. hello, i'm harris faumner in today for jamie colby. time now for "sunday house call." >> and i'm eric shawn. joining us as all is david samadi. >> and dr. marc siegel, author of "unlocking the secret code of sickness and health." >> doctors, nice to see you. >> good afternoon. >> well, hello. >> let's begin with a ground breaking study giving hope to so many people who cannot move their limbs, a study involving four men who have been paralyzed

for years, and it seems to show that they are not able to voluntarily move their toes and feet after receiving a treatment known as electric stimulation. dr. samadi, is this real or false hope? >> it's absolutely real. it's a great breaking through for a lot of patients with spinal cord injury. when you're told at the young age of 21 or 26, like some of these four patients, that you're paralyzed, you'll in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, it's completely testify statings, and it changes your whole life, and the spinal cord injury is fascinating because it's basically a bunch of cords that connects the brain to the rest of the body. any information from our limbs, fingers, bladder, et cetera, goes back to the brain and has to bring the information back in order to be able to function. what happens when there's injury. now there's a disruption of injury, and so there's a disconnect, and that's why they are paralyzed. these four patients through a study in louisville, and this paper was published in the journal "brain."

what they are doing is putting pacemaker around and below the level of injury and they are able through electrodes to stimulate those nerves, and what we're finding out, even though there was spinal nerve injuries, those nerves are still intact and through electrical stimulation they are able to move their toes and knees and they are able to function. what's important is some of them can actually stand up as a result of this, so this is a revolutionary breakthrough in this field. have about 3 million people in america that are going through this kind of paralysis, 12,000 per year, so this can change the way we're going to treat these. we're also finding out that those nerves after injury are still alive and they are able to function. through physical therapy, through this kind of pacemaking therapy they are able to function. this is big news for spinal injury field. >> i agree this is big news. last year i reported on a device developed by the army that took paralyzed people and made a robot device and made them walk

again, and i think that there will be able to go together with that because this is also allowing people who have had paralysis, total muscle paralysis, they still have some sensation, most of them, and they studied four people one of them they have been studying since 2009. you know what they talked about most, return of bladder and bowel function and return of sexual function. that is so important to these individuals, so, yes, the standing and being able to have voluntary movement where you say move your toes and they can move their toes, but have-to-have control of bowel and badder is incredibly important to them, and it's like an electrical stimulation, as david said. the brain uses electrical stimulation. now we're using it from something we implant in the spine to get down to the end of the nerves. >> you know what else i read, and i want to ask you this, dr. samadi. you're talking about lifestyle, return to better lifestyle, that these patients were able to sweat and that's important because they couldn't go outside and if you're out in the sun and you can't sweat, that's very

dangerous. >> i'm glad you're bringing this up. it's absolutely critical for them to feel the pain, because when we're sitting, right, their nerve sensations, after half an house, an hour, you feel the pain, that's why you move. what happens if you don't have the pain sensation near the skin. you would end up getting sore. you would get lesions. >> bed sores. >> sure. >> and all of that, and now in these patients we're seeing that they are getting the pain sensation. they are starting to sweat and starting to move, but i want to go back to the point that marc just brought up about the bladder activity, sexual function and the bowel movement which is the huge part of the quality of life. standing is one thing, but if the bladder can send a sensation to the brain and bring it back and say time to void, now you're changing their whole quality of life. things that we take for granted every day. >> can this actually lead to paralyzed people not being paralyzed? >> absolutely, and i want to point out from an internist point of view, in addition to people walking again that couldn't, from a medical point of view, it will enable me to

control blood pressure and cut down on the. a wounds and lead to a lot less people dying from being paralyzed because when you're immobile, everything increases, yourk risk of blood clots and stroke. get someone up and walking, and their chances of having a medical problem decreases. >> and another break and that has to do with people living with hepatitis "c." researchers claim a new drug has claimed 90% of people who have hepatitis "c." dr. siegel, what about that? >> is this available now? these two drugs have been approved, daclatasvir and asunaprevir. we've been relying on a drug

called interferon. half the people who get it for a year, they don't respond and others have to go off of it. some with chronic disease s cant take it. what this drug does is prevents the virus from replicating and making more of itself and spreading to other cells. there was a 95% to 100% response over 12 to 24 weeks, and then when they took patients and studied them later, they found for the most part the virus had disappeared. this is a cure we're talking about, not just remission, but a cure. people with sirsies on the other hand-stage liver disease, you want to prevent a liver transplant that way. >> how prevalent is hepatitis "c"? >> 15,000 deaths from liver death and liver cirrhosis?

blood-to-blood transmission, needle stick, no vaccine for it and no cure for it, so you want to be very careful with it. hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis which is the scarring of the liver, liver failure and more important cancer of the liver which is a deadly position to be in, so having this kind of medication, oral medication that's going to help, it's really going to change the way we would practice with liver cancer, et cetera. the number of liver transplants in the future is going to go down. in this particular study that was published in the "new england journal of medicine," 380 patients given this kind of medication, and as marc mentioned, 90% cure is a huge number. >> that's amazing. >> where are we going with this? the big question, will it slow down the transmission of the disease from one patient to another? we don't know yet. will it reduce the number of liver cancers? we still need some more money. >> what about money? interferon is expensive? >> $1,000 a day for this, $84,000 for a treatment course. >> does insurance cover it? >> that's one of the things i

always worry about. we don't get into the politics. i'm not sure insurance will cover this, and one more point, baby boomers are really the target generation for this, and i'll tell you why. before this test was available in 1992 for hepatitis "c," a lot of people got it from blood transfusions and did not know they have it. still don't know they have it. get tested for hepatitis "c" out there if you're a baby boomer. >> you may not have any symptoms and that's a big thing. majority of the patients may have hepatitis "c" without having any symptoms. that's why we want people to get to know because by the time it gets to chronic and caused cirrhosis it's already too late. >> so get checked. >> sounds good. >> we see the commercials all over and a new warning for men taking verne drugs for e.d. why doctors now say some of the erectile distinction meds may actually increase your risk for a deadly form of cancer. stay with us. ♪ [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options.

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a new health alert now about some of those very popular drugs for erectile dysfunction. doctors are now warning they can raise a man's rig for developing a deadly form of skin cancer. dr. samdy. a lot of people are taking these meds these days. >> this started to come into my practice. a lot of patients started to ask me if i'm taking viagra am i at a high risk for skin cancer? this is an observational study. you have to be very careful about the way we interpret this. it was published in "jama," 26,000 men and found the ones taking viagra have a higher risk of getting skin cancer. i will tell you that this study is not complete, and we still have to wait for further investigation. similar studies three years ago coming out of germany using viagra as a treatment for melanoma and skin cancer, completely opposite effect,

saying that skin cancer can cause inflammation, inflammation leaves to boost your immune system and viagra can fight the inflammation and can cure the skin cancer, completely different studies. i would tell people not to panic. perhaps in our practice we should pay attention to patient with history of melanoma and not give them this kind of medication and be careful about it. does it cause -- does viagra cause skin cancer and also levitra and cialis, the answer is no. we need further study. >> dr. siegel, these drugs are not all the same. people see the commercials, see cialis and viagra, they are different. >> the first one was viagra and the other two, ciali s & l evitra are longer acting. every week we come on here, and this is one of our trademarks here, not a double-blinded randomized pros spective trial which is the best kind of science, you gave one group

viagra and another group who didn't and saw who developed mel noam a. we can say multi-vitamins are great for you and another week multi-vitamins are bad for you, tamiflu is good for you, bad for you, same thing with viagra. you can't practice medicine that way and can't deliver science that way so here's what i say. we already know baby boomers are at increased risk for melanoma because we burned ourselves when we were kids, because we didn't know about sunscreen, so when i see a baby boomer in the office, i check their ears, i check their neck, i check their scalp, i check their face especially, i look for signs of irregularity and we've talked about melanoma on the show, irregular borders, different colors, raised, larger than 6 millimeters, look for several different signs of melanoma. look for melanoma but not stop prescribing viagra. >> shouldn't you get a body check coming into summer? >> these medications are not always the answer and look --

look at the obesity, diabetes, high pressure system, lack of sleep, alcohol intake. you should exhaust taking care of those before you go straight to viagra and other thing, and the other thing is really how important is sex in your life? i would tell you as a urologist, this is serious, there are a lot of health benefits to having sex. you're cognitive skills and cardiac and immune system, so it's a big part of this, and i would encourage people. now a lot of people say i get a prescription for three times a week so my wife will follow, two to three times a week and if more, god bless you, but it's t has actual health benefits to having regular sexual function. >> i celebrated my 11th anniversary yesterday and i'm taking the prescription home apparently. >> the final thing, i would say, it's a reminder for physicians to think twice before prescribing any medication but before you say don't do it you need better science than this. >> great advice. thanks so much. you know when you listen to music and you're driving your car, ever put those little --

ever put those things in your ear, the ear buds. >> can you share them? >> can you share them. >> coming up the doctors will give us the reasons and whether we should be sharing them. you see college kids and teens doing that sometimes. you think that's a good idea? "sunday house call" back in a flash. i bought a car, over and tells you, and you're like. a good deal or not. looking at truecar.com. there's no buyer's remorse. save time, save money, and never overpay. visit truecar.com

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and back now with the doctors and our segment, should i wore? our weekly segment about everything that worries us. this week's topic comes from a brand new study that warns about the sharing of these ear buds, you know the little thingys you put in your ears when you listen to music or talk on the phone because they say they are covered with a bacteria. >> ew. >> like sharing straws or drinking out of soda cans.

should you share ear buds? >> no topic is off limits on this show. you should not share ear buds, and i'll tell you why. by the way, that applies to these things we wear. >> the ifbs. >> a guy will give me one of these but i would bring my own. >> you don't know where this thing has been before. >> the ear the producer can talk to you and all that. >> they're covered in bacteria. when they're in this warm, moist place inside there, it gets more and more bacteria. studies have shown they multiply ast astronomically in the ear. that includes super bugs. but what they haven't shown is passing back and forth leads to ear infection. that hasn't been proven. but i don't want that bacteria. if you could see under the microscope, you wouldn't believe what you can see. if you go to the headsets, apparently those transfer lice. >> lice? >> you're a real pick me up, dr. siegel. >> you can't get away from it by

going to these. but if you use these, wipe them with alcohol swabs. do not share them. >> tack in there with some alcohol. >> after you scared the whole america. >> i know. i want to use one on mine. >> this is very simple. there you go. this is what you're supposed to be doing. before you use any of these whether you put it in your ears -- and doctors, we always exchange stethoscopes. this is what you should be doing. take one of these alcohol swabs. it's easy. and you just clean it up. >> a lot of makeup on mine. >> you're a parent and you should tell your teenagers this because you know what the kids do these days, share music. >> they're all watching. the ear canal is hot and humid. and we have to be careful about how we say this. so there's a lot of bacteria and mrsas and other things in here that can stick in and pass onto everyone else. i think the risk of infection seriously is very low, unless

you are on chemotherapy, some transplantations, you have low immune -- compromised, risk of getting infection are very low, but what we want people to know is you can pass on some of these bacterias. if there's open sore -- >> sterilize them and don't share. >> yes. >> i think i hear better now too. >> it's working. >> you have a cut, you could get an infection. >> i'll give you mine. >> that's a good point. if you've got an opening -- if you've cut your ear or something like that. >> you want to be careful with that. >> but don't be scared. >> i think i already know the answer to this question because i like a little bag of doritos, but junk food what effect does it have on your brain? could it rewire it and not in a good way? the surprising findings from a new study on how all those donuts and cheeseburgers, that's not my thing actually, i'm into cupcakes and fries. it's more than just your weight the effect this stuff has on you. stay with us. okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu.

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well, if you are feeling a bit less motivated than usual, it could be junk food rewiring your brain to make you lazy. researchers say they can prove that. eating chips, cookies, cupcakes and more will make you gain weight of course. but they now say it has a negative effect on your behavior. dr. samadi, are we talking about back away from the chips aisle? >> no -- well, they're all saying you are what you eat is absolutely correct. in this particular study coming from ucla, it's a rat study and basically get a group of rats some junk food and other healthy food and find out if you take a lot of the junk food, you're really going to gain weight and you can become lazy. so it's the food that actually makes you obese and become lazy. not being lazy and become obese. so that's really the first finding. the other thing is that you should really cut down on fat, sugar and carbohydrates.

those are the ones that really are high glycemic index, sugar goes in, really slows you down and start taking some of the fruits and vegetables. now, the way i practice medicine, i always go with moderation. once in a while -- >> now i'm smiling. >> -- there's a football game that's perfectly okay to take some of this, even try viagra once in a while is fine -- i'm making blush over here. but in general taking too much is not so good. >> but these rats -- they're always doing things to these poor rats. does it rewire their brains literally? >> here's what they do, this is the first time they took fat out of the equation. they gave the rats either corn meal and fish, nice healthy diet, or something that was full of processed foods or carbohydrates. and those rats not only got fat but they laid around. i think we already know the reason for this. it's chemicals in the brain. those fancy chemicals, you need

those. you get those from exercise and from eating the right foods. the brain makes those and that's what keeps you healthy, but when you eat these fast foot your brain stops making the dopamine, stops making the happy hormones and starts craving the bad stuff. when you start craving the bad stuff, you lay around. you get fatter, to be active. it's a cycle. so i think these rats are what we would do. so i don't think it's just rats this time. >> you know what's interesting too, and i don't know if there's science about this, but it feels like the more you eat the more you want. is it addictive too? >> that's an excellent point you're bringing up because a part of the brain, the reward center, gets used to this. and you build higher threshold and you want more of this. so breaking the cycle, getting into the right lifestyle is absolutely the way to go. i also want to bring up certain foods that could be healthy but would make you tired. for example, everyone knows about turkey.

turkey's a great food, but it has tons of tryptophan. and after eating it, cottage cheese, some of these really have high tryptophan. >> umas, hast interesting. >> absolutely. halibut. >> fish? >> yeah. a lot of magnesium. they can calm your muscles down, make you tired. these are healthy food that you want to take in moderation. >> if you go to the fancy diet books you'll find a million explanations, but the bottom line is a good nutritionist will always tell you a lot of different colors on your plate. fruit and vegetables and a lot of fiber and a lot of fruit and vegetables. >> is there really any junk food that's not so bad for you that you can have? how can you cheat? >> if celery -- it's not a junk food. >> no. that's not a junk food. >> a chocolate cupcake. >> i'm talking doritos, buddy. >> salsa and schipotle. >> and i love pico de gallo.

>> we're going to wear the doctors out with our bad eating habits. fun to be here. you'll be back next weekend. that's going to do it for us. >> thank you for watching "sunday house call." have a great day. the crisis in ukraine takes a deadly turn as shots are fired. for the first time the faceoff between ukrainian special forces and pro-russian militia group ends in a gun battle. as tension escalates ukraine's president says his country will launch a, quote, large-scale antiterrorist operation to resist russian aggression. a live report coming up mpkts the standoff in a modern day range war comes to an end after protests many of them armed showed up in support of the rancher. the bureau of land management halted its round up, but the fight is far from over. we're live in nevada with the latest. and two hot button issues heating up in washington this