dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: 29-year-old morgan thompson was diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma three years ago. >> it is a very shocking thing to have to deal with at any age. but at 26, i was not prepared for that at all. >> reporter: one in every 46 women under the age of 40 is diagnosed with cancer, and during the most fertile time of a woman's life, the treatment to cure that cancer, chemotherapy or radiation, can leave a woman infertile. but with improvements in cancer treatments, there's also interest in preserving fertility in cancer treatments. >> i always knew i wanted to be a mom, i was going to have twin girls and a little boy. i had everything perfect in my head. >> reporter: morgan was referred to a fertility expert at new york medical college who specializes in an experimental technique called ovarian tissue cryopreservation. freezing precious ovarian tissue before cancer treatment begins. >> the ovary is removed through a key hole procedure. and it is taken through a specialized process, which involves treating the tissue with anti-freeze substance. we preserve the ova

dr. nancy snyderman. >>> 29-year-old morgan thompson was diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma three years ago>> it's a shocking thing to have to deal with at any age. at 26 i was not prepared for that at all. >> reporter: one in every 46 women under the age of 40 is diagnosed with cancer, and during the moster if tile time of a woman's life, the treatment to kill that cancer can leave a woman infertile. there's also growing interest in preserving fertility. >> i always knew i wanted to be a mom, i was going to have twin girls and a little boy. >> reporter: morgan was referred to a fertility expert at new york medical college who specializes in an experimental technique called ovarian tissue cryopreservation. freezing ovarian tissue before cancer treatment begins. >> the over very is taken through a special process. we preserve the ovary for future use. >> reporter: so far the procedure has resulted in 20 babies worldwide. >> if you were a cancer patient 15 years ago, your options in terms of fertility preservation would be close to zip. >> reporter: with her cancer responding to treatment, sh

dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: this breast cancer survivor, diana miller, has been through it all in the last years, chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and now, a painful system caused by treatment. this is how she begins each day. >> exercise is a lot better than taking drugs. >> reporter: and she turns to acupuncture to preserve the movement in her arm. >> i have better feeling in this arm. >> reporter: dr. barrie casille, a pioneer in the field of complimentary medicine, runs this facility at sloan kettering center in new york >> acupuncture doesn't cure cancer, but it is extremely helpful in the setting, because it can control multiple settings, some of which are not even treatable with main medicine. which is why the oldest cancer treatment center in the world offers alternative medicine complimentary medicine has gone mainstream >> it is not enough to say you're finished with the chemotherapy and radiation, and so on, good-bye, have a good life, while the patient is suffering from a wide range of problems. >> reporter: massage for lung cancer patients is offered, and rules out stress. cas

dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: put it on surfaces, repeat, it has become a familiar move in the battle against germs. many times a day the dirty little secret is that most germs are harmless, in fact, many are good for us. >> if you're in an environment where it is too clean you could get the next infection that comes along. >> give me a deep breath. >> reporter: the doctor says our super clean life-style could be partly to blame for the rise in the number of people with allergies and asthma. >> i view the immune system as an army, and if it doesn't have anything to fight, in many cases it will fight allergens. >> dogs, cats, trees. >> reporter: she has allergies, as well as three of her friends at school. >> we can't be like a normal kid. >> reporter: recent studies give new weight to the decades-old theory that some germs help our systems, between the harmful and harmless irritants. these findings of this population shows that kids raised on cow farms had reduced risk of allergies. the findings follow a previous study in europe >> there is a link between the farming community having

dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: kathy is playing music again. a small but significant sign that her days of agonizing back pain are over. >> i'm feeling much more hopeful. >> reporter: when two surgeries failed to reduce the excruciating nerve pain shooting down her legs commonly called sciatica, she turned to technology and a device called a spinal cord stimulater. >> i can increase or decrease the intensity. >> reporter: the goal? >> how are you making out? >> i'm better. >> reporter: pain relief and reduce dependency on powerful painkillers. neurostimulation, around since the late '60s, has come a long way. >> once we get the stimulation into the right area, we finetune it. >> reporter: implanted under the skin of the lower back, the device lets the patient control the level of pain fighting electrical current to the nerve. >> if the patient doesn't have surgically correctible reason for their pain, they can't get adequate relief with nerve pain medications, that's the time to think about a spinal cord stimulater. >> use your stomach to curl

dr. nancy snyderman.lks. >> nice to see you. >> we've known each other and my pet peeve is crassness and crudeness, hate t.two examples over the weekend in the world of sports. let's break it down. kansas city, chiefs quarterback, matt cassel having a tough year, okay. we know that. the fans are down on him. he takes a hit in the game on sunday. goes down on the field, hit to the head. he's down on the field for several minutes during which time the fans start cheering the fact that he's down because they know they are going to get a replacement. >> he wasn't just down. you could tell he was hurt. >> he was hurt. he was hit. they are cheering the injury. does this shock anyone? >> not since what we've actually become. i mean, we cheer bad behavior now. television has changed so much. we're a society of rudeness. it's okay to beat up on people on national television. this is like "the gladiators" now. >> come to the point where we cheer someone getting injured. >> just the last few weeks, whether it's -- t

dr. nancy snyderman. >> magic moment, your first professionals. >> my maiden voyage. i'll be candy crowley and try to keep you guys online. let's start with the debate last night. people are calling it this morning a little bit contentious and feisty, perhaps too much so for some people. let's watch a little clip of some of the back and forth last night. >> you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. >> and the suggestion that anybody on my team, whether the secretary of state, our u.n. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. >> that wasn't even the worst of it, star. what's your opinion about what you saw last night? is debate etiquette dead? physically they were very close it each other. going almost nose to nose >> i don't like all that alpha male moving around. i get intimidated with too many people in my personal space. that's not my style. i didn't like when governor romney really in my opinion was rude to the president, even if you are debating the president of the united

dr. nancy snyderman, and star jones a former prosecutor and legal analyst. ave the genetic marker for cystic fibrosis. the question is does the marker mean you might one day get it. >> no. this is one of the times that the science went ahead of the definition. we all -- he is a marker. it's no more likely for him to get cystic fibrosis than you having a marker for a certain cancer and living your life without it. the idea behind segregating these kids is you don't want them to get other infections. they are more at risk for infections. i just want to underscore, he doesn't have cystic fibrosis, so this was an ill thought out decision in the beginning. >> to complete the thought here. you don't want two cystic fibrosis kids in the same school if you can help it or the same vicinity of one another. what about a cystic fibrosis child and one who has the genetic marker? >> no. i don't think so. the whole concern is to keep these kids healthy. i would make the argument that kids who are walking around who haven't been vaccinated pose a greater risk to the child. >

dr. nancy snyderman, nbc's chief medical examiner. good morning.t it harm the baby? >> yes and no. some chemotherapy drugs doing. the timing was really important. they waited until she was through her first trimester when most injuries can hurt the fetus, and as soon as they could get the baby out, i suspected 32 or 33 weeks when they knew the baby's lungs would be okay, and you notice there was no radiation given to her until the baby was delivered, but, you know, some chemotherapy drugs are more toxic to babies than others. >> is there anything that the unborn baby has around her in this case that protects her? >> there's a barrier that protects some things from going back and forth, but something as simple as an aspirin can affect the fetal development. the timing of the chemotherapy drugs, but interestingly since mom's tombors affected the lymph nodes, that's one of the first lines of defense, the chemotherapy drugs affected the baby's immune system so the baby was susceptible to bacterial infections which is probably what landed the baby back