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February 24th, 2012
02:00 PM ET
'Top Chef' Talbot: Cooking and diabetes can mixEditor's note: In the Human Factor, we profile survivors who have overcome the odds. Confronting a life obstacle – injury, illness or other hardship – they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn't know they possessed. This week meet Sam Talbot, executive chef at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, New York, who became known across the nation when he joined season 2 of Bravo's reality show "Top Chef." He is living with type 1 diabetes. I remember being about 8 years old in Cleveland, Ohio, and going to the farmer's market with my grandmother, and getting eggs and making scrambled eggs and all those types of things that an 8-year-old doesn't necessarily just pick up. And I fell in love with it. As time went on, I'd try to make my parents breakfast in bed. It would be Saturday morning and they had to ban me from the kitchen because I was in there at 7 a.m. banging things around. My whole thing is about being as eco-sustainable as possible and cooking sustainable seafood, and food that makes sense for the mind, body and soul.
February 24th, 2012
12:26 PM ET
CDC director: We can reduce prescription drug overdosesThirty years ago, I attended medical school in New York. In the key lecture on pain management, the professor told us confidently that patients who received prescription narcotics for pain would not become addicted. While pain management remains an essential patient right, a generation of health care professionals, patients, and families have learned the hard way how deeply misguided that assertion was. Narcotics - both illegal and legal - are dangerous drugs that can destroy lives and communities. Millions of Americans struggle with substance abuse. Across the United States, overdoses involving opioid painkillers - a class of drugs with narcotic effects that includes hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone - have skyrocketed in the past decade. Today, the United States consumes most of the world’s supply of opioid painkillers. By 2010, enough opioid painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month. And every year, nearly 15,000 people die from overdoses involving these drugs... more than from heroin and cocaine combined.  The AAAS meeting took place at the Vancouver Convention Center. Yep, that's the view. Yep, I want to go back.
February 24th, 2012
10:51 AM ET
A Vancouver science diaryEditor's note: Elizabeth Landau (@lizlandau) is a writer/producer for CNN.com. Meat from stem cells? Singing without your vocal chords? I'm still trying to mentally process all of the cool research that I learned about at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Last weekend, @AAASMeetings drew about 8,000 scientists, journalists, educators, policymakers and communicators came from all over the world to idyllic Vancouver, British Columbia. For someone who misses the knowledge-thirst-quenching aspects of college, it's pretty blissful. You choose between dozens of subjects to learn about during the day, and then you get to hang out with fascinating people in the evenings. And you're tweeting the highlights to thousands of people, some of whom will want to meet up with you later. Of course, you'd better get those tweets right, or you'll get a #FAIL. Here's a very condensed version (sorry for not mentioning everyone & everything): 
February 24th, 2012
10:04 AM ET
Child cancer patient deals with drug shortageEditor's note: Owen McMasters, 12, was diagnosed with Acuta Lymphoblastic Leukemia in November 2011. His family has been dealing with the shortage of methotrexate, a drug that treats cancer by slowing the growth of cancer cells. Between 2006 and 2010, drug shortages increased by more than 200%. Read more about these shortages, and what the FDA is doing to help, on The Chart. Learning that the enlarged lymph nodes I showed my mom meant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), a type of cancer, and not mono, was devastating. It meant that I would not be returning to school until at least next August. It meant I would spend unknown amounts of time in the hospital. It meant I would not be able to be around groups of people. (I have to limit which friends and family members I am around, since a simple cold for you could mean severe illness for me.) It meant my hair I loved fell out, leaving me with baby bird fuzz on my head. I underwent two operations in the first 36 hours and then went under anesthesia for either a spinal tap with chemotherapy, a bone marrow biopsy, or both, nearly every week. Because my platelets and white blood cell count are often critically low, I am unable to ride my bike, play any sports, wrestle with my brothers or do many of the things I like to do. My new friends are other kids with bald or fuzzy heads who are going through the same thing as me. |
  About this blog
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
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