in turn, can get cervical cancer from that virus. getting the shot will reduce the chances that the boys will give the virus to the girls. doctors in the cdc say this shot is safe. they say it's been given to millions of people around the world without long-term side effects. here's the thing, though. some parents still think this vaccine is controversial, and they don't want to give it to their children. most states have not required the shot for school admission. the cdc recommends it, but most states, in fact 49 states, have said that you don't have to get the shot for your daughter if you want her to go to school. she doesn't have to have it. i imagine many of those state also do the same thing for boys. so parents who don't want to get it in the end may be able to just say no. >> thank you. sanjay gupta m.d. starts right now. happy halloween, everybody. welcome to the program. i'm dr. sanjay gupta. the candy of our childhood.

why do we still crave it every year at halloween? have you been dipping in already? we also have serious business to get to you've seen the pink ribbons all over this month, we want to clear up misconceptions about breast cancer. first a number, this one. $1.90. that's the cost per drink of excessive drinking in the country. it adds up to about $223.5 billion burden to the u.s. government and individuals. about $746 per person. just about three quarters of those costs of excessive drinking were due to lost workplace productivity. 11% of it from health care expenses. 9% from law enforcement and other criminal justice costs. 6% for motor vehicle or crash costs for impaired driving. excessive drinking was defined as binge or heavy drinking or any drinking by pregnant or underaged youth. alcoholism is not an easy thing to deal with, either by yourself or alongside someone you love.

this brings me to another story i want to tell you about, a home for alcoholics that lets them drink and is funded by you, by me, the taxpayers. no matter what you think, it's an interesting concept for sure, and these types of places are starting to pop up more and more frequently around the country. chris welsh spent the better part of a month working on the story at one of these so-called wet houses. he joins me now from minneapolis to talk about it. chris, thanks again for being back on the show. let me ask you to start -- how did you get interested in this? >> well this was a story that sort of popped up on a local newspaper a while back. you know, we saw it and thought this could really make an interesting story to really dig deeper into. so we thought why not devote some time and really, you know, spend time at this place, this so-called wet house, see what life is like there for the residents, for the staff. is it a place of death and despair or is it a place of

hope? that's what we set to try and find out. >> this is where i keep my clothing and stuff. >> reporter: it looks a lot like a college dormitory. >> this is the cafeteria here. >> reporter: but it's residents are not students. >> this is a program that is designed for chronic alcoholic men. >> reporter: this is not your typical halfway house. >> the difference is there is alcohol in the mix. and these are all men that have been through treatment, numerous attempts. these are men that had lost their jobs due to alcohol, lost their housing due to alcohol, lost their relationships, lost their family and really reached their rock bottom. >> reporter: the program manager refers to it as a harm reduction model, providing a shelter for alcoholics. they don't serve any alcohol, but residents are free to buy their own and indulge here on the patio. >> this is a wet house. this is a place for people to drink and some of us choose not

to drink and we don't a lot of the times. >> reporter: stories of success, of sobering up and making a new life are the exception rather than the rule. but that's okay with the program director. this place exists to give these men a home, a place to make their own decisions in what for many of them will be the last period of their lives. as sad as it is, i'm grateful to say they have the choice to die in a bed, instead of on the streets. >> this is my room. my humble abode. >> reporter: you keep your room pretty clean. >> i'm just grateful to have a room to keep clean. >> reporter: after vodka ruined his career as a restaurant kitchen manager, nick lott found himself sleeping under a bridge, but for the last five years he found a place to rest his head, on the standard issue twin bed in a modest 12x12 concrete room. >> it's clean, comfortable,

safe. i would be running around panhandling and annoying people and maybe even stealing or something without this. >> reporter: he doesn't drink every day, but when he does -- >> if, you know, you have money in the morning, you go and get drunk, get drunk by the middle of the day, come up here, knock out for a couple hours, depending what's going on, you wake up again, go out and drink again. you're almost afraid to quit drinks, you know? it's like sometimes it just seems like that's all there is. >> reporter: in addition to a place to call home, nick also gets $89 a month from the state. and the day that money comes, he's up early to use it. a few toiletries, new phone card, his tobacco, and what seems like an eternity, the clock strikes 9:00 a.m. the liquor store is open. >> how are you? >> pretty good how are you

doing? and i know, you know, that it's on the taxpayers and all that, but it's the way it is. >> reporter: it may not come as a shock that the place has critics. bill knows this. >> i don't feel this is enabling at all. this is a harm reduction model, if anything these guys are cutting back on the amount of alcohol they are drinking coming in the door. if we put it out there and in a way let them make the decisions and then they feel better about themselves. >> reporter: nick lott would love nothing more than to make a decision and sober up once and for all and see his family again without being embarrassed. >> there's things i would like to do. >> reporter: do you feel it's a possibility that you could spend the rest of your time here? >> well that just depends on how much time i have left, if you know what i mean. people die here all the time. >> reporter: we have a sad update to nick lott's story, he

died a short time after we finished shooting this story. at a place like st. anthony, death is not uncommon, but even staff at the residence say nick was in fairly good health relatively speaking. >> yeah. he alluded to it almost prophetic. it does seem like the end of the road for many people, this place, this wet house. do you have any idea -- it's tough to ask this, but how much money are we spending on this? >> there are -- let's see, there's 60 residents in the house, they cost $50 each to house each night. so you total that all up, it's about a million dollars each year. they're quick to point out, if these people are out on the streets, they are going to emergency rooms, hospitals, going to detox. one trip to detox alone cost $200 a night. one of the guys i met at the house had been to detox over 400 times. those cost add up as well. >> again, we look at addiction,

all sorts of different things in society to which we're addicted, and different solutions. this is one of them. a controversial one for sure, chris. i know you spent over a month there. appreciate you're reporting on this. thank you. >> thanks. >> excessive alcohol can lead to all sorts of things, including the increased risk of mouth, throat and liver cancer, for women, specifically, the biggest concern is breast cancer. we have lots of questions on this and lots of answers as well after the break. to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

you've seen the pink ribbons, the runs, the walks, but how much do you know about breast cancer? it's a good time to talk about it october is national breast cancer awareness month and here to discuss the most common cancer for women is dr. valerie montgomery rice, dean of morehouse school of medicine. thanks for joining us. this is a time to talk about breast cancer, though we could talk about it all the time. my mom had breast cancer, this is something i think a lot as a son. when you think about family history, it's one of the first questions doctors like you always ask. how significant is family history? >> it's significant in the fact that if a woman has a positive family history, we tend to think

of first degree, whether the mother or sister has breast cancer or was diagnosed. we want to ask them was she diagnosed before she was age 50? that gives us more about the risk. but then that means that as the woman, you have about two times the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. >> there's a lot of testing as far as genetic testing goes now. brca 1 and brca 2, breast cancer 1 gene and breast cancer 2 gene. how significant is it? who should get tested for this? and what do you do with that information? >> so the women that should get tested are women who have a history of breast cancer in their family, particularly if their mother had breast cancer at a young age, 20 to 30. they have a father who had breast cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer. when you see the cancer running in the family, you think that there may be one of these mutations of these genes that you are describing. when a woman gets tested, though, we know that if she's positive, they have a mutation,

she has about a five time greater chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer over her lifetime. >> so you start to look at these things in aggregate. first of all, there are more women going to be diagnosed with breast cancer who have no family history, right? >> 85% or so. >> so that means you shouldn't take great solace thinking you don't have family history thinking i don't need to get the screening test or be examined. as far as the breast cancer gene goes, it's not necessarily for everybody, but if you're going to get the test you need to know how to use the information. >> the genetic counseling that goes with that is important. if i tell you have a jangenetic mutation, i have to tell you what to do with that information. most women make decisions based on what their doctors say. so the counseling is very important. we want to counsel women that still the best thing we know to do is surveillance, doing yourseyou

your self breast examinations. having an annual mammogram. if you were younger than 40 and you had this test and it was positive i would do mri, maybe ultrasound or other things in a clinical trial or something where i'm getting more information for the woman, but, again, surveillance. we know that early detection makes the biggest difference. >> your typical patient, let's say has no family history, let's say is in their late 30s and is coming to you for counseling. at what age do you recommend someone like that start mammograms? there's been controversy over that as well. >> no risk factors, like most women, other than they are a woman and they have breasts. i tell women it you're going to start yourself breast examination, start in your 20s so they get comfortable with the procedure. most women will find a mass on their own instead of the doctor finding it. so then what i'll do with this woman, i will advise her at age 40, get your base line

mammogram. every two years after that, get a mammogram. then every month, you're doing yourself breast examination, you're seeing me once a year, i'm examining your breast. after age 50 we'll start doing a mammogram every year. >> you should know as well that my mom is doing great. she's the beneficiary of a lot of the things you're talking about. you know, a lot of people talk about this, julianna rancic, a host on e spoke candidly about this. >> through my attempt to get pregnant through ivf, we sadly found out that i have early stages of breast cancer. and it's been a shock. >> she's only 36 years old. her doctor suggested she have a mammogram, and that's when they found this. i mean, so what do you miyou ma stories like that? it's not to say the advice we give or anybody gives is wrong,

but what about that? >> the good thing for her is that she did have the mammogram and she has early diagnosised breast cancer, so she should do pretty well, i hope. the challenge we have, though, is that we know that women under the age of 40 have what we call more dense breasts. so we do standard mammogram, we have a higher chance of having a false positive. so we have to weigh that risk versus benefit. false positive means that i think i see something, i'm going to do an additional test that actually may cause you harm. so that's why we do mammograms starting at age 40, doing them every two years. after age 50, we know doing them every year we decrease our chances of having a false positive, that is i see something and there's something there that needs to be terrific. >> you're terrific. >> thank you. this is a complicated matter for a lot of people. it's serious, yet you made it really understandable. so, thanks for being here.

>> thank you. >> will you come back? >> i will definitely come back. >> dr. rice, terrific. this morning's human factor is about a young woman's journey from overweight teen to beauty queen. brie boys changed her lifestyle through better eating habits and exercise and finally believing in herself. >> i was the same person i was in high school, though my exterior my have looked difference. >> reporter: for brie boys, becoming a beauty queen was beyond her wildest dreams. >> i was so unhappy with the way i looked, i continued to eat unhealthy, lack of physical activity. >> reporter: at 17 years old, boyce weighed 234 points. >> i would come home from school, sit on the couch for hours, watch tv and snack all day long. >> reporter: it was nagging pain

in her knees that led her to go see her doctor. what he said led her to change her life. >> he said this weight has to come off. at that moment i knew he's right. it's up to me, and only me to change it. >> reporter: she didn't try a quick fix to losing weight. >> i completely threw out all the junk food. i joined the gym. i educated myself. i went to a nutritionist. >> reporter: three years later boyce transformed her body from pudgy duckling to beauty queen. in july she was crowned ms. south carolina. >> are you really excited? >> i'm a big fan. >> reporter: every beauty queen has a platform, hers, as you might guess, is eating healthy and fighting obesity. it's a mission she happily promotes. whether it's doing zomba with kids at health fairs or speaking at her hometown city council meeting, or talking to students at her former high school. >> i challenge you all to make a

change today and to be a happy, healthy and confident individual in whatever it is in life you want to set out to accomplish. >> reporter: and she practices what she preaches, still making her health her top priority. >> i block out when i will eat, how will i eat that day. >> reporter: boyce still wants to achieve more. she has her sights on winning the miss america title in 2012 in january, and she's not afraid of this next challenge. >> anything in life you want to do, it takes hard work and determination and perseverance. >> bree boyce looks terrific what a transformation. a lesson for a lot of people. last but not least this morning, i want candy and i know you do, too. stay with us. what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪

what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

happy halloween, everybody. when it comes to halloween, candy buyers crave the sweet taste of nostalgia. that's what we're learning. from wax lips, smarties, candy cigarettes, yep, they still make candy cigarettes, to chocolates like snickers, hershey's, reese's. the classics are still king of that trick-or-treat pail. joining me from new york is kat kinsman of a popular blog, and quite possibliy the most halloweeniest person here at cnn as well. thanks for being here. >> glad to be here. >> i look at you, you have all that desk candy sitting there. and you're getting rid of all of our efforts here to try and keep people healthy at cnn. are you giving that away? what are you doing with all of it? >> it's ending up on your desk. >> it's funny, and i'll freely admit this here on tv. but when my kids bring home the candy, i rifle through that bag because nostalgia is an incredibly powerful thing. >> it's incredibly emotional.

just when i was sitting outside in the hallway with this candy, several people walked by and said oh, my gosh, i haven't had that since i was a kid, gave them a bit o' honey, a mary jane. they were reliving their past. like any holiday, you don't want to mess with that. it's an incredibly powerful connection to it. >> what was your favorite? do you have a favorite that you still get that emotional connection with? >> i love a good sour candy, a smarty, a sweet tart. the giant ones. you know what i'm talking about. >> that's interesting. i love the peppermint pattys. we used to throw those in the freez freezer. i'll still eat those today. they do taste sweeter. >> because people have that nostalgic connection, a lot of the candy companies loath to change their formulas. while they might have corn syrup in them and sugar, they're not

high fructose corn syrup. and while they can deal with other snack foods that are evolving and being a little more trendy, they can't do it to a lot of these classic candies. and if you look at the things in front of me, the bottle caps, the now 'n laters, the nickel nips. people would know and they would taste the difference. >> is there a worst candy, though? not to be the sort of sugar kill here, but is there a worst -- like the thing that you see in your kids' pail, that's it there? >> well, you know, okay. so i was always traumatized when you would go to somebody's house and they would have change or a religious tract. and the thing is, to this day, as a woman in her late 30s, i still remember exactly which houses those were. and i felt so bad for the kids who lived there and had to live that down. >> here's the funny thing. because you and i are still so nostalgic, that i was asking worst in terms of nutritional damage. and you were answering in terms of not bringing in good loot. is there a worst in terms of --

>> you know, oh, nutrition goes out the window at this point. we did a story last year where there was this trend toward slightly healthier snacks. nobody was buying them at all. i like to think of this as portion control because this is -- a wrapper is portion control. >> good point. >> it's up to you how many you eat. keep a tally of the wrappers. and by the way, you know what the single best-selling candy in the u.s. is? out of all of this beautiful stash. it would be the m&m. >> that makes sense. are you a peanut or a plain? >> you know, they keep switching it up. i like the almond ones an awful lot. i haven't tried the coconut yet, and i'm afraid to because i'm afraid what that will do to me as a person. >> i have to ask as a doctor, are you getting enough air right now? because you have this candy necklace around your neck. is that actually squeezing off your trachea? >> i'm going to eat my way out of this. and then finish it off with a

little bit of this bling here. >> there you go. >> like i said, i told your producer that i bought doubles of these so these will be showing up in your office in the near future. >> if i were with you, i'd give you a kiss on your hand to get a little piece of that candy. thanks so much. glad you're getting into the spirit. appreciate it. >> have a sweet holiday. >> you, too. that's going to wrap things up this morning. thanks so much for being with us. stay connected with me throughout the week on my c nchn cnn.com/sanjay. see you next weekend. time to get you a check of your top stories in the "cnn newsroom." with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced.

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