and see all the ways you could save. building a better bay area, moving forward and finding solutions. this is abc7 news. am kristin. how are you? i hope that you're good. you're watching live getting anss. we ask experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. today we will talk about how the pandemic has rewired our brains, and why it feels that people are acting more aggressively right now we will talk about the new drug approved by the fda to treat alzheimer's. first, a man from the north bay that wanted to paddle in his kayak, but you know what happened. the adventure was cut

short. he was picked up about 70 miles west of santa cruz over the weekend. reggie kauthsd up with him on what happened and what is going to happen next. >> here is a look at how the journey and how far he got. joining us to talk about what happened, i am first of all so glad that you're okay. how are you doing, sir? >> i am excellent. your pronunciation is impressive. >> thank you. you're doing okay? >> i am doing great. thank you so much. it's been an amazing adventure. too short. not planned for that. planned for anything that could happen, and mother nature had different plans for this one. this is the first attempt. i will come back stronger next try. >> i knew it. we were talking about this. as soon as we saw the video, i was like this is not. it is just a dress rehearsal. he is coming back. how soon do you think that you will get back in to the water? >> so it's really hard to say

right now. the first attempt i needed a good weather window of two to three days to go off the coast as far as i can for the first three days. get off the container ship lines. that's what i did the first day. the did 12 hours of paddling and then 7 hours. i got seasick and paddled a lot. then the bad weather came in. that was just fortunate. my boat was ready for anything, but i had technical problem with my equipment. one of the coast guard came to get me, they were amaze asking fantastic people. they come for the life and let the boat drift. one of the things that i have to do is go back on the ocean, find a boat that will retrieve any boat, look at the extent of the damage and big seas on it and reaccess of leaving before the end of june if the weather window. >> wow. that soon. i did not realize it would be that soon. that's fantastic. >> well, i guess that i should

ask -- we saw a picture a moment ago of the swells. they did look big. you ended up in the weather and stayed put. the anchor seemed fail, is that right? >> that's correct. correct. cor. >> one of the ocean a yaks, and it can with stand my weather really. the sea anchor is part of thaw and puts you to the waves. if the waves come this way, the boat goes up and down and down and dn the winds that were going to be

12 to 15 feet started to be climbing on the boat, and that's when the life is at risk. we decided to call it as part of the plan. >> how do you call the coast guard when you're out in the middle of the ocean? >> first of all, before we call i have my land support. i look at all of the options. i have been working with the coast guard to have a plan and they had the information on the trip, and they were ready for anything. they come to save you. that's part of their mission. now, once we decided that we -- the mission had to be aborted, i called them on the va. it's channel 16. you call them and say ocean coast guard. ocean coast guard i need help. they know where i am, and they say are you positive that you need help. we will come and get you. >> so you don't have in a matter of weeks getting back in the water? what would happen if the same issue or a different issue were to stop you when you're halfway to hawaii.

>> for sure. it's going to go and happen again. this time it was fortunate. the bad weather was six days and the seas were growing badly. now, it was a luxury to be 60 miles away from shore. had i been in the middle of the pa switch i can, i may have had the do the same and then we all have that endeavors and teaches us and be self-sustainable for 48 hours. i would have, you know, been able to do this, and even maybe if it's survival, you do that. i would have jumped in the water and release the sea anchor and untangle from that. i would have done whatever it is to survive for sure. >> that scares me to death. it does not scare you to death, so that's why i aso admire what you're doing. it's amazing to

push the boundaries of what you think that human beings can do. i have faith that you will be back in the water. this time go all of the way. really glad that you're okay, and we will be crossing the fingers for you next time. please keep us up to date. >> thank you. >> thanks. well, we certainly hope that he will take the journey soon, and that it's a safe and successful trip. all right. we will take a short break and be back. in the

welcome back. the fda just approved a drug for alzheimer's. join us us is at usc.

dr. snider, thanks so much for your time today. >> thanks for the invitation. you're one of the investigators that conducted one of the trials on this drug. correct me if i'm not pronouncing it correctly. >> yeah, that's correct. >> okay. >> you were one of the 200 investigators that were on one study. >> okay. now, this is the first one approved in nearly 20 years, and that's huge. explain to us how does this work, and how does it not work? >> well, the rational for drug and there's an intablth body and then and then part of the pathology and then add normality in the disease. that's how we define the alzheimer's disease in part. it's generally thought that the antibodies that can decrease the amount of plaques could be

associate with the improvement. what is important here is that it was approved in a controversial way. it was approved on the basis that it could reduce makes. however, it is not improve de or function or alter decline. that's what we're going to learn after it's marked. >> okay. so is this unusual for the fda to give this kind kind of approval under the accelerated process and the drug where you go okay, it could work, but we're not totally sure about it, and in fact we're ordering more post approval trials. is that highly unusual? >> well, it's -- yes, it's unusual in this area, in our area of testing drugs for alzheimer's diseases. this is the first, and in that sense, this is theeeeeee

given in other areas. it's given with some drugs for cancer where you could see the drug decreasing a marker or decreasing the without necessarily knowing if it's going to have a clinical benefit. >> okay. >> right. this is a first. >> how is it delivered by the way? >> so it is given intravenously with the cowries of 20 minutes or 30 minutes. by infusion. we set up aing bag of -- a bag of the antibodies and then it is infuse in to your arm. >> do you get it once a week or once a month. >> once a month. in these

studies participants received it once a month or a year and a half. >> okay. in the studies that you saw, was there dramatic, i don't want to say improvements, but it's more of a slowing down of a deter yeggs, or did you see the down side? anything worth noting? >> well, we don't know that, and we cannot see and that's the study for sure and the patient s patients and then look at the changes. it's very hard to be able to tell whether one individual is benefitting or worsening because of

medication >> might work for dementia because her 80-year-old mother has the disease. >> so the indah case for it wass very -- was very really very narrow. that is that we did the studies activities and daily living. those were the participants that came in to these two studies and then one study was clearly negative and then the other was controversial. that's a long way of saying we

don't know whether it would work in people that have more moderate or more severe dementia. it just was not tested in that. >> i want >> those were the people that were tested and that's being labeled would indicate. we did not, and as far as that no one has tested and cannot imagine people with the moderate to severe dementia. >> is this kinds of, you know, extra significant because the fact that it tries to get at the root of it and slow the progression approved to treating the symptoms. just use it like the other alzheimer's drugs? >> well, that's the

and then clumping in to makes and then the rational is if you remove the makes and decrease it, that will that will that wil and progression of the illness. >> okay. well, you address the continue la verse si already over whether it's affective, and in 2019 i understand that the trials were discontinued, and then last year an advisory committee included not enough to say that the benefits outweigh the harm. when the patients hear this and wonder if this drug is for them, what do you say to them? how should they weigh whether it's something to consider, and whether to talk to their doctors about it? >> well, it would be a first for

us, at usc when we available to actually treat patients that would want it, but what we could do is explain just what i'm trying to explain, and trying to develop about what we know and what we -- how this might affect them and be beofficial. this is taking something for the long term with the hope that it's going to alter change. not to say that there are adverse events with adverse side affects that o cure to a certain degree with that. >> which are what? what are the most severe symptoms that you saw? >> well, the ones that we're concerned about is green edema

or swelling. we call that look for this and the swelling. it's asymptomatic, but we want to be able to catch it early enough to then perhaps stop the medication for a while to make sure that the swelling goes down. it's mostly asystematic, but it's sometimes it's associated with worsening. this is a big deal and o cures in 30% of people, and we manage it. again, it's asymptomatic in most, and we can manage it in most people. it's a consideration. >> it certainly is. i know there are a lot of unknowns with this, and that's why they're oppose today the steadies underway, and i know costs is

another factor at maybe $56,000 a year. not everybody, but that's an estimate for some people. will insurance companies cover most or all of this cost given the status with the ethicacy still not fully determined? we have about 20 seconds? >> weld, i don't know. this is actually a job for medicare for the center for the medicare and medicaid services that help to determine what they're willing to reimburse, and it's -- the insurance companies will have to go through the same process to see actually what the cost would be to participate -- to the potential patients. >> okay. with the california alzheimer's disease center at usc and shedding more light on the drug just approved for us. thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up next, did the pandemic rewire the brains? is that why everybody behaving

badly? that's next. we

we have seen a lot of bad behaviers lately. a woman that spit on a lady and fans spitting on pro-athletes. what is going on? have the americans forgotten the manors as we sneer the end of the pandemic joining us is dr. jill and the author of the whole brain living. dr. taylor, thank you for joining us. dr. taylor. >> good to be with you. look, we have had so many examples and another one is the woman that was banned from the southwest flights for ever because she punched a flight attendant. people are angry and impatient and host till. why are we this way? did the pandemic make us this way? >> well, we have been like caged an malts. we have been stuck inside, and we have been in our fear because there's been an

amazing pandemic that we cannot even see, so we don't know what to believe. we don't know who to trust. we know that we're in alarm and alarm and we don't feel safe. now, that we have been getting out of the cages we're looking at each other saying are you safe. i don't trust you. i feel impatient, and all of those hostilities that you listed. >> so we're basically like scared animals. >> yes. >> i have seen this with geese. when they're nervous, they're going after you. are we fundamentally different s. that permanent? >> the beauty of the brain is that we have the alarm alarm alert in the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.

we're just the left hemisphere is all about the fear from the past, and we're bringing that forward now, and then we're also in the present moment fear of the experience of the present moment, so we're just really in anxiety, and we're in fear, and we're in -- we're coming out and have forgotten the manners. >> okay. so give us kind of a manual, like how do reengage. a little how to kind of deal with our brains the way that they are now. i know that you have kind of a 90 second rule. explain that. >> absolutely. from the moment -- we have to remember that we're cells. cells in the circuit. every feeling that i'm feeling if i'm in fear or hostile or resentment or impatience, this is a group of cells inside of our brain. the brain is a very big place. that's just certain circuit. we do have the power to observe that we're running it instead of

engaging it. when we think of it like you're not safe, then i stimulate a emotional circuit of i feel fear and may express that as anger, rage, anxiety, and/or attack. the point is that from the beginning of the moment that i think of a thought, it stimulates and i have a dump of something in to my blood stream, and it goes through me and flushes out of me, and that takes less than 90 seconds. we can observe ourself having anxiety, having fear, having hostility, being impatient, but we can actually observe ourself realizing that this is just a group of cells, and we have the power to wait it out and to come forward with kindness. we're just as wired to be curious about one another as we're require wired to be fearful of one another. >> you're saying if i can just

avoid punching a flight attendant or spitting on a worker for 90 sets, then i'm over it, and i can control myself better, and those unfortunate things do not have to happen? >> 90 seconds. it's really fascinating because when we think that we're cells and observe ourself, then we have much more control over what is going on inside of our heads than thing ever thought us. >> you say that we have to be acquainted. >> so we have both thinking and both of the hemispheres, and we have the emotional systems in both of the hemispheres. those are the actual modules of cruellys that exhibit a predictable character. we ever the rational thinking in the left character one if that left hemisphere also. character

three is the experience of the present moment, and then, and i don't have the boundaries, and i should feel connected to everybody as a human family. >> so looking in to that helps us to be more kind. >> first we have to observe ourself when we recognize that i'm feeling prickly and i have a response that i want to bite you instead of being kind to you. observe that for 90 seconds, and then come forward. decide ability that world. >> all right. >> is that easier said than done. do we always have the ability to make that choice?

>> i through that we do. we have to be willing to try, and once we become willing to become aware, then we start to become more aware of our own patterns, because again we're just cells connected in circuits. everything we're thinking and everything that we're feeling and then the emotion and physiological responses that we're having are cells insit try, and we do have the power to pay attention and make better choices. >> all right. doctor of whole brain living which don't go away. we will take a

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thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show getting answers. we explore the pros and cons of the fda approved

drug for alzheimer's and rewiring our brains after more than a year of dealing with the pandemic. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 oai andiv stream answering you nigh brein prices soaring in some brein places, tonight, the justice department has now seized millions of dollars in ransom paid by colonial pipeline. tonight, how they got that money back. and the warning now to other u.s. companies. mary bruce with late reporting. tonight, news after that awful case of alleged road rage. the 6-year-old boy shot and killed in the back seat of his mother's car while they were on the highway in his booster seat. tonight, the couple now arrested and what we've learned about them. the major alzheimer's news tonight. the fda approving the first new alzheimer's drug in almost 20 years, giving new hope to millions. but there is a debate tonight over howel