while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis treats dvt & pe blood clots. plus had less major bleeding.chino eliquis right for me. ask your doctor if it's right for you. i'm eric shawn. time now for "sunday housecall." >> and i'm arthel neville. welcome. joining susdr. david samadi, chairman and professor of urology at lenox hill hospital and chief of robotic surgery. >> and dr. marc siegel professor at langone medical center and author of "the inner pulse,

"unlocking the secret code of sickness and health" which is what we do every sunday. >> great to see you both. >> this is a great topic we're starting with. we'll begin today with a ground breaking new study recommending that doctors take a more aggressive approach to treating blood pressure. right now guidelines suggest that the systolic pressure on the top number of 150 to 160 is a good target, but this study recommending that doctors try to keep that number under at least 120, especially in people over the age of 50. dr. samadi, you're up first, what do you think about this approach? >> big news. huge news for medical community and for patients out this. this was on the cover of "new york times" and "wall street journal" which is extremely rare to see this on the front cover. spent clinical trial was basically looked at about 9,300 people out there. they divide them into two groups, a group with a blood pressure of 140 versus a group of patients with a blood pressure of 120, and when they

found out if your magic number is 120 which is a systolic number where the heart contracts when it's lower, you would have 25% lower risk of death which is extremely significant, and 30% lower risk of heart attack and stroke and cardio vascular disease, tremendous findings to the point that they stopped the clinical trial one year earlier. their paper is going to be published towards the end of the year so there's still more to be seen, but the big question is when we talk about older population, is lower blood pressure necessarily always better because we see more falls, we see dizziness and we see dementia and we see kids any disease, and perhaps, and this is a question that i would ask dr. siegel in a minute, is lower blood pressure a way to go? what is the message to a lot of people out there who are listening to this, don't panic and don't rush to the doctor saying like i heard my blood pressure should be down to 120. i think this is a discussion that you should have and -- and certainly exercise, weight loss,

dash diet, a dietary approach to stop high blood pressure, and there are new approaches in new york city with limiting sodium. this is great because now in the next two months or so we're going to see salt shakers, less than 2,300 grams, all good. >> talking about salt, marc, what do you do? what if you're about 120, what do you do? >> first of all, one-third of all americans have high blood pressure. you know what, only half of those have it under control. what this study has done and david was just going over this, very exciting because it looks like the target of the upper number, the systolic, is going to be 120, now why is that important? because we've been saying in the doctor's office you're 130, 135, 1 maybe we can live with that, patients, as david was pointing out, are afraid of too many medication and they are afraid of driving down the number too low because they think they are going to get dizzy and think they are going to fall and may have impotence as a result of

the study and they looked at elderly people over the age of 50 ant average age was 68 in this study and they didn't find more side effects when they drove the number down. i want to emphasize something that david started to say. exercise is the first step. i found it with myself even, not even with my patients. my blood pressure was going up. i started exercising more and i started losing weight. you know what? blood pressure came town to 120, so don't immediately necessarily jump to the medication. >> dr. marc, here's the thing. you're the doctor, i'm the patient and here's the deal. why do you have to force me, what if my body functions fine at higher than 120, so i don't want to have to come to you and now you're going to put me on blood pressure medication to put my blood pressure lower where my body might be fine with a higher number? >> i'll answer that. this is one of the rare times, because eric is always saying to us study, study, what does this study mean? one of the rare times where i really like this study because this study says, and they stopped it a year early, it says that your chances of ending up with a stroke or heart failure

or a heart attack is 30% less if you get below that target of 120. that's a really, really important finding so i may say to you, arthel, it may be better for your body and i'll never demand that you do anything, but you need to be aware of this risk of death being higher. >> but dr. samadi -- >> the reason they are concerned about this and -- and it's because the systolic pressure is the one that the heart contracts and pushes the blood out. the sheer pressure when it's higher can cause a lot of damage to the vessels, and that can cause the cholesterol to become a plaque and become heart attack and stroke. that's the reason why the cardiology committee wants your blood pressure to be lower. the other thing is that there are so many other things that could be leading to this. for example, if you have sleep apnea. we're talked about sleep apnea. patients that are obese and they have breathing issues when they are asleep, the hormone that sucks all the sodium inside is higher and can lead to increased

blood pressure. by just lieutenanting weight you can really lower your blood pressure. the biggest question that comes, and i want marc to answer is how low is good? we were at 150 and we went to 140 and now we're saying 120. is 100 better than 120 and that's what the study hasn't answered, and we don't know because sometimes very low blood pressure can affect your kidneys. kidneys is the filter, and a older population with lower blood pressure you may push them to get heart ait is a. you're saying get below 120? >> that's the number they found, yes. >> the same point he's making, too high and above 120 you can't -- high blood pressure around your body can hurt your kidneys, can hurt your heart and brain and can give you a stroke, but when we go to get it down, how low? how low, and would i like to say it's probably -- it's definitely below 120 now, that's what we've changed now, but if you start to be symptomatic and you start to

get dizzy and you're not yourself anymore, maybe i'll check you and find you're 100 and 95, that's too low. this study didn't answer that question. i don't generally want people to have a systolic blood pressure below 100. >> and can i quickly ask about the diastolic because mine was at 90. >> they are not talking about diastolic in this particular study and not as critical as the siltic one. even by taking enzymes and by losing weight and doing on the dh diet and mediterranean and you add kiwi to broccoli and vegetables and all of those you will reduce your pressure by 15 to 20 points. should you measure on right or left and can you do both and they should be around -- >> you should do both. >> if it's more than 15 degrees difference, mill meter mercury between the two there's some peripheral vascular disease.

>> or you have a doctor with a bad blood pressure cuff. i want to quickly answer your point about diastolic. you want it the 82 or below. that study didn't look at it, but you don't really want it above 80. 80 is a target number for everybody. >> let me just say one thing. if you use any of those home monitor pressures, don't put it on your shirt or jacket. it has to be on your skin and it has to be the appropriate size because if you use a big cuff on a skinny person it's going to completely and also always put your arm at the level of your heart, not up here. don't want to measure your blood pressure when it's like this and sit for five minutes before you check your blood pressure and don't run up to the doctor and give you one pressure. >> how many times do you use a home monitor, how many times a day? >> use them at home, two or three times a day but when you go to your doctor make sure it correlates because a lot of my patients have the home monitoring systems and i get different numbers. they are not all the same. >> are they higher at the to be tore's office?

>> because they are higher because of white coat syndrome and the battery operated ones are not always actual. make sure the doctor can correlate what they are finding taking into account white coat syndrome >> exexercise and get rid of salt and what's dash. >> dietary approach to stop high blood pressure. >> we're all going below 10. >> sometimes you need medication. if you need medication don't shy away from it because it's a silent killer hypertension. >> let's get below 120. we'll check back. >> my blood pressure is already up. >> great advice this morning. >> have you heard about this? there's food poisoning cases across country and now the fda taking more stringent steps to try to keep our foods safe. what are they doing and how do they do it and what can you do to make sure you're eating right when you eat? americans. we're living longer than ever.

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to learn about spiriva respimat slow-moving mist, ask your doctor or visit spirivarespimat.com and we're back now with "sunday housecall." the fda taking some action after a string of deadly-borne illnesses comes after the food poisoning cases that included an outbreak of salmonella linked to cucumbers. two people died, and it sent hundreds to the hospital. dr. siegel, man, when you hear about this, you get scared about the food. what happened to the cucumbers? >> the cucumbers were imported from mexico and no way toying are late that. one of the problems we're having, border problems. the food safety modernization act of 2011 was supposed to help with that. the fda is now finally bringing forward some rules that are

supposed to help where you identify a hazard for processed and packaged food and anything imported like the cucumber. the problem is, eric, it's very expense i have to do that and takes about $13,000 for one plant to look for hazards, to figure out why they are happening, why the bacteria is getting in there to identify and go on a sherlock holmes type expedition and there's a question whether the manufacturers will really comply about this. 48 million people get sick from their food every year in the united states, 48 million, and alo of times it's this bug salmonella that you see in cucumbers. most of the time i want to reassure people you get better on your own. you don't even need antibiotics if you can watch out for the dehydration and the fear and diarrhea. but there are 3,000 deaths a year with this. we really have to be careful. the fda is trying to clamp down on this and trying to get the plants to good afternoon themselves and trying to clamp down on the imports. i'm dubious about whether -- >> you've got to see a little sticker and sometimes it says, you know, from mexico or from

costa rica or some place else. should you only buy what's grown in the united states maybe or -- >> that's not the answer. unfortunately, you don't have much control over this, and this modernization safety for food that went into effect in 2011, i'm not so much optimistic about this because it hasn't been working and the reason is our food chain system is so complex. we get 15% of our food from other country and 300 facilities from the outside are sending us food and if you are thinking by these guidelines you can stop the bad food, retailers and transporters but bottom line be in charge of your own food and what do we do? we've talked about this, wash your hands and clone your vegetables and food thoroughly and keep your meats separate and invest in a good food thermometer at home and make sure you cook your food, your meat to 140 degrees and poultry to 160, and don't leave them out

for two hours. that's when the bugs salmonella and others will get in. fridge rate them. that's what you can do. >> quickly for that, dr. marc, a lot of people are growing their own vegetables, any suggestions there. how do you keep that bug out of home grown stuff? >> cross-contamination is the biggest risk and you're barbecuing and people are still barbecuing keep the produce away from the meat. wash your hands before and after. again, if you're using packaged foods, because that's where the problem, is fda for the very first time, by the way, is trying to get at this now even with that law, trying to get at this, but, again, i agree with david, the chances are that policing it isn't the answer. home use and being very careful, washing as many times as possible, not mixing raw food with cooked food and not mixing vegetables with meat. >> the fda is responsible to do a better job. >> absolutely. >> 12,000 hospitalizations. >> amazing. >> ridiculous and 4 million people get sick every year from food-borne disease.

>> to david's point, they are only saying they can get 22.5 million cases period, so what about the other 46 million that are getting sick? even these rules at best are not getting rid of the problem. >> a lot of reason is because it involves many different countries and governments of those countries and this is politics. >> worldwide regulations. >> it's not just about your food, but those four things that we talked about, eric, simple things that you can do for everyone to keep your food clean. organic. >> what about growing it myself? >> you have time to grow your own. >> what if you grow your own? >> grow your own and i'm suppor mom, hi, mom. >> going to start like making her own vegetables. >> arthel, let me make sure i answer this question. >> thank you. >> growing your own foods, salmonella and a lot of these bacteria, they come from animals, okay, so they are getting contaminated in the processing plant. when you grow your own vegetables you're not likely to contaminate with salmonella so grow your own.

>> great grown at home up in maine and really tastes fresh. >> i, by the way, suck as growing any vegetables so i don't do it and a lot of people which is why i asked. >> are you sitting up straight? we'll tell you why that answer is very important when we come back. >> shoulders back. (vo) around age 7, the glucose metabolism in a dog's brain begins to change. (ray) i'd like to see her go back to her more you know social side. she literally started changing. it was shocking. she's much more aware. (jan) she loves the food. (ray) the difference has been incredible. she wants to learn things. (vo) purina pro plan bright mind promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. purina pro plan. nutrition that performs. withof my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis... ordinary objects often seemed...

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than three months you can take some of these over the counter and you can relax and invest on a good mattress, yoga, swimming, et cetera.

you can put your shoulders back and going like this all the time, putting your shoulders back. >> even things like you can do, do this. my wife is a neurologist. can you do this. look, i don't like the word severe in there and the word severe makes me think do you know that it's even muscular or garden variety back pain and could it be something like kidney stones or something in the abdomen? that's got to be ruled out. if you've got severe back pain you could g and see your doctor and the other thing i want to talk about is this, the vertebral column is bone and if you sit like this or stand too long or don't exercise enough you end up getting the discs swollen which will cause you nerve pain and things going down your leg. you'll see tingling and numbness and any of those symptoms. >> arthritis and osteoporosis which is important. >> sit up straight. now, coming up, drink a diet soda, you think when you do you make a healthy choice, but coming up we'll tell you about a

study that says it may not always be a good idea and it may actually lead to you leading more junk food. the doctors on diet soda. that's as "housecall" rolls on. okay. americans. we're living longer than ever.

as we age, certain nutrients... ...become especially important. from the makers of one a day fifty-plus. new one a day proactive sixty-five plus. with high potency vitamin b12... ...and more vitamin d. always drinking a diet soda. is that a good thing, dr. segel? >> no, it's a bad thing. we talked about belly fat. i want to tell you, previous

study, people that drank a lot of diet soda ended up with three times the amount of belly fat. now there's a new study that shows if you drink a lot of alcohol you take in a lot of calories. if you drink a lot of diet soda, you take in bad calories. you eat too many potato chips, eat a bunch of crap. the hormones in your brains are all upside down. we need more leptin, you get less of that. >> basically a lot of studies show it increases depression, it increases cravings, it increases your insulin. you reserve a lot of fat. it's not a good situation. psychologically you think you're cutting your calories. you end up eating a lot of fatty foods. all in all it's a bad thing. once a week, moderation, it's fine. long term it makes your body acidic, causes osteoporosis.

on that, everybody, wish everybody happy rash hashanah. we're going to come to your house with that red pepper. >> happy new year. thank. >> no diet soda. >> thanks, docs. see ya later. thanks for watching. just days before the next gop presidential debate, donald trump continues to dominate the polls and launches a fresh attack on one of his closest rivals. plus, a brand new state of emergency declared in california where so many americans have been struggling with out of control wildfires for months. >> fire everywhere. houses, our neighbors houses, everybody's houses are burning. it's awful. but we're here. we're safe. >> the family of this american accidentally killed in a u.s. drone strike while being held by al qaeda in pakistan is angry about a new report that says the