well, i'm jamie colby. it is time now for "sunday housecall." >> i'm eric shawn. welcome to the program. joining us is dr. david samadi. chief of robotics surgery. >> dr. marc siegel is there. he authored innerpulse, unlocking the secret to sickness and health. doctors, good morning. i know so many people who are home sick, who are watching us. this show is even for the healthy ones, too. >> absolutely. >> one of the big issues has to do with the historic cold temperatures across our country.

that could mean really dangerous and possibly deadly conditions from hypothermia to frostbite. what do you do in freezing temperatures? how can you protect yourself indr. samadi, you can wear mittens and gloves and thermal underwear and hats -- >> and hugs are very helpful. >> a good thing, starting in 2014, we need a lot of hugs. this is serious because some of the temperatures in the midwest is minus 18 degrees. we haven't seen these temperatures. even coming to the studio today, it's cold out there. you want to be careful. hypothermia. normal temperature is about 95 degrees. when it comes to 95, is when hypothermia or low heat kicks in. our body is interesting because your wholist system is going to start to react. your heart is going to shut down the blood flow to the extremities and try to conserve it to keep the heat. you can become confused,

delirious, lose memory in severe cases. and your respiratory system, you have start having shallow breathing. frostbite is something we see in this kind of temperature. that's the affect on the skin as the result of freezing. the first stage is when your skin gets really red and becomes numb. itchy. the second stage is when it gets white. you want to be careful. this is the time uwant to get inside and stay away from the cold because that's when the vase ooconstriction or blood snw is not going to get there. the exnext stage is black and blue. >> how do you know if you're getting hypothermia? do you feel it, do you get dizzy e, or does it come on silently. >> because numbness is involved, you may not know it. people around you must be alurtd. the body is trying to preserve

blood flow to the vital organs. it cuts down on blood flow to the extremities, to the nose, to the chin. >> will i feel it? >> you may feel numb and itchy, like david said, that's the first sign. and then you look for redness, and you look for then paleness, and you have to get out of the cold right away. who is prone to this? people with circulatory problems have this, and anybody out there for more than 30 minutes and is not properly covered. you go indoor, get covered, use warm water to get heated back up. >> slowey. >> slowly. you want to jump in the hot shower, but that not may be good. >> not too hot, and don't use heating pads or massage. all of that can cause more damage. frostbite can be permanent damage to the skin. for the first time in 25 years, we have a treatment we never had before. we're using dissolvers in very bad cases. what we use for heart attacks we

use for severe frostbite. it's called tpa. we use it to prevent amputations. now the rate of amputations for severe frostbite is down to 10%. still terrible, but it's an improvement. >> if you real ly are suffering from severe conditions, should you go to the hospital? >> it's a medical emergency. you have to call 911. the fortunate thing is it's reversible, and you want to bring the temperature by putting a warm pack on your armpits, warm drinks. you don't really want to go into high temperature. because you don't have sensation, you can burn your skin. the patients that are in trouble are diabetics who don't have the actual sensations, hypoothyroid, you want to be careful, and the key is not just 30 minutes. different people are different. you can have this within five minutes. don't go out and say we have 30 minutes before we get into trouble. different people, different conditions, health conditions, within five to ten minutes. >> children.

>>susceptible, and drinking alcohol is not a solution. it causes vase odilation, you lose more heat. so stay away from alcohol and coffee. >> you think that's a big deal, drinking alcohol, thinking it's going to warm you up. it's not the way to go. >> that's right. you don't want to drink. >> good advice. >> and smoking must be awful, too. let's move on. we want to take a look at some of the top medical advancements of the year. you mentioned a great one, about the fact that frost bitten limbs can be saved. there's a scan, too, that's a breakthrough, that doctors say could transform the way we treat patients with heart blockages. dr. siegel, you're going to start this. >> this was published in a journal i love. it's a british study. it's kind of revolutionizing what we're doing about finding heart attacks and right before heart attacks. we want to do noninvasive imagi imaging.

we have advanced a lot with cat scans. we have something called the ct angiogram, which can show the blocking you have, we have scorings that tells you if your coronary arteries are getting calcified. these are what we call noninvasive tests. now we have a new one still in the works but i think it's interesting, they're using pet scans. they're something we use for cancer, bultd they're using the sodium fluoride from pet scans and the imaging from pet scans which tells you basically if an area of the body is heating up. guess why that's important? we want to know if the plaque is heating up in your coronary arteries. is it getting ready to break. so this may be very, very important in the next year or two to tell us, hey, we know you have coronary artery disease, but you're getting ready to have a heart attack. you better get the stent now, you better get seen by your cardiologist now. >> or an aneurysm? >> this is a different type --

you get a cat scan for that. the pet scan study is promising, but i'm not convinced it's going to change the way we practice. it's a very small study, only about 80 patients and accurate in about 90%. we still have a long way to go for pet scans to come in this field. now, we use pet scan in our field of cancer, for lung ca cancer, for kidney cancer, and it's 50/50 can guess whether there's cancer in the body. for bone imaging, it would work. >> explain why, doctor. what does it show that a cat scan doesn't? >> they're using a radio tracer to see where the aggregate of the cells. sometimes with this plaque formation, you would have inflammation. it detects when the plaque ruptures. that's where the plaque starts to go to a blocked artery, heart attack, or go to the brain and cause a stroke. nobody knows the cause of plaque rupture, what we know is 60 million americans suffer from coronary artery disease and any of these studies are important.

what i like is the calcium score test that mark mentioned, i had mine a year ago. it looks at how much calcium you have in the arteries. if it's zero like mine, you're good to go. if it'100, you're in trouble. >> what do you ask for at the doctor? >> what you ask for is there's a lot of noninvasive tests you might be able to have before they send you for an angiogram. >> which is invasive with a needle and dye. >> and side effects and risk. >> calcium score test. put that on the list. >> it's not for screening unless you have history of family heart disease, diabeteses. >> you know people skipping getting a flu shot, not a good idea, but now there's a possible new breakthrough they say could get the same protection without the shot. the doctors will fill us in about that when "sunday housecall" continues. >> i'm in. and you know, we always hear there's no cure for the common cold. but is there? there's a new blood test that could help fight that pesky

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back now with "sunday housecall." get your flu shot yet? sometimes getting vaccinated can be a painful experience, but this year, we learn about cutting edge technology that's getting the shots without the use of needles. when can it start? >> you see him protecting me from you guys coming after me with the flu shot. >> we're ready. we're not going to debate the benefit of a flu shot. everyone knows that correct, but the problem is not just the needle itself, which can cause contamination, hiv, all these things that we spoke about. it's intermuscular, painful, but the biggest news about the vaccine is the refrigerator.

you have to keep it refrigerated because the virus can die if you don't keep it that way. that's part of the reason why getting the vaccine to a lot of poor countries where they may not have this refrigerator has been devastating. now with this new technology, and the name of the company is vaxxas. it's a nan opatch that has -- it's a small, tiny patch. it's almost the size of a dime. it's a tiny -- the sides of a dime. it has about 20,000 microprojections that come out of it. you put it on the skin. you don't feel any pain. >> this is brilliant. >> this is great. >> for real? >> it's real. listen to this. at the tip of this, you already have the virus that's necessary for the vaccination, jamie. it gets into your system and it can lead to a good vaccination. it's done in iraq. it's not ready for primetime for another couple years.

it's a fantastic concept. it's important because it can be used for treatment of diabetes. it can work so no more injection for them, that's revolutionary. for prednisone, those kind of things. >> even b-12 for malnutrition and vitamins. i'm liking this technology. this is for real. >> i think so, too, now to answer eric's question, it's not yit ready for primetime. we're a couple years away from being able to use it in the doctor's office. one of the points david made, you don't need to refrigerator it. the biggest problem with live vaccines is you had to refrigerate them. yes, a lot of kids are afraid of needles. i want everyone to get a flu shot. 50% of kids still don't get the flu shot. that's why we have the rampant flu epidemic. maybe we can get them to use this. this technology is also useful for anti-aging creams, for treatment for diabetes like was

mentioned. the idea is it can get medication in under your skin and absorbed by your body without going through a shot. that's key. maybe useful for tb and malaria vaccine in the works. flu is one. they're testing it on the adenovirus which is similar to the flu, but it will have uses across the board for using medications as well as vaccines. by the way, there are other vaccines, literally, you can eat a strawberry and get a vaccine. all kinds of vaccines in the works. >> i'm not asking this to be silly. you said it's only done in rats. rats can tell you if they're experiencing pain? >> the first place is in the mines. if it passes, it comes to a human clinical trial. so far, the outcome has been superb. guess who is behind it? the bill gates foundation is spend aglot of money on this. this has the potential to

revolutionize the way we treat diabetes in the kucountry. we're talking about microtechnology more and more. microscopic ways to give the vaccine. i think it has a tremendous potential. >> one of the biggest knocks on the flu vaccine is how antiquated it is. all these thrusts in the direction of newer and greater vaccines where again, you can eat a vaccine, put it on your skin, inhale it. we'll get one that lasts for ten years, this is going to be the future and that's what we're talking about. >> what's with the mice? all the poor little mice. >> but it's brilliant. many needles that don't hit the pain receptors. >> absolutely. >> fantastic. so interesting. we all are seeing a lot of people who have a cold, a common cold. it's always been uncommonly diflth for doctors to treat, but there's a new break pm through they want you to know about that could change how all doctors are going to approach illness.

they'll explain next. some people are basically too polite to tell you when you have bad brotheath. did you know soon your smartphone, they say your smartphone can help you tell if you need a mint. how this would work, what it will mean, coming up. >> notice i'm not piping in, eric. . .

you know what? we've all had a common cold and we've tried everything from the decongestants on and nothing works. now there's a new break through on how doctors can interpret whether it's a cold and tell if it's bacterial or viral. dr. siegel, this is big because we always go for the antibiotics

and it's not always necessary. >> first of all, this is big. this is not yet ready for prime time. but there's a couple of issues, pro and conon this. first of all, we're overprescribing antibiotics in this country. david and i have talked about this on this show repeatedly. 2 million people are getting bacterial resistant because we're giving out too many antibiotics. so it would be great if we had a tool to help us, this is a virus, not a bacteria. if you've got muscle aches and fatigue, it's probably a virus. i can tell the difference clinically. but if i could check a blood sample and that would help me, this is -- this study came up with something called a genetic signature, where they looked at 30 genetic variations associated with viruses. and then they came up with something called the influenza factor. sounds like science fiction where they could tell you had

the flu way in advance of your having symptoms. the problem with this test is it takes 12 hours to work in its current form. so if somebody comes into my office and i give this test, i have to make a decision on the spot. do i give out that z-pack that we always make fun of? do i give an antibiotic? if i have to wait 12 hours, the ball game is already over. with the flu, you have more time because it takes a while before people actually get the flu. so i think this is something for the future, not the present. >> i'm seeing a lot of commercials for tamiflu this time of year. is that helpful? >> it is. and if you pay attention to the physical symptoms, that's part of the art of being a good doctor so often out who should get antibiotics or not. part oovt issue we have is a lot of knee jerk reaction is going on. the doctor is saying, if i don't give the antibiotics, then i'm going to get sued, if i give it, then there are issues. antibiotic resistant germs in our hospitals, mrsa, gram

negative clepsiella, we're surrounded by these, 22,000 to an estimate of 100,000 people are dying from this because we -- and i include myself -- we are writing too many of them. the germs have become smart, they're evolving. the genetic signatures are passing on to others. and i think the 12 hours is a good situation for us. better than the few days that we have already. the clinical trial that is going on with this is going to bring it to one hour. that's a big deal. if you're going to come at 10:00 a.m., by 10:30, 11:00, i'm going to know whether it's bacterial versus viral. it's a game changer. it's going to reduce the number of antibiotics. >> you're going to outsmart the germs. >> 2014 there will be a lot of great things coming up in medicine. >> thanks, doctor. >> speaking of great things, bad breath, you may not know you have it, but guess what? there's an app that can make sure your mouth is minutety

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esurance. now backed by allstate. click or call. do me a favor. tweet me and have jamie call the tv and let me know if you know someone who has bad breath. how much better would this world be if people would ask themselves, how good is my breath? dallas researcher working on an app that will detect whether you need to reach for mouth wash. and i'm not picking on you in particular, dr. sa mady, but you're first on this. >> this machine, iphones are becoming almost a human being. they can hear, they can see and now they can touch. the company is coming up with an tam attachment to this.

it has receptors, almost like the receptors in a dog's nose. the human has about 400 receptors, the dog has almost 2,000 of them. it can be very, very sensitive. this technology right now exists. we have it in many doctor's offices, but they are not mobile. they are smaller. it's not so much about the bad breath. but through this, you can find and diagnose diabetes, liver disease, you can diagnose. and so the future of this is bright. a couple of years away from prime time. again, don't ask for it tomorrow. but i think these are -- all these apps are on the way. >> but, mark, this is great to be able to diagnose. because often bad breath is caused by a medical reason the. >> you know, and we make fun of it. of course, i have to tell you there's no way david has bad breath because n.o.r., he wouldn't last. but serious to your serious point --

>> to your serious point, jami, bad breath is a sign often of stomach diseases. and david talked about it a couple of weeks ago. you're going to be able to say if you have a bacteria in your stomach you you need to worry about, if you could be on the verge of an ulcer, gastritis. >> and cancer, we talked a few weeks ago about a dog sniffing cancer and david mentioned 2,000 sensors in a dog's nose. we're making mechanical noses. that's what this is. diabetes, possibility cancer, stomach disease, .then we import it and put it into a smartphone. you'll be able to tell out there if you have this problem. >> do you do that right now? >> we cannot do it now, but i want to send another caution out there. when we can do it, don't diagnose your. go see your doctor. >> it's like a breathalyzer. >> that's right. that's a good point. obviously, treated by making sure that you brush it and also scrape your tongue, but

sometimes there are cells in the back of the throat that can give you bad breath. >> we have to leave it there. that will do it for us. >> next up is house call. howard kurtz is coming up right now. >> have a grit day. >> this sunday, an msnbc host apologizes to mitt romney for mocking his adopted black grandchild. a family photo of romney holding the 3-month-old boy on his knee was just hysterical. >> any captions for this one? >> i think this picture is great. it's something for diversity in the republican party. >> the rnc. >> the baby is a symbol of the republican party? what on earth were they thinking? and what about harris-perry's apology yesterday. >> without reservation or qualification,