Political Reporter Pat Warren has more on what this means for families.

Safety first. Four-year-old Hugh Ward has something in common with one in 13 children in the country, according to the Journal of Pediatrics– food allergies. They come on suddenly and 16 percent to 18 percent of those children have had a reaction in school.

“I’m allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, grapes and raw corn,” 8-year-old Rolando Rivera said.

The General Assembly has helped ease the minds of parents of school-age children by requiring Maryland public schools to keep emergency supplies of Epinephrine– the drug that counters allergic reactions– on hand.

“It protects the kids who will have their first reaction at school,” Shana Ward, a parent, said. “It’s great for the kids that are already diagnosed but it’s also really helpful for those kids as well.”

In addition to her son Hugh Ward, Shana Ward has a 6-year-old in kindergarten who also has food allergies.

“You want everyone to be prepared and be ready if there were to be a reaction,” she said.

Shana Ward co-founded a support group for for families with allergies.

“Who can argue with wanting to protect kids and making sure that they’re safe, that all of the kids are safe at school? I mean, who could argue with that?”

The added awareness of the preparation for food allergy reactions in public schools may have the added benefit of encouraging other child care facilities to put emergency supplies in place.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an 18 percent increase of school-age children with food allergies in the 10 years between 1997 and 2007.

Mike Hellgren uncovers the dangers women face in their pursuit of killer curves.

A surprising number of women are turning to illicit back-alley fake doctors to get that perfect shape.

“It’s pressure now from Hollywood,” said one patient.

At underground parties up and down the East Coast, they’re being injected with industrial-grade silicone in their buttocks for those Hollywood curves. But the unsuspecting patients never realize the danger.

“You don’t even think about the side effects,” a patient said.

Many are left with disfigured bodies, even organs that shut down as the silicone spreads through their bloodstream. It can even turn deadly.

“We still don’t know what it is,” a patient said.

The patient–a woman from Baltimore–asked WJZ to conceal her identity. She’s gone through numerous surgeries to repair her damaged skin after many injections.

“It was scar tissue that was starting to build around the silicone,” she said. “I almost went into a deep depression over this because I felt like I did this to myself. I do feel like I’m one of the lucky ones.”

She is. A friend who was a dancer on The Block in Baltimore nearly died after silicone spread to her lungs. That led to the Feds–including the FDA and the U.S. Attorney in Maryland–to take an aggressive stance. They brought down Kimberly Smedley in a sting operation. Federal investigators say Smedley was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars injecting women with silicone in hotel rooms in and around Maryland.

“You can’t just buy silicone at your local hardware store and inject it into somebody’s body,” said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office later revealed the type of silicone that injured that dancer was only supposed to be used in furniture polish and paint.

“Some of these injectors are mixing silicone with motor oil,” said Dr. Chukwuemeka Onyewu, plastic surgeon.

Many turn to Onyewu when things go wrong.

“You have to take out the fat and sometimes even the muscle and skin,” Onyewu said. “I’d say in the last five to six months, I’m seeing four or five coming in every week with problems. I have seen where the entire buttock cheek skin has turned to leather–literally black, hard leather.”

He revealed to WJZ how women get lured into the secret “pumping parties” in hotels.

“It’s like a cult. You have to be invited to these parties,” Onyewu said. “They move from hotel to hotel, city to city so sometimes they’re not even easy to track down.”

It’s a risky business that remains lucrative as a growing number of women are desperate to have their killer looks on the cheap by those looking to make a quick buck.

“They’re irresponsible. They’re greedy,” the patient said. “It’s like attempted murder to me.”

Kimberly Smedley will be sentenced in July for her role in these illegal injections. She faces a maximum of five years in prison and a quarter million dollars in fines.

But, as Jessica Kartalija explains, the scientist is only 15.

Pancreatic cancer is the most difficult cancer to diagnose and by the time a patient learns they have the disease, it’s usually too late.

Enter North County High School freshman Jack Andraka.

“I’m really passionate about science. It’s just my thing,” he said. “I like working on medical research.”

That love of science earned him the grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his creation of a test that detects early stage pancreatic cancer.

“It detects an abnormal protein that you find in the blood when you have a pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. Anirban Maitra, professor of Pathology, Oncology and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “He conceived this idea and I think the fact that he is 15 makes this whole story more remarkable.”

This year, an estimated 43,920 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States and approximately 37,390 will die from the disease. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest relative survival rate of all the cancers tracked by both the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute; 94 percent of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnosis and 74 percent will die within the first year.

“I got interested in early detection because that’s the best chance of treating the cancer,” Andraka said. “The only practical way of doing this is through routine blood tests so that’s what I developed here.”

Andraka’s test is 90 percent accurate and less expensive than other tests.

At an awards ceremony in Pittsburgh, Andraka took home more than $100,000 in prize money that he says he will put toward college.

“They gave him an opportunity to make his dreams come true,” said Jack’s mother, Jane Andraka.

The projects were evaluated by 1,200 judges.

“American consumers are really left in the dark when it comes to picking a good sunscreen,” said Leeann Brown, of the group’s Oakland office.

Brown said her organization reviewed more than 1,800 personal care products that claim to offer sun protection. She said many contained one of two questionable ingredients: retinol palmitate and oxybenzone.

>>Environmental Working Group Sunscreen Guide

Brown says retinol palmitate, a form of Vitamin A is, “an ingredient that’s been shown to expedite the development of skin tumors and skin lesions.” She says Oxybenzone “has been linked to hormone disruption.”

The Personal Care Products Council is disputing the report, calling it “irresponsible,” and “wrong.”

The report also found improvement in the quality of sun protection products marketed to children. Brown said 60 percent of those did not contain questionable ingredients.

“We were glad to see the children’s market look a little bit more positive,” she told CBS 5 Consumerwatch.

The E.W.G. recommends consumers look for sun protection products that contain zinc oxide, avobenzone and titanium dioxide. The group also recommends buying sunscreen that with an SPF between 30 and 50.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

A UCLA study showed that when a fructose solution was given to rats, they had a harder time figuring out a complicated maze. However, when rats were given both the sugary substance and a supplement high in omega-3 fatty acids, they were able to get through the maze much faster than rats that didn’t receive omega-3s.

“Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, said in a written statement. “Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage.”

The findings were published on May 15 in The Journal of Physiology.

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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.

CBS 2’s Kate Sullivan reports.

When Rachel Wells found out she was pregnant, her diet became even more important.

“I ended up eating a ton of walnuts and a ton of Greek yogurt,” she says.

Dietitian Holly Herrington of Northwestern Memorial Hospital agrees that Greek can be healthier than regular varieties.

“Greek yogurt is strained differently, so it removes a lot of the whey, a lot of the lactose, a lot of the sugar that’s found in yogurt, leaving Greek yogurt higher in protein, a little bit lower in carbohydrates,” she says.

Because of the extra protein it may keep you fuller longer, helping you eat less and lose weight.

But Herrington says watch out for added sugars.

“You have to choose the plain, low-fat types of yogurt,” she says.

Also, Greek yogurt is more expensive. A 6-ounce container can cost up to twice as much as the regular kind.

“Greek yogurt does have a higher cost of ingredients, it has more milk. And that’s what gets you a lot of the protein,” Yoplait marketing director Michael Harad says.

Some people are avoiding the expense by making their own. You can strain regular yogurt through cheesecloth to remove whey and water.

So far, for Rachel, buying Greek has been worth the added cost.

All yogurts can also help keep your intestines healthy and build strong bones.

One more tip: To make sure your Greek yogurt has the least amount of fat, look for skimmed or nonfat milk on the ingredient list.

The archdiocese, which said it was joining 12 actions filed nationwide on behalf of 43 Catholic institutions, said the
definition of what constitutes a religious organization is at the heart of the suit. New federal rules exempt only institutions that primarily serve and employ individuals of their own faith. That forces Catholic hospitals, charities and schools that serve all individuals regardless of faith to abide by the new rules in violation of their beliefs, the archdiocese said.

“There is no way out of the dilemma the mandate forces upon us,” said Jane Belford, chancellor of the archdiocese, who added that under the rules religious organizations face an impossible choice because “serving our neighbor is part of our baptismal calling.”

“We do what we do because we are Catholic, not because those we serve are,” Belford said.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, said Catholic schools and social service ministries do not qualify as religious under the rules, and the mandate forces them to provide coverage for drugs and procedures “that we believe are morally wrong.”

The archdiocese said the plaintiffs are seeking a solution that allows all religious organizations, not just houses of worship, to follow their religious convictions and continue to serve all who are in need.

The archdiocese recently criticized the selection of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as a graduation speaker at Georgetown University because she helped shape the new federal health care law, which mandates that employers provide health insurance that covers birth control for workers.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The Maryland governor is attending a forum in Baltimore on Friday. Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin also are scheduled to attend.

The forum, which will take place at the University of Maryland, Baltimore BioPark, is being co-sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Maryland chapter of We Work for Health.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

The proposal, introduced by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., is based on the disputed claim that fetuses can feel pain at a gestational age of 20 weeks or older.

Nebraska was the first state to pass such a law, and seven other states, including Arizona, have done the same. The legislation is being pushed by the National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion group that has made the bill its top legislative priority on Capitol Hill this year.

Opponents say the bill would violate women’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy in consultation with their doctors, including in cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormalities. They also say it intrudes upon the district’s self-rule.

With Democrats controlling the White House and the Senate, the bill has little chance of becoming law this year, but anti-abortion activists say they’re prepared to fight for years until it is enacted, and abortion-rights groups have mobilized to defeat it.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has pledged his support for the legislation.

“The gruesome late-term abortions of unborn children who can feel pain is in my opinion the greatest human rights atrocity in the United States today,” Franks said Thursday at the hearing.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, compared the bill to the ban on partial-birth abortions that became law in 2003 and was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007. That bill only banned a specific late-term abortion procedure. The 20-week measure goes farther by banning all procedures beyond that gestational age.

While the goal of the legislative effort is to reduce the number of abortions and the pain experienced by fetuses, Johnson said, “ultimately, the Supreme Court has to say that this is OK to do.”

Opponents said the bill was part of an effort by anti-abortion activists to roll back the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that made abortion legal.

“This is a serious attempt to take back Roe v. Wade, at the federal level, at the Supreme Court level,” said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C. If the bill makes it to the House floor, Norton added, it would “seal the fate” of Republicans in 2012 being associated with a “war on women.”

Ted Miller, a spokesman for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the bill underscores the importance of re-electing President Barack Obama and maintaining the Democratic majority in the Senate.

In the district, abortion is legal for any reason. In 2004, the D.C. Council wiped an outdated criminal ban on abortions off the books.

Anti-abortion activists have claimed that makes the city unusually permissive on abortion.

District officials and abortion-rights supporters say the district law follows the precedent established by Roe v. Wade.

At Thursday’s hearing, the subcommittee’s Republican leadership called three physicians who testified that they believe abortions after 20 weeks are inhumane and that fetuses can feel pain at that gestational age.

Dr. Anthony Levitano, an obstetrician who once performed second-trimester abortions but has since renounced the practice, described the process of extracting fetal body parts from the uterus in graphic detail.

“If you refuse to believe that this procedure inflicts severe pain on that unborn child, think again,” Levitano said.

Democrats noted that there is no scientific consensus on fetal pain, pointing to a 2010 conclusion by Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that fetuses lack the nerve capacity to feel pain before at least 24 weeks.

Christy Zink, a George Washington University professor and district resident who had an abortion at 21 weeks after an MRI revealed that her fetus had a significant brain abnormality, testified against the bill.

“Its very premise — that it prevents pain — is a lie,” Zink said, adding that her child, if carried to term, “would have
experienced near-constant pain. If he had survived the pregnancy, which was not certain, he might have never left the hospital.”

In recent years, Congress has routinely barred the district from spending local tax dollars on abortions for poor women. Last year, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., drafted a bill to give the city more control over its local budget that also would have made the abortion-funding ban permanent. District leaders rejected the bill because of that provision.

Since 1988, the district has been allowed to fund abortions with local tax dollars only when Democrats have controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

The Commuter Connections program run by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments says 58 Bike to Work Day pit stops will be open throughout the district, Maryland and Virginia.

The stops offer food, entertainment and prizes for cyclists. Organizers say commuters who bike to work help reduce traffic and pollution while also getting exercise.

Last year’s event attracted nearly 11,000 bicyclists and organizers say this year looks to be even bigger.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Adam May has the details.

These charges are just the latest legal challenge for the right-to-die movement.

Dr. Lawrence Egbert from Baltimore is the modern-day Jack Kevorkian. He’s been arrested numerous times for illegally assisting in suicides.

Egbert was medical director of the Final Exit Network, a group that offers support and a suicide plan for people suffering from a variety of fatal diseases and conditions. Authorities in Minnesota are the latest to criminally charge the doctor and his colleagues. In 2007, prosecutors say Egbert traveled to the Twin Cities to see a patient.

“She eventually decided to take her life with the advice, encouragement and assistance of the Final Exit Network,” said Minnesota prosecutor James Backstrom.

Doreen Dunn was 57 years old, living with pain for 10 years. She secretly called Final Exit and died from helium asphyxiation.

Egbert explained the suicides to WJZ in 2010.

“You have this bag of helium over your head like this and the person will breathe the helium and become unconscious in 30 to 60 seconds,” Egbert said. “We do nothing but give advice. You have to pull down the balloon. I won’t pull it down for you.”

Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in 38 states, including Maryland, but the law in Georgia was recently found unconstitutional after Egbert was cleared of wrongdoing in the suicide of a throat cancer patient.

The president of Final Exit defends the right to die, telling WJZ, “It is appalling that the government would spend so much of its resources on this political prosecution.”

Oregon is the only state with specific guidelines for assisted suicide. Last year, 114 terminally ill people ended their lives legally.

Egbert will have his first court appearance in Minnesota next month.

Cardin is holding a forum on the Affordable Health Care Act Monday morning in Cumberland.

At noon, Cardin speaks at a health care career expo he’s sponsoring in Hagerstown.

Cardin cites a state study estimating Maryland will need more than 55,000 new health care workers by 2018.

The expo at Hagerstown Community College features more than 30 exhibitors, including career counselors and employers.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

The conference begins Monday at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Scientists from the University System of Maryland and policy makers from state and federal agencies will discuss environmental issues related to human health including harmful algal blooms and toxic substances in bay waters.

Attorney General Doug Gansler, Rep. Elijah Cummings and Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, are among those scheduled to speak at the conference.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Now, as Mike Schuh reports, grad students at Hopkins are on a path to change that.

Come witness the creation of life-saving inventions. A Hopkins lab– simple solutions to problems that kill millions– was founded by grad students.

Want to gauge the health of a fetus? Listen to its heartbeat. Even simple tools are unavailable in poor countries, making treatment impossible.

“Our device should cost $10,” said grad student Brian Rayburn.

The device uses common cell phone parts, an amplified microphone and digital counter. Balloons that will stop uncontrolled bleeding after a birth also cost $10.

“This is actually the leading cause of maternal death every year, killing 125,000 mothers every year,” said Adam Clark.

A drop of blood on paper identifies the cause of a fever, meaning the patient will get the correct treatment sooner.

“It’s the same chemical principle as a pregnancy test,” said Luis Soenksen.

When perfected, they will cost three cents each.

They are learning to achieve greatness, make greatness the goal.

“Our main purpose is to save millions of lives. There are mothers and babies dying unnecessarily,” said Dr. Harshad Sanghvi.

None of these inventions is ready for the market yet. They could ship into developing countries in one to five years.

These inventions are possible because the university’s nonprofit global health organization asked for such help developing low-cost medical devices.

Weijia Jiang has more on the controversy.

That parenting philosophy encourages breastfeeding beyond the baby years but critics call it and the picture outrageous.

Inappropriate, weird and downright disgusting– that’s what some are calling the cover photo of this week’s Time magazine.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s different!’ It looked like they were trying to sell magazines to me,” Cary Barker, a father, said.

The picture shows 26-year-old mom Jamie Grumet breastfeeding her 3-year-old son who’s standing on a chair.

“He’s a little too old to be breastfeeding,” one person said.

It’s for an article on “attachment parenting” — when parents sleep with and breastfeed kids for as long as possible to strengthen their bond.

“Maybe it’s mom holding on. If it’s not really beneficial anymore, I don’t know if it’s necessary,” Jennifer Liles, a mother, said.

Mercy Hospital lactation consultant Margie Kay says after a child turns one, they get nutrition from food. So breast milk is no longer necessary, though Kay says it won’t hurt the child.

“It’s not something everybody feels comfortable with, but it’s really a choice between mom, baby and the family,” she said.

Most of the parents we spoke with side with the cover mom, and say if she has the time and energy to breastfeed, why not?

“As long as the child still wants to nurse, they should be able to nurse,” Regina O’Malley, a grandmother, said.

“If that’s your thing, more power to you,” Elena Ritter, a mother, said.

In the article, Grumet says people who see her feeding her son threaten to call Social Services on her or say that it’s child molestation.

“I really don’t think I can reason with those people,” she said.

Grumet says she posed because she wants them to realize it’s “biologically normal.”

Grumet goes on to say she hopes the more people see the picture, the more people will accept it.

The cover mom says her own mother breastfed her until she was 6 years old.

Monique Griego has more on the unusual places doctors are seeing cancer pop up.

Anita Meyerhuber spent years dealing with irritated lips.

“It just always looked chapped. It was red and sometimes flaky, ” she said.

But she didn’t think she had anything to worry about until visiting dermatologist Dr. Noelle Sherber.

“I just thought I had chapped lips. I had no idea it could be cancer,” Meyerhuber said.

She was diagnosed with actinic cheilitis or precancerous sun damage of the lips– a condition that’s becoming more common.

“People who used a lot of lip gloss, went to the beach a lot when they were teenagers, are now coming into their 40s and we’re seeing a lot of sun damage on the lips,” Sherber explained.

Sherber said many women don’t realize lip gloss can increase risks.

“The shine from it just accentuates UV rays like a reflector,” she said.

As part of Skin Cancer Awareness Month, Sherber wants to remind people to protect their lips with an SPF, along with sunblocking their bodies.

One in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.

While most people are looking for lesions or black spots…

“Many skin cancers don’t look like that,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s a red area that doesn’t heal properly. Maybe it bleeds easily, and in Anita’s [Meyerhuber] case it was chapped lips.”

Pre-cancerous lip damage like Meyerhuber’s can be treated in a few days with a topical creme. Just two weeks later, she was healed.

Now, she’s just thankful Sherber caught things early.

“Without her, it could have gotten a lot worse than it was,” Meyerhuber said.

Children should wear an SPF of at least 45.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported the state Department of Health and Human Services confirms that a culture starter for tempeh had the type of salmonella that caused the outbreak.

Authorities say Tempeh Online sold the starter culture to Smiling Hara Tempeh, which made the bean product in Candler. Tempeh Online is based in Rockville, Md.

The Associated Press couldn’t find a phone listing for Tempeh Online. The newspaper said a man answering the phone number listed on the company’s website said Monday the number was wrong. The website later went down.

An N.C. Department of Agriculture spokesman identified the distributor as Tempeh Online.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

In a series of votes, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of the daily pill Truvada for healthy people who are at high risk of contracting HIV, including gay and bisexual men and heterosexual couples with one HIV-positive partner.

The FDA is not required to follow the panel’s advice, though it usually does. A final decision is expected by June 15.

Gilead Sciences Inc., based in Foster City, Calif., has marketed Truvada since 2004 as a treatment for people who are infected with the virus. The medication is a combination of two older HIV drugs, Emtriva and Viread. Doctors usually prescribe it as part of a drug cocktail to repress the virus.

While panelists ultimately backed Truvada for prevention, Thursday’s 12-hour meeting highlighted a number of concerns created by the first drug to prevent HIV. In particular, the panel debated whether Truvada might lead to reduced use of condoms, the most reliable defense against HIV. The experts also questioned the drug’s effectiveness in women, who have shown much lower rates of protection in studies.

Panelists struggled to outline steps that would ensure patients take the pill every day. In clinical trials, patients who didn’t take their medication diligently were not protected, and patients in the real world are even more likely to forget than those in studies.

“The trouble is adherence, but I don’t think it’s our charge to judge whether people will take the medicine,” said Dr. Tom
Giordano of Baylor College of Medicine, who voted in favor of the drug. “I think our charge is to judge whether it works when it’s taken and whether the risks outweigh the benefits.”

Panelists stressed that people should be tested to make sure they don’t have HIV before starting therapy with Truvada.

Patients who already have the virus and begin taking Truvada could develop a resistance to the drug, making their disease even more difficult to treat. The experts grappled with how to protect patients while avoiding hurdles that could discourage them from seeking treatment.

“If we put up too many hoops to jump through, there will be people who don’t make it through those hoops,” said Daniel
Raymond, the panel’s patient representative.

Truvada first made headlines in 2010, when government researchers showed it could prevent people from contracting HIV. A three-year study found that daily doses cut the risk of infection in healthy gay and bisexual men by 42 percent, when accompanied by condoms and counseling. Last year another study found that Truvada reduced infection by 75 percent in heterosexual couples in which one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not.

Because Truvada is on the market to manage HIV, some doctors already prescribe it as a preventive measure. FDA approval would allow Gilead Sciences to formally market its drug for that use.

But Truvada’s groundbreaking preventive ability has exposed stark disagreements on prevention among those in the HIV community.

While Truvada’s supporters say the drug is an important new option, critics worry that the drug could give users a false sense of security, and encourage risky behavior.

During the meeting’s public comment period, FDA panelists heard from more than two dozen doctors, nurses and patients who said patients would not take the drug as recommended — every day, in addition to using condoms.

“Truvada needs to be taken every day, 100 percent of the time, and my experience as a registered nurse tells me that won’t happen,” Karen Haughey told the panel. “In my eight years, not one patient that I’ve cared for has been 100 percent adherent.”

Other speakers worried that wide scale use of Truvada would divert limited funding from more cost-effective options. Truvada sells for about $900 a month, or just under $11,000 per year. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which opposes approval of Truvada, estimates that 20 HIV-positive patients could be treated for the cost of treating one patient with preventive Truvada.

“Truvada for prevention will squeeze already-constrained health care resources that can be better spent on cheaper and more effective prevention therapies,” the group states in a petition to the FDA.

The FDA is legally barred from considering cost when reviewing drugs. Medicare and Medicaid, the nation’s largest health insurance plans, generally cover all drugs approved by the FDA and many large insurers take their cues for coverage from the government plans.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV, which develops into AIDS unless treated with antiviral drugs. AIDS causes the body’s immune system to breakdown, leading to infections which are eventually fatal. Gay and bisexual men account for the majority of cases — nearly two-thirds.

The number of new HIV infections in the U.S. has held steady for 15 years at about 50,000 per year. But with no vaccine in sight and an estimated 240,000 HIV carriers unaware of their status, doctors and patients say new methods are needed to fight the spread of the virus.

Nick Literski, a federal worker in Seattle, has been taking Truvada for HIV prevention for more than a year. His partner is
HIV-infected and his doctor prescribes the drug as a precautionary measure, even though it is not yet FDA-approved for that use.

Literski pays a $40 monthly co-pay for the once-daily pill.

FDA approval of the drug for prevention would be “a huge step forward” in the fight against AIDS, he said in an interview
Thursday. But he said rejection would be devastating, threatening gay relationships like his that involve one partner who is HIV infected and one who isn’t.

“Many HIV-positive men end up ending their relationships with HIV-negative men out of fear of infecting their partner,” Literski said, and he worried about that happening to him before he started using Truvada.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Monique Griego has more on the cost of obesity and how companies are trying to fight it.

Staying fit and active isn’t easy. Proof of that can be seen in America’s growing waistline.

“It’s bigger than anybody knows. It’s not uncommon for people to be overweight and think that’s normal .  And they move from there to obesity,” Tim Rhode, CEO of Maryland Athletic Club (MAC), said.

Rhode is in the business of breaking that cycle.

“I think we gotta make a change,” he said.

In a new study, the Institute of Medicine predicts by the year 2030, the number of obese adults will jump from 34 to 42 percent, with the severely obese reaching 11 percent.

With that comes increased health costs, especially for companies.

“They could be saving so much money by helping people lose weight, be more productive and stay on the job,” Rhode said.

The MAC is offering companies a way to fight medical costs by getting their employees in shape.

The MAC’s corporate fit program allows companies to sign up employees for  six- to eight-week training courses that include evaluations, exercise programs and meal plans.

“Several employees said this is what I needed. I really just needed to get up. This is the motivation,” Joan Hovatter, an employee of McCormick Corp., said.

Hovatter is part of a group from McCormick. The company hopes investing in employees now will decrease problems later.

“Anytime we can reduce those risks and costs, it’s a benefit to the employer,” she said.

So far, the program is a huge success.

“Overall, employees say, ‘I feel so much better. I feel good,’” Hovatter said.

Companies can come up with various ways to pay for the Wellness Program. On average, it costs around $150 a person for six weeks.

The grant was awarded to the B’more for Healthy Babies campaign by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. It builds on a $3 million grant that CareFirst gave the program when it launched in 2009.

The program seeks to prevent infant deaths through policy changes, education and community outreach and mobilization.

The new funding will be used primarily in the communities of Upton Druid Heights and Patterson Park North & East, which have had high rates of infant mortality. It will also be used to support expanded service provider outreach, as well as a citywide communication campaign.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Mary Bubala reports many came to say thank you.

Betty Lou Driver is one of the first patients to be treated at Kennedy Krieger Institute in the late 1930s.

She came back Wednesday to show gratitude for how the institute helped her move forward in life and she used humor.

“Don’t tell anybody but I am No. 1,” Driver said with a laugh.

Kennedy Krieger opened in 1937 and Wednesday they celebrated the institute’s mission: to be a place where doctors, nurses, educators, researchers and therapists focus on children and the potential they have inside.

Peter Waldron’s son has autism. He knows firsthand the power of Kennedy Krieger.

“For us, we were able to have Frankie’s autism detected at 18 months, which is incredibly young. We were able to get in and implement an early intervention program which has helped him make tremendous strides,” Waldron said.

And Matt Courson says Kennedy Krieger had hope when no one else believed he would walk again. After intense therapy at the institute, he did at his college graduation from UMBC.

“This place has done so much for me. The therapists, the doctors, the marketing team, it’s just a collective family and they are family to me and I definitely hold a special place for Kennedy Krieger in my heart,” Courson said.

Kennedy Krieger serves more than 16,000 children and adults every year.

Duke researchers found that if Americans continue gaining weight at the current pace, 42 percent of Americans could be obese by 2030, with 11 percent of those being severely obese.

Currently, 36 percent of adults were obese, or 30 pounds over a healthy weight, while six percent were severely obese, which is one hundred pounds over a healthy weight.

The biggest problem the growing obesity risk could have is on the health care industry. Being obese can lead to a multitude of health issues including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea and other illnesses that could cost consumers billions.

Experts from the CDC had previously found that medical-related costs of obesity may be as high as $147 billion, or roughly $1,400 extra for obese people.

According to USA Today, if the obesity rate stays at 2010 levels instead of rising to 42 percent, the country could save more than half a trillion dollars in medical costs.

Chances are Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave at the news that the city known for the great American family vacation is now being associated with more adult entertainment and more private pleasures.

Orlando ranked in first place when Mens Health Magazine surveyed cities for the enjoyment of porn. They got real scientific about it.They tracked porn DVDs rented, sold, or streamed on the internet. They counted the number of adult entertainment stores. They even checked subscribers to soft-core porn king Cinemax and checked Google searches for porn.

Imagine getting that assignment. Imagine your surprise when it led you to wholesome Orlando.

Now, if Miami had made the top of the list it would surprise no-one. The iconic porn movie Deep Throat was filmed in Coconut Grove; in fact, the home where it was filmed is up for sale now. A few million and you could live in Porn Central.

The city is also home to a host of production companies, large and small, that crank out everything from the rankest amateur porn to slick productions, rivaling the west-coast porn industry headquartered in LA.

But Men’s Health wasn’t interested in production, only consumption, and based on that sexy South Florida could only manage to slide in at 12th place.

Behind, believe it or not, Boise, Idaho.

Even Tampa was pornier than Miami, making it in at 8th place. But of the top 100 smuttiest cities, only Jacksonville (52) and St. Petersburg (60) joined us on the list.

Because you know you want to know if your hometown is on the list, here’s the full 100 cities from Mens Health, and the link to the full article

http://www.menshealth.com/health/smut-census

1. Orlando, FL

2. Las Vegas, NV

3. Wilmington, DE

4. Raleigh, NC

5. Charlotte, NC

6. Minneapolis, MN

7. Atlanta, GA

8. Tampa, FL

9. Anchorage, AK

10. Austin, TX

11. Boise, ID

12. Miami, FL

13. Houston, TX

14. Columbia, SC

15. Dallas, TX

16. Portland, OR

17. San Diego, CA

18. Cleveland, OH

19. Sacramento, CA

20. Baltimore, MD

21. Providence, RI

22. Durham, NC

23. San Francisco, CA

24. Wichita, KS

25. Columbus, OH

26. Plano, TX

27. Manchester, NH

28. Jersey City, NJ

29. St. Paul, MN

30. Madison, WI

31. Cheyenne, WY

32. Denver, CO

33. Chicago, IL

34. Philadelphia, PA

35. Rochester, NY

36. Tucson, AZ

37. Reno, NV

38. Riverside, CA

39. Bakersfield, CA

40. New Orleans, LA

41. Omaha, NE

42. Seattle, WA

43. Milwaukee, WI

44. Greensboro, NC

45. Fort Worth, TX

46. Oklahoma City, OK

47. Pittsburgh, PA

48. Colorado Springs, CO

49. Nashville, TN

50. Phoenix, AZ

51. Honolulu, HI

52. Jacksonville, FL

53. Anaheim, CA

54. Tulsa, OK

55. Aurora, CO

56. Lexington, KY

57. Bridgeport, CT

58. Buffalo, NY

59. Portland, ME

60. St. Petersburg, FL

61. San Jose, CA

62. Billings, MT

63. Virginia Beach, VA

64. Albuquerque, NM

65. St. Louis, MO

66. Kansas City, MO

67. Fresno, CA

68. Sioux Falls, SD

69. Los Angeles, CA

70. Louisville, KY

71. Salt Lake City, UT

72. Stockton, CA

73. San Antonio, TX

74. Little Rock, AR

75. Memphis, TN

76. New York, NY

77. Corpus Christi, TX

78. Indianapolis, IN

79. Oakland, CA

80. Washington, DC

81. Cincinnati, OH

82. Birmingham, AL

83. Boston, MA

84. Burlington, VT

85. Des Moines, IA

86. Detroit, MI

87. Fort Wayne, IN

88. Chesapeake, VA

89. Newark, NJ

90. El Paso, TX

91. Norfolk, VA

92. Fargo, ND

93. Lincoln, NE

94. Toledo, OH

95. Laredo, TX

96. Lubbock, TX

97. Charleston, WV

98. Winston-Salem, NC

99. Baton Rouge, LA

100. Jackson, MS

At least five people were hospitalized because of the dog food, which was made by Diamond Pet Foods at its plant in Gaston, S.C., the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. No pets were sickened, according to the Meta, Mo.-based company.

“People who became ill, the thing that was common among them was that they had fed their pets Diamond Pet Foods,” said CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell.

Three people each were infected in Missouri and North Carolina; two people in Ohio; and one person each in Alabama, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the CDC said.

“Our folks are really wanting people to be aware of it. They want to be aware that this is causing people to get sick because they may have product in their homes. For every one that is reported, there may be 29 others,” Russell said.

People can get salmonella by handling infected dog food, then not washing their hands before eating or handling their own food, health officials said.

The South Carolina plant temporarily was shut down April 8. Diamond Pet Foods has issued four rounds of recalls for food made at the plant, located outside of Columbia, S.C., between Dec. 9 and April 7. The latest recalls were announced Friday.

“We took corrective actions at the plant, and today the plant is up and running. Our mission is to produce safe pet foods for our customers and their pets in all Diamond facilities,” the company said in a written statement Friday.

In 2005, a toxic mold called aflatoxin ended up in food made at the same Diamond Pet Foods plant in South Carolina and dozens of dogs died. The company offered a $3.1 million settlement. The Food and Drug Administration determined the deadly fungus likely got into the plant when it failed to test 12 shipments of corn.

FDA officials were not immediately available for comment Friday on the most recent problems with the plant.

Agriculture officials in Michigan found the strain of salmonella during routine testing of dog food on April 2 and health investigators noticed there was a possible link to the food made by Diamond Pet Foods. An ill person still had some of the food, and authorities were able to link the cases to the food, the CDC said.

The recall covers a number of pet food brands made at the Gaston plant, including Canidae, Natural Balance, Apex, Kirkland, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul, Country Value, Diamond, Diamond Naturals, Premium Edge, Professional, 4Health and Taste of the Wild.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)– Actress and author Mariel Hemingway was in Philadelphia this past week, talking about her family’s tragic history with suicide and depression.

Mariel Hemingway may be best known as an actress, but she’s also an author of a few books promoting a healthy mind, body and spirit. She appeared as part of the “Minding Your Mind” speaker series in Ardmore.

Seven people in the Hemingway family have committed suicide, sometimes because of depression.

“It’s not the first family that has had to deal with all this tragedy and all that stuff and so for me, it’s OK, because also, on a good note, the family was also very creative and sometimes that goes hand in hand.”

Hemingway wants to help people see that lifestyle can effect depression.

Hemingway has also set up a Facebook page titled “You Matter. Don’t Quit” aimed at helping teens facing depression.

Listen to extended interview:

Personal listening devices have become a big culprit of hearing loss. In a noisy world, we crank them up to drown out the racket and hear the music. But the trouble is, high volume is little by little, damaging the sensitive cells in our inner ears.

“We’re anticipating we’re going to see more and more noise-induced hearing loss in a younger group of individuals because of this exposure to loud noise,” said Dr. Ronald Hoffman of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.

That’s why the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary has launched a PSA campaign with musicians Sting and Chris Botti alerting people to hearing loss and what to do about it.

“When these baby boomers start to realize that they’re not hearing well in a noisy environment, it may be time for them to get their hearing evaluated,” said Hoffman.

That’s what Terrence Shea did. He already has hearing loss and it’s getting somewhat worse as he grows older. The solution? Hearing aids, which many people resist.

But what most don’t realize is that hearing aids are almost invisible these days.

“After a while, there are times you don’t even realize you’re wearing them,” said patient Robert Apfel.

Doctors say to protect your hearing, turn down the volume, wear ear plugs at loud concerts and do the same for your kids.

If you have a hearing issue, get it checked out.

For more information, visit www.nyee.edu.

Please share your thoughts below…

Experts recently told CBS 2′s Kristine Johnson that for many women the choice between health and hair is often difficult.

“When they come in the first thing is tears. No one wants to come into a wig store,” said Flora Shepelsky, the owner of Designs By Flora.

For some of Shepelsky’s clients a wig on top of  a hair weave can help to hide a devastating secret. That secret is extreme and often sudden hair loss.

Shepelsky’s clients told CBS 2 that their hair loss was triggered by a reaction to prescription drugs.

“I would have done anything to get my hair back, but then my health was suffering,” one patient said.

When she tried to go off of the medication to save her hair, that patient’s health declined, and she had to go back on the pills.

Some women told CBS 2 that hormone therapy is to blame for their hair loss, while others blamed a variety of other medications that listed hair loss as a possible side effect on their warning labels.

“There’s nothing that has no side effects. Everything that you take they can fix one thing and something else goes wrong,” a patient said.

Some patients have turned to natural drugs in an effort to improve health and grow back their hair.

Mary Speciale told CBS 2 that her hair began to fall out following hip surgery 18 months ago.

“I took some of the medications post-operatively and no one told me that they could cause hair loss,” she said.

But doctors said they are not sure if it was the surgery or the medicine that caused the hair loss.

“We don’t know if it’s due to the surgery itself or due to medication she got for anesthesia. Sometimes they’re given medications during surgery, so it’s very difficult to pinpoint,” explained Dr. Richard Mizuguchi, the director of The Hair Loss and Restoration Institute.

Specialists said that they will work with primary care physicians to help change patients to medications that do not cause hair loss. They also explained that only a small portion of the population suffer from this type of hair loss.

What would you go with, the medicine or your hair? Let us know in our comments section below…

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.

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.

A Baltimore County judge denies Mark Midei’s appeal to have his medical license reinstated.

According to WJZ’s media partner The Baltimore Sun, the judge is upholding an earlier decision by the Maryland Board of Physicians.

The board ruled that Midei falsified patient records to justify the placement of unnecessary heart stents.

The board says Midei’s medical license cannot be reinstated for at least two years.

Midei is also facing hundreds of civil lawsuits from former patients.

It’s part of WJZ‘s Continuing Community Commitment.

As Gigi Barnett reports, one Baltimore County family says the walk stepped right in after a heartbreaking diagnosis.

“I feel very blessed because he doesn’t have many memories of that time,” Karyn Shackelford said of her son Carter Shackelford.

Karyn Shackelford vividly remembers the day doctors told her there was something wrong with her unborn baby. It was supposed to be a routine check-up.

“It took them a while to come back and talk to us and figure out what was going on. So, we sat there and panicked for a couple of hours,” Karyn Shackelford said.

Doctors diagnosed her baby with posterial urethral valves. It happens when extra tissue grows on a boy’s urethra. The condition blocks the flow of fluid in the area and sometimes causes organ damage, especially to the kidney.

It occurs in one in every 8,000 boys, and doctors recommended fetal surgery for Karyn Shackelford’s unborn baby. It worked, but on the second try.

“At 24 weeks. A week later, we went back in and we did it again. We were really lucky. The procedure held that time,” she said.

Her “baby” Carter is now almost five, and this weekend, Karyn Shackelford plans to walk in honor of him in the Baltimore Kidney Walk.

The money raised benefits the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland.

“He’s doing fantastic right now and really not try to focus too far into the future,” she said.

The Shackelfords started attending the walk before Carter was born. It was a chance to meet other families in the same situation. Now, this year, they’ve raised nearly $3,000 for the foundation.

WJZ is a proud sponsor of the Baltimore Kidney Walk. More than 2,000 walkers are expected for the 1.6-mile trek. It starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday at the Maryland Zoo.

Mary Bubala has more on the questions being raised about his sudden death.

Seau’s body was found Wednesday in his California home. His death has many talking about the lingering effects of football’s hard hits.

No conclusive medical evidence links concussions and suicide but a leading university with ties to a Baltimore Ravens player is gaining ground.

In a 20-year career in the NFL, Seau made more than 1,800 tackles, becoming one of the most feared linebackers in the game.

Seau was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

His death comes after the suicide last year of former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson. He shot himself in the chest so his brain would be preserved for science.

Boston University researchers concluded he suffered from degenerative disease of the brain that can lead to depression.

“Your brain, it is just being constantly jostled around,” Ravens center Matt Birk said.

Birk has pledged to donate his brain to the same research at Boston University some day.

“What concerns me is the repeated trauma, hard hits. I have had three concussions,” Birk said.

More than 1,500 former players are now suing the NFL, claiming that for years, it ignored evidence that repeated blows to the head trigger CTE, linked to memory loss, depression and dementia.

That includes the family of Baltimore Colts legend John Mackey who passed away after suffering from dementia for years.

Just last month, former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling committed suicide. He was suffering from dementia at age 62.

Former tackle Kyle Turley, who knew Seau, speculates that he may have paid a price for being a football great.

“He played hard, tough and resilient, and there is no doubt that the toll his brain took at the position he played, it will most undoubtedly show as a factor,” Turley said.

Seau’s ex-wife is confirming that her former husband did sustain many concussions during his 20-year NFL career.

The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission has agreed to raise rates for patients receiving outpatient services by 2.59 percent. But the panel will lower rates for inpatients by 1 percent, for an overall increase of .3 percent.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland’s system works to hold down costs by spreading the expense of patient care. All insurers, including private companies, the state, through Medicaid, and the federal government, with Medicare, pay the same rates. Maryland is the only state with such a program.

The new rates take effect July 1.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Kai Jackson tells us the program is rapidly growing.

This partnership was just announced on Tuesday with results already. And a Johns Hopkins doctor helped to lead the charge.

A giant in social media is leveraging its people power to help save lives.

Facebook has partnered with Donate Life America to encourage its users to become organ donors.

In Maryland alone, 2,000 people are waiting for organ, tissue or eye transplants.

“One of the values I see of this is the ability to have this conversation with your social network– people you care about and people you feel comfortable with,” said Natalie Benavides of Donate Life Maryland.

“There are 200 million people in the U.S. on Facebook. There are a billion people in the world on Facebook,” Dr. Andrew Cameron, a transplant surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, said.

The idea was homegrown here in Baltimore.

Cameron is the director of liver transplants at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He and Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg were classmates at Harvard University.

At a recent reunion, the two talked about the problem of transplants and the rest– as they say– is history.

“We haven’t done a good enough job educating people, communicating to people about the importance of organ donation,” Cameron said.

Marty Maren of Baltimore was near death in 2009 from a failing liver. He credits his wife Michele and his donor with saving his life.

“I spend every minute that I have talking about organ donation,” Maren said. “I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for everyone to at least consider that.”

“People are used to using this tool to communicate with family and friends to get the opinions of people they respect. Why couldn’t we use that for this difficult problem?” Cameron said.

You can sign up to become an organ donor at your Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) or by clicking here.

Nationwide, 114,000 people are waiting for organ transplants.

Monique Griego has more on how one local doctor isn’t letting distance get in the way of taking part in an important race.

It takes a lot of leg work to keep up with the crowd, so as the 2012 Maryland Half Marathon approaches, conditioning is a key concern for Dr. Michael Donnenberg.

“I’ve been a participant in all three of them, and I didn’t want to miss this one,” he said.

All the proceeds from the race benefit the Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, a cause that’s very important to Donnenberg.

“Last year there were about 2,000 participants, and over the three years have raised about $750,000 to fight cancer,” Donnenberg said.

So when he found out he’d be an ocean away on race day, instead of bowing out, he got creative.

“This year I’m going to be running my own half marathon in Amsterdam,” Donnenberg said.

So as marathoners in Maryland get going, Donnenberg will be running right along with them.

“My wife is going to be there with me and she’ll be going along on a bicycle and taking some video and I’ll have my GPS watch,” Donnenberg said.

As a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Donnenberg knows how important funding is to fighting disease and finding cures. He hopes his dedication will encourage others to run in the race or at least run to their computer.

“It’s a really great cause and really easy to contribute,” Donnenberg said. “And you can help a really great institution fight cancer.”

The marathon is being held May 6 at the Maple Lawn Community in Fulton, Md. Click here for a link to where you can donate.

Pat Warren reports on one grand opening that received rave reviews.

The things kids won’t eat probably don’t surprise you–like a second-grader with a preference for bread with no crust. But the things they love to eat may surprise you, too.

A newly installed salad bar at Calvin Rodwell Elementary is well suited to those tastes, their tummies and a trend toward better nutrition.

“What I have in my salad is some grapes, cucumber, spinach, tomatoes and strawberries,” said Demetrius Nelson, fourth-grader.

These culinary options are courtesy of grants from HBO, Whole Kids Foundation and Global Tap, which is providing filtered water taps.

And it is building on what students are being taught about what makes a good plate.

“Your vegetable would be string beans, your protein would be chicken, your fruit would be grapes, and your carbohydrate would be bread,” said Timothy Jones, fifth-grader.

Governor Martin O’Malley joined the students for lunch.

“For so many years we put soda machines, potato chips and so many things into school diets and cafeterias, tons of salt, tons of fat, and the result you see is a rising level of obesity,” O’Malley said.

And now perhaps a change.

“I picked those things because they’re healthy,” one student said.

“The more you eat salad, the more energy you have in a day and by night time you get a good night’s rest,” another student said.

One of the priorities of the O’Malley administration is to promote childhood health through better nutrition.

A total of 10 city schools have received the new grants for salad bars.

They believe lighting up marijuana will help save their lives.

It’s no ordinary high.

“It’s just as useful to me as chemotherapy,” said Phillip Weigner, medical marijuana user.

The 22-year-old is battling a rare type of Stage 4 cancer. The symptoms are brutal.

But marijuana “helps me with my appetite, nausea, sleep…some of the pain that I have,” he said.

Weigner says he’s fighting his disease with everything that he has.

Before he got sick, Weigner worked and went to college. He loves snowboarding, hiking and photography. An Eagle Scout, he was the last person you’d expect to break the law, but cancer changed that.

Weigner says it was absolutely difficult to make the decision to purchase and use marijuana.

“It scares me every day to have to go out on the black market and look for it and have the potential threat of arrest,” he said.

Last December, that’s exactly what happened during a routine traffic stop in Montgomery County. The officer searched his car and discovered a bag of marijuana and a pipe.

“I couldn’t imagine what going to jail would be like,” he said.

“There’s no reason that somebody like Phillip should have to spend a night in jail, hire an attorney and go to court simply to use his medicine,” said Kate Bell, Weigner’s attorney.

Since medical marijuana is illegal in Maryland, it’s hard to say exactly how many people use it, but Weigner’s lawyer says there are thousands.

“The patients know they are breaking the law, but the greater good is the preservation of their own health,” Bell said.

Despite repeated pleas from people suffering from diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and glaucoma, each year Maryland lawmakers refuse to allow them to buy it here legally.

“We don’t want to be considered a criminal,” said TV personality Montel Williams.

Year after year, the Baltimore native and former talk show host lobbies Annapolis to legalize medical marijuana. An outspoken advocate, Williams uses it to relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

“I have been living with neuropathic pain in my lower extremities, my face and my side for 10 years, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year… period. It doesn’t go away,” Williams said.

Williams says the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Mayo Clinic and others know it works. But opponents worry that legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message.

“I don’t care if it’s for medical use. I don’t care if it’s for personal use. When you smoke pot, you get high and when you get high you are impaired,” said Mike Gimbel, substance abuse expert.

People who are suffering ask others to understand it helps them eat and sleep and survive.

Weigner says using marijuana is keeping him alive.

“That, in combination with other medications, that’s what’s keeping me alive,” he said.

Medical marijuana is legal to varying degrees in 16 states and in Washington, D.C.

Jessica Kartalija explains how the transition into the new hospital is working.

Amanda Gonzalez had been a mom for just three hours when nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital told her it was time to go.

Just two weeks after the official grand opening of the 560-bed facility on April 12, patients were moved into brand new rooms.

“We’re finally done. It’s taken years of planning and training and everyone said it went so well today,” said perinatal nurse manager Joan Diamond.

In Labor and Delivery, nurses underwent more than 20 hours of training to ensure the move went smoothly.

“It was very choreographed,” said Diamond.

Amanda Gonzalez and her new son Cruz are among the first patients in the maternity ward, where there are three operating rooms, 35 obstetrics rooms where mothers spend time before and after giving birth, 10 private labor and delivery rooms and a 16-bed newborn nursery.

Every new OB room has sleeping facilities for overnight guests and interactive televisions where patients can access information about their hospital stay. New mothers are also able to choose their own meals.

“It’s gorgeous,” says Gonzalez. “We actually tried to wait until 9 o’clock to be the first baby delivered in this [new] ward and we actually got to be the last baby delivered in the old wing and the first ones in the new room here. We have the best of both worlds!”

The $1.1 billion facility was funded largely through private donations.

(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.

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