our report from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. ♪ >> reporter: in this season of travelnd shopping, the common cold is a frequent, unwelcome visitor. everyone has a favorite remedy. >> plenty of orange juice. >> chicken noodle soup. >> green tea. >> those zinc things. >> reporter: another is the herb echinacea. the fifth most popular herbal supplement, with sales of $16 million a year. native americans used echinacea, and it became a popular homeopathic remedy. smaller studies of its effectiveness have produced conflicting results. but the biggest and best study, financed by the federal government, finds it offers virtually no relief. >> there are no proven treatments for common cold in terms of reducing the length of the cold or the overall severity. >> reporter: in the latest study, more than 700 people, aged 12 to 80, got the herb or a placebo at the first sign of a cold. careful examination showed no change in the inflammatory reaction that causes the crummy feeling of a cold. the common cold is not just unpleasant, adults get two or three a year, children many more.

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> when we come back here tonight, the women we told you about here last night, well, they got the job done. >>> also, remembering a man known for just a few iconic words. ♪ >>> the lone ranger. >> hi ho silver. >> man, did that get your blood going. unforgettable words for generations of american kids who watched the "lone ranger" series on tv and listened to it on the radio long before that. that voice belonged to fred foy who, while he was working for a detroit tv station, became famous for the role and had a long and distinguished career as an announcer. fred foy died this morning in massachusetts. he was 89 years old. >>> and with the oldest of the baby boomers now about to turn 65, a new survey conducted for aarp finds most of them are pretty content with their lives. 70% say they've achieved all or most of what they wanted in life. at the same time, a third of them have returned to work after retiring from an earlier career. 40% of them say they plan to work as long as they possibly can. that's likely because they feel they need to financially.

here's robert bazell. >> reporter: it's the latest method for parents to try to raise smarter, happierhildren. >> this is a sign for? >> girl. >> reporter: several programs around the country offer classes where parents and their infants who have normal hearing and no speech problems learn american sign language when they are still too young to say words. >> what are you eating? >> cracker. >> who's that? >> reporter: she says the program increases iq and leads to greater emotional stability later in life. >> language comes the first day that they're born, but parents usually wait until speech is developed enough, some kids are 12 months, some kids are 18 months, to be able to have a conversation. >> reporter: but many experts are skeptical of these claims. although they say the programs can't hurt. >> our children just get joy about being in an environment. we were sensitive to them and responsive to them. >> can you do share? >> reporter: she insists that children can start to sign to their parents as early as 8 months so they can ask for things instead of crying. do they sign specif

robert bazell thanks as always. >>> and one more health-related note. the senate passed the biggest overhaul of this nation's food safety system in decades. the bill goes to the house. according to the centers for disease control, one in four americans gets sick hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, more than 5,000 people die every year in the u.s., from eating contaminated food. this bill comes after some massive recalls that we've covered here including last summer's recall of half a billion eggs in a salmonella outbreak. >>> a huge and potent storm system pushing through the southeast has spawned 11 confirmed tornados now. in mississippi, alabama, georgia, outside atlanta, severe thunderstorm that may have been a tornado has damaged half a dozen homes so far. all part of a system stretching all the way from the gulf coast way up to western new england, appears to cover about half the country. this one could bring heavy rain, snow, high winds by tomorrow. the first day of december. >>> when we continue here in just a moment, what colin and alma powe

our report from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: michelle larson once weighed7 pounds. then a surgeon implanted the device known as lap band and she lost half the weight over three years. >> i've been happy i've taken off this weight and kept it off. >> reporter: her mother, sharon, wanted the surgery too, who learned she wasn't eligible because she wasn't heavy enough. >> i was ready to finally get something where i would lose the weight. >> reporter: sharon and millions of others may get a chance to have the operation. the company that makes the lap band is applying for fda permission to lower the minimum weight for the surgery. >> we're only talking about a 30-pound weight difference. >> reporter: dr. george fielding of new york university, performed michelle's procedure. >> it's not like we're going from dealing with really enormous people to dealing with skinny people. these people are still obese by any category that's used and they've got this disease process going on. >> reporter: lap bands account for half the annual 220,000 weight loss surgeries in th

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >> and that's our broadcast for this friday night and for this weekk you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. lester holt will be here with you this weekend. we, of course, hope to see you right back here on monday night. in the meantime, have a great weekend. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com western band association champions in3. a friendly white little kitty. maybe not little today. with a head larger than her small button eyes and nose. very cute.

our report tonight from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> you need to do the preventative things that you need to do for your heart health. >> reporter: for years, the ads have called it the wonder drug that works wonders. science has proven that a low dose aspirin tablet reduces the risk of heart disease and suggests it might lower colon cancer risk, as well. now a study from british doctors suggest it may also cut deaths for many other cancers. >> i think it's very important. the compelling evidence is vitally important in our effort to prevent the burden of cancer in this country. >> reporter: british researchers examined eight studies with a total of more than 25,000 patients. they concluded that in addition to colon cancer, a daily low dose of aspirin reduced the death rate from es sof gus, stomach, lung and prostate cancers and they hypothesized that taking aspirin daily could reduce the overall cancer death rate by as much as 30% over a 20-year period. >> we know that chronic inflammation can lead to cancer. so it makes sense that aspirin is an antiinflammatory. >>

robert bazell is our chief medical correspondent, and this is one of the most views on the "huffington lot of attention and buzz online. any reason to hope that what this discovery means in the future could lead to important steps in breaking through autism? >> well, i certainly hope it will want to lead to it, because many of us know from personal experience and if not, it is such an enormous debilitating problem for so many families. autism is a terrible disorder that seems to be increasing quickly, and we don't know why and we don't know the causes, so that anything that indicates what the cause may be, gets a lot of attention. what the researchers did is they compared ten children, and this is a small number, but ten children with autism to ten children who don't have autism and they noticed a defect in the mi tochondria which is a bundle of energy. >> they are the energy powerhouses of the cell? >> right. and they found out that the kids with the autism seemed to have a defect. it could be a clue, but also, they point out in the article that they don't know whether this is cause o

but first, here's nbc's chief science correspondent, robert bazell. >> to look at 6-year-old richardone in medical history. his mother, amy lynn santiago said he's always upbeat. >> he loves his mom and his dad. and with all his heart. he's such a loving little boy. >> nick was 17 months old when the first sign of trouble struck. a wound that would not heal. over time, mom realized he faced a life-threatening condition. >> six to eight months after his first hospitalization, at that point he was down to 17 pounds. and he was always having pain. >> at first, doctors thought nick suffered crohn's disease, an auto-immune disorder of the intestine. surgeons removed his colon, but nick continued to deteriorate. last march, dr. allen meyer, a pediatric specialist at children's hospital of wisconsin took charge of his care. but they failed to achieve success. >> we were never able to get his inflammation under control. >> dr. meyer consulted with experts around the world. everyone was stumped and thought nick would die without a diagnosis. the doctors were so perplexed by the case that they