whatever happened to good? good is choosing not to overshoot the moon, but to land right on it. good is maxwell house. ♪ good to the last drop hey this and thanks for joining us on "sg md", ahead this half hour i'll tell you why laughter really is the last medicine and what makes a joke funny. plus, the truth about protein. turns out you can have too much of a good thing, i'll explain that to you. but first the golden gate bridge in san francisco is one of the most striking landmarks in the world but it also has the dubious distinction of being the number one suicide spot in america. something a lot of people don't know and it's raising all kinds of big questions about how and when to intervene if a person is troubled. now the city is on the verge of taking a drastic step. it's been described as delicate.

and powerful. a testament to mankind's creativity, but in the shadows of the golden gate bridge towers there is a darker history. >> it is a site where unfortunately some people in their deep, dark moments come to hurt themselves. >> it was march 2005 when kevin birthia started driving from oakland to san francisco. he had no idea where he was headed. only that he wanted to end his life. >> i was hurting a lot. i was dealing with a lot of issues. >> for reasons that to this day he still doesn't under, berthia was drawn to the golden gate bridge. >> i walked and i kind of thought about things for a minute. i remember making one phone call. and i proceeded to walk on -- out to the tower and -- >> he saw me and he then he went right over the rail and stood on a small pipe. >> a highway patrol officer sergeant kevin briggs was on duty that day.

tentatively he approached and asked berthia a question. >> what can we do to get over this hump? >> countless people have stood on this same precipice. more than 1,600 of them jumped. >> it is easy for the average person to go over that rail. >> many have fought for decades to take away that easy access, to deter would-be jumpers. but what seemed like a simple idea, a physical barrier to jumping, divided the city. half wanted it. >> the other half of the folks said don't you dare deface the bridge, don't build it. if you build it people will just go someplace else and jump. >> but that may not be true. in fact, more than one study of 500 people tried to jump from the golden gate but were restrained found that decades later nearly 90% were still alive or had died of natural causes. other bridges with barriers have reduced or eliminated suicides. >> apparently suicidal

individuals don't want to hurt themselves and people stop jumping. >> with that in mind on june 27th, the golden gate bridge authority will vote on a $76 million plan for this, a steel net extending out from the side of the bridge. >> you see that baby? >> berthia says that a net would have deterred him. he accepts that standing on the edge and then finding the courage to climb back and get help is part of his story. >> all right now? >> and joining me now is kevin heinz a young man who also has a very personal story to share as well. kevin, welcome to show. >> thanks. >> we met ten years ago. >> yes. >> after a very tumultuous time in your life. in fact, you took me to the bridge and you showed me the spot where you, in fact, jumped yourself. >> yeah. >> do you remember that? >> i remember that vividly. >> you remember our conversation? >> i do. >> what about the moment that you actually did this? i mean, is it something so many

years later you still think about? >> you know, it was the second worst suicidal depression i'd ever been due to bipolar disorder which i suffer with daily, i was brought to that bridge because i was hearing voices saying i had to die. not because i wanted to die. but because i believed i had to and the message i spread today is about the art of learning to live mentally well. >> when you're actually going through something like this and, you know, people have been -- who are watching may have been in some pretty tough times themselves, what -- at the time that you jump, what is going through your mind at that point? had you come to terms with it? did you suddenly want to reverse it? >> the millisecond my hands left the rail, my thoughts were these -- what have i just done. i don't want to die. god please save me. then i hit the water. when i resurfaced before almost drowning, losing the ability of my legs, all i wished and prayed for was to live. and had i gone there not knowing -- i had no knowledge of the golden gate bridge, i had no

knowledge people survived, the few that did, i had no knowledge that 1,600 plus people died at that bridge. if i went there and was a net or a railing, i would have had to ask for help. and my help, sanjay, all i wageted was for one person to look at me in pain and suffering and crying my eyes out and say are you okay? is something wrong or can i help you? and i had made a pact to myself much like many suicidal people do, if that would have occurred, i would have told that person everything. the question, would they have listened. >> your own story aside, people who are at that state, the state that you were in, maybe it's not the golden gate bridge, again, will this really decrease suicides you think across this particular area or in general? >> you know, the science is there. the studies are there. the proof is there. and yet people around the country and the globe they say things like why ruin the

aesthetics of the bridge? >> the aesthetics of the bridge? >> it was a huge issue. they didn't want to ruin the beauty of a bridge. a piece of iron. what are the aesthetics compared to one human life. what if that was your mom or your dad or your son or your daughter. that's what we have to get people to understand, these people who go there to die, they don't necessarily want to, but they are in a state of mental instability where they feel there is not another option and those are the people we have to reach out to. because they're suffering. and they deserve hope just like everyone else. >> i'm so glad to see you again. so glad you're doing well. and thank you for staying on this. i mean, look, kevin, as i said, one of the greatest things we can do is have that kind of impact on people's lives. it sounds like from what the science shows and what this may accomplish, a lot of lives may be saved. >> i hope so and i believe so. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you, sanjay. a lot of people throw around the term obsessive compulsive,

ocd. it's a real condition and it can be debilitating. you'll see exactly what i mean and also an electrifying new treatment for it straight ahead. on how to take care of me and my baby. luckily, unitedhealthcare has a simple program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidance-before and after the baby is born. simple is good right now. (anncr vo) innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

[ jackhammer pounding, horns honking ] [ siren wailing ] visit tripadvisor miami. [ bird chirping ] with millions of reviews, tripadvisor makes any destination better. you ever get that nagging feeling that maybe you forgot to call someone? or maybe you left the water running on at home. well, imagine that same feeling 1,000-fold, you might have some idea what it's like to suffer obsessive compulsive disorder. this will be debilitating but now there's this new

experimental treatment, and in one case we saw it take effect right in front of our eyes. >> we had friendships and he was funny and goofy and spontaneous and loud. he was normal. >> normal. a life filled with hope and possibility would not last long for brett larsen. the change began when brent was 10. his father had died. >> he was virtually mute for a year. he did not speak at all. i didn't understand it at all. none of us did. >> but this was not typical grieving. it was full-blown anxiety. so brent's brain began conco concocting unusual coping mechanisms. >> i get a bad thought like someone's going to die.

i just got the thought in my head, if i flip the light switch off and on a certain amount of times maybe i could control it somehow. >> at 12 brent was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, ocd. imagine a broken record and you have a sense about his life. on a typical day a shower can take 45 minutes. getting dressed even longer. >> putting on his shoes. it could take hours. he'll put them on and take them off and turn them around. >> think of ocd as a neurological hick couple, faulty wiring in the brain. it spills over into brent's speech. >> someone wants to have a normal life, a better life. >> years of therapy, medication, even hospitalization didn't help. >> i know that brent has a lot of normal in him.

he's still that goofy kid. and there are moments when he's free enough of anxiety that he can express that. but it's only moments. it's not days. it's not hours. it's -- it's not enough. >> this, his doctors believe, is both his best and last hope. deep brain stimulation or dbs. >> how are you feeling right fowl, brent? >> i feel happy. >> foal happeel happy? >> to short-circuit the signals that cause so much fear and anxiety. >> he became really happy. his mood was really elevated. he was talking a lot better. >> i feel like laughing for some reason. >> you feel like laughing? that's good. >> we want to know when you're having those feelings, tell us. >> later when the electrodes are

turned on with a continuous electrical current, his doctors are betting his neurological hiccups will be fixed. >> hi, brent, how are you doing? >> pretty good, how are you? >> thanks for coming. >> oh, sure. >> just a few weeks now since his operation and brent is having the electrodes implanted in his brain turned on. >> you feel any changes, any extreme sensations anywhere? >> i feel like laughing like in surgery. >> but it will take several months and several adjustments to the electrical current for brent to find out if those feelings will last. >> i am going to be looking at you all night. >> a few months later, progress. it's up and it's down. >> the level oit been a week or so, i might have a hard time for a little while but then it gets better.

>> it's not quite where he wants it to be. but he's inching toward it. and today brent is going in for what doctors think is his final adjustment. >> off to see the wizard. >> how long did it take you to get to the car this morning? >> it was brief. >> a few seconds. >> and before the surgery how long would it take sometimes? >> do you want me to say it or do you? >> okay. >> i mean, sometimes it would take hours. >> normal activities, conversing, relating, feeling unstuck, they're all getting easier. >> i feel like i'm getting a little better hillary clinton, you know, every day a little bit. >> normal. it was so fleeting for decades. but it's now creeping back into brent larsen's life. >> before i had the surge ril, i

couldn't work. i felt like i couldn't do a lot of things. but i feel hike i'm more able to achieve the things i want to do since i've had the surgery. >> as you can see there it's a brand-new world for brent. dbs or deep brain stimulation is also used to treat depression and parkinson's disease and as with ocd it's only in extreme cases. up next we got some news you can use. scientifically proven way to make your friends laugh. eating right, d back t she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. grandpa! [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. and that's epic, bro, we've forgotten just how good good is.

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one morning i shot an

elephant in my pajamas. how he got in his pajamas, i don't know. >> you know, no matter who you or where you grew up the humor of groucho marx is considered pretty universally funny. i talk a lot on this program how laughter can literally be like medicine. but why are some things funny and some things no the? we all know it depends on who you ask and today i decided to ask scott weems, he's the author of "ha the science of how we laugh and why." he joins us from little rock. welcome to the program. >> thank you for having me. >> you approach this topic from that vantage point. you spent a decade looking in to this. why are some jokes funny and some not? >> yeah. i mean, i hate to make it sound, you know, too complicated, but, i mean, there's no simple answer for what makes a joke funny. i think if there wasn't comedians would never fail. it really comes down to a couple

of key ingredients. surprise is one of them like with the groucho marx line, the reason i like it so much in a short line you imagine groucho wearing pa jam nas and then there's a brief period of conflict and then eventually you're trying to make an elephant wear pajamas which i think is intrinsically funny and there's surprise and there has to be a destination, too and with the case of groucho it's an elephant in his pajamas. >> the person listening to the joke expects to go a certain way and suddenly you take a little turn on them. how about things like self-deprecation when you are sort of targeting yourself as the focus of the humor? >> yeah. i mean, i think the mechanism behind that and all kinds of humor is the same is that exactly like you said. you're setting up an expectation and then you're violating it in some way. self-deprecating humor is interesting because i think if one were to simply insult yourself, if i were to make up an insult about myself, i don't know if that would be funny.

it would probably be just more awkward. self-deprecating humor usually there's more than one message. sometimes it's not as deprecating as the surface may imply so i think that's why there's a saying, if you want to make a point, you tell a story. but if you want to make one points at once, you tell a joke and i think that applies for all kinds of humor including self-deprekcating humor. >> it broke down on gender as well, it's consistently ranked as the important factor in healthy relationships but it seemed to serve two different purposes for the two sexes. >> it's always tricky it's so hard to interpret some of the data, but there's some findings you can't argue. one is that women laugh more than men. we know because scientist robert provine went out and just basically eavesdropped on people for a year in coffee shops and subways and found women laugh. two women in a room will laugh twimes as much as two men.

but women are outnumbered in professional comedy by quite a bit. there are examples of professional female comedians, but they're still the minority so what's the disparity? one evolutionary theory and there's no way to know where this comes from, but it could be that women are just kind of raised or encouraged to be the audience and men are encouraged to be the joke tellers from an early age. >> finally for me and everyone else out there, can you become funnier? can you become more humorous? i can't to be a funnier guy. can i do that? >> you can. i think not only can -- that's good news. but i think the even better news is so many of the benefits from humor come not from being funny but from just being exposed to humor. studies have shown just watching a comedy can make you perform better on things like intelligence tests and insight tests and just watching a comedy can improve your blood pressure. can improve your immune system

response. i think it's good to be funny, but it's even better to surround yourself with humor because you get a lot of benefits with that which is good for people like you and me just people who are not professional comedians that you don't have to be one to get the benefit. >> that's good news. i'll put it on the list for this weekend, surround myself with some humor. not hard to do in my house sometimes. thanks for joining us. >> yeah, thank you very much. and still ahead what you need to know about the protein craze. turns out you can have too much of a good thing. we'll explain. of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™. [ bottle ] ensure®. at od, whatever business you're in, that's the business we're in with premium service like one of the best on-time delivery records and a low claims ratio,

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craze for high protein diets. some of this is not surprising. people have been looking for alternatives to carbohydrates and fats since those became increasingly vilified. maybe they want to build muscle. it's hard to miss what's happening with protein. you have protein-packed lunches and pasta and even cheerios come with additional protein, but i want to warn you today you also need to be a little bit careful. protein is important especially for athletes but more isn't always better. the average man needs 56 grams of protein a day and the average woman 46 grams. to give you some context that's two small patties of lean hamburger meat and that's if you get no other protein at all. too much protein can lead to weight gain. it will surprise you but the extra calories from protein they get stored as fat. it can also stress your kidneys and lead to osteoporosis, your bones starting to break down, and you can also get enough protein. look, you don't need special protein added foods to get what you need. mix in some eggs or lean meat

and fish, you'll have plenty. you don't even need meat, grains like quinoa and chia and hemp seeds are complete proteins. vegetables like broccoli and spinach also very good. in fact, broccoli has more protein per calorie than chicken and along with protein you'll be getting vitamins, fiber and other essentials as well. hey, if you caught our show last weekend, you saw that i was reporting from the taj mahal in india. super hot, 130 degrees. also nine 1/2 hours ahead of eastern time and just three days after i got back i was on the road again. look, as someone who just passed the 2 million miler mark, getting over jet lag it ain't easy. but luckily the research team at the university of michigan, go blue, and yale university has created an app where you type in your current location and your

destination and the app gives you a schedule of exposure to light to reset your internal clock the most efficient way. for example, if you are traveling from new york to london the app might suggest a regimen that looks something like this. one of the ph.d. students who designed the app said their schedule takes what could be five or six days of adjusting down to just two. good app for me. maybe a good app for you. that's all the time we've got for "sg md" today. time now, though, to get you back in the "cnn newsroom" with deborah feyerick. hello, everyone, you are in the "cnn newsroom." i'm deborah feyerick, in today for don lemon. iraq is quickly coming apart. ethnic and political fighting which never really stopped when coalition combat troops left, well, it's flaming up again, and now something new, a brutal, ambitious