researchers at the cleveland clinic used crash test dummies to simulate it. cleveland clinic led the research and said the results raise a red flag. >> knowing that a leather helmet and a modern helmet are many times comparable in those hits, that's concerning for long term, what we call impact dosage accumulation. so many, many years of hits over a career season might cause long-term damage. >> the doctor doesn't think players should go back to wearing these helmets but the designs are based on preventing skull fractures and need updating. concussions are the leading cause of brain damage in sports. so parent if your kids play sports, you need to look out for concussions. they are skyrocketing. website news' health report -- abc2 news' health reporter has more. >> reporter: even though she's a good student, she couldn't finish her homework until well into the night eye couldn't finish my paper. >> reporter: turns out lucy was suffering from the lingering effects of a concussion. it forced her to give up the game she loved and lucy is not alone. since 1997, t

at the renowned cleveland clinic there's already a la carte food on demand. a nurse or doctor checking in every 15 minutes. even a massage. >> they just make you feel at home. and like they help you through it and they interact with you and get up you up moving and doing something instead of staying focused on the reason you're here. >> reporter: hospitals are going to be judged beyond patient comfort, on cutting wait times, preventing deadly hospital infections, and mistakes that cost 100,000 lives a year. hospitals across the country are getting the message, even hiring professional coaches to teach techniques to improve patient care. but some hospitals believe the new medicare rules are not fair. >> those hospitals that serve the sickest patients oftentimes look worse on this survey strictly because their patients tend to give lower scores when they're not feeling well. we'd like to seat survey adjusted for that. >> reporter: for anyone facing hospitalization in the future, the hope is that these changes will lead to added comfort and improve the quality o

a cardiologist at the cleveland clinic. listen to what he had to say. >> a blood pressure reading that was elevated or abnormal in your late teens early 20s actually related to the likelihood of you developing some type of cardiac problem when you are older and more likely to die when you are older. >> a team of u.s. and british researchers examined data across 60 years beginning when they were the average ace of-- age of 18. results show high blood pressure at time of the initial exam was associated with a 5% increase risk in all deaths. >>> because of medical advances, people are living longer. according to the government, in 1980 there were 720,000 people ages 90 or older. by last year that number was up to 1.9 million. census figures show 90 and over population is overwhelmingly white and women outnumbered men 3-1. >>> thanksgiving is a special time and abc2 is working to make sure you keep the holiday safe for everyone involved. the fda is offering a few tips for helping prepare the meal. you want to wash your hands wi

cleveland clinic researchers looked at almost 400 people who took it alone or with other cholesterol lowering drugs. at the highest drug, evacetrapib was able to raise levels by 130% and lowered bad cholesterol or ldl levels 36%. >> maybe people believe and i'm among them, raising levels of the good cholesterol is the next frontier. >> reporter: about one in six adults has high cholesterol, untreated it can lead to cardiovascular disease including stroke and heart attack. >> we have to come up with drugs to raise the good cholesterol if we're going to defeat this disease. right now, we don't have them. >> reporter: testing on a similar drug was stopped because it raised blood pressure levels. so far, this new cholesterol pill doesn't seem to have serious side effects but researchers caution this study only looked at patients for three months and that more testing is needed. sandra hughes, cbs news, los angeles. >>> the american heart association recommends if you're to or older, have your cholesterol and triglycerides checked at least once every five years. >>> doctors are is your pr

there is some nice studies one out of the cleveland clinic and one out of dart mouth that shows thatgluconate can decrease your cold by up to to42%. >> reporter: coals can make you feel miserable. -- colds can make you feel miserable. the doctor said prevention is the best medicine. >> wash your hands regularly, wash common surfaces. stay home. if you're not feeling well or contaminating others. moderate form of exercise, keep hydrated and a moderate nutritious diet. >>> and so men and women serving overseas may not get the day off but they're celebrating thanksgiving. >> how they get their turkey dinner in the middle of afghanistan. we're back after this. state farm. this is jessica. hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender. oh, jerry, i'm so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month. yeah, you know it's funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it's taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica!

. >> clinton's dietary guides dean ornish and this guy, at the cleveland clinic. >> he read my book.im. >> he wrote me a letter saying he thought i was cheating on mine. he was afraid in my protein drink i had some dairy in there. it was hilarious. i checked on one of them he was right. i had only done it right. he was right. >> every month the 77-year-old holds a day long seminar attracting doctors and heart patients from across the country. like sharon kents, a retired private investigators from canton, ohio. she had a heart attack six months earlier after a coronary artery became completely blocked. >> he said for someone that had what you have, the only warning you usually get is death. and at that point, i really knew how lucky i was. >> like a lot of women, she did not experience the classic chest pain. but rather fatigue and a pain in her jaw. >> he said you're going to have to have open heart surgery. he said i can fix you today. i can just take you right down to o.r. and operate on your right now. >> my son was in there and he was ready to wheel me down to the operating room

at renowned cleveland clinic, there's already a la carte food on demand, a nurse or doctor checking every5 minutes. even a massage. >> they make you feel at home. they help you through it. they interact with you, get you up moving. doing something instead of staying focused on the reason you're here. >> reporter: hospitals are going to be judged beyond patient comfort. on cutting wait times, preventing deadly hospital infections, and mistakes that cost hundreds of lives a year. hospitals across the country are getting the message, even hiring professional coaches to improve patient care. some hospitals believe the new medicare rules are not fair. >> those hospitals that serve the sickest patients oftentimes look worse on this survey strictly because their patients tend to give lower scores when they're not feeling well. >> reporter: for anyone facing hospitalization in the future, the hope is that these changes will lead to added comfort and improve the quality of health care for everyone. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, san francisco. >>> japanese researchers say they figured out a way to

steven nichols of the cleveland clinic helped lead a head to head analysis of both drugs. not only did lipitor and crestor lower levels of bad cholesterol equally, higher doses of the drugs were found to be safe and actually reduce plaque buildup in arteries. >> conventionally, we thought all we could do is maybe slow the growth of plaque. the idea that you could actually remove plaque was something we never thought we would be able to do. >> the amount of plaque we moved was small, and it's not clear if it will translate sba fewer heart attacks or strokes. but doctors who presented the research at the annual heart association's meeting in orlando are excited about its potential. erica edwards, nbc news. >>> arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords is making a tremendous recovery from the injuries she sustained in a shooting in january, but she says she won't be returning to congress until she makes more progress. giffords and her husband, former astronaut mark kelly have just released a joint memoir called "gabby, a story of courage and hope." the book is a detailed accou

researchers at cleveland clinic found a drug reduced bad cholesterol by 36% and woofted good cholesterol by nearly 130%. researchers say there were no significant side affects. it's one of only a few drugs shown to increase good cholesterol. pemplts say that good cholesterol helps scour bad cholesterol from where it doesn't belong in our body autos research suggests the popularity of birth control pills could be linked to a rise in prostate cancer in men. many believe women who use the pill are inadd ver tently releasing estrogen into the water supply need known to feed the growth of certain cancers. researchers looked at data and found a significant association between the rate of birth control use and the number of new cases of prostate cancer. experts caution though, that these findings are only preliminary. >> and businesses now insiders getting ready to sell billions of shares and apple has a new chairman of the board. let's go to emily chang with today's after the bell report. hi emily. >> aprilem has chosen its new chairman in the wake of steve jobs death. the company says arthur

a new study by doctors at the cleveland clinic show there is no difference between lipitor and the similar brand name crestor. both drugs were found to be safe and lowered the levels of bad cholesterol equally. >>> well, we got some cold weather coming into the week. how soon is this rain rolling in. is it already out there? >> it is in some locations. most is going to stay on the light side this evening. if you have your umbrella, you can have the little purse umbrella we talk about sometimes. >> the one you guys carry. >> yeah, that jim and i tend to carry, the purse umbrellas. tomorrow you'll need the bigger umbrella out there that wendy always carries. out there right now a few showers. not too bad. apparently a nice evening when you consider we're talking about the middle of november. and temperatures are in the 60s in most locations. currently 61 degrees out there at the airport right now. a dew point of 51. winds out of the south at 8 miles per hour. temperature-wise we are on the warmer side. the average high temperature is 59 degrees. most areas got to the low 60s today. look at a

human genome center and one nobel prize winner in the city, 100 computer simulation companies, cleveland clinictraining mid career people with high school educations who have lost their jobs and are desperate to go back into health care work. pittsburgh switching from steel to nanotechnology, all of these places you got the government and the private sector working together. that's what works. >> you say cooperation. i want to play you a clip, because it's not the only thing i think you've said that has worked. in 1992 there was a presidential campaign video in which you talked about something else. i want to show you that video. >> we've got to put our own house in order and restore the middle class, reduce poverty, bring this country together again. i've got a fine national economic strategy for the short and long run but in the end a plan is just a piece of paper. to make it change lives you need leadership and vision and action. that's been the work of my life and that's why i'm running for president. >> first of all, how cute were you and your hair hasn't changed but number two, number two

to the cleveland clinic, elsewhere in this country, or overseas to get high quality outcomes at much lower cost? >> i will take the latter question first. medical tourism, as you define it, that is the ability to seek out the best provider, both from a cost and a quality standpoint, is something that the blues have embraced wholeheartedly. with a program, we call it surprisingly blue distinction. and it is a program where we try to identify those people which are meeting or exceeding the marketplace, and we developed marketing materials and programs to send people to go there, regardless of the geography. now, it is a domestic program. we don't look internationally at the moment with this kind of providers. there are some organizations that do look internationally. we are not at that level yet to find the best providers. the art organizations, there are companies that create incentives for people to travel outside the u.s. for services. we do believe the best quality care still is here in the u.s. now, the first question with regard to are there examples we can learn outside the u.s.

to the cleveland clinic or overseas to get high quality outcome at a lower cost? >> i will take the latter question first. medical tourism, as you define it, the ability to seek out the best provider bowl from a cost and quality standpoint is something the blues have embraced wholeheartedly. we have a program called blue distinction. it is a program where we try to identify those people who are meeting or exceeding the marketplace and we develop marketing materials and programs to incentivize people regardless of the geography. this is a domestic program. we don't look internationally at the moment for those providers. there are some organizations that look internationally. we are not at that level yet, to find the best providers. there are organizations, companies that create incentives for people to travel outside the u.s. for services. we believe the best quality care still is here in the u.s. withfirst question regard to examples we can learn outside the u.s. is yes. there are examples we can learn everywhere whether it is no. in canada or great britain where