dr. richard besser on the breakthrough. >>> hometown girl. what if your high school pal was suddenly becoming your future queen? >>> and, the journey. from giant crickets that lull you to sleep to red wine with coke? some unforgettable moments from our travels through the new china. >>> good evening on our final night from china, from the capital of beijing, home of the historic forbidden city, tiananmen square and tonight, something very modern. corporate executives, countless of them, from all over the world, coming here, hoping to carve out a share of the biggest economic boom on the planet. the emerging middle class in china. look at it this way. there are not just more house holds with tvs here than in america, there are 255 million more. more cars were sold here, 3 million more, last year, than in the united states. and, as we have said, we came here with questions about what this means for america, for american jobs and for the iconic american companies hoping to get their piece of the action in this culture so far away. it's china, so

dr. richard besser, abc news, new york. >>> there are few details about the death of former "bacheloretteshow contestant, julien hug. hug's body was found in a remote spot along a california highway. he had last been seen or heard from, i should say, monday, when he traveled from san diego to palm desert, where he managed a family restaurant. hug was a contestant in 2009's season five. and was passed over by bachelorette, jillian harris. >>> well, he survived being trapped underground for two months. but can he survive the streets of new york? rescued chilean miner, edison pena, is in new york, preparing to run in this sunday's marathon. pena says it may take him six hours. but he is determined to finish the race. he also stopped by "the late show," where david letterman compared being trapped in the mine to appearing on his show. >> good stuff. >>> well, three college football games tomorrow, match teams currently ranked in the bcs top 15. for last night's highlights, here's mike yam at espn news. >> good morning. we start with some college football. virginia tech, looking for their seve

dr. richard besser reports from pittsburgh. >> reporter: this thanksgiving weekend, you'll find dr.nd his medical team in their usual places. under bridges, alleyways, on the streets of pittsburgh. >> i'm going to start you back on the insulin. >> reporter: it is a house call to those with no home. >> mind if i listen to your heart and lungs? >> i would appreciate if you did. >> reporter: mark, 43, lives under a bridge. he's been homeless for ten years. >> i have tears in my eyes, but i'm not letting them out. i don't know what to do. >> okay, we'll figure it out together. >> reporter: for nearly 20 years, dr. withers has been making rounds in the darkest of places. he's been held at gunpoint three times. >> i wore a bulletproof vest for over a year. >> reporter: you still came out? >> i don't know, i just felt like this was worth dying for. >> reporter: the homeless in the country rarely get medical care. >> god bless you, dr. withers. >> reporter: the average life expectancy in major cities is just 48 years old. 30 years less than the national average. >> if we could only do thing

dr. richard besser. >> reporter: cardiovascular disease kills one out of every three americans. some doctors are calling this a make breakthrough. >> we studied a new medication that is four to ten times stronger than any prior therapy. >> reporter: until now, the focus has been on decreasing the bad ldl cholesterol with stattens. but that doesn't eliminate the risk of heart disease. some doctors will tell you that raising the good hdl cholesterol may be even more important. in today's study a. new drug was given to patients on statins. and it works by lowering bad cholesterol. and increasing levels of hdl, good cholesterol. which may actually help remove plaque from arteries. the results, bad cholesterol went down by 40%. and good cholesterol went up by 138%. >> it really has remarkable lowering of the bad cholesterol and raising of the good cholesterol thrs this is leaps and bounds of anything they have been able to achieve. the best drug raises hdl by 25% and poorly tolerated. this drug is at least three years away from market. more testing is underway. >> it's still to be to

dr. richard besser will have a full report. a lot of parents and people are interested in. >> absolutely. a lot of news. >>> and continuing political landscape in washington, as well. a busy news week. check that out on "gma," coming up later today. >>> but for right now, your local news, for some of you. >> for everyone else, late-night comics weigh in on the change now coming to washington. [ male announcer ] build your better breakfast at subway with the $2.50 breakfast combo. get a 16oz. cup of piping-hot seattle's best coffee and a savory new sunrise subway melt built fresh to your order for just $2.50. subway. build your better breakfast. for just $2.50. ♪ your favorites, in pieces. she starts at dawn and so does her back pain.om. that's two pills for a four hour drive. the drive is done. so it's a day of games and two more pills. the games are over, her pain is back, that's two more pills. and when she's finally home, but hang on, just two aleve can keep back pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rache

dr. richard besser, who is here with it all tonight. tell me about this, rich. >> reporter: diane, this is the forgotten epidemic in the united states. i'd like viewers to think about how many new cases of hiv occur in this country every year. it's quite astounding. more than 50,000 new hiv infections. >> still? still in this country? >> reporter: still occurring. and today's study hopes to change that. this is the first time a study has been done that shows that taking a drug before exposure to hiv can prevent infection. among the mostly gay men in this study who took the drug truvada every day, regularly, it reduced their infection by 70%. that's absolutely incredible. it's been too long since we've had a new prevention tool for hiv. >> so are you envisioning a day when this could replace condom use, when this could be the thing that would prevent the contraction of hiv? >> reporter: well, this can reduce infection but it should not prevent condom use. condoms not only prevent hiv, they prevent those infections that can increase the l

dr. richard besser explains this new hope. >> reporter: it is a holy grail of modern medicine. the largest study ever of lung cancer screening out today provides a way to save lives. >> it showed there was decrease in deaths from lung cancer if you undergo ct screening. >> reporter: until now, early detection of lung cancer has been almost impossible. by the time a patient is symptomatic, it is usually too late to cure them. today's announcement was enough to bring tears to the eyes of dr. claudia henschke who has championed screening for more than 20 years. over the course of your career, you've taken a lot of hits, a lot of shots for your statements about the use of ct. >> but the feeling really is that i'm thrilled because of all the work we have put in was to save lives. >> reporter: by giving older, heavy smokers an annual low-dose ct scan, the smallest of tumors can be detected and surgically removed, providing a cure. the scan, which has the same exposure as a mammogram, provides detailed pictures of the lung. >> the person came back a year later and you see that there i

dr. richard besser is a part of our dream team of experts.talked about it a lot and the things you had to change. let's start with exercise. what do you do? >> it's never too late to start exercise. people get overwhelmed by the thought of beginning. talk to your doctor about how fast and if there's any restrictions. your goal is to do 2 1/2 hours in a week. but you can break that down into ten-minute blocks and build up to that. as mehmet was saying, resistance training becomes important in terms of building strong bones. >> you talked about, there's certain tests and medical procedures you should go through when you hit that magic age. >> at 50, there's numbers and tests you should pay attention to. the first is your bmi, your body/mass index. pay attention to belly fat. belly fat is a big risk factor. cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, those will put you at risk for diabetes and stroke. you should know those. in addition, there's tests you should be having done. if you haven't done them yet, start now. colon cancer screening for eve

dr. richard besser is back with more on that. >> it's great to come with good news.creening test for lung cancer has long been a holy grail in medicine. now, researchers may have found it. this is major news because currently most patients with lung cancer don't show symptoms until it's too late to save their lives. the study found that a simple c.t. scan can reduce the risk of death from lung cancer by 20%. >> we've been looking for over 40 years to try to find a way to reduce deaths from lung cancer with screening. >> reporter: dr. claudia henschke, a long advocate of screening, was brought to tears. >> i'm thrilled because of all the work we put in was to save lives. >> reporter: and 79-year-old barbara hillary is one of the many lives doctors saved. nine years ago, barbara was diagnosed with lung cancer, after it was picked up on a screening c.t. scan. if you hadn't been told then, you would just be going on while the tumor was growing in your chest? >> no. i wouldn't be sitting here now. >> reporter: you wouldn't be sitting here? >> i wouldn't. i'd be dead. >> r

dr. richard besser. >> reporter: cardiovascular disease kills one out of every three americans which is whyajor breakthrough. >> we studied a new medication that's four to ten times stronger than any prior therapy. >> reporter: until now the focus has been on decreasing the bad ldl cholesterol with statins. that doesn't eliminate the risk of heart disease. some doctors will tell you raising the good hdl cholesterol may be even more important. a new drug anacetrapib was given to patients already on statins. it work busy lowering bad cholesterol and increasing levels of hdl, good cholesterol, which may actually help remove plaque from arteries. the results, bad cholesterol went down by 40%. and good cholesterol went up by a whopping 138%. >> it really has remarkable lowering of the bad cholesterol and raising of the good cholesterol. >> reporter: this is leaps and bounds above anything other drugs have been able to achieve. the best drug currently on the market only raises hdl by 25%. and is poorly tolerated. anacetrapib is at least three years away from market and more testing is under way.

dr. richard besser, abc news, new york. >>> president obama is inviting leaders of both parties to a whiteation comes as republicans mount a challenge to the president's legislative agenda. mr. obama says he's willing to work across party lines to focus on jobs and the economy. >>> for now, after months of dealing with midterm elections and all the issues here at home, the president is changing focus and heading out of the country later today. sunlen miller reports from the white house on the president's trip to asia. >> reporter: later this morning, president obama will depart for a whirlwind, ten-day, four-country trip. a mixed bag of politics, policy, and a little bit of the past. the city where he lived as a young boy, jakarta. this time, the red carpet will be rolled out. the highlight of his stop will be a big speech on democracy development and outreach to muslim communities across the world. in india, the president will stay at the iconic taj hotel, the site of the 2008 terrorist attack. he'll commemorate that day by visiting with some of the families of those lost in the attacks.

dr. richard besser and he was recently in haiti. so dr. besser, thanks for joining us this morning.s cholera outbreak, both to the united states and the surrounding region? >> well, one of the critical things to know about cholera is that 75% of those -- of the people who are infected will have absolutely no symptoms. so they're able to take the bacteria and bring it to another country. in a country like the united states where there's clean water and adequate sanitation, the likelihood of spread is very, very remote unless it's introduced into a migrant camp or place that didn't have adequate water. the caribbean is a different story and it's likely there will be cases introduced to the caribbean, whether or not they spread, whether or not they set up shop like they have done in haiti will depend on the quality of water and sanitation this those countries. >> and in terms of trying to get it under control in haiti, we saw in the report that basic, you know, say line solution or rehydration and water is not getting to the people as fast as possible. how and what do they need? >> wel

dr. richard besser is here to brief us on those guidelines. how big a problem is this?ized problems, from 1999 to 2006, the number of children under 12 hospitalized more than double ed from 500 to 1,000. very few children with eating disorders ever end up in the hospital. what they're saying, doctors need to screen for this and be aware of it. >> what exactly do they want doctors to do? >> a lot of it is looking at a child and asking basic questions. one thing i always ask a child is whether they feel they're too heavy, too thin or just right. and that could be a way to open conversation about body image and body size. once you identify a child with an eating problem, you need to look to refer that child to someone who's a specialist in that area. >> of course, there's also important information for parents? >> that's right. parents are key. parents will see what's going on at home, whether there are issues around food and how children are dealing with the food and can bring those questions and concerns to their pediatrician's attention. >> rich, stand by here. andrea c

dr. richard besser is here with a look at what that could mean.th a condition that is hard to treat. >> that's right, george. it's a rare, devastating disorder. it produces benign tumors in parts of the body. but when the tumors occur in the brain, they can be deadly. the exciting study in "the new england journal" says the drug called afinitor can help shrink the brain tumors significantly. as an infant, now-19-year-old alyssa, was diagnosed with a rare, genetic disorder, affecting 1 in 6,000 children, called tuberous sclerosis. the disorder causes benign tumor growths in the brain and other organs. >> it was shocking and scary. >> reporter: at 21 months, alyssa started suffering from seizures, a common occurrence in kids who have the disorder. >> i basically didn't let her out of my sight. i was extremely anxious about that. >> reporter: through medication, they were able to get the seizures under control. but when alyssa was 10, an mri screening revealed that she had developed a benign brain tumor. doctors said her only chance of survival would