dr. john torres. welcome, both. first to you, dr. torres, we have the national institute putting out the numbers, is the premise here, the original premise that too many people are prescribed the drugs and then are becoming addicted? they're so highly addict of for people suffering from pain and we have to come up with a new solution for pain therapy. >> that's what the study is showing up. up until now, we said there is an addiction problem, an epidemic, but this is the first study to give us hard numbers. one in three americans in 2015 used prescription opioid. of those, 11.5 million misused and 1.9 million were addicted. i mean, they simply use ed it outside of the directions of their doctor, took somebody else's medication, used it too often, used too much. and what this is showing us is that this addiction problem is definitely here and is serious and something that needs to be addressed. and i agree with governor christie, this is something that right now the commission is showing needs to have more money and more emphasis put i

dr. torres, nbc news, new york. >>> plenty more ahead. coming up next, the ritzy neighborhood where mansion owners are outraged after something was bought right out from under them. >>> tonight broadway is mourning the loss of acclaimed actress and singer barbara cook, whose career spanned more than 60 years from starring roles in musicals like kandidentification and music man and later as a performer, continuing to perform nearly right until the end. barbara cook was 89 years old. >>> in a san francisco neighborhood, a street fight has broken out, quite literally. mansion owners say they were shocked to learn the private street they live on had been sold for $90,000. the city auctioned it off after the homeowners association hadn't allegedly paid the $14 per year tax in decades. residents who may be forced to pay for parking now are petitioning to rescind the sale. >>> a photo made us laugh today, that a lot of moms and dads can probably relate to around this time. that's alabama mom jenna willingham celebrating the first day of school.

dr. torres, nbc news, new york. >>> plenty more ahead.up next, the ritzy neighborhood where mansion owners ritzy neighborhood where mansion owners are outraged ritzy neighborhood where mansion owners are outraged alzheimer's disease the fi is out there.survive and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen by funding scientific breakthroughs, advancing public policy, and providing local support to those living with the disease and their caregivers. but we won't get there without you. visit alz.org to join the fight. bburning of diabetic nerve pain these feet... liked to style my dog as a kid... and were pumped to open my own salon. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and she prescribed lyrica. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. com

dr. john torres, nbc news, boston. >>> when we come back, swimming in the shallows, rare encounters as a whale makes its way right up to shore. >>> we end tonight with images from the west coast. a gray whale coming >>> we end tonight with images from the west coast. a gray whale coming literally within inches of suspected swimmers. nbc's ron mott has the story. >> reporter: for a few swimmers and beach goers, a whale of a tale. sharing the pacific up close and personal with a friendly beast thanks to an apparent wrong turn. he soaked up the sun in dana point harbor this week. captain put his drone to work. >> this lady on the front just dives into the water and swims over to this whale. everybody is kind of stunned and then a whole bunch of people kind of helped out and they were actually able to get the whale out of the harbor. it's not something i would normally recommend doing. >> reporter: the orange county sheriff's department also captured the stunning encounter as good samaritans tries to shoo the young whale out to sea. but the whale took a couple more detours, first laguna beac

dr. john torres, nbc news, corpus christi. >> we continue that president trump is spending the weekend at camp david where he will be receiving updates on the storm. it's the first major test for president trump and his team. kristen, what are you hearing from the administration about a federal response? >> well, lester, president trump is tweeting about it tonight. i am closely watching the paths and doings of hurricane harvey. be safe. top officials briefed mr. trump today including his homeland security adviser who told reporters the federal government is coordinating with state and local officials. tonight one top republican is urging the president to heed the lessons of former president george w. bush who was criticized for being slow to respond to hurricane katrina. officials here say they're confident the president is up to the task and say he's planning to visit texas early next week. >> as he monitors the latest of the hurricane i know he's also facing a storm of a different kind in washington. criticism from a top member of the west wing team. what can you tell us about that. >>

dr. john torres, thank you very much. we're going to take a break in a moment we'll have the changing trend among america's dads that may surprise you. >>> we're back now with a cancer breakthrough, for the first time ever the fda has just approved a gene therapy treatment. it's for children and young adults are relapse right leg leukemia. genetically modifies the patients own immune cells. in the past we have reported on emily white head, the first child to receive the then experimental treatment in 2012. five years later she remains cancer free. you might find this spriedsing that american men are becoming dads later than ever before. the average age of first-time father's in the u.s. has risen to nearly 31, up from just over 27 in 1972. according to a new study. researchers point to a number of possible factors like more effective birth control, longer life expectancy and a desire to focus more on careers before having kids. >>> it's hard to believe it's been 20 years since we got that tragic word from paris. princess

dr. john torres is on the scene. >> high blood pressure, and all that medicine is gone? >> yeah. >> it's mass casualty situation. >> it is. >>> and then in london, where princes harry and william pay after her death. "early today" starts right now. good to be with you. i'm frances rivera. my co-anchor phillip mena is there in houston following harvey's impact. harvey is still unleashing rain, but is now classified as a tropical depression as it heads northeast. a dangerous situation is taking place right now at a chemical plant in houston, which could explode any moment. there's no way to prevent it. and at issue, no power or working generators. couple that with possible calamity of 2 million pounds of chemicals being released. overnight, the death toll reaching at least 28. officials say that number is certain to climb after a dramatic day of rescues played out, including this of one monther and her son reunited after they fought for their lives. >> i thought y'all was going to pass up, because up. when you seen y'all looking at us, we got so emotional, like please help

dr. john torres reports. >> reporter: when steven johnson was at the international space station, a visitas out of the question. but they could in minutes have a doctor on call. >> realtime communications, a very minor delay, you could have a doctor on the radio with you while you're working with the patient. >> reporter: nasa's new plan for the final frontier have people heading further afield. to mars. 34 million miles away from earth. it takes 20 minutes for the call for help to reach earth. >> if you have an emergency, you're not going to wait for help on board. >> reporter: doctors working with only the supplies on their ship. >> they have limited resources to deal with in that situation to figure out how they might be able to save that person's life. >> reporter: nasa has teamed up to create a first of its kind space simulator to teach astronauts how to deal with medical emergencies, ranging from simple injuries to major events like a heart attack. in one scenario, a pipe on the ship bursts causing poisonous gas to go throughout the spaceship. the astronauts face a double dilemma. t

dr. torres? >> yes, i'm here in dallas. i'm in front of the kay bailey hutchison convention center, a major evacuation center for people evacuating from houston and other areas. in the center itself, they set up 50 to 100 medical beds, pediatric beds to take care of children, doctors, nurses, pharmacists are involved to try to take care of the healthy, the people coming here. the person in charge is dr. ray fowler, a physician at parkland emergency department, and chief medical officer for the mini hospital here. thank you for being here. you're a busy, busy man. what are the health conditions you're most concerned with right now initially? >> current clinic we have, this one is just opening today, 22% of the population are age 3 or under. there is going to be an enormous pediatric population. this will be the largest disaster response we have ever done in dallas. this is our fifth major hurricane response in 12 years. hurricane katrina was enormous. i worked with that unwith. this this is going to be twice the size. >> wha

dr. john torres, thank you very much. >>> we'll take a break.n a moment we'll have a changing trend among america's dads that may surprise you. break. in a moment my friend susie cracks me up. but one laugh, and hello sensitive bladder. ring a bell? then you have to try always discreet. but the super absorbent core turns liquid to gel. for incredible protection... ...that's surprisingly thin. so it's out of sight... ...and out of mind. always discreet. for bladder leaks. also in liners. when itrust the brandtburn, doctors trust. nexium 24hr is the number one choice of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. and all day, all night protection. when it comes to heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. what's that? p3 planters nuts, jerky and seeds. i like a variety in my protein. totally, that's why i have this uh trail mix. wow minty. p3 snacks. the more interesting way to get your protein. when i walked through for a cigarette, that's when i knew i had to q

dr. john torres. so once this declaration is executed, dr. torres, what then happens?tally depends on what happens during the execution and what's actually on that paperwork. when they declare an emergency, the president has a lot of leeway to put in there what he or she thinks we need in order to get through this. and so it's going to depend on what they actually put down on the paper. essentially what it does is a couple things. it frees up money, helps get drugs into the hands of people who need the drugs and frees up regulation. so some of these regulations that stifle hospitals from treating certain people, treating in certain areas, it gets rid of those. at least waves them for a little bit so they can go into areas. swine flu in 2009, it let them put temporary emergency rooms in different parts of the areas, because they were able to get through the regulations that way. >> beyond the funding for treatment, beyond the enforcement, talk to me about how this move to declare an emergency could impact doctors, could impact the prescribing of medications? >> i think

dr. john torres, is live in corpus christi. dr. john, why are some choosing to stay behind?katy, that happens. sometimes people stay behind for a variety of reasons. sometimes they have something they have to really take care of, they have loved ones, property they don't want to leave. for whatever reason, people do stay behind, which means that people have to stay behind to take care of them. now we drove down this morning from san antonio. the roads were definitely passable. but we could see ambulances constantly going north, getting patients out of here. in the hospitals, they have gotten the critical patients out of here. but they're still open, the ones more secure, and they're keeping the patients that aren't quite as critical in thesecure, and t rooms are staying open to take care of people around here. the patients pregnant, babies don't come by appointment. so someone staying behind, beth overton, a certified professional midwife with the corpus christi birth center. and you stayed to help a client who is pregnant and could not leave for any reason. >> i don't feel

dr. john torres. we discussed earlier the danger of looking into the sun, but for these folks in these areas where they're dodging clouds and me might feel the clouds will give them some protection -- >> absolutely not. the clouds are not going to give you protection. you can get sun burn on a cloudy day and the same thing is is happening here. >> columbia, missouri we're looking at now. >> it's beautiful. you need to keep your glasses on if it's clear regardless. until that final instant of totality, those ultraviolet rays are coming out and it can cause damage to the back of the eye. there are no pain receptors there and that's part of the problem. you may not know it until a day later or a month later. there's a spot there that's fuzzy or blank. you can't see things you look directly at because that's part of the vision it hits. when you think of a lens, it's like a mag ifnifying lens, you' not feeling it and it can cause permanent damage. >> important warning, and we will continue to sound that wa

dr. john torres, has details. >> reporter: just 43 years old, lynn howard never imagined her heart would suddenly stop beating. >> i had no health problems before this. i was completely healthy. >> reporter: but the mother of three suffered a sudden cardiac arrest, a condition so deadly, more than 90% don't survive. >> the goal is to nip some cardiac arrest in the bud. because by the time it happens, it's too late. >> reporter: it's not a heart attack which is caused by a blockage. sudden cardiac arrest is caused by a short circuit in the heart. there hasn't been a good test to determine who's vulnerable. >> we don't have any real predictors of risk. >> reporter: after this doctor studied a million people, he found a possible solution, using an ekg, an inexpensive test that's been around for 100 years. >> we're looking at six data points on this ekg, ranging from the heartbeat, to electrical activity recorded from the heart. >> reporter: dr. chu discovered that data is the key to predicting who's at risk. the goal now, to get that risk score included on every ekg, and implant high risk p

dr. john torres. >> reporter: as a junior volunteer firefighter, 16-year-old cheyenne cameron has learned to handle pressure including her own high blood pressure. >> i always felt like my heart was racing. i also thought, oh, high blood pressure is for like when you're old. >> reporter: that common misconception all the more reason today's new screening guidelines are so important. >> the increase in the prevalence of hypertension in kids i think is really driven by the rising prevalence of childhood obesity. >> reporter: the new guidelines recommend pediatricians check blood pressure every year starting at age 3. younger if a child was born premature which increases the risk of hypertension. ask parents about the family history. suggest better diet and exercise first. if that fails, medication may be necessary. while being overweight is just one sign a child may have high blood pressure, doctors stress many body types can develop the condition and without warning. >> hypertension is often called the silent killer. and most children with high blood pressure don't have any symptoms at all

dr. john torres. obviously, nobody wants to be in pain, but are these drugs overprescribed? and what options are there out there? >> yes, lester, bottom line they're being overprescribed. part of the reason is because patients come in and are demanding these medications because that's what they think they need. on top of that they're easily available, cheap and oftentimes insurance companies cover them, but the bottom line opioids can be very addictive and somebody can get hooked after just a few doses. current guidelines tell us after three days of an acute pain syndrome, where they have it after surgery or injury, that we want to switch to non-opioid type medications, things like anti-inflammatories or nonmedicine treatments, physical treatments, massage therapy or yoga. in all cases talk to your doctor before taking any medication to make sure you get the right medicine, the right amount and the right doses and come off of them as soon as you can. >> dr. john, thanks. good to have you here. >>> there are bizarre new details tonight in a jailbreak and a manhunt under way i

dr. john torres.ng about one of the biggest, if not the biggest medcenter in the country here. how do you handle this? >> the texas medical center, this is a huge complex. a lot of different hospitals. some of those hospitals and in the medical center which is essentially in the middle of houston is doing fine. other ones that is the one that is in the process of evacuating 350 patients. they did get flood waters in the basement. that has basically limited their food supply to two days and that's why they're evacuating the patients. what you typically do you evacuate the patients that are more critical. the ones that are on life support and need that equipment. you take them out very carefully and get them to other places where that same equipment is there so they can get that sustained care. then you start taking care of the other patients that are more ambulatory and help with their own evacuations and get on buses and can actually move on their own or at least with some assistance. and then start g

dr. john torres has the details. >> just 43 years old lin howard never imagined her heart would suddenly stop beat sblg i had no health problems before this pitd was completely healthy. >> but the mother of three suffered a sudden cardiac arrest, a condition so deadly more than 90% don't survive. >> the goal is to nip sudden cardiac arrest in the butt because by the time it happens it's too late. >> it's not a heart attack which is caused by a blockage. sudden cardiac arrest is caused by a short circuit in the heart and there hasn't been a good test to determine who's vulnerable. >> we don't have any real predictors of risk. >> after this doctor stu studied a million people he found a possible solution using an ekg, an inexpensive test that's been around for a hundred years. >> we're look at six data points on this ekg ranging from the heartbeat to electrical activity recorded from the heart. >> dr. chu discovered that data is the key to predicting who's at risk. the goal now to get that risk score included on every ekg and implant high-risk patients with ady fib bra later that shocks th

dr. mora-torres, who are helping you with this research. i mean, does that panel get any smarter? is there any smarter panel than the one you've established? karl: well, we're building the team, and that's very important. we want to have a team that's ready and functioning so we can do it the right way and, like i said, preserve our history, and let people know that, hey, we are definitely a big part of this valley that's not talked about. damian: no, you're right because i would sit in the chicano studies classes with dr. jose carrasco, and i would think at the end, "why didn't i record these lectures and conversations?" because you're right, the oral history of what happened in this valley and across the united states is just really incredible. we're probably just scratching the surface right now, correct? karl: and it's--our history is really--part of it is a neglected part of the civil rights movement that no one talks about. if you look at california as a whole, the westminster versus board of education in 1947, one of the lawyers for that action was thurgood marshall, who we

dr. john torres. dr. e. >> good morning. >> why is it that doctors are prescribing so many of the opioids to people? >> there's a lot of things going on. i called it the perfect storm of events that are happening. we treated pain historically. back in 1990s and 2000s, pain getting overemphasized. the government was using it as inspection criteria. it was the fifth vital sign. because of that, it ges overemphasized. and because of that, pain made kagss are more out there. more numbers, more types and able to prescribe it more. the medication does work. and it works at a high cost. >> i've had my share of orth petic surgeries over the years. and sometimes you get refills and you think this, is dangerous. what kind of conversation are doctors starting to have doctors are starting to switch their mindset. we want to get rid of pain. now, we're starting to say, we might not get rid of pain. we want to get rid of suffering. as long as you can do the things you want to do. that's the important part here. that's t

dr. john torres. >> reporter: as a junior volunteer firefighter, 16-year-old kim has learned to handle pressure including her own h was racing. i also thought, oh, high blood pressure's for, like, when you're old. >> reporter: that common misconception, all the more reason today's new screening guidelines are so important. >> the increase in the prevalence of hypertension in kids, i think, is really driven by the rising prevalence of childhood obesity. >> reporter: the new guidelines recommend pediatricians check blood pressure every year, starting at age 3, younger if a child was born premature, which increases the risk of hypertension. ask parents about the family history, suggest better diet and exercise first. if that fails, medication may be necessary. while being overweight is just one sign a child may have high blood pressure, doctors stress many body types can develop the condition and without warning. >> hypertension is often called the silent killer, and most children with high blood pressure don't have any symptoms at all. >> reporter: since her diagnosis, and with regular monitoring

dr. john torres.r family member is addicted to opioids right now, what does this news mean for him or her? >> more money and more effort going towards treatment for them and hopefully fighting this epidemic on both fronts. for people who are addicted and making sure people don't get addicted. for those already addicted it means opening up more treatment fusacilities and actually an obscured law saying they can't be bigger than 16 beds or they won't get paid. what thar they're saying they can apply for waivers and get that taken care of. a lot more emphasis and looking down the line and get training in how to prescribe these medications appropriately and treat people who are addicted to these medications looking at pharmaceutical companies to put out medicines that don't need to be put out and looking at the whole aspect of the addiction, just putting a whole lot more effort into this and help people right now and hopefully over the long term, as well. >> what is the time line? >> once he signs it, the

dr. john torres with the details.r being with us and walk us through some of these numbers here. they are, frankly, stunning. >> good morning. what happens in 2015 they did a big survey across the country looking at opioid use here in america. what they found was stunning. it surprised them the results and, frankly, most doctors will be taken back a little by these numbers. what they showed is 98.1 million americans showed prescription opioids. 11.5 million americans misused those opioid and 1.9 million were addicted. this shows you the numbers in hard facts in the overdoses that we're seeing and calling an epidemic. again, in 2015 they got those hard numbers and probably didn't fall much in 2016 either. >> what is misuse, what does that mean? >> it means you're using it outside the directions the doctor gave you. it could be a few things. not taking your own prescription. people in a household will share prescription, taking greater amounts instead of taking one or two pills you take two or four pills. instead of eve

torre sentences and not doing rest of it. the report is a good read. i'm sorry we're out of time. i hope we can return to this topic. julia, rick, and dr.nk you. >> what if the propaganda is coming from inside the white house? a new report that president trump's team is giving him a folder of only good news to read. life, life top speed fifty knots life on the caribbean seas it's a champagne and models potpourri on my yacht made of cuban mahogany, gany, gany, gany♪ ♪watch this don't get mad (bell mnemonic) get e*trade and get invested so find a venus smooth that contours to curves, the smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. flexes for comfort, and has a disposable made for you. skin smoothing venus razors. hey richard, check out this fresh roasted flavor. looks delicious, huh? -yeah. -and how about that aroma? -love that aroma! umph! -craveability, approved! irresistibly planters. >>> they say the truth hurts. a new report suggests that mr. trump may be getting a distorted picture of current events because he gets false information. gets a packet full of positive only news all about himself twice a day. a 25-page packet