i'm leland vitter. >> joining us, dr. mark siegel, professor of medicine at nyu's medical center. also author of "unlocking the secret code of sickness and health." >> and professor of urology and chief of robotic surgery. >> thanks for being here, the

big news story here that it happened over the past week was the death of robin williams. we wanted to play a clip of him that everyone will remember and then we'll begin talking. >> these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. but poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. to quote from whitman, oh, me, oh, life of the questions of these recurring, of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities filled with the foolish, what good amid these, oh, me, oh, life. answer, that you are here, that life exists, and identity, but the powerful play goes on and you in the universe. >> that was "dead poet's

society" starring robin williams. williams passed away in weekend at the age of 63, a coroner's report saying that he hanged himself. his family says that he had been suffering from depression and anxiety and recently diagnosed with parkinson's disease. we know that he had a very long battle with addiction as well. >> that's a great question, i think it's a combination of many factors, it's the drinking, it's the history of drug use, it's the severe depression he was suffering from, then the parkinson's disease has a very high association with worsening depression. he says wait a minute, how long can i make those facial expressions, how long can i dance on stage, how long can i make movements without trembling. but i have to tell you, but i think an internist, a primary care doctor is usually the first stop for this and i'll tell you why. 50 to 60% of people that come to my office are coming in for

anxiety or depression issues. they may say they have a cough or a muscle ache, they're not doing as well as i would like, they're anxious, they're depressed. and i have learned over the years, and i actually lost my best friend to depressation. i have learned to look for hopelessness, you have suicidal thoughts, but do you have a plan? if someone has a plan in place, you have to get them emergency treatment. you look also for weight loss, change in habits of behavior, are they eating what they usually do, are they exercising? what about their relationships? are they withdrawing? if you get a warning call from a family member saying, hey, you know, my husband, my wife is not acting right. >> or it just doesn't feel right. how often are these types of suicidal thoughts and possibly leading to suicide linked to a diagnosis. you all of a sudden you see a patient and you diagnose him

with -- how often does that trigger these kinds of things? >> that's a very important thing that you're saying, we should be treating depression actually like heart disease or diabetes, there's signs and symptoms that we want people to know. if there's a lack of sleep, if there's behavioral changes, all of a sudden the person is not interested in social activities, they have a feeling of guilt and worthlessness. now all of a sudden he's not as useful and then it goes on and on to anxiety and depression. the last chapter of this whole thing is really suicide. so what we want people to know is to recognize the same signs and symptoms and there's also 1-800-273-talk. if you see someone who's suffering from these kinds of symptoms, don't leave them alone. call 1-800-273-talk and i will post this on the facebook. it's extremely important. one of the things he said in one

of his movies, is that when you treat a disease, this is robin williams, you either win or you lose, when you treat the whole person, i guarantee you win. we had a chance to save him, he came for rehab. you have to look at his life. he was suffering from depression. all the risks were there. this is a person that had the addiction. i think john belushi actually saved his life, delayed the process for about 20 years. and parkinson's. we know that as a comedian, now there's two times higher risk of suicide, how long are you going to live that kind of hyperenergy, kind of almost manic, remembering the movie, "good morning vietnam" keeping that up for on and on and on. >> how much do you love that, dr. siegel, when you have people who appear to happy, who appear to be the life of the party, is that often times a mask for a depressed person? >> there's no question about that, and it's a great point. and i think in his case, look at

the roles he played. he played patch adams who was a physician who was in a mental institution literally and then went back and became heart felt and learned to take care of people emotionally. in a way i think he was looking for a patch adams in his own life. i don't know if he had it or not. i these he was making the world smile because he couldn't smile. this is a disease, it's got amount of stigma attached to it. there it's been a lot of talk on tv, was he selfish because people were hurt in his wake? that's not now you look at it. the earlier we find it the better, if it gets treated early, you can make a difference. >> let me just add one more thing that we just didn't mention. in 2009, he underwent an aortic valve replacement which was heart surgery and also a real aggressi depression that comes from a lot

of these major surgeries. exactly the point of covering this segment is that we want people to be aware of these patients, don't leave them alone, there's a treatment for depression, they can get well, but just diagnosing it is very important and you can save lives. these are people who live two lives, they're happy in the morning and they're locked in their own dark cage and suicide is an escape. it's basically just getting rid of this pain that they live with. >> and the park kin skon's side. parkinson's tend to do very well on anti-depressants and another interesting fact is that you get it before you get the symptoms, the brain hormones change. and before you see it. i actually talked to a top neurologist who said he could see in robin williams face, in the crazy ones, some early signs of parkinson's. but even before you start to lose the motor function, you can respond to the anti-grdepress sachbts. >> you had mentioned a number

earlier, 1-800-273-talk. >> ask for help. >> and ask for help. and not just for the people that were suffering, who might be thinking about suicide. but it's so difficult for people that are watching their loved ones suffer. >> exactly, family members. >> it gives family members some place to be able to go and look for help and hopefully not end up in a situation that robin williams found him. there could be a new hope for those struggling to get a good night's sleep. the government's just approving a brand new drug for insomnia, but it comes with a big warning. so should you take it? our doctors are going to weigh in on that, coming up. we do it all for this very experience. [woman] that's good. i know right? gevalia. i wear makeup bnot because i have to. new olay regenerist instant fix collection fills wrinkles, reduces the look of pores and smoothes texture

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this is bill. his doubleheader day at the park starts with back pain... and a choice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. peanuts! peanuts! crowd cheers! well, who among us has not

had trouble getting sleep one night before a big day, a big show, whatever. the fda is now approving a new drug to help those struggling with insomnia. it works by blocking the chemicals in the brain that keeps people awake. how do you know if that drug's right for you? there's so many ads on television, what makes this one different. >> this seems to be a ground breaking medications, all the medications that are out there, it kind of shuts down the entire system in your brain and that's why you have all the side effects and basically you have an addictive kind of side effect to this medication. this particular one goes after some nerves in the brain and that's responsible for us being wakeful, all the energy and it's connected somehow to our diet. we have spoken to -- they somehow interact with each other which also tells you the importance of diet and sleep and also if you don't get enough sleep how you can gaining

weight. bottom line, it's a very specific working in a very specific part of the brain, it approved this wednesday by fda, now it's in the pipeline for coming out late 2014. i like this medication, even though we don't have long-term data. but the reason why i like it is because insomnia can cause diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and we always recommend seven to eight hours of sleep for people out there. >> i have done stories on this, the hunger who are moan. how do you know when you need some sort of medication or lifestyle versus a pill. >> if one-third of all men and women have a problem with insomnia? do they really need sleeping pills? are they drinking too much alcohol before they go to sleep? are they going to sleep at the

same time every night in a dark room? do they have that ipad right next to their bed like david and i have? the kids are screaming, they're sleeping with you, all this stuff is going on. so you say let's take an ambien, let's take a lunesta, it only increases the amount of sleep you get by about 12 minutes, if you don't have seven hours before you have to get up, you can be drowsy the next day, it can interfere with your driving. i'm talking about ambien right now. i'm going to switch over to this new one in a second, the new drug, we don't know yet. studies say it isn't as addictive, but that may not actually be the case, but one thing is for sure, it can make you drowsy, it can interfere with your driving and you could have one of those things where you wake up in the middle of the night and you're cooking, and

you don't know how you got there. >> it's so scary, people take these on planes too, i used to take these overseas, you have people on planes, they take an ambien, they're walking up and down the you'llaisles, they're zombies. >> do these drugs zombieify you? >> absolutely. so far it looks very promising. if you don't what to have to take these medications, we have recommended valerian. if you're having chronic insomnia, stick to a high mag viennese july diet. all of those plays a big role. and also avoid getting a big, fatty meal before you go to bed. >> tryptophan, you can actually have a banana or some milk. and valerian has m.

>> do you suffer from episodes of nausea throughout the day. >> all the time. >> that's another issue. >> terrible. >> coming up, the doctors will explain what might be causing it and whether you should be concerned, coming up. (vo) friday night has always been all fun and games, here at the harrison household. but one dark, stormy evening... she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her purina cat chow complete. it's great because it has the four cornerstones of nutrition. everything a cat needs for the first step to a healthy, happy life. purina cat chow complete. share your rescue story and join us in building better lives. one rescue at a time. r favorite players come on, get open... yeah... with nfl mobile on verizon. yes! get in there! .

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now for should i worry? >> it's a weekly segment for anything that worries us.

>> i sounds like something that at the very least is uncomfortable. >> i wouldn't say that had this. if you've only had it a day or two, it could be food poisoning. you could have picked up a staph or a bacteria or something as a barbecue you went to. another possibility is a virus. you could have a viral infection in your stomach. that's another thing that causes a lot of nausea. if you're a woman, you could be pregnant. so we want to keep that in there. any woman that suddenly comes in the child-bearing years that suddenly develops a lot of nausea, you wonder about that. but the acid feeling makes me think of something we've talked about before called reflux. in other words, is there a lot of acid there for a reason? do you have other symptoms like bumping, hoarseness? do you have heartburn going along with this, something we call dyspepsia? if that's the case, you should consider changing your diet. you don't just rush to medications because we have great medications for reflux.

but you don't rush to medication. try to figure out what caused it. >> i think the doctors, we're writing too many prescriptions right before we try many lifestyle changes, as we've spoken about. >> do you think patients are just looking for an easy fix? >> absolutely. and it's a knee-jerk reaction, and that's just bad medicine. i know mark olsen will give a prescription right off the bat. as we're talking about peptic ulcer disease or reflux, the esophagus has a sphincter that's supposed to keep the acid away. fatty foods, chocolate, smoking, alcohol, obesity, anything, h h hiatal hernia. that's what causes the acid to push up. >> it's comfort food. >> it causes inflammation of the esophagus, causes bleeding. and then finally you can have on and on and on. for example, a lot of people

that eat food lying flat. that's the recipe for reflux. make sure you stay away from that. keep your bed about 30 degrees if you have a big meal or steak at the end of the night. >> is it going for a walk, though, something like that would help, wouldn't it? >> absolutely. and to add to the diet points that he's making, you'll want to stay away from alcohol, as we talked before. we love coffee on the show, but coffee can exacerbate this. >> you guys are taking away all the fun stuff. >> i was going to say. >> and dairy products. >> and before medication, try a lot of these antacids. tums. >> that's a good one. >> you have a future. >> making commercials. and see your doctor if it's persistent. >> if you do have a question for our doctors here, e-mail us, and we may just answer it right here on the air. all names and e-mail addresses kept completely confidential. you may have seen this on a youtube channel near you, but not with either one of us.

dozens of people around the country are dumping buckets of ice water on themselves. here it is. it's all in the name of charity. what you need to know before stepping up to a chilly challenge.

you might have seen it on

facebook. hundreds of people around the country taking part in the ice bucket challenge to help raise money in the fight against als. this is where folks on youtube pour buckets of ice over their head. is that a good idea, doctor? is there any danger to pouring a cold bucket of ice over my head? >> look, it's for the good cause. last year they raised about $205,000, and now they're already at $2.3 million. so i think it's a good cause. we have about 5,000 people that are diagnosed with als. nobody has died or has gone into cardiac shock. so i'm okay with it. i think it's a cool way to bring awareness. als. "a," myotrophic lateral sclerosis. there's no nourishment to the muscle. what it really means, that you lose the motor neurons, voluntary activities. not your heart, not your lungs, things that are in your control, movement. if you want to move your arms and legs, you would lose the nourishment.

you don't get enough electricity to it. what happens over time, they get weak. they stop swallowing food. they stop being able to mobile, and eventually it's a progressive death. about 5,000 people diagnosed. there's no cure for it. there are some medications that may delay this for about three months. but this is a great awareness. and they're raising a lot of money for research. i'm okay with it. >> certainly so many people do a lot of things for charity, run marathons and all sorts of things. doct doctor, you have a word of caution. >> my only word of caution -- and i agree it's almost entirely safe except for people that have underlying heart disease because it does slow your heart rate. so if you know you have a heart problem or some other major medical problem, i would be cautious. but i also agree that it's a great cause. als is a terrible disease. motor neuron disease leading to progressive weakness, muscles don't function. discoordination. now, here's one tinhing -- >> what kind of research needs to be done and can be done? >> in 2011 they figured out a

genetic abnormality that's in most of the als cases. so this money can go right into genetic research to figure out how to do genetic modulation or some type of treatment that might help thousands of people. >> well, certainly for those 5,000 people out there, this is going to probably change the way we do research. so learning about neurology behind it, the way the nerves work, on and on. this is a game changer. but also, it will tell you that a simple thing like this will really change the face of fund-raising. we've seen some the videos out there. celebrities are jumping in, and it's changed the way we've done the fund-raising. >> it affects entire families when people have this. same as depression, which we started the show on. this is a terrible disease for entire families. the money will be well spent. als foundation. >> tremendous to see the awareness being raised, and just to hear both of you talking about what's involved here because so few people meet people that have als. and it is thankfully fairly

rare. >> hard to diagnose. >> for sure. gentlemen, thank you very much. nice to see you guys. >> great job, guys. >> thank you so much. we loved hanging out with you today. appreciate it. >> take care. thanks for watching. she's coming back at 3:30. it's a jam-packed news day today. tear gas, smoke, arrests. ferguson protesters violate curfew, occupy a restaurant and then things go downhill from there. we'll take you there live in moments. day three. american air strikes teaming up with kurdish and iraqi ground forces. their goal, take back the mosul dam from isis terrorists. house foreign affairs committee chairman ed royce will weigh in. and rick perry lashes out at the felony charges filed against him. what did he say in his only sunday show appearance on "fox news sunday"? a live report coming your way. i'm doug mcelway. america's news headquarters live from the nation's capital starts right now. disperse the area immediately.