. welcome. >> joining us is dr. david samadi, chairman of hospital and chief of staff in surgery. >> unlocking the secret code of sickness and health. we unlock that every sunday here on housecall. >> at least they do. well, yeah, we had a great week. we want to start with something really important today, an eye-opening new warning for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.

researchers now investigating whether obesity could be making the disease a lot more agressive. dr. samadi, how could it be so? >> this is very big news, because when you think of obesity, you always think about high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, but now for the first time we see that also obesity results in very aggressive prostate cancer. this is coming from a big study that the american society of research looked into thousands of patients, over 191,000 patients with cancer, so they looked across the board and now they're seeing that obesity can also result, or some association between obesity and aggressive prostate cancer. how does this happen? we know a lot of visceral fat, the fat inside the body, when it sits around the liver, it can cause release of cholesterol. it can press and change hormones and cause high blood pressure,

and now some of this fat around the prostate can also secrete some sort of hormones that feed the tumor cells. so fat itself can produce hormones, growth factors, and can increase cancer. we've seen a little bit of this in breast cancer and colon cancer, and now we see obesity and prostate cancer going hand in hand, which is a game changer, because of all the controversies in this field, perhaps besides african-american, which is a risk factor, besides genetics and family history, we should look at obesity as also one of those risk factors. >> man, oh man, another reason to lose weight. >> we've been talking about it on this show a lot. we already knew that obesity gave you a 40% increased risk of esophogeal cancer, of e endometrial cancer, because of

the hormones it makes. it makes risk of breast cancer, and colon cancer that david was talking about, that fat cells make more inflammation in your body, that visceral fat sitting like a tire around your middle. prostate cancer, to emphasize one of the points david just made, and this was the world cancer research fund, and they looked at a lot of studies and polled a lot of patients. it's advanced prostate cancer they're finding, and that's one of the things we worry about, getting it diagnosed earlier so they can get it out. the laser cancers you have more time for, but if i'm obese -- i think as an intern if somebody comes to my office and they're obese, i was already thinking breast cancer risk, endometrial cancer risk, and now i'm thinking prostate cancer risk. if you've been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the last six

months, you need to call us and we'll talk to you about prostate cancer. >> my mom took the doctor's challenge and got her brother for the first time getting his prostate checked. he has a clean bill of health, however, his cholesterol is high. doctors want to put him on lipitor. i said, no, have him change his diet first. you can monitor your cholesterol level by changing your diet. then if that doesn't work, you go to the medicine. but my mom says it's high. >> i want to congratulate your family for listening to this, because there is so much out there, changing the guidelines. we're finding more and more agressive cancer between young men out there, and now with obesity becoming a real epidemic, especially in young men, knowing your psa and changing your lifestyle is important. i think we've been extremely helpful, especially to fox news

viewers and others, if you've been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the last four to six months, you have real 911 operators. go to prostatecancer911.com, and we can help you. >> we've been talking about obesity, diet. is it the exercise? >> you change your lifestyle first. you get on that elliptical, you get on that bicycle, you walk. you cut down on dairy, you cut down on high cholesterol foods. if you're at risk, i might pull out the medications, too. but for rick of prostate cancer, risk of heart disease, risk for high blood pressure, you have to change your lifestyle. >> we've had a lot of discussion, and even marc himself has lost from last year, if you don't mind -- >> i'm competing with a younger man here.

>> you're doing great. his hair hasn't grown out yet, but he's lost about 10 pounds. >> you've lost 10 pounds, right? how did you do it? >> he got rid of the sugar. >> well, it's exercise in the morning. because if i do an hour of exercise in the morning, i eat less, and i drink more water, coffee, and smaller portions and less carbohydrates. >> and he's sleeping longer. you need to sleep because seven hours of sleep is absolutely important. adding activities. he's drinking coffee which boosts your metabolism. everything we spoke about yesterday, actually. it's funny because julie ban r banderas took another whait chal -- weight challenge, so we'll see how much we can lose. >> especially with aggressive prostate cancers, you remove the cancer and use medicine only

when absolutely necessary. a big topic, ebola, you know the cases we had in our country? we haven't had them for some time, but the fight does continue in west africa. what's the status there today? coming up we'll have a special report. there are plenty of drug treatments available for men dealing with erectile dysfunction. now a concern for the pressure on your heart. doctors have a solution up next. i didn't think i'd have a heart attack. but i did. i'm mike, and i'm very much alive. now my doctor recommends a bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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2200 new cases in the number of patients in sierra leone is still increasing. thankfully it's decreasing in liberia. the work of the u.s. military, the world health organization, the cdc and volunteer groups such as doctors without borders. dr. siegel fills us in. >> we see kids that are suffering from ebola. they just don't feel well. they want to be touched, they want to be hugged. >> nurse marina novak from doctors without borders recently returned from sierra leone. >> when you're wearing the tpe, they reach for you, and because there's always the risk that a child could knock off your goggles or tear through your protective equipment, you're unable to carry them. >> novak is one of thousands of care workers with the organization. they say one of the biggest challenges is ebola is a moving target. >> they need us here and elsewhere, and they're in different forms. >> doctors without borders has

admitted more than 6,000 patients and shipped more than 1200 tons of equipment to fight the disease. but they say it is the coordination of services that is crucial. >> it's absolutely essential, in addition to the isolation units, to be able to provide education, awareness raising. >> virus hunter joseph fare has been on the front lines for months. he says while turning the corner on the epidemic is still many months away, there has been significant changes in awareness. >> we went from half the population really believing this wasn't a real disease and possibly some kind of hoax to now everyone more or less acknowledging that the disease is real, and people actually learning how it is transmitted. >> our respect to such noble work by marina novak and others at doctors without borders. they are making progress? >> in liberia, the army is using helicopters to take supplies and

move people around, doctors without borders, as you saw, there's improvement in liberia, but the infrastructure in sierra leone is a mess. there is a lot of malaria around, kids are not getting vaccinations, pregnant women are not getting taken care of, there are no schools open in all three of these countries. maria novak there was talking about the difficulty of taking care of children, that they want to hug you. you can't hug them because they'll break into your suit. there are 10,000 orphans out there because of ebola. >> it's such a traumatic human catastrophe. thankfully we haven't had a case in the last few weeks. >> are we kind of clear here in the states? >> i don't know if we're done with this war against ebola. we heard this great report from dr. siegel that in liberia we're making progress, but in sierra leone, the war is still going on. a lot of it has to do with the fact that the infrastructure of

care there is so weak and poverty is because of this. 5 million children are not going to school, and the lack of education is a huge problem. we have about 18,000 people that have been diagnosed with this and about 7,000 that have died from this. it's also hard to know if these numbers are really accurate. but we have come a long way. let me just take advantage of this. even though it's a medical show, i want to recognize the dedication and commitment of our military, the doctors who have been there and also the nurses. when you have a disease that has 70% lethality and death, to jeopardize and put your life at risk, that's how you know someone has a real commitment to this and they should be congratulated for doing this. i think america has been the leader in this, though i think the cdc lagged behind. we had a lot of discussion about this, and i'm glad the president listened to "sunday housecall" every sunday for half an hour. i think it is messa sthe messag.

he tightened the border, and i think the screening over there has helped. we have a long way to go, but no question the human emotion is on the surface. >> you mentioned doctors without borders, they were health care workers that came over. do you think they have learned, dr. siegel, about what they went through? that now they have learned and there probably won't be another case here? >> i hope so, i talked to dr. fare who advises who. he said ebola is not more contagious than we thought, but it is found in the g.i. tract more than we thought in a lot of diarrhea and vomit, so you have to be careful with health care. they talked about an army helicopter flying with one blood sample. the army has been hugely helpful over there, as david just mentioned, in liberia. but the coordination of care when there is such a poor infrastructure is so hard. >> we're also spending that $6 billion on this disease, so a lot of time and effort and money

goes into it, problem with this virus, is that the heat and weather over there changing your personal gears, these are challenges we don't have with other diseases, but i think we've come a long way. i'm glad those numbers that the cdc mentioned, a million population by january, they were wrong about it, so that's good news. >> thankfully, there is progress. >> a lot of progress. it is a common concern for men dealing with erectile dysfunction. how to treat their condition when they're worried about the impact on their heart. our doctors may have a possible solution. that's up next. come in and use your starbucks gift card any day through january 5th for a chance to win starbucks for life.

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now for "should i worry," it is our weekly segment about everything that worries us. this viewer asks >> this is the kind of question that comes up all the time. there are four medications. sometimes these oral medications can lower the blood pressure. if you have heart disease, one of the things we do in the practice is we may give some suppositories, something called muse that works really well. there are also injections we can give the patients and some surgical implants. >> what are those injections? where do you get them? >> you would get the invokeses down there to jump-start the engine. let's just put it that way. there are also many other things that cause erectile dysfunction

and mark will talk about the risk factors. but stress or lack of sleep. if you sleepless than five hours it reduces your testosterone, libido goes down. all of those are important to stick to healthy diet, et cetera. one of the things i do in my practice is i like herbs for this also. l-argenine, i'll post this on my facebook and the dosage. it increases nitrous oxide. brings blood flow. the way to make the sexual function better is, one, to increase testosterone and two to bring the blood flow to the engine so we can get things going. maca extract roots. >> l-arginine. i'll post it on our facebook. that increase krs the blood flo and works really well. these are a few things we can give our patients.

>> that's good. alternatives. but some people are even concerned wiabout taking those herbal remedies with heart med days. >> absolutely. sometimes erectile distunysfunc is usually precursor to something else. depression causes this. medications i'm giving you can be causing this. it can be due to high blood pressure medications i'm giving you rather than the blood pressure or the anti- depressants or other medications. the biggest things i worry about today -- stop smoking and stop drinking alcohol. >> like completely stop drinking alcohol? >> smoking is the worst. it can decrease blood flow to the penis. >> when you see younger men, someone comes in early 40s, et cetera, they're suffering from erectile dysfunction, that's the

first sign of possible cardiac disease or heart disease. e.d. can be one of the preliminary cause of heart disease because the same phenomenon in the heart can cause heart attack can cause what i never -- penile attack or erectile dysfunction. that's a very important point. >> quick answer because we are short on time. is there an age where a guy is too young to be able to take the viagra or the cialis? >> there is no such thing. sometimes in young men it can help. it is not addictive but always, always talk to your doctors. they also come in different doses. if low dose doesn't work, you can always go to a higher dose. if one medication doesn't work, another one can work. we can have a discussion. i'll put all of this on our facebook. >> i'm laughing, because everyone in college is taking these things. they shouldn't be! >> oh, really. >> there is a big black market for viagra and a lot of people are taking it that don't go to see david first. >> the mistake is that they take it with food which doesn't work.

you got to make sure that it is empty stomach and take it an hour before activities. >> good advice. but you know what else affects a lot of people? the flu. a new warning from the cdc about the flu. they say this season could be one of the worst in years. coming up, the doctors will fill us in on why they say the flu shot may not be enough to keep shot may not be enough to keep us safe.if, and u're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure.

before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. talk to your doctor and visit humira.com this is humira at work

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we're back now with "sunday house call." the cdc is warning that we're in for a "potentially severe" flu season. why would it be this bad? >> it's just gearing up. looks like the flu season will be in january this year, later than last year. strain we are worried about is a very bad strange. it is going to cause a lot of hospitalizations, make people sick. they'll have other issues like pneumonia, bronchitis, sore throats. it is a bad flu. the flu vaccine may not work as well this year at preventing hospitalizations and urgent care visits. we won't know that until march. that's when they survey it and say is it a 40% effective, 60%,

70%. but whatever it is, we need to get it to protect pregnant women, those with chronic illnesses, kids with asthma. my own son is 9 and has asthma. i don't only want him to get the flu shot but i want everyone around him because it decreases the amount of fluid that comes into the house. >> how do you stop it? just wash your hands all the time? >> obviously don't touch your hands to your eyes. but i know as doctors we are supposed to say get your flu shot and that's correct. but if you have only 40% efficiency in this vaccine and they miss the boat because this is not part of this and they call is a virus drift or mutation, i have a huge problem with this. again, we want high-risk people to absolutely get it. i think the list that you mentioned -- pregnant women. most of the death from flu is among older ones over age of 65. over 565, young ones, pregnant women, people who have asthma,

kidney disease, heart disease, you should go ahead and get it. but i like young, healthy ones. again, the right answer is to go ahead. but cdc said -- >> okay. that's it for us. thanks for watching. senate showdown. fireworks on capitol hill during a rare saturday night session. the senate has struck a deal to avoid a government shutdown. every senator in this body should be put on record whether he or she believes it is constitutional for a president to disregard, to ignore, federal immigration laws. senator mike lee was in the middle of that last night. he joins us live in a few minutes. in washington dwiivide over the senate report over the cia and interrogation techniques. some claim they were lied to. others are incensed. >> i am just