good morning, washington, d.c. you're looking at the jefferson memorial. you can see reagan international airport in the background. a family spots a box on the side of the road in south carolina so they stopped. they heard some strange noises coming from it and inside, what a surprise. black bear cubs. they're about a month old. they weigh less than 3 pounds each. of course, the kids wanted to keep these little guys, but the parents made sure they got to the nearest bear rescue facility. are you about to eat your breakfast? well, before you throw that bacon on the griddle, let "saturday night live" host justin timberlake try to convince you to go vegan ♪ have you heard about the new

health craze? ♪ ♪ meatlessburg ger with tofu mayonnaise. set the brisket. hey, eat some kale, it's so fun ♪ ♪ ah, veg out ♪ veg out ♪ ah ♪ vegetarian nation, we have a concentration ♪ ♪ fiber is a dope ingredient ♪ things you do to make your bowels expedient ♪ ♪ brown rice, baby, unmil, unmill ♪ ♪ now we're standing side by side ♪ ♪ what it takes to come alive

♪ that's great. i wish i had some glo sticks ♪ it's not easy being meatless. i'll see you back here at the top of the hour. first, sanjay gupta, md, begins right now. hi there. thanks for watching. i've got a story that parents and grandparents need to hear. some day care workers will be breaking the law if they use a very common technique to put babies to sleep. i've used this technique myself, all three of my kids. also, the epidemic of drug abuse with pain meds. there's a voice we don't get to hear, the voice of the children. you're going to meet an 89-year-old woman who's completely blind and she has an amazing story how she was able to travel the world still. let's get started. first up though, new

documentary that takes a hard look at my profession, medicine. it's called escape fire, and it makes this controversial case. it says doctors focus too much on money, they do unnecessary procedures, they don't spend enough time on basic prevention. case in point, a patient named ivonne diagnosed in her 30s with heart disease. she had bypass surgery, 27 cardiac catheterizations and more than 27 stents put in place. only then did she end up at the cleveland clinic where they got her blood pressure and cholesterol under control. she lost 20 pounds all of it in an effort to try and avert surgery. >> i can't tell you how shocked we were when we saw her the first time because here was a young woman whose diabetes was not well controlled, her cholesterol was never well controlled and her high blood pressure was never well controlled. if someone had talked to her, i think someone had really teased out her chest pain and shortness

of breath, i think many of her procedures would not have been necessary. >> earlier i spoke with the chairman of cardiology at the cleveland clinic. he's featured in the film and jeffrey marshal, a leading cardiologist whose specialty is implanting stents. >> doctor, let me start with you. you say there's a lot of yvonnes out there, the patient that we just meant. a lot of unnecessary stents. >> if you have stable chest pain, we have very good studies dating back a number of years that show getting a stent will not prevent a heart attack and will not make you live longer. these are techniques that should be used to relieve symptoms and some people getting stents don't have symptoms. they have a blockage that's not causing symptoms and yet they're actually having a procedure. >> are a lot of these stents unnecessary? >> i don't believe so. actually, about 70% of all

angioplasty and stent procedures are done in people actively having heart attacks, okay? large heart attacks or kind of smaller heart attacks or having what we call, unstable angina, that is chest pain that is actually currently damaging the heart in patients. so less than 30% are actually done in these people with stable ischemic heart disease. >> we're 50% to have 5a stent than other countries. we're more likely to have a knee replacement, cat scan or mri. that's because our system reimburses people for doing tests and doing procedures not for necessarily making people healthier. >> i think what dr. nisson is describing is a fee for service model. you get paid for the service you're doing as opposed to for the overall care of the patient. this is what you do for a living. is that how you get paid? if you have a patient who comes in, you get paid a certain amount because you do a stent.

are you incentive advised to do more stents? >> me personally, i'm on a salary. >> it doesn't matter. >> it doesn't matter if i do one stent, five stents, ten stents, my job is to provide the right care for the right patient at the right time. >> so you're salaried. >> yes, sir. >> i'm salaried too as a physician and, dr. nisson, you're salaried as well. how perverse is this? >> we're not saying people are doing these procedures for profit. we're saying the system has created incentives that in subtle and not so subtle ways drives procedures. if you get a bump on the head and you go into the emergency department, in america you get a cat scan. if you have that happen in germany or england, they say, here's a list of instructions. if you have problems, come back and see us. we just spent $1,000. >> sometimes the patients demand this stuff. >> yes, but we have to educate patients. >> i want to point out something. i think this is important. i think when people watch the

film they're left with the position that yvonne came to the cleveland clinic, she got her cholesterol under control, her weight under control and things were great for her after that, but that's not the whole story. she ended up having another open heart operation, another bypass operation. i think that's an important point. it doesn't always work. the impression i think was a little bit misleading there, don't you think, dr. nissan? >> i do. look, we can't prevent disease in everybody, but we have to try. the problem with yvonne's case is she had all of those stents before she had the risk factors controlled. that's not good medicine. we have to teach young physicians that prevention comes first. >> in the spirit of educating people out there, i have cardiac disease in my family, who should actually get stent. >> anybody who's having a heart attack should get a stent. it's the best treatment and saves lives. period. everybody agrees on that. the next group of people are people really that have tried medical therapy, that are on

medical therapy and they're failing. there are lots of people like that. >> as you can see, escape fire followed immediately after my discussion on sunday night 8:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. coming up on ask the md, orphan by prescription drugs. i'm going to take you to this town where parents are scared, a place kids are calling enormous.

you probably heard me talk a lot about prescription drug over doses. it's an epidemic. it can happen much more easily than you think. what we don't hear enough is the story of people left behind and far too often it's the kids. if this town could talk, it would describe a simple idyllic life. a proud people. it would also whisper a sobering

story about an epidemic that is tearing apart family. >> i lost my dad and my uncle to drug abuse. >> after family. >> i lost both my uncle and my cousin to years of prescription drug abuse. >> after family. >> i lost both my mother and my grandmother to oxycontin. >> it is not uncommon to hear stories like these echos down the hallways every day at this high school in rock castle county, kentucky. >> you are constantly hearing of someone else that is dying because of abusing prescription drugs. >> 16-year-old avery bradshaw knows the story all too well. >> my grandpa. he just set me down and told me that he was going. >> when avery was seven his father overdosed on oxycontin. his mother was in and out of his life. >> the hardest part growing up without a dad would be like not having that model family like

that you always see. >> he's lucky enough to live with his great grandparents. in this town, that model family is being redefined. >> there's got to be plenty more in school that's the same thing happened to them. it's a terrible thing. >> a terrible thing that 17-year-old junior shawn watkins saw first hands. >> we went in her room and she was face down on the bed. >> when he was ten shawn walked in on a terrifying scene in his mother's bedroom. she was dead after over dosing on painkillers, oxycontin. >> i thought it was awful, my mother died, but i couldn't understand the gravity of the situation. i didn't understand that, you know, my mom was gone forever, i wasn't going to see her again. >> sean had known for years that his mom was in trouble. >> my mother started off, you know, with back pain, started off, you know, taking pills for that and eventually it got worse

and developed into other drugs. >> a prescription for back pain leads to dependence and eventually an overdose. >> this is happening in rockcastle county every week, but it's happening in eastern kentucky every day. it's leaving our communities in shreds and we're left behind to pick up the pieces from that. >> karen kelly is the executive director of operation you night, a community coalition devoted to preventing overdose deaths in kentucky. in fact, kentucky is the fourth most medicated state in the nation, and it has the sixth highest rate of overdose deaths. in one county alone -- >> half of the kids have no parent in the home whatsoever so now we're seeing many raised by great grandparents because we've lost an entire generation of young people, and, you know, the kids are really the ones paying the biggest price. >> we were just sick and tired

of going to funerals. we were sick and tired of having kids come in and not being able to sit through physics class because they were worried about mom who had overdosed or dad had been arrested. >> nancy hale worked in the rockcastle county school system for 30 years. >> we were like, what can we do? how can we help these families? >> so hale and other teachers decided to start a club at the school where kids could learn and teach others about drug prevention. >> it really helps a lot of kids that are going through those problems to know that they're not alone. >> but sean says the pain of growing up alone never goes away. >> it's tough, you know? you go to somebody else's house and they have a loving mom and dad and yours are gone. >> and this terrible new normal isn't just in kentucky. in fact, nationwide more than 4% of all children still live with their parents. that number has more than

doubled in the past 20 years. addiction like you just saw there is a big reason. a legal fight over the best way to help babies stop crying and go to sleep. everybody wants to learn more about this. dr. harvey carp is going to stop by to show us. she keeps you guessing. it's part of what you love about her. but your erectile dysfunction - you know, that could be a question of blood flow.

cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial.

>> announcer: food for life is brought to you by megared by schiff. no fishy after taste or smell. we are back with ask the md. got milk? here's a question. which kind? you've probably noticed a lot more variety in the dairy section. a lot of it is not even dairy at all. you need to know this because just because it looks like cow

milk doesn't mean it necessarily has the same nutrients. let me go through this. rice milk, for example, that's a good option in baked goods but it's not to replace dairy milk. that's because it contains virtually no calcium or protein. there's coconut milk as well. that contains some of the, good, quote unquote, coconut fat. it's low in carbs and low in calcium. it's good for people who are lactose intolerant. my favorite is almond milk. that's over here. that's a good swap because it contains the same amount of calcium as cow's milk. it has more vitamin e. it's lower in calories and fat. it has a creamy taste. it's great with oatmeal, smoothies, and in cereal. okay. time to talk about a trick that i learned pretty quickly when i became a dad. swaddling. i don't know if we could have gotten by without it. it could help your baby.

it can encourage sleep. doctors say it's dangerous. in some places it's been ban. we've decided to call dr. harvey carp, he's the author of the happiest baby. you have a dvd that shows these techniques. >> thank you. >> we get a lot of comments when you join the show. it's because so many people deal with the issues that you talk about. swaddling. you learn it in the hospital. i did. i was actually champion swaddler for a while in our family. >> all right. way to go. >> but talk about swaddling first. why is it effective? >> the babies in the womb for nine months, this is how much room they have. they're not expected to be in a world where they have full use of their arms. the world is too big for them. babies don't need freedom, they need security. swaddling is the key to keeping a baby happy and calm because it promotes sleep. lots of studies show that. it reduces crying.

>> the concern, i read some of the same stories that you did, i'm sure, about people being concerned about it now,sure, abt people being concerned about it now. even banning it. it may be more likely to be associated with sids, problems with the hips. what was your reaction when you heard that? >> it's totally wrong-headed. i don't know want to be dismissive of my colleagues. if you look at the studies on the hips for example, all the studies that show it's a hip problem were done in primitive cultures with a totally different type of swaddling. as long as the babies can move their legs a little bit, it's perfectly fine for the hips. even the biggest center here, the international hip dysplasia institute in the united states recommends swaddling. for s.i.d.s. it probably reduces the risk of suffocation. if you don't swaddle your baby, they tend to flail and wake up. then the parents tend to bring the baby to bed with them.

a study shows that if you swaddle your baby, you're twice as likely to put your baby in the safe position. it increases safety, doesn't decrease it. >> you have a dvd out. let's look at this ourselves a little bit. i'll tell you flat-out. my youngest is three now. how long for you since you've swaddled? >> mine is 29. i'm more on key. >> we have a couple of dolls here and blankets. these are fancy flank et cetera. we didn't have these when i had my youngest. take a look here. you want to talk us through this. >> yeah. here's a swaddled baby. i personally use a square piece of fabric. i'm old school. you hold like a diamond and fold the corner down and zip zip zip. you have do it snug with the arms but allowing the legs to be able to flex and move. >> that's the hip dysplasia thing we're talking about.

don't want to cause that. >> this is super easy. put the feet in the bag and then you bring over part of the wrap. but look what you do. you tuck it and snug it. >> right. >> those arms have to be snug. if they pop out, the kid is smacking himself in the face and they get more upset. then you close it with these little velcro tabs. i got to tell you one thing about swaddling. most babies cry more when you swaddle them, which makes parents lose confidence. the key to successful baby coddling is swaddling plus the next things that you do. the next things are to then roll the baby on the side or stomach. do the shhh, shushing, the white noise that you can use all night long with the babies. some babies need jiggly motion because they're bouncing baby boys. they kind of need that action. >> i used do that all the time,

my wife would say that's not how you do it. i call it the football pose, something this. >> there you go. >> it's always enjoyable to have you here. >> thanks very much. >> on behalf of a lot of parents as well. >> thanks for the time. still ahead, we'll see the world through the eyes of a woman who has been blind for half her life. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios

has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! ♪ wow. [ buzz ] delicious, right? yeah. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... ♪ well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? bee happy. bee healthy. with clusters of flakes and o's. oh, ho ho... it's the honey sweetness. i...i mean, you...love.

time introduce you to arlene gordon. she lost her vision half a lifetime ago but it hasn't kept her from a lifelong dream. of traveling the world. this is what the world looks like through or lien gordon's eyes. 100% darkness, 100% of the time. >> it started in my 30s, 40s. the vision became so bad that i decided to gamble. i said, you know, it's worse

this way. i'm neither here nor there. >> gordon scheduled herself for an operation she was told could potentially make her vision even worse. >> for six weeks i had the best vision i ever had in my life. it was fantastic. like a baby walking around looking at everything. >> but just as she'd been warned, a few weeks later, her remaining vision vanished. rendering her completely blind. but soon she learned to navigate her new world. >> as you tap your deliberately clearing the path in front of you. >> the streets of new york city were never enough. and gordon refused to let her blindness stand in the way of her passion for traveling. cuba, south africa, countless cities in europe, collecting souvenirs at every stop along the way. this is fascinating. hand her a s