American Medical Association Declares Obesity a Disease

George Doyle/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Obesity is a disease, according to the American Medical Association.

The nation’s largest physician organization made the designation on Tuesday in an effort to get more doctors to recognize the health risks associated with obesity and so that insurance companies will be more inclined to help the one in three Americans who are severely overweight.

Insurers might make it easier for obese patients to obtain drugs and surgery if the condition is considered a disease despite the AMA having no legal authority.

The group made the decision even as its own Council on Science and Public Health determined that obesity shouldn’t be recognized as a disease because critics maintain that body mass index, the measure used to define obesity, can often be wrong.

For instance, people who aren't regarded as obese by body mass index can still have unhealthy levels of body fat and metabolic problems while those defined as obese might be free of health issues.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Baby's Skull Rebuilt 'Like a Jigsaw Puzzle' to Fix Fused Bones

Leah Burke(NEW YORK) -- Ryan Burke was born with a misshapen head -- a common consequence of natural birth.  But when the lopsidedness lingered for three months, his parents got worried.

"His pediatrician recommended we go see a neurosurgeon," said Ryan's mom, Leah Burke, recalling the "terrifying" moment she heard her baby needed skull surgery.

Ryan was diagnosed with craniosynostosis, a birth defect that causes the bones of his skull to close prematurely.

"A baby's head is composed of different bones with spaces in between called sutures," said Dr. David Sandberg, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, explaining how the sutures allow space for a baby's growing brain.  "When the sutures close early, the brain keeps growing.  But it can't grow in the direction of the closed sutures, so the child's head becomes very lopsided."

Ryan had a fused lambdoid suture -- a joint that spans the back of the skull.  As his brain grew, his ears became lopsided.

"It will only get worse over time, not better," said Sandberg.  "And it's very difficult to correct when kids are older."

Leah dreaded the thought of surgery, but knew it was the right move.  The family decided to relocate temporarily from Oklahoma City to her hometown of Houston for the surgery, where they could be surrounded by family and friends.

"It's very, very scary to think about your little boy having to go through something so traumatic," she said, recalling through tears the moment the anesthesiologist sedated her baby boy.  "But at the same time, we would do whatever we had to do to make sure he had a normal life."

During the four-hour surgery, Sandberg removed pieces of Ryan's skull and put them back together "like a jigsaw puzzle," leaving room for his brain to grow.

"This kid is going to look fantastic," Sandberg said of the results.  "He's going to have a scar, but once his hair grows, you won't even be able to tell."

Ryan is back home in Oklahoma City recovering from the surgery, which took place on June 5. The bandages once wrapped tightly around his tiny head have been removed, revealing a long, wavy line of dissolvable stitches.

"This week things are starting to feel more normal," Leah said, describing how her son, who would never cry, sobbed after surgery.  "We're definitely still trying to get back in the swing of things."

On top of recovering from skull surgery, Ryan is cutting his first tooth, according to his mom.

"He's been great," she said, adding that Ryan will have to wear a helmet for at least three months to protect his pieced-together skull.  "I know he won't even remember it, but it will be nice to be past this."

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Experts: Melissa Etheridge's Comments on Angelina Jolie Out of Line

Paul Warner/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Singer and breast cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge is standing by her comments that actress Angelia Jolie was "fearful" and not "brave" for undergoing a double mastectomy to avoid breast cancer.

"I don't have any opinion of what she 'should have' done.  All are free to choose.  I only objected to the term 'brave' describing it," Etheridge said in a statement to ABC News.

Last week, Etheridge told the Washington Blade that Jolie "made the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer."

"My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body," Etheridge told the newspaper.

Etheridge, who was diagnosed with the same high risk BRCA gene mutation as Jolie, goes on in the interview to say that Jolie's choice is "... way down the line on the spectrum of what you can do" and that those faced with the same set of facts should "really consider the advancements we've made in things like nutrition and stress levels."

Andrea Geduld, the director of the Breast Health Resource Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital said she believed that Etheridge's comments were out of line.

"Is she saying it's better to confront cancer?  We don't have clear prevention strategies for this type of cancer, we only have risk reducing strategies including mastectomy, oophorectomy and high risk surveillance," Geduld said.

She said she finds Etheridge's criticism of Jolie puzzling, given that Jolie's choice to have a double mastectomy couldn't have been an easy one and didn't appear to be a stunt or political act.

"A lot of people make this same decision to reduce the fear and anxiety that comes with having the high risk of cancer hanging over their heads," Geduld said.  "We wouldn't criticize someone for wearing a seatbelt to reduce the risk of dying in an accident, so I'm not sure why we would criticize someone for having a mastectomy when we know it cuts their risk of getting cancer."

Women who test positive for a BRCA gene mutation and who have a strong family history of cancer have an 85 percent of getting breast cancer and a 40 percent of getting ovarian cancer at some point in their lives.  Having a mastectomy and ovaries removed reduces the chances of developing the disease to around 5 percent.

Experts also caution that some of Etheridge's statements aren't accurate.

"We do know that diet and nutrition play an important role in cancer prevention and survival but they appear to be more helpful for people with non-genetic cancers rather than people who are at high risk for genetic cancers," said Dr. Julie Silver, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who specializes in cancer rehabilitation and is a breast cancer survivor herself.

Silver said there is literally no scientific evidence that diet, exercise or stress reduction would help a woman fitting Jolie's genetic profile avoid the disease.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Fast Thinking Saves Lives from Stroke

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Doctors have long known that the sooner a stroke is treated, the better the outcome.  But now a new study finds just how much each minute counts.

For each 15-minute head start doctors get on treating stroke, they cut the risk of stroke symptoms and death by 4 percent, according to the study of more than 58,300 ischemic stroke patients published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

What’s more, every 15 minutes also improves how you leave the hospital, with a 4 percent increased likelihood of walking out and a 3 percent increased chance of heading home instead of going to a rehab center or nursing home.

A stroke is a major reduction in the normal flow of blood to the brain.  A person dies from stroke every four minutes in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- that’s almost 130,000 Americans each year, making strokes one of the leading causes of death in the country. 

More than half of stroke survivors age 65 and older lose the ability to walk.

This new study is 30 times larger than the latest trials that evaluated stroke treatment, factoring in data from nearly 1,400 hospitals -- and not only large academic hospitals but community medical centers as well.  In other words, these findings are more likely to be what the average American experiences.

Study author Dr. Jeffrey Saver, director of UCLA’s Comprehensive Stroke Center, said it’s important to know that strokes are a treatable disease.

“Every minute that goes by without treatment, 2 million additional neurons are lost,” Saver said in an email.  “The demonstration of a substantial impact of even 15 minutes delay in starting treatment emphasizes the importance of the fastest possible evaluation and treatment of acute stroke patients.”

Stroke experts emphasize that it is important to act FAST to receive appropriate medical help.

“FAST, stands for the need to act quickly if there are problems with Face, Arm or Speech function and not to waste any Time doing so,” said Dr. Lee Schwamm, co-author of the study and vice chairman of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Lullaby Medicine for Premature Babies

Photodisc/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Something as old as mankind itself is helping to keep preterm babies alive — the lullaby.

Research finds that music has become an important new ally for babies who are born too soon and struggle to breathe and eat.

The neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital is filled with technology that helps keep the hospital's tiniest, most fragile patients alive. At New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell – and others across the country – the relentless beeping of monitors fades when the music takes over. The effect on preemies is dramatic and physical.

Studies conducted by Dr. Jeffery Perlman, chief of newborn medicine at New York-Presbyterian, Komansky Center for Children's Health, find that gentle music therapy not only slows down the heart rate of preemies but also helps them feed and sleep better. This helps them gain weight and speeds their recovery.

A study published in May in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, under the aegis of the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, found that the type of music matters. Therapeutically designed "live" music -- and parent-preferred lullabies sung in person -- can influence cardiac and respiratory function. They also found that the melodies improved feeding behaviors and may increase prolonged periods of quiet-alert states among premature babies.

Another study published in February 2011 in the Arts in Psychotherapy by Jayne M. Standley of the National Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy at Florida State University suggests that babies who receive this kind of therapy leave the hospital sooner.

"When they hear something that is very soothing, they adapt to it," Perlman said.

For these tiny babies, music is medicine.

A pair of twins, Jessica and Joshua, were born three months premature. Their dad has been trained by a professional music therapist at the Komansky Center, and now sings to the babies in their NICU cribs in his native Turkish. And he says he has proof that it's working.

"I watched their heart rate," their father said. "You can really watch it go down, 165, 160, 155, 152. It's an amazing feeling."

Jessica Fernald's daughter Hazel was born eight weeks early. "You know babies like lullabies," Fernald said. "But you don't realize how important it is in their healing."

At Komansky, Rebecca Loveszy is the music therapist who sings to preemies such as Jadion, born with a heart defect.

The effects of the music therapy appear to last – lullabies echoing inside the intensive care unit often become the children's favorite songs and soothe them even after they leave the hospital.

Rachel Fitzsimons' son William – now a year old – spent 12 weeks in intensive care, and has taken a liking to the tune he listened to during his time there.

"I would sing 'Rock-a-Bye-Baby,'" said Fitzsimons. "It's the one he still responds to the most."

In an intensive care unit bristling with technology, this new field reminds us that medicine doesn't always come from a new drug or surgery – sometimes it's as simple as parents connecting to their children with an age-old source of comfort: a gentle tune.

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Magazine's Suicide-Themed Fashion Spread Causes Uproar

British author Virginia Woolf. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(NEW YORK) -- Vice, an online magazine known for its provocative take on the world, just unpublished a fashion photo spread called "Last Words," which had images of models reenacting some of literature's most famous suicides.

The portraits, which appeared online Monday, drew sharp condemnation from suicide prevention experts and feminists as "sick, sick stuff" for glorifying death scenes while attempting to sell designer clothing.

The magazine editors apologized "to anyone who was hurt or offended."

The edgy, youth-oriented site included the photo spread in its 2013 Fiction Issue, one devoted to female writers, photographers, illustrators, painters, and other contributors. It featured Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker (who only attempted suicide), Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sylvia Plath, novelist Sanmao and beat poet Elise Cowen.

The model portraying Plath kneels before a gas oven; Woolf wades into the water; Sanmao uses her tights to hang herself.

The images include cause and date of death, as well as captions for what each model is wearing: "Issa dress, Morgenthal Frederics glasses, Jenni Kayne shoes."

Vice editors, in a statement given to ABC News on Tuesday, said that their fashion spreads are "always unconventional and approached with an art editorial point-of-view rather than a typical fashion photo-editorial one."

"Our main goal is to create artful images, with the fashion message following, rather than leading. 'Last Words' was created in this tradition and focused on the demise of a set of writers whose lives we very much wish weren't cut tragically short, especially at their own hands," they said.

Michael Peck, a forensic psychologist from Los Angeles who spent years working in suicide prevention, told ABC News that the glamorization of suicide can "make the vulnerable more vulnerable."

He suggested the photo spread was a "ludicrous depiction of a serious subject and what it does is dull the sensitivity of people to a serious subject."

"Kids see enough shooting movies so that eventually things like Columbine are like, 'Yeah, OK.' They see this horror on TV and in the movies for years and years and killing people is just another thing," he said. "The media tends to make suicide that way."

When a prominent celebrity takes his or her life, those who are "on the brink of struggling" can be pushed to suicidal behavior, according to Peck.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Pay-by-Weight Airline Adds XL Class

Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The tiny airline that drew international attention for its pay-what-you-weigh policy is making accommodations for passengers of a larger size, introducing XL Class.

Samoa Air chief executive Chris Langton told Australia News Network’s Pacific Beat radio program the company has modified one of the rows in the aircraft and added a ramp for easier access for passengers who weigh more than 130 kilograms, or about 285 pounds.

“Once you’re up around that sort of [weight] … a traditional seat on any airline is going to be uncomfortable,” he said. The row has been extended 12 to 14 inches and will debut this week.

Langton said he expects more airlines to make modifications based on the size and weight of passengers.

“That’s where the XL has come in — we do it with shirts and clothing and other things where we have different standard sizes,” he said.

Samoa Air did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Samoa Air introduced the idea of a pay-by-weight fare system in April.

“You are the master of your Air’fair’, you decide how much (or little) your ticket will cost,” the website read at the time.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Study: Latinos Learn English Faster than Past Immigrants

iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Many who oppose high levels of Latino immigration argue that they don't assimilate fast enough because they have failed to learn English like prior waves of immigrants did.

However, a new series of studies reveal a different picture. Latinos are doing pretty well at learning English, especially when compared to many German immigrants of the 19th century, who were considerably slower to acquire the language.

The research, conducted by Joseph Salmons of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Miranda E. Wilkerson of Columbia College, indicates that a significant portion of second and third-generation descendants of immigrants in Wisconsin did not learn English, and spoke only German. The difference doesn't quite have to do with geographical isolation or lack of educational resources. It seems in such communities there was not as much of a cultural emphasis or need placed on learning English.

Today, 92 percent of the Latino second generation (children of immigrants) speak English "very well," and by the third generation nearly one hundred percent of Latinos are either English dominant or fully bilingual, according to a Pew study from last year.

In the late nineteenth century, in contrast, more than a third of all residents of Wisconsin were native German speakers, and in some counties, like Hustisford, Wisconsin, 35 percent of American-born (second generation) immigrants spoke only German.

Salmons says there are no Latino communities in the U.S. that mimic these patterns.

"I challenge anybody to show me a third generation person in this country who speaks Spanish and no English, whereas we can find in the Census records, we can find those people in German speaking communities," said Joseph Salmons, who studies language acquisition in immigrant communities. "Find me a place where you have a third of the community speaking only Spanish, and over half of them are born in the U.S. I don't believe it, and I don't know of any evidence to suggest as much."

Their findings are based on an analysis of Census data from 1910 as well as more qualitative research of community records.

Much like today, many in the 19th and early 20th centuries feared that immigrants would threaten the prosperity of the nation as a whole. Even founding father Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1753:

"Few of their children in the country learn English...The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages...Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious."

But turns out, we were alright and today, more Americans say their ancestry traces back to Germany than to any other foreign nation.

Salmons believes looking at history is a good way to shape how we think about the present immigration debate.

"In a country like ours where immigration has been going on for hundreds of years, the rhetoric has remained almost the same for those hundreds of years," Salmons said.  "It's really useful for people to consider the history, even their own family's history, and their own community's history as they consider the current debate."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

11-Year-Old’s Hidden Camera Documentary Exposes School Lunch

ABC News(NEW YORK) -- It’s the documentary that audiences and film critics are eating up.

In a covert six-month mission to expose the inside world of school lunches, 11-year-old Zachary Maxwell made Yuck: A 4th Grader’s Documentary About School Lunch when he was a fourth-grader at a New York City public school.

Armed with hidden cameras, the precocious filmmaker went undercover to document dozens of lunches he was served at school.

During Zachary’s investigation, he compared descriptions of lunch items on the school-provided menu with secretly recorded video of what he was actually being served.

“It sounded like it was coming from the finest restaurant, but what we were actually getting served, it wasn’t too good,” Zachary told ABC News.

His 19-minute movie has already been featured at film festivals this year, and will be shown in the Manhattan Film Festival June 21, something the now fifth-grader is quite proud of.

“I think it’s a lot cooler than just watching it on a little TV screen,” Zachary said on ABC’s Good Morning America  in response to how it feels having his documentary become so successful. “And also watching with an audience on a big screen is really cool. Because when they laugh when they’re supposed to laugh, it’s the best feeling ever.”

The New York City Department of Education visited Zachary’s school after his film began circulating and says officials, “Provide students with healthy and delicious school meals that are low in fat, sodium and calories and we currently have more than 1,000 salad bars in our schools to provide more healthful options to students.”

Zachary’s father, CJ Maxwell, who helped the budding filmmaker put this documentary together, says he couldn’t be prouder of his son, a student at Public School 130 in the Little Italy section of Manhattan.

“I think that he showed a lot of little spunk and spirit and we encouraged him to keep at it,” Maxwell  said.

Zachary admits while he was working on his undercover documentary, he was worried he’d get in trouble.

“Every day I was nervous I’d get in trouble, or worse, get suspended,” he said.

But that hasn’t stopped Zachary from continuing his behind-the-camera efforts. He’s now working on a personal project about his fifth-grade class, he says, “Because we’re all going to middle school our separate ways, so we have the memory of each other.”

After he gets to middle school, Zachary said, he also has future plans for a documentary about “adolescence, puberty, and what middle school girls think about guys with braces.”

“When I grow up,” he said, laughing, “I want to be a big-shot filmmaker.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

What If You Could Eat Your Sunscreen?

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- No matter if you’ve buckled down for the ultimate beach body or just plan to sip piña coladas poolside, the key ingredient for summer is sun. But it’s no secret that too much of a good thing can have troubling consequences and the sun is no exception.

UVA and UVB rays can increase your risk of skin cancer, skin aging and lead to wrinkling of your body’s largest and most visible organ. Protection from the sun can be a life or death decision. With annual diagnosis rates topping 2 million, skin cancer has fast become the leading form of cancer in the U.S.

Typically, saving your skin means layering on the lotion or spray and hoping you haven’t missed that tricky spot. But what if you could protect your entire skin by eating your sunscreen?

Tanya Zucherbrot, registered dietitian, nutrition news contributor and the creator of F-Factor Diet isn’t advising that you gulp down a swallow of SPF 30, but she does suggest that certain foods can provide natural protection from those harmful UV rays.

Zucherbrot proposes that eating certain foods containing antioxidants, will help to fight free radical damage caused by the sun.

So what’s the best snacks to save your skin?

Zucherbrot recommends that you stick to the summer favorites. Blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, apples and tomatoes are all high in antioxidants that help skin stay radiant and resistant to damage. Even cooked tomatoes can have healthy benefits for your skin.

Looking for a cocktail to cool you off? Studies show that swapping the margarita for a glass of red wine can help your skin fight off the sun’s effects.

Best of all, you don’t have to cut out the sweets. A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition found that people who ate a moderate amount of chocolate had less sun damage than those who didn’t. Zucherbrot says that an ounce of dark chocolate can contain enough of the anitoxidant polyphenol to help prevent sun damage and improve skin elasticity.

By harnessing the protecting power in these foods you can help your skin avoid the sting of a summer burn.

But what if you forgot to eat your tomatoes and instead wind up looking like one? Don’t panic! There is a food for that too. Zucherbrot recommends eating foods rich in vitamins C and E to help reduce swelling associated with sunburns. Additionally, papaya is excellent for reducing inflammation caused by burns because of its vitamin intake. Foods such as avocadoes, peanut butter and ground flax seeds are all rich in Vitamin E which helps soothe your sore skin.

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