Earlier this week, Clark's revealed how sick his wife had become after developing complications from the H1N1 virus. Today, he wants to sound a note of calm after clearly agitating listeners.
Here are several stats from the Centers for Disease Control that are important to know:
• Some 22 million Americans are believed to have cycled through swine flu so far.
• Of that number, 3,900 people have died. Every single death is a tragedy, but the incidence of death is a very small number mathematically speaking in comparison to the number of cases.
• 100,000 people have gotten sick enough to be hospitalized. Of that number, a third have been kids.
• 96 percent of people who are hospitalized with the swine flu survive.
• About three-quarters of those who die of swine flu have an underlying medical condition.
So the message here is don't ignore the swine flu, but don't panic either. While not perfect, our medical care in the United States is excellent still. When Clark's wife was hospitalized, nobody at the nurse's station was turning away the uninsured. Everybody got great care regardless of income.
For those in high-risk groups -- children under age 2, people with pre-existing medical conditions and pregnant women -- it's probably wise to get vaccinated. But again, the choice is entirely yours.
Sad news for the Howard family as Clark's wife is recovering after a nasty bout with the H1N1 virus. For most people, swine flu manifests itself with nausea, fever, chills and other common flu symptoms for about a week.
But Lane developed bacterial pneumonia and had to be hospitalized for five days. She also sustained some liver damage that will hopefully prove to be temporary. Now she's out of the hospital and has a multi-week recovery ahead of her.
Through the process, Lane was worried about their 4-year-old son who would be susceptible for serious illness because of his asthma. The Howards still can't find a shot for him; normally children his age would get the mist, but his asthma makes him ineligible.
Pregnant women, children under 2 and people with underlying health conditions are in the prime group of those who should get vaccinated.
Everyone has to make their own decision about getting vaccinated. But after seeing how sick his wife was, Clark has a new appreciation for getting the shot.
New changes in medicine promise to help millions stick to treatment regimens more efficiently thanks to improved delivery systems.
For example, Wired Science reports that a new breed of contact lens is being developed that can time-release medication directly to your eye.
This breakthrough is expected to help glaucoma patients, who routinely skip their eye drops almost 60% of the time -- even though doing so can lead to blindness.
When it comes to skipping medication, Clark himself confesses to never having completed a 10-day cycle of antibiotics in all of the 15 or so times they have been prescribed to him. The reason? He's just too flaky to remember.
Interestingly, the contact lens solution wouldn't be one that would help Clark either. His blink reflex is too strong to allow his eye to hold a contact lens, as he discovered early in his TV days when a news director wanted to get him out of glasses on-camera but couldn't!
Back in the '90s, Clark first talked about breakthrough laser technology being developed for the dentistry field. He went for a cleaning shortly after and discovered his dentist was very upset with him. Several other customers heard Clark on the air and were already asking about the laser! It turns out the technology is very expensive, but it eliminates most of the discomfort for common dental procedures.
USA Today now reports that less than 10% of dentists use laser technology. Yet if people become aware of the laser, they'll ask for it and dentists may comply just to seize market share. Dentists also would be able to charge more for laser services.
Clark has an old filling that he needs replaced. Why should he go the Novocain route when he can have the laser instead? There's even a special laser for root canals that reduces discomfort and the time you're in the chair by 30 minutes.
Laser could be a very promising option for people who take care of their teeth. But 1 out of 3 people don't get dental care in the United States. We're a developed country, yet we have people with rotting teeth! Clark thinks one possible solution would be to allow dental techs to do a special 2-year program that certifies them for basic dental procedures. Such a plan has already been enacted in Alaska.
When Clark goes to Europe, he often gets dragged into museums to look at paintings. Much of the Renaissance art he sees depicts people who are slightly chunky because that was the sign of health and wealth at that point in history. It turns out that people from that era may have been on to something. Today our culture believes that being a stick figure is healthy and having some meat on your bones means that you're unhealthy. But the latest health findings from the Centers for Disease Control show that being slightly overweight when you're under 30 doesn't raise your risk of cancer and heart disease. In fact, it can even lessen your risk of death from some illnesses. The findings of the study were revealed in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Bear in mind that some scientists think these findings are faulty, so this not a green light for you to get a little chunky. Take any health advice with a grain of salt—or salt substitute because everyone's so sodium conscious these days!
About a year ago, Clark talked about Scott's Miracle-Gro firing employees who smoked. Employers have a direct interest in your health. Statistics tell us that smokers have higher absentee rates and medical bills than non-smokers. Clark recalls when he had a furniture delivery job in high school and the driver claimed that smoking since 12 hadn't hurt him! But today people accept it as common knowledge. Other than outright firing people, is there a way that companies can motivate people to have healthier habits? It turns out that paying workers small financial rewards to go on a fitness regimen works.
According to a new study in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, cash incentives of as little as $7 work to get people in shape. Money is even a better motivator than having a gym at work, the study found. Here's how the study worked: Groups were either offered no incentives, seven dollars or fourteen dollars. They weren't given any advice on how to lose weight or exercise. The people who were paid fourteen dollars were more likely to lose weight than those who received no money. Fourteen dollars was an even bigger motivator than seven dollars, which Clark thinks is funny because it's not really all that much money as an incentive for three months of exercise and diet. The authors of the study now plan to do more research to find out the optimal amount of money it will take to bribe workers to health!
Should you buy antibacterial soaps for your home? People routinely pay more for them, but are they really a benefit? The answer is no, according to a new report in The Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases. The report found that you won't get any more sanitary with antibacterial soap than you will with plain soap. There's even a stunner of a finding that suggests antibacterial soap can harm you by making you resistant to antibiotics. About two or three years ago, Clark championed early reports about people developing antibiotic resistance from antibacterial soap. He got a lot of pushback from his crew at that time. People don't seem to want to hear that antibacterial soap isn't as good for them as it's cracked up to be. They often wonder why hospital staffers always use antibacterial soaps and lotions. It turns out that the concentration they use in medical facilities is much higher than what's available at retail. So if you're wondering what soap Clark recommends, he thinks Ivory is great because of its affordable price. However, even he doesn't use this soap in his home. He admits to instead overpaying for Irish Spring!
With medicine and science, what we think is true may be completely wrong. Knowledge is a continuous quest, and, over time, we get better. Take, for example, the fact that we used to believe the Sun revolved around the Earth. We considered it a scientific fact at the time. But science and medicine are always changing, which is both good and bad. The latest about face involves vitamins. For years, companies have encouraged us to take Vitamins A, E and beta carotene supplements to prolong life. Well, a recent study conducted to prove that these anti-oxidants would do just that turned out to be completely false. And that isn’t it. The study conducted by the Journal of American Medicine also proved that those vitamins actually curtail your life. JAMA’s study says that taking those vitamins could cause you to die at a younger age. Joni, Clark’s pit bull producer, takes lots of vitamins every day. She thinks another study will come out soon disproving this one. We’ll see. The bottom line is that exercising and eating healthy foods, including produce that naturally contain these ingredients, will prolong and improve your life.
Can you get a cold from being in cold weather? Doctors have rolled their eyes and said “No” for years. Only germs cause colds. But a new study from the University of Cardiff shows that it’s possible to catch a cold from cold weather. The school hires students on campus and pays students to get sick. They expose them to cold weather, to germs and to certain remedies to figure out what is causing the cold and what cures it. So, what causes colds most often? Children! If you have kids, you are more likely to get sick than people who don’t. So, apparently Mom knows best!
Going back one generation, cancer was considered an automatic death sentence. People had trouble just speaking the word. But, science and medicine have finally converged. Today, roughly two in three people survive cancer. That means that they haven’t had a relapse in more than five years. So, we’ve gone from cancer being hopeless to something very hopeful. The biggest improvement in survival rate has been among children, which is wonderful news. But even with the new medicines and science, people still need to take preventative steps and have diagnostic tests. Early detection in breast cancer can be the difference in life and death. For men, the most important screenings are for colon and prostate cancer. Eating well is important too, despite recent studies showing that what you eat is not that important. Lastly, please don’t smoke. Girls and women are now smoking more than men, and smoking is the biggest contributor to cancer.
Clark has some great news for you on the insurance and health care front. Many insurance companies are now writing policies to current and former cancer patients, according to the Dow Jones News Wires.
One major life insurance company announced this week that it will offer insurance to women with early stage breast cancer at the same rate as women who are free of the disease.
It used to be that having the Big "C" meant you were not insurable. But actuaries are finding that survival rates for cancer are so high these days that they’re happy to sell you life insurance.
So, if you’ve been denied health insurance because of cancer, you should shop around and see if you’re eligible now.
So, are those anti-bacterial soaps effective or not? When they first came out, everyone bought them in droves. Then reports showed that people will build up resistance to good bacteria by using them So, which is it? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the FDA is so concerned about people using these soaps that it is trying to publish warnings about them. That’s enough for Clark. Plain soap is just fine for getting your hands clean, and it is perfectly safe. The report even said products such as Purell are not safe. So, stick to the traditional methods and avoid potential harm. The only places that need these kinds of products are health care offices and hospitals.
Clark’s 6-year-old, Stephanie, has been taking generic ibuprofen for a cold she’s had. She has a particular kind that doesn’t taste awful. Store brands and generics have been winning out over brand label medications, in part because stores make more money and promote them more often. So, manufacturers are coming up with new, hip ways to deliver medicines to us. There sprays, strips and squares that are supposed to do the same work as the nasty tasting medicines we dread taking. It’s similar to the popular breath strips that Listerine invented as an alternative to gurgling mouthwash. All these gimmicks are designed to make it more convenient for you, so they are going to cost more. By coming up with a cute way to deliver that medicine, they can differentiate it from the other meds and charge more for them.
New statistics out from the Mayo Clinic show that the number of people under 40 who are getting skin cancer has tripled. Overwhelmingly, it’s females not males getting skin cancer. And the No. 1 cause is tanning beds. Women in their 20s and 30s who spent a lot of time in the tanning bed when they were younger are prime candidates and need to see a dermatologist at least once a year. Skin cancer used to affect older people who spent years in the sun and were affected years later. But young people are especially susceptible because tanning beds accelerate the process so much. Dermatologists have been accused of being aggressive with moles or freckles in recent years. But it’s better to overreact than not to react at all. The other side of the coin is that people who get skin cancer become ineligible for health coverage once they get cancer. So, be smart and use sunscreen when you’re outside. And stay out of tanning booths all together.
A couple months ago, Clark talked about smoking bans that were taking place around the country in bars restaurants and sometimes in public places. Statistics have showed that smoking bans have not hurt restaurant sales in Florida and New York, but several people have commented vehemently anyway. Clark’s message boards were filled with complaints about how patrons should be able to smoke if they want to. Other people set out to prove that the statistics were wrong. One woman researched the topic and found that many restaurants had to close because they lost between 25 and 30 percent in sales. She called into the show to protest the bans because her bar is losing business. Clark tried to assure her that sometimes bars just go out of business; it’s a natural evolution. We’ll continue to see what happens with this dramatic change.
