• School trip helps 11 students lose over 750 pounds

    Last September, 11 students from Independence, Missouri, headed off to Mindstream Academy, a boarding program in South Carolina, on a mission to lose weight. The trip, paid for by their school district, enabled the students to shed weight they had been struggling with for years. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    They left their families in Independence, Mo., in September as overweight teens and tweens who had been picked on for being big, who had difficulty making friends and who were  feeling bad about their lives.

    But when the dozen students returned after three months at MindStream Academy, a weight-loss boarding school in Bluffton, S.C., they had lost a combined 756 pounds, and had gained self-confidence and pride along the way.

    One of the students, Jason Alexander, a 16-year-old 11th grader, weighed 330 pounds at his heaviest.

    “If you’re big, you usually get teased,” he said in a report that aired Friday on TODAY. “‘Oh, you’re a fatty.’ It really brings you down.”

    He and the other students hoped to change all of that by attending the weight-loss program, where they exercised, learned about healthy eating and received counseling.

    “I lost 100 pounds,” Jason said. “My self esteem was just through the roof.”

    When the group returned home to emotional reunions with their families in December, Jason’s mother didn’t recognize him.

    “She was like, ‘Is that you?’” Jason said. “And I see Mom and she’s just crying about how much I lost.”

    Sarah Jones, another 11th grader, had also been teased as her weight climbed to 315.

    “I overhead someone say, ‘Oh you can't sit there. You're too big for that seat,’” said Sarah, 17. “That was hurtful. I went home that night and I cried.”

    Her outlook brightened, though, as she lost weight. “When I got down to about 250 pounds, I said, ‘Wow.’”

    The usual tuition at the academy is $28,500 per semester, according to The Associated Press, and was paid for by the Independence School District, the students’ families, donors, and a foundation connected to the academy.

    “If we as a school district can take advantage of an opportunity for students and their families to change the course of their life, then that's what we’re going to do,” Jim Hinson, superintendent of the Independence School District, told TODAY.

    Cameron Larkins, a 12-year-old sixth grader, said that nobody recognized him when he returned home. “I grew four inches and I lost 65 pounds,” he said.

    His weight had topped out at 257, and he wanted to reverse the upward trend.

    “I might not live past 21,” he said. “If I did, I'd be 500 or 700 pounds.”

    His mother, Kimberly, was thrilled with the results. “We should just feel, really blessed not only for what MindStream has offered them but for what the kids have gone out and really worked hard to lose,” she said.

    Tenth grader Chelsea Neely, whose weight had reached 275, recalled not wanting to look in the mirror and having a hard time finding new friends.

    She dropped 50 pounds, adding: “I’m smiling a lot more and I think I just have a lot more optimism.”

    Her mother, too, is proud of her daughter. “I mean, she’s always made me proud but I’m just even prouder,” said her mom, Christina.

    MindStream says it is not a traditional weight-loss facility and calls itself a therapeutic program to help teens reach a health weight, get fit and find self esteem.

    “Our emphasis is not on the numbers on a scale, unrealistic diet plans, or hours spent in a gym, but rather self-awareness and regulation. We stress gaining control over one’s life, and healing the whole person,” according to the academy’s website.

    Dr. Andrew Bremer, a pediatric endocrinologist at Vanderbilt University, applauded the students’ weight loss. “I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “It demonstrates that this type of program is feasible and I think it would great if there were more of these systems in place.”

    He said when overweight children lose weight and gain self esteem, “that’s two huge victories.”

    The biggest challenge though, will be when they are back home and whether they have a supportive family environment that will enable them to maintain their healthy changes. After all, he noted, “it was the home and that initial environment that allowed the weight gain to occur in the first place.”

    “If the family buys into a healthy maintenance program, the child is much more apt to continue being healthy," he said. “It’s difficult to treat the child without addressing the whole family.”

    The children and their families will have to continue to make the effort to stay healthy.

    “It really is taking the child being proactive in making food decisions,” he said. “The default Western diet is a bad diet. It takes being proactive to make healthy food choices.”

    Related:

    Disabled vet loses 140 pounds, inspires others through yoga

    Four strangers form a bond, each lose 100 pounds

    'Drinking mirror' shows aging effects of alcohol

    Show more
  • Flu jab isn't perfect by a long shot, health officials admit

    Philip Izzo got a flu shot this year, but the 65-year-old Carlsbad, Calif., man said he still got sick.

    So did most of his family, including his partner, two sisters, a brother and a brother-in-law, all in states as far-flung as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida.

    “It was terrible,” he said of the illness that struck right around the holidays. “We were down for the count.”

    Izzo, like many of the people who dutifully get their shots each year, figured his family was fully protected against the coughing, fever and body aches that the influenza infection.

    So he says he was surprised to learn that government health officials today pegged the effectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine at about 62 percent.

    “I’m stunned, actually,” said Izzo. “It begs the question, why did I get the shot?”

    More people are asking that question now, amid a flu season that started early and now has spread to 90 percent of the U.S. according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Government health officials urge everyone older than 6 months to get flu shots, and they say it’s the best way to prevent serious complications such as pneumonia -- and even death.

    But they also acknowledge the shots can be a hard sell, especially when people learn they’re not 100 percent effective.

    “We’d love it to be better, but we think it’s a substantial public health benefit,” said Dr. Joe Bresee, who heads the epidemiology and prevention branch of the CDC’s influenza division.

    Critics of vaccines object to injecting foreign substances into their bodies, worry that side effects are more serious than health officials acknowledge and argue that the shots are not effective enough, anyway. 

    Sixty percent effectiveness is about what CDC expects in any given year, though the actual rate can range from about 65 percent to 80 percent in young, healthy people, flu experts say.

    Flu vaccines are tricky to make because flu viruses are constantly changing and because human immune response wanes quickly after immunization, Bresee said.

    “If I had the perfect answer of how to make a perfect flu vaccine, I’d probably get a Nobel Prize,” he joked.

    The quest for a long-lasting, universally effective flu vaccine continues, but in the meantime, there are many reasons that people who got flu shots may find themselves still battling a nasty bug.

    First, it might not be the flu at all. Several other viruses are circulating this year and the flu shot doesn’t protect against them at all. An aggressive strain of norovirus, an unpleasant gut bug, is especially prevalent this year.

    “I hear that every day: People think they got the flu shot and they are not going to get any other illness,” said Dr. Sharon Orrange, an assistant professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. “If you have bronchitis or an upper respiratory infection, the flu shot will not protect you from that.”

    Second, it takes about two weeks for the flu vaccine to take full effect and during that time, people are still susceptible to the virus.

    Finally, their bodies may not have mounted a strong enough immune response to the vaccine. That can happen, even if they've gotten shots, because of age or underlying illness, doctors say.

    “People need to understand that it’s not 100 percent,” Orrange said.

    But, she added, the flu shot may shorten the duration of the illness, soften its severity and prevent complications, including pneumonia.

    Three weeks after his holiday flu, Izzo says he still has lingering effects. He wonders whether the flu shot he got in October prevented an even worse bout of illness, but he’s still not convinced of the benefits.

    “I’m likely, possibly, not to get it next year,” he said.

    Related stories:

     

     

     

     

     

  • 'Drinking mirror' shows aging effects of alcohol

    Kicking back with a glass of wine is how many people like to unwind, but what if you knew now the toll alcohol could take on your appearance later? NBC's Janet Shamlian reports on a new "drinking mirror" app that shows how alcohol can affect your face.

    If you regularly enjoy cocktail hour and could peek into the future, would you like what you saw in the mirror?

    “Drinking Mirror,” a new online program and mobile app from the Scottish government, lets drinkers upload their photo, plug in their weekly alcohol consumption and receive a computer-generated image of the potential toll regular drinking could take on their appearance. It doesn’t require or use any personal data.

    The results, which may include weight gain, deeper wrinkles and red cheeks, do not always make for a pretty picture.

    “That’s horrible,” one woman said, holding a tablet computer with her “Drinking Mirror” reflection near her face.

    The hope is that the appeal to vanity will encourage women to more closely watch their drinking, according to a report on TODAY Friday.

    It comes amid new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show almost 14 million American women, or one out of eight, are binge drinking three times a month, consuming an average of six drinks per binge.

    Binge drinking, defined for women as consuming at least four drinks per sitting, can increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy and other problems, the CDC says.

    “Binge drinking leads to problems with your body and your brain and really self-harming behaviors that can lead to addictive behaviors,” intervention specialist Brad Lamm told TODAY.

    U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that women have no more than one drink per day, two for men, according to the CDC binge drinking page.

    Lamm says the online program, which does not consider the medical consequences of drinking, could be a valuable tool.

    But a group of women out for drinks in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., weren’t sold.

    “I just don’t take it seriously,” one told TODAY. “How can it take into effect your genes, other things that you do in life, how much you work out, how much you don’t work out?”

    Related:

    Miss America contestant pursuing double mastectomy

    Video: Most likely to binge drink: Young women

    Parents have the power to prevent teen binge drinking

  • Miss America contestant gets hate mail over mastectomy plans

    B. Vartan Boyajian / AP

    Allyn Rose, 24, plans to undergo a double mastectomy after the Miss America pageant as a preventative measure to reduce her chances of developing the disease that killed her mother, grandmother and great aunt.

    She’s a former punk rocker who does artistic rollerskating and plans to have a double mastectomy to protect herself from getting breast cancer. Allyn Rose is not your typical contestant vying for the Miss America crown.

    “I was a huge tomboy growing up,” Rose said. “I know, every pageant girl says that, but I was in a punk rock band with a leather jacket and a boyfriend with a mohawk.”

    The 24-year-old Miss District of Columbia first entered the pageant world three years ago in a contest dedicated to breast cancer awareness, which she chose to honor the memory of her mother, who died from the disease when Rose was 16.

    First diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer at 27, Rose’s mother’s cancer returned when she was 47 and she died three years later.

    In addition, Rose’s grandmother and great aunt both died from the same disease. She has been found to carry a rare genetic disease – not the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes but another condition, a rare genetic mutation that puts her at risk. “For me, breast cancer is not a matter of if. It’s almost a matter of when,” she says.

    Rose is planning to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy after her year of service as Miss D.C. or Miss America. Her doctors are monitoring her health in the meantime through sonograms and vigilant check-ups.

    Her pageant platform, “Breast Cancer: Planning a Marathon, Running a Sprint,” is a tribute to her mom, a marathon runner.

    She plans to teach other women how to take control of their medical needs. “I don’t ever want to face the same battle that my mom did,” Rose said. “My mission is to teach people how to be pro-active in their health care.”

    B. Vartan Boyajian / AP

    Miss DC, Allyn Rose

    It took some careful consideration before deciding to go forward with the surgery. Her father suggested it to her when she turned 18 but she wasn’t ready to hear about it then.

    “I said, ‘I’m not going to have my breasts removed – I just got these,’” Rose recalled. “It took me a few years to realize the wisdom and that he wanted me to live and for me not to leave my husband. This can really help prolong my life. The beauty in my life is living, and my mother would have given up anything in her life to be here for me … for myself, for my kids, for my future husband, it was a very easy decision for me to make.”

    She added, “To be an advocate in women’s health care and take control of my body has been incredibly empowering.”

    But it’s worth noting that the preventive surgery Rose has decided on has caused some controversy among those in the medical world.

    "We're seen a rise in prophylactic mastectomies and a lot of it is not for a medical reason; it is because of fear and anxiety," Sandra Swain, medical director of Washington Cancer Institute in Washington, DC, told the Associated Press.

    And Rose’s outspokenness about her plans to have the surgery have even attracted hate mail from some – and there are even those who are convinced she’s making it all up in order to attract media attention, she told the AP. "You have people who say, 'Don't have the surgery. This is mutilating your body. You don't have cancer.' They want to pick apart every little thing," she said in an interview with the AP.

    But Rose is used to doing things a little differently from her peers. When it comes to the talent portion of the competition, Miss District of Columbia will shake things up with an artistic rollerskating routine. Much like figure skating but on four wheels instead of blades, she said, artistic rollerskating involves lots of jumps and spins. She has competed in the sport for 10 years and was a national champion and silver medalist.

    Her program will be done to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It’ with choreography by the group Breaksk8 of America’s Best Dance Crew fame, who will be in attendance to watch her perform. “I hope that by breaking the rules a little bit and putting myself out there with my avant garde talent more women are inspired to compete in the pageant.”

    But to Rose, the most important part is having a platform to start a conversation about tough the medical decisions many women are facing. “It’s the power of one woman to touch the life of one woman,” she says.

    The Miss America pageants airs Saturday at 9 p.m. (ET) on ABC.

    "I unfortunately lost my mother to breast cancer when I was sixteen," said pageant contestant Allyn Rose. The beauty queen is set to undergo preventative surgery after learning she carries the same cancer gene that killed her mother. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

    Related:

    She's the first Miss America contestant with autism

    Cancer studies often downplay chemo effects

    'Pap' test may detect early ovarian cancer

  • Four strangers form a bond, each lose 100 pounds

    After connecting online, 12 strangers joined together to help each other lose 100 pounds each. Then they met for the first time to complete a marathon as a group in Florida. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

    Twelve obese people, all strangers when they met on the internet, forged friendships while helping each other get healthy and start a running program. They’ve all lost over 100 pounds and are now running marathons.

    It all started when Katie Foster of Newport, Mich. decided to start a blog about her new running program. She’d peaked at 253 pounds and was ready to do something to get healthier.

    When Carly York of Dayton, Ohio, spotted the blog she recognized a kindred soul. York’s weight had spiked at 349 pounds and she knew she had to do something. Soon the two women were joined by Ada Wong of San Francisco, who weighed in at 265 pounds, and Rik Akey of Milwaukee who tipped the scales at 275 pounds.

    All four had struggled with their weight for years. “When I was a kid I was getting teased at school,” Foster remembers. “My nickname was Shamu in the fourth grade. You know it really ballooned after I had my kids.”

    For Foster, it all came to a head when her young son wanted to learn how to ride a two-wheel bicycle.

    “I started running alongside his bike and I couldn’t keep up,” she said. “I was so out of breath. And I remember just feeling like the worst mom in the world.”

    Though York had always been overweight, it was pregnancy that made things worse – and sparked her desire for change. “I knew I was overweight my entire life but I think right after my son was born, that’s when it really became a problem for me,” she said. “My final straw was seeing pictures and seeing the actual size of me because I think the perceptions in our heads is a little different than the size we truly are.”

    Wong, too, wrestled with her weight right from the start. “Ever since I can remember, I was always overweight,” she said. “You see, most Asians are very petite and thin, so I pretty much stuck out like a sore thumb. I was bullied and made fun of throughout my life pretty much.

    “I was always looking for the quick fix, and you know, after years of doing that you realize it doesn't work. I've been going up and down for years.”

    Akey can’t remember a time when his weight didn’t get in the way. “I was always the fat kid, the classic kid picked last in gym class,” he said. "That’s all I’ve known my whole life was being the fat kid.”

    But as Akey got older he started to worry about how his weight was going to impact his long term health.

    “I take after my father very much and he's also a heavier person,” Akey said. “He’s diabetic and has back trouble. It just hit me one day as I was approaching 40: This is a preview of coming attractions. This is going to be me if I don’t do something.

    It wasn’t an easy road. They started walking first and then jogging.

    “I probably ran like 100 feet and I felt like my heart was beating out of my chest,” Wong remembers. “It was pathetic. I just started running a little bit at a time and got better and better at it.”

    It didn’t happen overnight for any of them.

    “My first goal was to run around my block without having to stop,” said Akey. “And it took me about six weeks to get to that point. I started seeing progress and started setting bigger and bigger goals.”

    And as they ran further and further, they shed more and more pounds. “I started training for a half marathon and over the process of training and the next year I lost 100 pounds,” York said.

    The experience has changed all their lives.

    “I started out at 253 [pounds],” Foster said. “My goal is 133 and that's what I’m at right now. I’m happy at 133.”

    Down to their ideal weights, Foster and Akey set up a new goal: they would round up other former heavy people who’d slimmed down through running and start a 12-member team to train for the Ragnar relay race. They found the rest of the team members through blogs, social media and friends of friends.

    As time went on, team members became closer and closer, though never actually meeting one another in person.  Eventually they became close friends.

    And just last week the 12 “virtual” friends met each other for the first time in Florida. The Ragnar race covers 200 miles from Miami to Key West and takes two days to run.

    One thing they all say is that the race to better health won’t end with this marathon.

    "I think everyone needs to realize that it's not going to be easy,” Foster said. “Nothing about losing 120 pounds was easy. I had to make a lot of sacrifices but I made everything work into my life.”

    For those who are watching and wondering if they can do it, too, Akey has some advice.

    “We're not special,” he said. “We are 12 everyday couch potatoes who just one day decided, I'm not going to do this anymore - and figured out a way to make it work.”

    That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy, Akey said.

    “It's a lot of hard work,” he added. “But you start with something small, get off your couch, walk around the block today and that's it. Tomorrow, walk around the next block. Build small successes and eventually, you're here, it can happen.”

     

  • Bad flu season worsens as Boston declares emergency

    Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declares a public health emergency after facing a surge in flu cases, as health officials around the US scramble to cope with the rising number of patients. NBC's Mark Barger reports.

    The nation's severe flu season continued to worsen Wednesday, with reports of hospitals overflowing with sick patients and at least one major U.S. city declaring an influenza emergency and urging citizens to get vaccinated before the peak is reached.

    In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino declared a public health emergency because of a sharp rise in cases. That city has seen about 700 confirmed cases of influenza since the season began in October, a 10-fold jump over the 70 cases reported for all of last year, said Nick Martin, a spokesman for the Boston Public Health Commission.

    While last year was an unusually mild flu season, according to government health officials, this year's numbers are worrisome, the city's mayor said.

    "This is the worst flu season we've seen since 2009, and people should take the threat of flu seriously," Menino said in a news release. "This is not only a health concern, but also an economic concern for families, and I'm urging residents to get vaccinated if they haven't already. It's the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family.  If you're sick, please stay home from work or school."

    Flu cases have accounted for more than 4 percent of Boston emergency room visits recently, and about a quarter of those patients have required hospitalization, said Martin. The city has recorded four deaths since October, Martin said. All of those deaths were in elderly people. Community health clinics will offer free flu shots to citizens this weekend, Martin added.

    Nationwide, the flu has spread to more than 80 percent of the U.S., latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated. More than 2,200 people had been hospitalized since October, and 18 children have died. Other viruses besides the flu are also circulating -- CDC data shows only about a third of all people with flu-like symptoms actually are testing positive for influenza.

    The severe season, the earliest in nearly a decade, is starting to strain hospitals across the country. In Milwaukee, emergency departments have been forced to divert incoming ambulances to other hospitals because they've been flooded with older patients with severe flu-like symptoms, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. Several of Milwaukee's 11 hospitals have reported so-called "rolling diversions" because of flu patients, the paper reported.

    In Delaware, the Christiana Care Health System has expanded its emergency room into a nearby conference room to accommodate the jump in flu cases, officials told NBC News.

    The bad season has been blamed on an especially virulent flu strain, the A H3N2 strain. Another A strain, H1N1, and two influenza B strains are also causing illness. Vaccines prepared for this year are a good match for three of the viruses, although one strain of influenza B is not covered by the vaccine and may be accounting for 8 percent to 10 percent of flu cases, according to infectious disease experts.  

    It can take two weeks for the flu shot to provide full protection, and in the interim, people may still get sick, health officials caution. The shots don't provide 100 percent protection, only between 65 percent and 80 percent in a healthy person, but they can lessen the severity and duration of symptoms. The earlier people get shots, the sooner they'll be protected, health officials add.

    Related stories: 

     

     

  • How to protect yourself from the flu? Wash your hands

    Americans are getting hit with a double whammy of viruses this year – an especially vicious flu season, and on top of it, a stomach bug called norovirus that seems to be infecting more people than usual.

    Both are very easy to catch and both can be very unpleasant, putting people on their backs for a week or more with fever, body aches and, in the case of norovirus, vomiting and diarrhea. Influenza also kills several thousand people every year, including previously healthy children and adults.

    So how can you protect yourself? One good way is to wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands, experts agree.

    “People need to learn to wash their hands and wash them well,” says Jeanne Matthews, chair of the department of nursing at Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies in Washington, D.C. Handwashing protects you, and it keeps you from spreading any viruses you may have to anyone else.

    “Certainly teaching your kids early on to wash their hands frequently is one of the most important things you can do,” Matthews adds. “Having the flu in the house doesn't have to be a family affair.”

    And it can protect you even when everyone around you is sick. Viruses live in tiny droplets of saliva and mucus, which people spread when they touch their mouths or noses and then touch something else. There’s evidence that many viruses such as norovirus can really stick to plates and dishes and they definitely stick to telephones, TV remote controls, computer keyboards and other frequently touched objects.

    You can pick up those germs on your own fingers, and infect yourself when you touch your nose, mouth or eyes.

    Influenza can travel on tiny droplets in the air, but these sink and fall to the ground within a few feet. So teaching adults and children alike to cover their coughs can prevent the spread of all sorts of viruses, including colds and flu.

    “You cough into your sleeve, or you cough into a tissue and then throw the tissue away and then wash your hands,” Matthews says.

    Alcohol-based gel or foam hand sanitizers can kill viruses and bacteria, but it can be risky to rely on them alone. One study released in 2011 at the annual Meeting of the American College of Preventive Medicine found that  norovirus -- often called “stomach flu” – can spread despite their use.

    Washing hands thoroughly with warm soap and water has a big advantage over hand sanitizers because it can actually wash germs down the drain.

    There are two other important ways to stop the spread of viruses: vaccines, and staying home when you are sick.

    “The first recommendation that we have is for everyone to get a flu shot. It’s never too early or too late to do that,” Matthews says. “Even if you have flu in your family it is a good way to protect yourself. “

    And adults should stay home from work when they are sick – and keep their kids home from school when they are sick. It’s a no-brainer that too many people ignore, experts point out.

    Even though it's still early in the flu season, hospitals around the country are stretching their resources to face an onslaught of patients sick with the flu. NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports.

    Related stories:

     Early flu season accelerates

    More evidence of nasty flu season coming

    Who gave me the flu? New app helps track the culprit

     

     

     

  • Disabled vet loses 140 pounds, inspires others through yoga

    NBC's Kerry Sanders reports on Arthur Boorman's amazing transformation, which has garnered more than 7 million hits on YouTube.

    After years of disability and weight gain, Arthur Boorman was ready to give up. 

    “I was at a point in my life where I fully expected to die,” Boorman told TODAY. “I was on a downward spiral.”

    Fifteen years ago, the retired military paratrooper was unable to walk unassisted. As he relied on canes and braces just to get around, his weight climbed to about 340 pounds and his health and emotional well-being plummeted. 

    “There are many, many times that I was truly disgusted with what I had become,” he told TODAY's Kerry Sanders. “When furniture gives way underneath you, when you can’t do things that everybody else can do....”

    Diets and exercise plans didn’t work. Boorman was having a hard time with simple things like standing up, and he couldn’t drive a car.

    Then he found hope -- and in turn, spread hope to millions of others.

    While searching the Internet for help with pain management, he found a yoga DVD from former professional wrestler "Diamond" Dallas Page and felt he could give it a try. He struggled at first but stuck with it, and dropped more than 140 pounds in 10 months. He also dropped his canes and braces, able to walk and even run on his own once more.

    Boorman videotaped his journey to hold himself accountable, he told TODAY, “because I was afraid it wouldn’t work.” 

    It did. Now he hopes the video, with more than 7 million hits on YouTube since April, will help others believe in themselves and accomplish their goals. 

    “I’m hoping I inspired other people,” he told TODAY. “I don’t view what I did as impossible or extraordinary. I think that anyone can do what I did in any aspect of their life.”

    Boorman credits Page with believing in him at a time when he thought exercise seemed impossible and when most other yoga instructors had turned him away.

    “When I first saw the pictures of Arthur in the knee brace and the back brace and the wraparound canes, I thought, ‘Wow, I want to help that guy,’” Page told TODAY. 

    Page says his DDP Yoga DVD is not traditional yoga but a “hybrid workout that incorporates some traditional yoga movements and adds dynamic resistance, active breathing techniques and power movements.”

    The two became friends over the Internet, with Boorman updating Page on his progress and Page offering his encouragement.

    “Did he have that discipline to actually do it? And he did,” Page said. “I was blown away by his results every month.”

    The YouTube video introduces Boorman as a 47-year-old disabled Gulf War veteran who thought he would never walk again without help. 

    He’s seen doing the yoga DVD, struggling to keep his balance, arms flailing and several times, he tumbles to the floor. But, he always got back up.

    "Just because I can't do it today doesn't mean I'm not going to be able to do it someday," Boorman tells the camera after falling out of a headstand at one point.

    Elsewhere in the video, he holds up his trousers several inches away from his waistline, saying that he’d lost so much weight that if he let go of the pants, they would drop. “I’m really pleased with this and I just want to share this everybody,” he says in the video.

    His video closes with him thanking Page and showing side-by-side before and after pictures. One shows him standing with his canes, the other, looking long and lean in a headstand.

    Watch Arthur Boorman's story in his YouTube video chronicling his transformation.

    More from TODAY Health:

    Amputee cheerleader has one leg, tons of spirit

    Boy in cochlear implant viral video is 5 now, doing great

    Everything to lose: Gym only accepts overweight members

     

     

  • Being popular on Facebook will make you fat

    Getty Images

    By Yelena Moroz, Men’s Health
    Blame Mark Zuckerberg for your belly. While a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that just 5 minutes on Facebook can temporarily improve your self-esteem when you focus on close friends, here's the bad news: Enhanced self-esteem actually reduces your self-control when you make decisions, like choosing a snack, after browsing.

    Researchers surveyed 470 people about their Internet and Facebook use, plus their health and financial behaviors offline. The results: Frequent users with strong friend ties had an approximate BMI of 26, while infrequent Facebookers had an approximate BMI of 24. (A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered healthy.) High use was also linked to an increase in binge eating. (In the time it took to update your status, you could have done one of these 10-Second Health Checkups.)

    Researchers also randomly assigned 84 Facebook users to read their news feed or to browse a news website for 5 minutes. After the task, all subjects had to choose between a cookie and a granola bar. While those who read the news didn't show an increase in self-esteem--sorry, Anderson--only 30 percent of readers chose the unhealthy option, compared to the 80 percent of Facebook users who reached for cookies (but had higher self-esteem).

    What gives? "People use momentary increases in self-esteem as a license to indulge," study author Keith Wilcox, Ph.D., an assistant professor of marketing at Columbia University, tells MensHealth.com. "The key here is that [the study participant] did not actually do anything to merit a treat."

    If the possibility of gaining a few extra pounds isn't enough to curb your hunger for Facebook, the study also showed that the inverse relationship between high self-esteem and self-control plays a role in your finances. Frequent Facebook users who focused on close friends had about $1,000 more credit card debt than infrequent users. (Reduce your debt and learn these 4 Rules to Build Your Wealth.)

    Relax--you don't need to go completely off the grid to stay in control. "To overcome this potential issue, recognize that while social networks make you feel better about yourself, it's not the same thing as actually feeling good about yourself because you did something, like worked out," Wilcox says. "A bit of self-awareness can help you avoid engaging in this behavior. Facebook is not the problem. It's the feeling of entitlement that's the problem."

    Don't freak out if you manage your company's Facebook or Twitter account. Interacting with weaker ties, such as acquaintances, has less influence. Plus, you're projecting the image of the company, not yourself.

    More from Men's Health: 
    The Spartacus Workout—On DVD!
    The Most Socially Networked Cities in America
    Why You Shouldn’t Have More Than 354 Facebook Friends
    What Your Facebook Friends Say about You

  • Who gave you the flu? New app, docs help place the blame

    Getty Images stock

    Coughing co-workers can be a source of the flu, but it's not always easy to tell who made you sick. A new Facebook app tries to help place blame.

    Was it your friend who borrowed your cell phone because the battery in hers was low? Or was it your son’s friend who always has a runny nose? How about your annoying colleague who you just KNOW doesn’t wash his hands after he blows his nose?

    When it comes to getting the flu, few can keep from playing the blame game, especially during a nasty season like this, in which the influenza bug arrived early, spread widely and seems to be staying for a long, miserable visit.

    Influenza is now widespread in more than 80 percent of the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with no sign yet of a peak. The most prevalent strain is the A H3N2 virus, experts say, which can cause severe illness. Other viruses besides the flu are also circulating -- CDC data shows only about a third of all people with flu-like symptoms actually are testing positive for influenza.

    Even though it's still early in the flu season, hospitals around the country are stretching their resources to face an onslaught of patients sick with the flu. NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports.

    So, at the first sign of the cough, scratchy throat and hit-by-a-truck feeling that flu brings, sufferers can only wonder: Who gave this to me?

    Doctors say it’s not always possible to pinpoint exactly where you got the flu, though sick friends, family and co-workers are obvious choices, of course.

    “It’s hard to say 100 percent where you got it, but there are likely culprits,” says Dr. Sharon Orrange, an assistant professor of medicine at the Keck Medical Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

    People actually shed the flu virus about a day before they come down with symptoms, so it can be possible for them to infect you before they even know they're sick, said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University.

    But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to find the source of their nasty flu infections --  or complaining about them.

    In fact, a new Facebook app actually aims at naming friends who might have made you sick. “Help, My Friend Gave Me the Flu,” trolls through the posts on your Facebook Page looking for clues that might identify the patient zero who spread your bug.

    "It scrubs through your social media contacts looking for 'coughing,' 'sneezing,' 'I feel run down' -- all those keywords," says Richard Fine, chief executive and co-founder of Help Remedies, which sells single-ingredient, over-the-counter drugs that target specific symptoms. He and his crew thought the app would offer a light-hearted diversion to the misery that is influenza.

    "When you feel sick, one of the things that we do is look for people to blame," he adds.

    Story: How to protect yourself from the flu

    In practice, the app appears to implicate folks who tend to post late at night, those who actually say “I have a cold” and spouses, who the app says live “within sneezing distance.” It doesn't nab everybody, however. In at least one test, it missed Facebook friends who had previously described their awful flu symptoms in vivid detail. Fine says they're still tuning the algorithm. 

    In real life, Orrange says that simply knowing someone on Facebook has been sick is no reason to blame that person for your own malady. It’s the folks within intimate distance who are most likely responsible.

    “If you’re at the same table, within five to 10 feet,” and the person is sick, you could catch their flu, Orrange says.

    More likely, however, you’ll pick up their bugs by sharing phones, keyboards, staplers and pens. Or by touching a doorknob that your sick friend or colleague has touched.

    There’s probably no escaping a sick spouse or child, but it’s OK to be annoyed if a colleague comes to work clearly ill, because they actually could infect you, she adds. 

    “If somebody is actively coughing, with a runny nose, where you actually see nasal discharge, that’s bad,” she says. “If they are early in their illness and they are right next to you, you are ripe for infection.”

    The best defense against flu is still vaccination, doctors maintain. This year’s vaccines are a good match for this year’s viruses, CDC officials say. That doesn't mean the shot guarantees people won't get the flu -- effectiveness in healthy people can range from 65 percent to 80 percent, Schaffner said.

    "It’s not a perfect vaccine, but it’s a pretty good one," he said.

    And because the season hasn’t reached its peak, there’s still a good chance that the vaccine will prevent getting the flu, or at least soften the worst of the symptoms, Orrange adds. 

    “It’s definitely still ramping up,” she says. “We feel like we’re in the thick of it right now.”

    Related stories: 

     

  • Being bilingual can keep your brain young, sharp

    John Secor, professor of French at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, has been speaking two languages since he was a small boy in Canada.

    He’s also a musician and singer and when he’s playing with a group, he finds he’s better able to hear multiple voices and switch beats and parts than some of his monolingual band mates.

    “I have noticed this [advantage] in myself compared to others,” said the 57-year-old Secor.

    New research published Tuesday in The Journal of Neuroscience helps explain why Secor’s mental reactions are so sharp, even in middle age –- the brains of people who are bilingual work more efficiently than people who speak only one language.

    Neuroscientists have been accumulating strong evidence that knowing, and constantly using, a second language starting in childhood can significantly delay a decline in brain power. University of Kentucky in Lexington researchers wanted to know why some people’s brains seem protected.

    John Secor, 57, has been bilingual since he was a small boy in Canada. New research finds that the brains of people who are bilingual work more efficiently.

    The benefit appears to accrue chiefly in the process of cognitive control. As we pass through middle age, our brains become slower at switching from one task to another and at shutting out unwanted distractions. So our executive functions, such as the ability to concentrate on a task without other thoughts intruding, show a noticeable fall off.

    “There was already some behavioral evidence looking at reaction and accuracy showing that bilinguals slow less as they age in these cognitive areas,” neurobiologist Brian Gold, Ph.D told NBCNews. “We wanted to understand what the neural basis of that is.” In other words, what parts of the brain are involved in this protective effect, and how does it work?

    First, Gold had to find older people who’d been bilingual since age 10, and a set of other test subjects matched for education and socioeconomic status who speak just one language. Finding enough bilingual people in central Kentucky proved difficult, but eventually, the researchers had their participants, including Secor.

    Gold then asked 15 monolingual people and 15 bilinguals with a median age of 63 to decide if a shape was a circle or a square, making their choice by pressing a button. Then they had to decide if a shape was red or blue. Finally, they had to rapidly switch between these two tasks. Bilingual people showed faster reaction times during the task switching phase than did monolingual people.

    Using new volunteers, this time including 20 younger bilingual and 20 monolingual people as well as two groups of 20 bi- and monolingual oldsters, Gold had them perform the same tasks while imaging their brains. 

    Previous studies have shown that younger people are faster at switching and require less brain power. They’re more efficient. Gold got the same results: Both groups of young people had faster reaction times than both groups of older people during the task switching phase. But bilingual older adults displayed significantly faster reaction times than their peers -- closer to the youngsters.

    When the imaging data was analyzed, the scientists found that during the switch phase of the tests, everyone was using parts of the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate, executive parts of the brain where we reason and weigh options. The imaging data showed that older people who spoke just one language required more brain effort in these areas than did either set of younger people, or their older bilingual peers.

    The brain shrinks with aging, but brain volume was not significantly different between the two groups of older adults. So the advantage of bilingual speakers doesn’t appear to be structural. Rather, the researchers speculate, “it may be the case that the bilingual requirement to switch between languages on a daily basis serves to tune the efficiency of language-switching regions…and that over time the increased efficiency of these regions comes to benefit even nonlinguistic, perceptual switching,” perhaps showing up in Secor’s music abilities, for example.  

    Gold, who also grew up in Canada as a bilingual youngster and who has made a specialty of studying the aging brain, said that the jury is still out on whether bilingualism can prevent or delay the onset of dementia, but he thinks it looks promising.

    As to whether it’s too late for those of us struggling to learn a new language as adults to get any of this cognitive benefit, he said: “It’s not exactly known. There’s not a lot of literature on that but what there is suggests two things: You need to acquire it when you are young and you need to do it every day. It’s not enough to dabble in a second language…You need a much more regular workout, constantly switching between languages.”

    So while those Mandarin classes for toddlers may seem obnoxiously precious, and your 6-year-old may say he hates you for making him learn French, you will get a big "xie xie" or “merci beaucoup” when they grow up. 

    Brian Alexander (www.BrianRAlexander.com) is co-author, with Larry Young Ph.D., of "The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex and the Science of Attraction," (www.TheChemistryBetweenUs.com), now on sale.

    More on TODAY Health:

    Feeling forgetful? Time to hit the gym

    Gym accepts only overweight members

    Boy's book helps epileptic kids get service dogs

  • More smokers make New Year's resolution to quit

    By Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily 

    Twice as many smokers say they plan to quit the habit this year compared with last year, a new poll by an advocacy group finds.

    Thirty-four percent of the U.S. smokers surveyed who made any New Year's resolution said they plan to quit smoking in 2013, compared with 18 percent in 2012, the poll found.

    To conduct the poll, researchers with Legacy, an organization that advocates that people quit smoking, surveyed 1,550 U.S. smokers ages 18 and over via email who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetimes. The survey was not a representative sample of the U.S. population.

    The majority, 67 percent, said the increasing cost of cigarettes was the main reason for quitting, and 58 percent cited concerns over the health risks linked to smoking.

    More than half, 53 percent, said they had not spoken with their doctor about quitting in the last year. This finding "shows that we have a significant missed opportunity on our hands," said Cheryl Healton, president of Legacy. "Health-care providers play a critical role in reaching smokers with support and resources for quitting," Healton said.

    Even a 10-minute conversation with a doctor who delivers advice about quitting can help, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    Smoking has been shown to increase the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and death from chronic obstructive lung disease, the CDC says.

    Both prescription medications and over-the-counter cessation therapies, such as gums, lozenges and patches, can improve a smoker's chances of quitting, the researchers said. Of those surveyed, 39 percent said they had used a nonprescription product in their last attempt to quit smoking, and 13 percent said they had used a prescription product.

    Last year, those who made a New Year's resolution to quit smoking stopped smoking for about a month, on average, before lighting up again; and for many, it was the longest they had abstained from the habit.

    Previous studies have suggested tobacco smoking increases the number of receptors in the brain that bind to nicotine, making it difficult for smokers to quit.

    Withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, anxiety and increased appetite, can lead people to relapse, according to the CDC.

    Few people who want to quit smoking have a long-term plan, the researchers said. Speaking with a health-care provider and making a plan for the future can help, the researchers said.

    More from MyHealthNewsDaily: