karen: today on "cityline," examining the mind. epilepsy. ? karen: hello, everyone. over the summer, we learned of the unexpected health crisis of our own, who suffered a brain aneurysm. well, bob is now back with us at wcvb and we should be happy to have him. newscenter 5 reported on his journey.

>> for 13 years, bob has gifted us with his charm and unique style of sports recording. but on july 28, 2016, his day reporting was not going as planned. a fierce headache sidelined bob p or he finished up the story, called appointment for 3:00. he got in his car and that is when everything went black. >> i crashed the car and walk up -- i woke up with the car in the trees. i did not hit a tree. i sold -- ice cold water hit my face. >> he knows they helped save his life. >> many people were able to react and get me to the hospital

said we will send you a guy and they had a team waiting to me. >> that teamwork miracles. >> he had a unique problem, a pseudo-aneurysm. it is caused by a small tear on the inside of the artery wall. really did not know what an and uris him was. 50% die within minutes. >> it seems sudden but that is the scary thing. it started involve push-ups. >> every year on my birthday, i try to do the same number of push-ups as the age i am. i turned 63. the most i've ever done. even when i was 18 years old. i was able to do that but doing it, i felt a little pop behind my left eye and i looked in the

to see if i had popped a blood vessel and i did not the next day, i started getting a little bit of pain behind my left eye. >> that pain was the aneurysm. >> when he was doing his push-ups, that is something that is known to have been. >> short-term memory was not what he needed it to be. >> not really knowing where i am and how to get where i am going. >> he and his amazing wife get

number two. trade fluid that will help with the short term problem he was having. >> i think it is fine. >> it is clear when you see and hear bob just a couple of hours after surgery. >> i feel great. so many times come i had conversations but could not remember who i was talking to. today, i remembered all of those lights were coming on. >> bob is lucky and he knows it. the medical center has really made all the difference and so has is -- his own family and his channel five family and you the viewer. >> and election shop. each one of those gives you more

work. >> i enjoy really being good at it. [laughter] karen: his story is not uncommon. 6 million people have a brain aneurysm p women suffer more than men at a ratio of 3:2. african-americans twice thte is dr. thomas, a neurosurgeon in boston. he is on the team who worked on bob. and johnson, a three-time brain aneurysm survivor. welcome both of you. what is a brain aneurysm? dr. thomas: a bulger on the

causing bleeding. karen: what are the warning signs and symptoms? dr. thomas: most of these usually rupture suddenly. sometimes, you can get something which is a little bleed, a future hemorrhage, d localized to behind your eye, i think you should get to see a doctor or an emergency room physician right away. other warning signs you can have , many of these aneurysms are close to the optic nerve. or you can have double vision or blurred vision. the aneurysm may be passing on a

symptoms like numbness in the extremities. karen: when was the first time you heard the term brain aneurysm and how did you know you had one? >> i had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and i woke up in my left i went blind. i blinked a bit and it came back and i did not than it happened the following week and i selected fit -- still did not think anything of it. third week, i told her will is happening and she said, pressure self to the hospital. three hours come all kinds of eye examinations.

like, where did that come from. so the first year, i had the first aneurysm. i have the operation. at that the base of the neck, came back, and i had another operation. this time karen: re: surprised to learn that african-americans are at higher risk of a rupture and women have a greater chance? >> african-americans and hispanic americans, women tend to have 1.5 times the rate.

that with a history of smoking and hypertension, the risk can be as high as six times the ratio. >> is the research being done to find a cure? >> yes. i'm on the medical advisory board, a focus of their efforts to fund research. the key thing is there are more risk the factors you can modify our things like hypertension, smoking, and cocaine use, for example, a very high incident of risk. these are the main areas and then there are active research going on.

communities of color should know about brain aneurysms? >> well, if you have a headache and something strange is happening, do not ignore it. karen: very good. i'm glad to see you are healthy. we are happy you're talking with us. up next, epilepsy and how it impacts communities of color.

karen: welcome back. around the world, 65 million people have epilepsy. here in the united states, three

-- non-english speaking people to not receive care for epilepsy. the research is so scarce that it has created a new effort by specialists to diversify. the director of women's health and epilepsy at the medical center joins us now. what is epilepsy exactly? >> some people think of epilepsy as an electrical storm in the brain. normally our brain each other by means of electricity and normally it is a bunch of us sitting around a table. one person talks and another person listens. a seizure is when a bunch of rain cells start talking or firing at the same time. if we are orderly, we are communicating in a regular way. if a bunch of brain cells start to talk at the same moment, whatever the normal function of that part of the brain should be becomes disrupted and that can be the sign of an electrical

identifiable symptoms before an epileptic seizure? collects some people get a warning. these can be of different varieties. the kind of seizure most of us think about when we hear the word seizure is when someone falls to the ground, loses consciousness, and perhaps shakes uncontrollably. other people can have some more saturn -- subtliz behavior. they might talk and suddenly stop talking. unaware of their surroundings. they may not fall to the ground or close their eyes but their behavior might be altered. some individuals can have very mild seizures that include temporary and intermittent numbness or tingling of a body part or shaking of a body part. karen: what does the research tell us in terms of disparity

thing to know is epilepsy is a worldwide phenomenon. all communities equally, generally speaking, about 3% of the population have epilepsy. the tendency for unprovoked seizures. in that context, we know a lot of communities for a number of reasons, people of color and people with a limited english proficiency, may not receive personalized or customized cap from -- care from epilepsy specialists. some people night -- might not realize they have epilepsy. and people with ashe -- they may not and they may not go to a meteorologist and get specialty care. karen: there is a stigma that has nothing to do with medical

collects it is an important point to note. having this disorder is a very frightening thing. it is not only frightening potentially for the person having the seizure but frightening for friends and family. karen: connotations that some people put on it. >> exactly. it can be viewed that way and also as a mental health disorder. many times because of that, family members may choose not to reveal that someone else in the family is afflicted. karen: he shared with me there has been an interesting trigger

>> seizures can be triggered by a variety of things. sometimes sleep deprivation. stress can trigger it. it changes their other behaviors like not getting enough sleep. karen: what is the stress point you have noticed? >> recently i've had a lot of patients come in expressing considerable concern about the election and feeling tremendous stress a a are worried for their physical health and worried that staying up late and worrying can cause it to occur. i have been grateful people have been willing to share that with me and hope to give them options and ways to help defuse their stress. karen: dr. murphy, thank you for being here to give us insight. up next, battling mental health and suicide among black men.

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karen: welcome back. in some communities, mental illness is seen not just as a medical condition that is true to ball, but as a sign of weakness not to be discussed. how widespread mental illness is . government health data shows one of five americans live with a mental illness, about 50 million people. a mental illness may result from traumatic experience, genetics, or a stressful job.

disorders are depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, dementia, and schizophrenia. reaching -- researchers say about half of the people with a mental illness show symptoms at age 14. experts say early signs can include pulling away from family and friends, extreme highs and lows, sleeping too much or too little substance abuse. suicidal thoughts. the key to getting better is getting educated, getting proper care, and fighting stigma. although anyone can develop a mental health problem, for african-americans, mental health issues may become more serious. according to the health and human services office of

have serious mental health problems than the general population. joseph lost his son to mental illness. we join him now, the national alliance of mental illness here in massachusetts. can you share with us your story? >> certainly. always being concerned about behavior health care, i was afflicted with this because i lost my son in august of 2010 and was diagnosed with bipolar and took his life. as a result, i have been engaged with non-me -- nami and tried to

i have been in situations whereby i spoke to the issue and people have had circumstances, one woman said i thought my son was just being lazy. well, he was suffering from depression so they do not recognize it. 45 million people in the united states suffered from it. i made this my ministry. i'm here with dr. birmingham to talk about the issue and get people engaged. how can we get people engaged in the topic? very brave to speak out and that has been helpful. what other things can we do? >> i think one of the most important things we can do is to listen. in the office, my wife gave me a quotation from jimi hendrix.

we often do not know how to interpret especially what kids are trying to tell us. their behaviors are misinterpreted often as they are being fed versus them hurting and needing someone to help them. learning to listen as i think one of the most important things we can learn. karen: you pointed out to me that trauma and young people, young kids of color, is a significant problem. >> trauma and neglect. preschool, about 12 to 80% of the population. almost 50% of the children expelled in preschool. when expelled, they are many times more likely, some say between eight times more likely by the time they get to high school. you might as well open the doors

are there any stark disparities in the way african-american men or women are impacted and what age group? >> you also have to look at behavior. when a young person of color misbehaves, they are thought of and less innocent ways. they are thought of as bad. thap they are acting out but not just acting out. they are being bad as opposed to hurting and needing to be helped. studies look at how often an attempt to diagnose the problem is done with the child who is acting out. when you are a young person of color, the attempted to think about behavior as something that is a harbinger of emotional need is much less than other children

in the community who may have a relative impacted by mental health. i think of the movie soul food where they have the crazy uncle up in the attic in a rocking chair and he would slide is dinner plate under the door and back out. there is a culture of not talking about it with in our community. >> that is the stigma i am talking about not feeling well and did not take her medicine. that is what i am talking about. what i am trying to do stigmatize is the concept that we're talking about a miss and the brain is an organ. we should treat it like any other type of illness. we have ways in which getting people to understand that if they have persons buffeted with mental illness, when they might be able to get help.

to family. karen: it impacts the caregiver. >> i am not a clinician. we want to tell folks there are places where you can get help. in your own voices, these are persons afflicted. we have the situation with the prison. i could go on and on and i know the time is short but the reality is, we have much do in the issue and it is a broad thing and from a societal better. karen: 15 seconds left, give us your last parting advice. >> when it comes to the community of color as a whole, there is already a fear of being stigmatized just by reason of people not understanding who we are. add to that the difficulty of having a mental illness and you

reach out for help. all right. thank you very much. to learn more about everyone we featured on today's program, log on to our page and follow us on social media is -- media. thank you for watching her to have a great rest of your day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

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