even a single cup a day seemed to lower risk a little: 6 percent in men and 5 percent in women.

The strongest effect was in women who had four or five cups a day — a 16 percent lower risk of death.

None of these are big numbers, though, and Freedman can’t say how much extra life coffee might buy.

“I really can’t calculate that,” especially because smoking is a key factor that affects longevity at every age, he said.

Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart or respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, injuries, accidents or infections. No effect was seen on cancer death risk, though.

Other research ties coffee drinking to lower levels of markers for inflammation and insulin resistance.

Researchers also considered that people in poor health might refrain from drinking coffee and whether their abstention could bias the results. But the study excluded people with cancer and heart disease — the most common health problems — to minimize this chance. Also, the strongest benefits of coffee drinking were seen in people who were healthiest when the study began.

About two-thirds of study participants drank regular coffee, and the rest, decaf. The type of coffee made no difference in the results.

Hu had this advice for coffee lovers:

— Watch the sugar and cream. Extra calories and fat could negate any benefits from coffee.

— Drink filtered coffee rather than boiled — filtering removes compounds that raise LDL, the bad cholesterol.

Researchers did not look at tea, soda or other beverages but plan to in future analyses.

Lou and Mariann Maris have already compared them.

Sipping a local brew at a lakefront coffee shop, the suburban Milwaukee couple told of how they missed coffee after briefly giving it up in the 1970s as part of a health kick that included transcendental meditation and eating vegetarian.

Mariann Maris switched to tea after being treated for breast cancer in 2008, but again missed the taste of coffee. It’s one of life’s great pleasures, especially because her husband makes it, she said.

“Nothing is as satisfying to me as a cup of coffee in the morning,” she said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

BOSTON (CBS) – Sometimes when you have a headache, it seems like it lasts forever. Rachel Frishberg literally lives with that type of pain every day.

“My headache is specifically in the back left of my head,” she explained. The pain developed two years ago and always seems to be present.

“I can go a couple of days with it being at a low severity and a couple days of it being at a high severity. And I have know control or sense of what triggers it,” she added.

This is not a migraine. Frishberg suffers from “New Daily Persistent Headache.” It’s a chronic condition which can be difficult to diagnose.

Dr. Bryan Grosberg said, “It’s a headache that starts on one particular day and just continues going.”

Frank Ferrante also suffers from these types of headaches. “It’s actually a dull ache that radiates on both sides of the head.”

Frank’s pain started five years ago as he built a tree house with his son.

Many things, from computer eye strain to red wine, can cause headaches. With so many catalysts, it is easy to understand why this condition can be so hard to diagnose.

“Very often people undergo a lot of unnecessary testing because physicians may not even be aware of the diagnosis,” said Dr. Grosberg.

Ferrante’s headache is being managed with Verapamil, a blood pressure medication.

“I think I am one of the lucky people that something mitigates it. It’s a drain but I am still a happy guy,” said Ferrante.

Rachel hasn’t had the same luck. She’s tried 15 medications and alternative medications, including Botox injections. There’s been no relief yet.

BOSTON (CBS) – Shedding pounds is a reward all on its own. But, what if you also had money to motivate you to stick to your weight loss goals?

With HealthyWage.com, people are now dieting for dollars.

Erika Johnsson and Jason Coy of Waltham lost nearly 80 pounds combined and gained $1,200. The couple teamed up with 3 other family members to compete against more than 100 other groups and took the third place prize.

“I needed to lose weight. I wanted to be healthier and have a better life,” says Erika.

Healthy Wage is a unique competition to jump-start weight loss. Dieters pay to be part of the program. If you don’t hit your weight loss target, you lose your money. If you succeed, you’ll get your own money back and then some.

Jason Coy found out about the program through his job.

“I immediately thought this is perfect. This will get me into gear to lose weight to get myself healthy,” said Coy.

Jason and Erika placed a $60 wager and came up big.

But, you don’t need a team to try Healthy Wage. For $100, anyone can sign up for the challenge.
You’ll make double that back for losing 10 % of your weight in six months.

Sean Geddes, a personal trainer at Wellbridge Athletic Club, thinks it’s a great idea, but worries the money may only be a short-term motivator. Geddes hopes the personal investment will be enough to get people hitting the gym.

“You invest money, you become attached to something, you’re going to keep doing it,” said Geddes.

Using money as a weight loss strategy may be a good bet, especially for men. Of the men competing in the Healthy Wage program, 63% were able to hit their weight loss goals and win the cash prize compared to just 15% of the women.

Jason admits the reward was key to getting him involved.

“I think the money was the biggest part of it,” said Jason.

While the money also motivated Erika, she knows it really kept Jason on target.

Along with hopeful dieters, hospitals and government agencies also ante up some money to the program. They’re betting that people, like Erika and Jason, will make healthier choices when chasing a cash reward.

BOSTON (CBS) – Gluten free products are all over the supermarket today. They’re meant for people allergic to certain grains.

Now many shoppers are trying to get health benefits from these products, even if they’re not medically necessary.

Busy mom Julie Adams was frustrated because she felt tired all the time. “I remember saying to my husband that I am tired of being tired.”

At times, Julie also felt bloated and had some other stomach issues. A friend had gone gluten free so she decided to try it too.

“I just hit Google and went to a few sites to further see what products are gluten free,” she explained.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.

Most people who go gluten free have a serious digestive disorder known as Celiac Disease. They remove gluten from their diets under a doctor’s orders.

Now more people are like Julie, and doing it on their own.

Restaurants are even offering special gluten free menus. Just this week, Domino’s, the largest pizza delivery company, announced plans to offer a gluten free pizza.

Read: Boston’s Best Food Allergy Friendly, Gluten Free Dining

Holistic nutritionist Ricki Heller believes it is OK to go gluten free without a doctor’s diagnosis. “One way to test yourself is to stop eating wheat for four days. You will notice a difference right away if that is your issue,” she said.

Going gluten free without a specific medical condition worries some doctors.

Doctor John Pandolfino added, “When people go to a gluten free diet, they might be getting less fiber and might be getting vitamin deficiencies.”

Since December, Julie has lost 18 pounds and feels better. “I can just get out of bed in the morning and not feel like I have to take a nap.”

BOSTON (CBS) – Time magazine’s latest cover has stirred up controversy before it even hit newsstands. It shows a picture of a California mom breastfeeding her three-year-old boy. It’s part of a story about “attachment parenting,” a child rearing philosophy that advocates breastfeeding toddlers, sleeping with children, and toting them in slings.

“It seems a bit extreme,” says Sara Grabelle, on the subject of extreme parenting.

“I think it’s inappropriate,” adds Pat Glucksman.

But when Beverly mom Hannah Fraley saw Time’s new cover, she had a different reaction. “Good for her. Finally it’s getting out there that breastfeeding is a normal, natural process.” Fraley is a perinatal nurse and lactation consultant who breastfed her own son until he was five-years-old.

Breastfeeding advocates say it can only help. “It’s not a sexualized practice, which I think people are misinterpreting,” says Marsha Walker, of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy. “When a baby is born, their brain is not fully developed, and only human milk has certain components that grow that brain.”

One thing all sides seem to agree on, the edgy magazine cover was a smart marketing move by Time magazine. Like it or not, it has people talking.

LEXINGTON (CBS) – He is a star on the football field, but now Tom Brady can be called a lifesaving hero.

The Patriots quarterback made a plea for kidney donors to help his high school coach Tom Martinez. The result was an even greater gift to many other people.

Ajisa Bethiel is a Lexington mother who says she owes her life to Brady.

Dozens of emails poured in after she posted on MatchingDonors.com, a website to connect organ donors with people who need them. The mother of two, who escaped war torn Bosnia in 1994 desperately needed a new kidney.

“They told me that my kidney was very damaged, very scarred from infection,” says Ajisa.

She had lots of offers to help, but none were right. It wasn’t until a call came in last year that things took a turn.

It was Peter Hughes calling to help and Tom Brady was the reason why.

Brady made a personal plea last year looking for a new kidney for his beloved childhood coach and mentor Tom Martinez. As a result, 600 new donors signed up. Peter was one of them.

When Martinez died before he could get a transplant, Peter decided to help someone else.

Ajisa’s husband Scott says Tom Brady’s plea made an impact that can’t be measured.

“This is the most exciting thing that’s happened, you can’t imagine how hard it’s been,” says Scott. “Obviously Tom Brady’s involvement will save a lot more people.”

Even now, faced with hundreds of pills and surgery in just 12 days, the Bethiels are looking towards the future and looking for a proper way to say thank you to the stranger from Sterling for saving their family.

“I don’t know how I can say enough thank you,” says Ajisa. “I think we need more people like him.”

The two have never met, but they talk and text all the time. They plan to meet for the first time the day of the surgery. Ajisa, who can’t stop thanking Peter and MatchingDonors.com, only waited six months for her kidney. Traditional wait times on the government’s deceased donors list is 7-10 years.

BOSTON (CBS) – Eat less, exercise more. That’s the conventional wisdom when it comes to losing weight and one Meredith McSorley takes to heart. The 26-year-old is looking to lose another 10 pounds before summer arrives. And her trainer has a simple motto: working out with a good diet. But what if that’s still not enough?

Renowned biochemist, Dr. Barbara Corkey of the Boston University School of Medicine, is trying to get to the bottom of what makes people put on weight. “Indeed people are eating more, that has changed and perhaps exercising less, that has changed. But there are all these 4,000 or more other things that no one is looking at,” says Dr. Corkey. Those 4,000 other things are food additives. Additives to make food last longer, taste better, or look more appealing.

The doctor’s theory: it’s not just eating more food that makes us fat but what’s in our food. “I think we can question what we are eating.” Dr. Corkey has already zeroed in on two additives: monoglycerides, found in all types of foods like cream, peanut butter, and baked goods; And artificial sweeteners, like saccharin. The question Dr. Corkey wants to answer: are these additives affecting our metabolism, slowing it down, and eventually contributing to obesity and diabetes.

Her research is only beginning and she has her critics, but Dr. Corkey is convinced that if she can pinpoint a problem with any of these additives the industry will act. “If we, as scientists, identify things that are causing obesity I think that our food industry will get rid of them,” she says. Maybe getting us one a step closer to a solution to the obesity epidemic. “Cure diabetes and obesity it’s the only goal I’ve ever had,” and one Dr. Corkey thinks is within reach.

She had Parkinson’s disease.

“I was diagnosed in 2006, late 2006 into 2007,” she told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

All of sudden, Jillian’s world was turned upside down.

“I couldn’t make pancakes. I couldn’t stand up. I was having a hard time thinking, these are the dreams I have, I should be able to make dinners for my family, mow the lawn, do different things around the house that I used to be able to do that I can’t do so well as much any more, like gardening. I used to love being able to garden. But to grab things with my hands, the fine motor movements, it’s not easy for me to do those things any more,” Courcy said.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens reports

But then, last month, at Rhode Island Hospital, she underwent surgery. It’s a relatively new procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation, also known as DBS.

“It has probes that go into it, like little conductors on it, that go into the back of the brain. They place these two little probes into your brain,” she said.

The probes in the brain receive an electric stimulus from a device implanted in her neck, a device which Jillian controls with a small remote.

She was just programmed last week.

“I got turned on and programmed on May 4th. It took about three hours.”

She noticed a difference immediately.

The shaking stopped.   She’s able to speak coherently and she’s able to keep going.

So how has it changed her outlook?

“It’s made me feel like I’ve got my old life back, that I can do things that I haven’t been able to do over the past few years because of the progression getting worse.  I’m very hopeful they will find a cure in my lifetime.”

BOSTON (CBS) – A lot has been written lately about the health benefits of chocolate.

It’s important to know, however, that not every bar is created equal when it comes to health benefits.

Chocolate is often marketed now as a health food because of its antioxidants, iron, and magnesium. The most benefits come from pure cocoa.

Nutritionist Sally Eisenberg explained, “Raw chocolate really has the most flavenols of any other food. They sweep away junk and toxins in our bodies.”

Dark chocolate typically contains the most flavenols. They help relax vessels and improve blood flow.

There is growing evidence that flavenols can fight cancer, improve brain function, and even improve skin tones.

“It’s one of the best foods,” said Eisenberg.

There are many options for dark chocolate, but the problem is many of us are accustomed to really sweet chocolate.

Most of those products are loaded with sugar and fat.

“I like to say the more bitter, the better for our bodies,” said Eisenberg.

It’s a good idea to check the nutrition labels on all these products. They can still be high in calories even if they have other health benefits.

Another consideration is cost.

Many of these items are more expensive than your typical Snickers bar.

BOSTON (CBS) – When you suspect your child might have autism, getting answers as fast as possible can be crucial.

But now, a local researcher may have found a way to unlock the mysteries of the puzzling disorder in just minutes.

Harvard Medical School Professor Dennis Wall created a test that just takes 7 questions and a quick home video.

“Being able to detect something as early as possible and intervene with therapy as early as possible is something that I’m very passionate about,” says Professor Wall.

His passion comes from his sister-in-law, who has autism, and he’s seen first-hand the impact the disorder can have on a family.

Getting kids needed therapy as early as possible is the goal at the Wall Lab.

Right now, the average diagnosis age for autism is around 5 years old.

“Getting diagnosed at 5 means that you’ve passed through critical developmental windows where early behavioral therapy would have had an impact,” explains Wall.

The traditional autism diagnosis takes hours. Families have to go to a doctor’s office, fill out lengthy forms, and be evaluated throughout the day.

Wall’s approach is completely on-line with no waiting.

To check out the survey, click here.
To submit a video, click here.

At the Wall Lab, the key is access. Anyone can send in the home videos and answer a survey online. Professor Wall and his team of trained researchers score the videos while they watch.

A computer program then crunches the numbers to get an instant diagnosis.

“We can do this for a much greater percentage of the population and do so repeatedly,” said Prof. Wall.

Wall says kids are normally more relaxed at home than in the doctor’s office.

“Because he or she is operating within and behaving within their home environment, with their siblings and so on, we are able to see the signs much more easily and much more rapidly,” said Wall.

Right now the Wall Lab is still testing this program. And so far, it’s been right nearly every time.

Monson dad Bill Skillman would have jumped at the chance to have had access to a program like this when his daughter was young.

Katie is now 25 years old and Skillman remembers meeting with specialists for hours when she was little.

“It was like sculpting the fog. You struggle through and you do the best you can,” said Skillman.

Katie never received an official diagnosis as a child, but the family believes it is autism. Skillman says Wall’s approach “provides an avenue to just get there early and start to make a difference in your kid’s life.”

BOSTON (CBS) – Turning 40 is one of those milestone birthdays. It’s also when many of us start to notice the first signs of aging, particularly when it comes to our vision.

Robin Kahn was a few years into her 40s when she first noticed a change in her eyesight.

“I’ve always had perfect vision and I noticed about a year ago that I was having difficulty reading smaller print,” she said.

Robin has a condition known as presbyopia and ophthalmologist Dr. Barry Lee says nearly everyone develops it to some degree.

“At the age of 40, that’s probably the main thing we see is a patient complaining of decreased near vision,” he said.

That is one of the reason ophthalmologists recommend a base level eye exam when you turn 40.

“There are a lot of things we can do in that eye exam to pick up early predictors of eye disease later in life,” Dr. Lee said.

He’s talking about diseases like glaucoma, macular degeneration and conditions involving the cornea. An eye exam can also pick up early signs of cataracts.

Patients should also be aware of their risk of eye problems. Smoking and diabetes raise your risk of certain eye conditions.

There are treatments and surgeries that can help many of these conditions, but there are also steps you can take on your own to protect your vision.

Research has shown that certain nutrients like the anti-oxidant, lutein can be beneficial. Good sources of lutein include: spinach, kale, corn, peas and broccoli.

Omega-3 fatty acids can also help aging eyes. They are found in fish oils like salmon, sardines and trout. Omega-3’s are also found in pumpkin seeds, soybean oil and walnuts.

The anti-oxidant resveratrol, found in red wine, has also been shown to be beneficial in some studies.

Users in the United States and the U.K. can enroll as organ donors via links to official registries on the world’s biggest social networking site, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The links should make it easier for people who want to donate their organs to sign up.

Facebook users who are already organ donors can add that information to their profile page, now known as their timeline.

Zuckerberg said his friendship with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea, as did talks with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan, a medical student.

More than 112,000 Americans are waiting for organs and 18 people die every day from the lack of available organs, according to Donate Life America, a nonprofit that is teaming with Facebook.

Here’s how to sign up on Facebook:

• Go to Timeline, click on “Life Event.”
• Select “Health and Wellness.”
• Choose “Organ Donor.”
• Click on the “Officially Register” link to register in your state.

Facebook Inc., based in Menlo Park, Calif., is busy readying an initial public stock offering said to be pegged at $5 billion.

Facebook’s IPO could place the company’s value at $100 billion.

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

(Photo Credit: Simon & Schuster)

Mayim Bialik wrote ‘Beyond the Sling’ to offer her real-life advice as a real mom who has a Ph.D in neuroscience. She believes in Attachment Parenting, which emphasizes strong emotional bonds between children and parents, because it encourages her and her husband to follow their intuition. This intuitive style of parenting extends beyond the baby stage. It even includes how they treat babies and kids (and themselves!) for medical ailments. Added bonus: she played Blossom Russo on the hit show ‘Blossom.’

Between our two boys, ages six and and three-and-a-half, we have dealt with just about every ailment, sickness and flu out there. However, neither of our sons has ever been on antibiotics, nor do we give them Tylenol, Motrin, antihistamines or cough syrup.

I’ve learned from talking to other moms that almost everything you have right now in your home and your heart is enough to deal with most everything. I’m not arguing to be negligent. But too often, I see children being medicated when an ice pack, rest, temporary dietary modifications and good old-fashioned TLC would do the trick!

(Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

General Guidelines

Never second-guess the feeling that something isn’t right.

Don’t hover, but don’t ignore your intuition either.

If you have a feeling that something is not right, check on the baby.

Present parents often have an intuitive sense of their baby’s status that translates to knowing their well-being even from afar. It’s not hocus-pocus, it’s for real!

Watch how you speak.

Phrases like, “You’re OK,” “Stop crying,” “Big boys/girls don’t cry,” and “There’s nothing to cry about” send a message that getting hurt and expressing pain makes people uncomfortable.

(Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

Top Sicknesses

Here’s how we handle the top four sicknesses most households see:

Earache

About 70 percent of earaches are NOT bacterial and do not need antibiotics. What they need is rest and treatment for discomfort such as garlic drops or breast milk (!) in the ears, or hydrogen peroxide dosed appropriately.

Fever

Fever can be bacterial but is most often viral. Fever is there to kill the virus, so give tepid baths and dress the child in minimal clothing to keep them from overheating.

Plugged tear duct/eye inflammation (not diagnosed pink eye)

Gentle and frequent massage of a baby’s tear duct (towards the bridge of the nose) and breast milk dropped into the eye every time you nurse should clear this up!

Flu

For respiratory flu, a few drops of eucalyptus oil in the bottom of a shower with hot water running can steam up a bathroom for relief from congestion; a cut-up onion wrapped in a cloth handkerchief and placed near a pillow stimulates a runny nose to get the virus out. Rest and tons of fluids are crucial. For stomach flu, wait out the vomiting and diarrhea but don’t stop it up with medicines. It needs to get out! Encourage bananas, rice, applesauce and toast. Know the signs of true dehydration (dry lips, weakness, unresponsiveness) and stay close to your child to monitor them.

Children hurt for a lot of different reasons, and a parent’s desire for a child to be free of pain is universal. I implore you to take very seriously the charge given to you. Protect this tiny, dependent person not only with what Western medicine can offer you, but also with the intuition that is yours simply because you are a caring and loving parent.

Visit the Mother’s Day Section at CBS Local.

BOSTON (CBS) – Graphic anti-smoking ads have been airing for a little over a month now, and we’ve discovered they are working. The ads are powerful and often disturbing, showing real people with serious, smoking related illnesses. They may be difficult to watch, but new numbers show, they’re encouraging smokers to get help.

One of the ads shows a man who breathes through a hole in his neck saying, “When you have a hole in your neck, don’t face the shower head.” Since the spots started airing about five weeks ago, the Mass. Quitline has been ringing off the hook. The controversial spots are hitting some smokers close to home. “It encourages smokers to make one more quit attempt,” says Dr. Lois Keithly, the Director of the Mass. Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program. She says in Massachusetts the number of calls from smokers looking for help quitting is up 26% since the advertising campaign began.

Counselors are helping smokers become non-smokers. “They’re also capable of helping each smoker come up with their own quit plan, setting a quit date and understanding some of the things they might do to prepare themselves for this quit attempt. They also know the local resources,” says Keithly.

Nationally the results are even better. Calls to the quitline run by the Centers for Disease Control have more than doubled, and activity on the agency’s stop smoking website has tripled. Some smokers are heeding the call. “When I see the ads it makes me want to quit. So maybe they work a little,” one woman told us. “The impact of the ad kind of scares the heck out of you, so it’s not something you’d want to continue to do,” says another smoker.

Callers to the state Quitline not only receive help and advice on the spot, counselors will also follow up in the days ahead.

Here’s another interesting statistic. No more than three months after you stop smoking, your heart attack risk begins to drop and your lung function starts to improve.

Mass. Quitline: 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669)

BOSTON (CBS) – A health boost or bust? More than half of all Americans buy some form of vitamins or supplements making it a $27 billion industry. But are vitamins worth the money? Some, but not all, vitamins do pack a needed health punch. Folic Acid is key for women who are pregnant or want to get pregnant. Omega 3′s are popular for their potential fighting cardio vascular disease.

To keep bones strong: “Women, because of the increased risk of osteoporosis and bone health problems, should be particularly vigilant about getting adequate vitamin D and calcium,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Manson has been studying the effects of vitamins for years. She cautions that mega-doses of vitamins could be an unhealthy option. “I think it’s very important for the public to understand that more is not necessarily better.” For example: too much iron has been linked to cardiovascular disease. “Also, men may want to avoid higher doses of vitamin E because it was recently linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer,” says Dr. Manson.

And that expected health boost from a multi-vitamin might be more fiction than fact.

“It’s really not of much value and may be a waste of money,” explains Dr. Manson. The experts agree, if you have a balanced diet you likely don’t need a multi-vitamin. In some cases it might even be bad for your health. A recent study found an increased risk of death in older women taking too many mutli-vitamins or other supplements.

So, in the end there’s still no substitute for eating right. And be sure to talk to your doctor about what’s right or wrong for you.

Dr. JoAnn Manson is now investigating the health benefits of vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids. If you’d like to participate log onto www.vitalstudy.org.

The screenings are available at three different locations. Space is limited. For information on how to reserve a spot, click here. For information on other screening sites, click here.

Every year, doctors in the United States diagnose 50,000 people with cancer in the head or neck region, including the lips, mouth, throat and sinuses.

Cancer of the head and neck is serious and can be life-threatening. As with any cancer, the earlier it is detected and targeted the greater are the chances of success in treatment. If you have experienced any of the following symptoms, seek the opinion of a qualified medical professional:

• Hoarseness or change in voice
• Loss of sight, taste, smell or touch
• Difficulty swallowing
• Consistent, unexplained pain in head or neck
• Coughing up blood
• Ulcerations in the throat, mouth, tongue, or skin
• Unexplained lumps or bumps

Other resources for info.

BOSTON (CBS) – We usually hear nothing but bad news about how fat Americans are, but today, there’s actually good news about childhood obesity. That news comes as a program to encourage Bostonians to lose 1,000,000 pounds began.

Mayor Tom Menino kicked off “Boston Moves For Health” Monday. He decided to start a diet and fitness program for the city after meeting an overweight kid during Thanksgiving. “Today is a call to action,” says Menino. “We’re going to connect people with resources to help them achieve a healthy weight and make Boston 1,000,000 pounds lighter,” he says.

The cornerstone is a new web site, BostonMovesForHealth.org, where you can keep a record of what you’re eating as well as your physical activity, find support and track your progress. And the mayor isn’t stopping at the 1-million pound challenge. “To really get Boston moving I want to see us walk 10-million miles together this year, or run or bike or swim or skip, the choice is yours,” he says.

Even the Red Sox are getting on board. “We are going to schedule a Boston Moves day at Fenway Park this summer to focus our fans and the entire region on this initiative,” says Larry Lucchino, the president of the Red Sox.

And the really good news, a new report finds a drop in childhood obesity. The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute studied 37,000 Massachusetts pre-schoolers and found that for girls the obesity rate fell from 9% to a bit over 6% from 2004 to 2008. For boys, it fell from nearly 11% to just under 9%.

“I think it’s kind of an encouraging message for the people,” says Dr. Xiaozhong Wen who works with Harvard Pilgrim’s obesity reduction program and is the lead author of the new study. He says it’s important to focus on children. “For the obesity problem it’s always better or easier to prevent it than to treat it,” says Dr. Wen.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens reports

The researchers aren’t exactly sure why the obesity rates went down, but they theorize that it may have something to do with an increase in breastfeeding and a decrease in women smoking during pregnancy. Both those factors have been shown to impact a child’s weight. Even though this single study shows progress, it also highlights one troubling factor, that obesity rates didn’t decline as much for poor children.

BOSTON (CBS) – Yoga has never been more popular, and it’s not just women who are getting the benefits. The concept of the male workout is evolving beyond muscle and brawn.

More men are putting down the weights and the focus on bulking up. They’re learning the positives of stretching and deep breathing.

But this isn’t called yoga. It’s called “broga.”

“It’s not taboo anymore. They’re not shy anymore,” said Yoga instructor Steve Tripp.

At yoga studios across the country, there has been a spike in male attendance. There’s even a broga website.

“The benefits greatly outweigh the embarrassment of being the only man in the room,” said Tripp.

David Smithstein was an army officer and he says the workout is above and beyond his formal training.

Nicholas Tedeschi, a former US Marine, agrees.

“I go to the gym too, but you don’t get that same effect as you do when you do something like this,” said Tedeschi.

Next Saturday’s U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration event will be the fourth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day in the past two years.

The program has disposed of nearly 500 tons of medication at more than 5,300 sites operated by over 4,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.

More Americans abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens and heroin combined, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Massachusetts residents can find a nearby collection site by clicking here or here.

The DEA established the program to prevent old medicine from falling into unauthorized hands and to keep it from being thrown away and polluting water supplies.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

BOSTON (CBS) – Could the words “I’m sorry” reduce malpractice suits at Massachusetts hospitals?

Right now, six hospitals in the state are participating in an experimental plan.

Doctors and nurses would tell patients about mistakes and their plans to investigate, and if the hospital is at fault there would be an apology and an offer of financial compensation.

Among the hospitals involved are Mass. General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Baystate Medical Center.

Right now, doctors and nurses live in fear of malpractice suits, and have every incentive to hide mistakes and refuse to discuss what went wrong, let alone apologize to victims.

The toll includes costly insurance premiums, expensive legal proceedings, and frustration all around.

But, for this new approach to break the logjam, it’ll have to clear some political obstacles first.

Dr. Alan Woodward and his colleagues at the Mass. Medical Society say the disclosure, apology and offer process has worked in Michigan and can work here in Massachusetts too, transforming a medical culture for the benefit of doctors, patients and even lawyers, too.

“There’s no attempt to deprive anybody of their ability to litigate down the line, but let’s provide an alternative that’s better and more expeditious,” said Dr. Woodward.

Part of the problem is doctors don’t want to do or say anything that could be used against them in a lawsuit. There have been efforts to change the law to make medical apologies inadmissible, like a bill filed last year by Gov. Patrick, but this and other efforts all wound up dying on Beacon Hill.

“I would be very surprised if Beacon Hill ever passed a law that would allow for this to happen,” said David Frank an attorney from the newspaper Mass. Lawyers Weekly.

Frank predicts that attorneys for injured patients will be very reluctant to give up a crucial piece of legal leverage.

“If you have statements where a doctor admits wrongdoing, if you talk to lawyer’s on either side of a case, plaintiff’s or defense side, that’s the most damaging, smoking-gun-type evidence you can have in a case,” said Frank.

One key lawmaker wants to see the reform happen, but isn’t so sure it’s possible.

“We’d like them to say they’re sorry and fix the problem,” said State Sen. Richard Moore.

“I think this is just a pipe dream,” said Frank.

As I mentioned before, the program is working in Michigan, where an 11-year-old experiment has cut premiums and case resolution times, and reduced the number of court cases by more than 90 percent.

We’ll soon find out if living in Massachusetts means never having to say it’s time for change.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

BOSTON (CBS) – Prescription medications are meant to make us feel better, but many have a side effect that isn’t that well known.

They can cause weight gain.

Belinda Marsh works out faithfully, but she still gained 30 pounds over a short period of time. Her weight started to climb when she was prescribed insulin for Type II diabetes.

It turns out many common drugs can cause weight gain, including mood stabilizers, anti-inflammatories, and some high blood pressure medications.

Pharmacist Karen Falk says this consequence often takes patients by surprise.

“I think some people don’t ask. Some people assume everything is going to be alright with medication.”

The reasons why some drugs might cause weight gain aren’t always clear.

Some increase appetite or food cravings. Others might slow the body’s metabolism.

A compounding problem is that more exercise doesn’t always help with this type of weight gain.

Dr. Louis Amore added, “It tends to be demoralizing when people try and they keep bouncing back and they can’t understand why they’re not making progress.”

The first thing to do if the pounds creep up is ask if you can be switched to another drug, advised Dr. Arrone.

If that’s not an option today, it might be in the future.

Dr. Arrone said many alternatives to weight-gaining drugs are in the pipeline.

“The fastest growing area of medication development is the development of drugs in a given area that don’t cause weight gain, and that’s very very good news.”

The death rate for youths ages 19 and younger dropped about 30 percent from 2000 to 2009. The number of deaths dropped too, from about 12,400 to about 9,100.

“We’ve made progress, and because we’ve made progress our children are safer than ever before,” said Ileana Arias of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that released the report.

But accidental injuries remain the leading cause of death for youths ages 1 to 19. On average, one child dies every hour from fires, falls and other accidents, she added.

A 41 percent drop in traffic fatalities had a huge impact on the numbers — crashes annually account for half or more of kids’ deaths from accidents. The CDC didn’t analyze exactly what caused that decline, but officials believe it was helped by measures like graduated driver’s licenses and use of child safety and booster seats.

Childhood deaths from drownings, fires and falls also plummeted.

Meanwhile, the CDC saw an alarming jump in deaths from prescription drug overdoses, a trend seen in adults but which also reaches down into the ranks of older teenagers.

Accidental poisonings for all kids and teens rose by 80 percent, to 824 in 2009, according to the new report. About half of the most recent poisoning deaths were adolescents ages 15 to 19 who overdosed on prescription drugs.

For some kids, prescription medications — some of them snagged from parents’ medicine cabinets — appear to be replacing marijuana as gateway drugs, said Arias, the CDC’s principal deputy director.

The toll from suffocations also rose, to 1,160 deaths in 2009. Roughly 1,000 of those were infants ages 1 and younger, a group for which the suffocation rate climbed 54 percent.

CDC officials repeated their call for parents to put babies to bed on their backs, remove loose bedding materials and take other steps to make cribs and sleeping places safer.

The report also looked at trends in individual states. The authors saw declines in almost every state, with the biggest drops in Delaware, Iowa, Oregon and Virginia.

Mississippi continued to have the worst numbers, with an accidental death rate in 2009 of 25 per 100,000 people ages 19 and younger. Massachusetts had the lowest rate at 4 per 100,000.

The CDC report was based on death certificate information for youths ages 19 and younger for the years 2000 through 2009.

___

Online:
CDC child safety page

CDC report

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The Food and Drug Administration said 116 illnesses have been reported, including 12 people who have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Moon Marine USA Corp. of Cupertino, Calif., also known as MMI, is voluntarily recalling 58,828 pounds of frozen raw yellowfin tuna. It was labeled as Nakaochi Scrape AA or AAA when it was sold to grocery stores and restaurants and is scraped off the fish bones and looks like a ground product.

The product is not available for sale to individual consumers but may have been used to make sushi, sashimi, ceviche and similar dishes available in restaurants and grocery stores. Many of the people who became ill reported eating raw tuna in sushi as “spicy tuna,” the FDA said.

Reports of the foodborne illness caused by salmonella bareilly have mainly come from the Eastern Seaboard and South, though cases have been reported as far west as Missouri and Texas.

As of Friday, illness had been reported these states and the District of Columbia: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (5), District of Columbia (2), Florida (1), As Georgia (5), Illinois (10), Louisiana (2), Maryland (11), Massachusetts (8), Mississippi (1), Missouri (2), New Jersey (7), New York (24), North Carolina (2), Pennsylvania (5), Rhode Island (5), South Carolina (3), Texas (3), Virginia (5), and Wisconsin (12).

The memo notes there is likely a 30-day lag time between when people become sick and when cases are reported to health officials.

The raw yellowfin tuna product may have passed through several distributors before reaching the restaurant and grocery market and may not be clearly labeled.

Previous outbreaks of salmonella bareilly have been linked to bean sprouts, which are grown in warm, damp conditions.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight to 72 hours of eating the contaminated food. The illness can be severe or even life-threatening for infants, older people, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.

The FDA recommended that people be cautious about eating raw seafood, inquire about the source and “when in doubt, don’t eat it.”

___

Online: FDA news release

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

BOSTON (CBS) – With temperatures for the 2012 Boston Marathon expected to climb near 90 degrees, race organizers are warning runners to show up prepared for what could turn out to be record heat.

The summer-like day may be great for spectators, but there is a real concern about runners who could face dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which can be deadly.

Read: How To Recognize & Avoid Heat Stroke

The Boston Athletic Association hoped to pass along some tips to runners.

“This isn’t the day to set a personal record. Back off and run a reasonable pace,” Race director Dave McGillivray said.

Check: Current Conditions | Weather Map Center | Interactive Radar

Race organizers recommend runners frequently hydrate themselves in order to help keep body temperature down while being careful not to overhydrate. Wear lightweight, light-colored clothes. Avoid drinking caffeine, alcohol or tea, as this may lead to dehydration.

Some runners are planning to carry backpack pouches that can hold up to a few liters of water, while others say they’re going to go easier than they would have under cooler conditions.

Read: Boston Marathon Guide

Even three-time champ Joan Benoit Samuelson is taking a cautious approach.

“You just have to scale back a bit. I think that people need to readjust their goal times,” she said.

In its ruling in favor of Sophie Currier, the Supreme Judicial Court said it recognizes that “there remain barriers that prevent new mothers from being able to breastfeed or express breast milk.”

“We take this opportunity to extend protection to lactating mothers in the context of lengthy testing required for medical licensure,” Chief Justice Roderick Ireland wrote for the court in the unanimous ruling.

Currier sued the National Board of Medical Examiners in 2007 after the board said she could have only the standard 45 minutes in breaks during the nine-hour exam. The board said then that it must be consistent in the break time given to everyone who took the exam.

According to a summary in the court ruling, the board told Currier she was entitled to changes in the testing schedule under the American with Disabilities Act because she had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The board granted Currier’s request to be given an additional testing day to complete the exam and a separate testing room in which to take the exam.

Currier also requested additional break time to breastfeed her then 4- to 5-month-old daughter, arguing she needed more time beyond the total 45 minutes to express breast milk properly. The NBME denied that request, saying lactation was not covered under the disabilities act.

The state Appeals Court granted an injunction requiring the NBME to give Currier an additional 60 minutes of break time per test day and give her a private room with a power outlet at the testing center so she could express breast milk.

Currier took the test in October 2007 with an additional one hour of break time per test day as she had sought and had been granted. She applied to take the test again a year later and passed. For the second test, she did not request additional time or accommodations to express breast milk.

NBME took the Appeals Court decision to the high court. And Currier decided to continue with her challenge even though it was no longer an issue for her because she felt it raised important issues for other women, said her attorney, Marisa Pizzi.

The Supreme Judicial Court said that in refusing to provide additional break time, the board did not violate Currier’s civil rights. But the court said Currier had shown that special accommodations should be given to breast-feeding mothers in future medical licensing exams.

“We emphasize that our conclusion is based on a set of unique facts, including the fact that a lactating mother was required (or faced adverse professional consequences) to be present at the place of public accommodation for a lengthy period of time (nine consecutive hours), and takes into account the fact that the NBME did not make any showing that it could not reasonably accommodate Currier’s need without incurring undue hardship,” the court said in its ruling.

Currier’s lawyer said that under the ruling, breast-feeding women in Massachusetts should be given adequate break time during medical exams.

“I’m pleased that the court agreed with our contention that in this case the NBME’s refusal to accommodate Sophie and provide her with the additional break time she needed … was a violation of her (public accommodation) rights,” Pizzi said.

Joseph Savage Jr., an attorney for the NBME, declined to comment. “We’ve not had the opportunity to fully review the full opinion,” he said. Savage said that since the court sent the case back to the lower court it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

According to the study, obese people are more likely to lose weight through basic diet and exercise than other methods.

“We found that people who said they were eating less fat, exercising more, taking prescription weight loss medicine and joining weight loss programs were successful at losing weight,” said lead author Jacinda M. Nicklaus, a clinical research fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Diane Stern spoke with Nicklaus:

Researchers analyzed self-reported data taken from 4,000 obese people over the age of 20, of which 2,523 attempted to lose weight. More than 40 percent of them reported that they lost at least 5% of their weight.

The numbers also showed that those using more popular weight-loss diets, liquid diets and non-prescription weight-loss pills were not as successful at losing weight.

“Those people who said they were doing a popular diet, or they used a popular diet to lose weight, were not associated with successful weight loss,” said Nicklaus.

The study did not look at an obese person’s ability to keep the weight off.

BOSTON (CBS) – Should Massachusetts residents suffering from illnesses be allowed to use medical marijuana to ease their pain?

It is a question that could be decided by voters this fall. Both sides of this highly charged issued will be on Beacon Hill Tuesday to argue their case.

In sixteen states, it is legal for doctors to prescribe medical marijuana for patients suffering from all kinds of ailments. And soon, that option may be available in Massachusetts.

Whitney Taylor of the American Civil Liberties Union supports the move to legalize medical marijuana.

“It has been determined that is very helpful for certain patients and certain illnesses and we think doctors and patients should have all the options out there,” said Taylor.

Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez says the Public Health Committee is considering two bills that give doctors the authority to dispense pot. But, Tuesday’s public hearing is required before residents can vote on the issue in the fall.

“The petition initiative (possible ballot question) before us for tomorrow is a lot broader and potentially more extensive than the bills which we have in committee right now,” said Rep. Sanchez.

However, Wayne Sampson, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association says he has real concerns about any medical marijuana law.

Sampson says regardless of what lawmakers or voters do, it is still against federal law to possess marijuana.

In California, where medical marijuana is legal, federal agents have raided several store fronts that grow and sell the drug.

“Yes we have concerns, it is a controlled substance that we would essentially have no control over,” said Rep. Sanchez.

Nonetheless, the ACLU says polls indicate voters will support medical marijuana by a wide margin.

BOSTON (CBS) – In the past few years, dentists have started to see a significant increase in serious dental problems in very young children.

Dr. Maria Cervantes says it’s not uncommon to see kids, even preschoolers, with a mouthful of cavities.

She pointed to an x-ray of one patient who had 11 cavities; one of which will require a root canal.

“It’s very disturbing,” she said. “Part of our mission is to help these kids to be healthy.”

It’s a problem dentists are seeing all over the country in all income levels.

“It’s completely preventable,” Dr. Cervantes said.

Many dentists believe parents are not paying close enough attention to their kids’ dental health.

Parents are advised to carefully supervise tooth brushing twice daily for at least two minutes at a time.

Diets full of sugar are also a concern. Children should steer clear of sticky foods like candy or raisins which can stick to teeth.

Children should also avoid sugary drinks like soda and juice, particularly at bedtime.

Water can also be part of the problem. Many municipal water supplies are treated with fluoride. If you have well water, or choose bottled water for your kids, you should talk to your dentist about how to replace that protection.

Keep in mind that children should see a dentist by age one, even if they only have a few teeth. It will help to assess their cavity risk.

“If you are a parent, you want to do the best for your kids,” Dr. Cervantes said. “The best thing for them is to prevent the disease rather than try to fix it.”

Officials say documents intended for the shredder were somehow removed from the building, and the pers were found blowing around in a nearby field.

The hospital says no personal medical information was compromised, but the papers contained  patients’ names, addresses and credit card numbers.

Patients have been notified.

The investigation has not conclusively identified a food source, but the CDC reported on Friday that Public health officials have been able to determine that many of the people who fell ill reported consuming sushi, sashimi, or similar foods in a variety of locations in the week before becoming ill.

If a specific food source is identified for this outbreak, public health officials will alert the public and take further steps to prevent additional illnesses.

The CDC and FDA are working together on the investigation and will provide updates as soon as they are available.

Of the 100 people who have reportedly become sick with the particular strain of Salmonella, 10 have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

From The CDC website:

The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (5), District of Columbia (2), Georgia (4), Illinois (9), Louisiana (2), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (4), Mississippi (1), Missouri (1), New Jersey (7), New York (23), North Carolina (2), Pennsylvania (3), Rhode Island (4), South Carolina (3), Texas (3), Virginia (5), and Wisconsin (9).

BOSTON (CBS) – Gas, tolls, and train tickets are not the only costs of our commute. All those miles and minutes could be affecting our health.

Whether it is in the car or on the train, many commuters spend an hour or more a day getting to and from work. Health psychologist Dr. Greg Petersen says all that time spent commuting can lead to mental health issues down the road. He says, “commutes tend to make people focus on things that have them feeling kind of helpless and out of control.” And that leads to stress.

Long-term stress can lead to heart disease, diabetes, headaches, and digestive problems. “Emotionally we’re going to be depleted and therefore more vulnerable to increased irritability depression anxiety as well,” says Dr. Petersen.

Another big issue with commuting: pollution. Whether it’s those big trucks on the road or all those the exhaust pipes.

“Those exposures were also associated with a faster rate of decline,” says Dr. Jennifer Weuve. Dr. Weuve studied 19,000 older women and found a link between long term exposure to air pollutants and faster cognitive decline. Other studies have found an increased risk of Alzheimer’s and stroke.

Most of us can’t change our commute, but we can change some habits to keep stress levels down. Exercise will help to counter all that sitting in the car or on the train. Keep healthy snacks handy. Hunger can lead to even more frustration. Music can boost your mood so pack your iPod. And then there’s carpooling. This can cut down on costs and you’ll have someone to talk to for that long ride home.

BOSTON (CBS) – Karen Ferriera loves to stay fit, but not long ago, a bad knee made exercise nearly impossible. “I was wearing a brace all day, living on pain killers and I could barely walk my dogs around the block.”

Her doctors prescribed physical therapy and cortisone shots, but ultimately, she was told she needed a new knee. “I thought he was pretty much crazy. I was only 46 at the time. It just didn’t seem possible,” she said.

Recent studies show the number of knee replacements has doubled in the last decade and more women than men are having the surgery. Right now, more than 4.5 million Americans live with one knee replacement and many of those people are relatively young.

“Historically, knee replacements were meant primarily for older populations,” explained orthopedist Dr. Maury Harwood. “What we’ve seen with this rise in baby boomers is a lot of people have worked hard and played hard and now they need to pay hard,” he said.

According to Dr. Harwood, there are a number of factors behind this trend including the fact that baby boomers are much more active than previous generations. Many baby boomers also have the “need it now” mindset. If they are uncomfortable, they don’t want to wait.

Medical advancements in joint replacement have also made the surgery easier. “The main advancement in knee replacement technology is we’re moving toward custom implants,” he said. “Now what we’re doing is we’re using MRI’s and CT scans and we’re actually building three dimensional models of peoples’ knees and making implants that fit them specifically,” he added.

These custom implants also make it easier for the patients to get back to their normal activities after the surgery. “I’m back to walking five, six miles. I can ride my bike. I can do all the activities I love,” Karen said.

Artificial joints do have limitations. “There are studies that show that if you are very, very active and do a lot of pounding on these replacements, you’ll loosen them and the replacement will fail earlier,” Harwood said.  For some patients that will mean a second surgery down the road.

Karen said she has just one regret. “I should never have waited as long as I did,” she said.

BOSTON (CBS) - Partners HealthCare, one of 10 hospital systems that has joined a nationwide health care consortium designed to reduce health care’s environmental impact, says it will save $15 million per year as part of an energy overhaul.

Partners is the parent of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The Healthier Hospitals Initiative, launched by California’s Kaiser Permanente, includes 500 hospitals nationwide who will take steps to conserve energy, reduce use of toxic chemicals, and reduce waste, including hazardous waste.

“If hospitals’ fundamental commitment is to health then we have a unique obligation to be leaders in positive environmental change,” John Messervy, director of capital facility planning at Partners, told the Boston Business Journal.

Messervy said the health care sector is responsible for 16 percent of energy use in the country, and Partners spends $100 million per year, including $60 million at the buildings it owns and $40 million at its leased buildings. The goals is to reduce energy use by 25 percent at the buildings owned by Partners, by 2014.

While the hospitals have made a commitment to the environment, it’s clear that cost pressures have played a part in the coalition’s focus on energy conservation.

“We have six different goals and it’s clear that is one reason why all the systems have chosen to take on this one,” Messervy said. “It’s low-hanging fruit.”

Messervy said the Partners program involves investments in newer, more efficient equipment, as well as changing energy policies at the hospitals.

For instance, Partners decided to amend its practice of replacing the air 25 times per hour in operating rooms, an important strategy in reducing infection. The hospitals will now stop replacing the air in operating rooms when they are not in use.

Partners also plans to start producing its own electricity and hot water. The system’s first co-generation plant will be built at the new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown.

The national coalition also includes Nashville, Tenn-based Vanguard Health Systems, the parent of MetroWest Medical Center ,with hospitals in Natick and Waltham, and Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester.

Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal can be seen weekdays at 6 a.m. on WBZ-TV.

You can follow Lisa on Twitter at @lvanderpool.

If the answer is no, then maybe you should.

Doctors in nine different medical societies have each developed a list of five things physicians and patients should question in their specialty.

The goal is to improve care, reduce waste and eliminate unnecessary procedures by encouraging people to talk to their doctors.

For example, the American Academy of Family Physicians suggests imaging for lower back pain isn’t necessary for the first six weeks, unless there are red flags.

They also say women younger than 21 don’t need pap smears and doctors don’t need to order annual electrocardiograms (EKGs) or other cardiac screening for low risk patients without symptoms.

You can read the complete lists from each of the nine medical societies by clicking on any of the links here:

1. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
2. American Academy of Family Physicians
3. American College of Cardiology
4. American College of Physicians
5. American College of Radiology
6. American Gastroenterological Association
7. American Society of Clinical Oncology
8. American Society of Nephrology
9. American Society of Nuclear Cardiology

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Diane Stern spoke with Dr. Mette Kalager:

The report was based on a study of women in Norway, where the researchers estimated that between 15% and 25% of breast cancer cases are overdiagnosed.

“We have to look at both the harms and the benefits of mammography screening to get anything out of this,” said Dr. Kalager from the New Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

What is the harm of overdiagonsis?

Most women in the U.S. begin getting their annual mammograms when they are in their 40′s or 50′s. But, recent research suggests evidence of overdiagnosis has increased debate about the benefits of screening.

There have been a number of experts that have speculated that new effective treatments for breast cancer play a larger role in saving women’s lives than screening does. They have also noted that overdiagnosis can cause unnecessary emotional stress and unnecessary medical treatment.

“Overdiagonsis means that you are diagnosed with a cancer that would never appear clinically or you will not experience symptoms or would kill you,” said Kalager. “So you are treated with surgery, with chemotherapy, with radiation, and with hormone treatment, without any benefit from it.”

Kalager says the new findings suggest that women now should be informed about the potential benefit from mammography, but also the many different harms that can come with it, including mental distress, biopsies, surgeries, or chemotherapy and hormone treatments for disease that would never have caused symptoms.

The researchers have come to the conclusion that if mammography is beneficial, it would lead to a decrease in late-stage breast cancer cases—the theory being that early detection prevents late-stage disease.

However, the researchers did not find a reduction in late-stage disease in women who had been offered screening. Instead, they did find a substantial amount of overdiagnosis.

Among the 7,793 women diagnosed with breast cancer through participation in the screening program, the report found 15% to 25% were overdiagnosed (between 1,169 and 1,948 women).

Based on those numbers, officials further estimated that, for every 2,500 women invited to screening, 2,470 to 2,474 will never be diagnosed with breast cancer and 2,499 will never die from breast cancer.