By Darell Hammond
CEO, KaBOOM!

If I were to list the names of all the individuals who’ve told me that I have the best job in the world, I could fill a book. What do I do, you ask? I build playgrounds.

In 1995, I founded KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit that empowers communities across the nation to build great places to play. We work to provide play spaces for children because we understand the great impact that play can have on a child’s life.

Play is on the decline in America. While this statement may not at first seem alarming, it reflects a very negative trend in childhood development. As recess continues to be removed from our nation’s schools and as more parents turn to indoor activities for their children’s pastimes, today’s children are not given the time nor the space that they need to learn and grow as independent, creative and thoughtful individuals. More often than not, they are restrained by structured indoor activities that keep them from developing the skills necessary to succeed as an adult. As our children’s lives become more hectic and overscheduled, they also become filled with stress and anxiety – leading to more serious conditions, such as attention deficit disorder, obesity, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

A recent study conducted by the Tulane University Prevention Research Center noted that the existence of play spaces – playgrounds, sports fields, skate parks – help to curb these negative trends. According to the study, the number of children observed outdoors and physically active on the playground and in the surrounding neighborhood was 84 percent higher than in a neighborhood with no play space. By giving children a safe and fun place to play, it seems we also give them increased access to healthy physical, emotional and intellectual development.

Do you remember those happy, heady days out on the playground or in the playing field with all of your friends? Do you remember the exhilaration and excitement that came from breaking boundaries that you never thought were possible? Do you remember how you felt as you swung higher and higher into the air, hoping that you might reach the sky?

Many of today’s children will never be able to build these memories because of lack of time and space to play.

By providing today’s children with great places to play, we hope to provide brighter, happier and stronger futures for generations of children to come.

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

A few weeks ago, my producer Chris Gajilan and I got on the phone to talk about a series of stories we wanted to do on space medicine. I was really excited because since I was a kid, I have always been interested in space and had dreams one day of going there. Life, though, does sometimes take you in different directions, and I opted for the brain surgery job, instead of the rocket scientist…ba dum. I’ll be here all week…

Seriously, though, when I heard NASA scientists had come up with a model of weightlessness here on Earth, I jumped at the chance to investigate. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. In order to re-create the fluid shifts that are seen with prolonged space travel, scientists decided to put a group of patients at bed rest… for 3 months. Head down about 6 degrees, feet up, and absolutely no getting out of bed. As I learned, while extremely cumbersome, it is a pretty good model.

Over time, lots of things start to happen to your body, things that can be devastating. Turns out, as human beings, we like a little gravity. It keeps just enough pressure on our joints and bones to keep them strong. Without the usual gravitational force, our bones start to wither away. And, the calcium that starts seeping out of the bones finds its way into our bloodstream and can cause painful and sometimes dangerous kidney stones. Astronauts can develop advanced bone loss. As astronauts push farther into space on longer missions, the concern is that they will face debilitating osteoporosis so severe they can spontaneously break bones.

So, NASA scientists now had two challenges. One was to create the model. Two: figure out a way to prevent some of these serious health problems when astronauts are in space for prolonged periods. Tomorrow, I will tell you what the smartest minds in the world came up with; but today, I wanted to see what you thought. What do you think are some of the biggest health problems for astronauts in space and what do you think could be done about them?

If you want to cheat… take a look at this preview (watch video).

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Judy Fortin
CNN Medical Correspondent

We heard news this week about a reported increase in brown recluse spider bites, but I have my own bug story to pass along.

 While I was taking a walk last Saturday morning I was stung by a large, unidentified flying insect.  The “UFI” was buzzing around my head.  After I swatted it away, my new adversary took revenge by sinking its hypodermic needle-like stinger into my lower thigh. 

I screamed so loudly a passing car stopped to see if I was okay.  I forced myself to keep breathing as I walked with a limp for a mile and a half back home. 

I watched my wound grow from a tiny bump on Saturday to a five inch in diameter dark red mass on Sunday night.  I used some over the counter anti-itch cream, but the ointment stuck to my pants.  By Tuesday my colleagues in the CNN Medical Unit were trying to diagnose my malady.  Was it an infection?  Maybe it was blood poisoning.

By now you’re wondering why I didn’t get it checked out by a doctor.  I finally did just that on Tuesday afternoon.  The doctor measured the rash, checked for swollen glands, asked about my breathing and declared that I had a localized reaction to an insect sting. 

Relieved, I left the office with another tube of prescription-strength anti-itch cream and a warning that the rash may stick around for a week or more.  

I would like to head back out on my walking path tomorrow morning, but a week after getting stung I plan to coat myself with bug spray and this time, I’ll be on the lookout for any “UFIs.”  

How do you protect yourself from attacks by summer insects?  

Editor’s Note:  Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation. 

More recently, Debakey in his 90s developed a ventricular assist device. It is an incredible
machine that is used to give patients with heart failure a little boost while they are waiting for
a transplant. If you ask him where he got so much life inspiration, he will tell you he read a new
book at least once a week, and in his case it was the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He read it
cover to cover. While he was a professor and a “maestro,” it turns out he was also an eternal
student.

Dr. Michael DeBakey

DeBakey died last week, just two months shy of his 100th birthday. Today he goes to his final
resting place, Arlington National Cemetery. If he were still alive, he probably would’ve told
you that as the son of Lebanese immigrants, he learned the value of hard work from his
parents and the value of sewing from his mother. It seems the man never stopped working
and embodied JFK’s famous quote, that we do things “not because they are easy, but
because they are hard.”

A couple years ago, he felt a searing pain rip through his chest. At 97, he was at first sure he
was having a life-ending heart attack, and he didn’t even bother calling 911. A few minutes
later when his heart was still beating, he realized in fact his diagnosis was a thoracic aortic
dissection, which is a tearing of a major blood vessel in the chest. It was, of course, DeBakey
who had first figured out how to repair such damage to the body and it was DeBakey who in
a way supervised his own operation. It was amazing.

I met the man once. I was a medical student and he was the greatest living surgeon. Quite a
contrast. We were in the operating room and I was standing in a corner on a stand so that I
could see. For a baseball fan, it was like going to the World Series – bottom of the ninth, score
tied and bases loaded. It was what I had dreamed of for most of my young life. In the world of
surgery, so full of colorful personalities and enormous ego, everyone agreed DeBakey was the
best. Simply.

I heard about DeBakey’s death with the rest of you last week, and I immediately called my
dad. I shared some of these same stories with him that I am now sharing with you. My dad
said, “Wow.” And, I say thank you Dr. DeBakey, please get some rest finally.

So, how do you find the best surgeon or doctor and what qualities do you look for?

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive
many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be
learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical
and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical
and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Saundra Young

CNN Medical Senior Producer

I was expecting pain.  I had heard the stories — as friends, family and colleagues began weighing in, it seemed everybody had one and couldn’t wait to share it with me!  The thing is, theirs were all stories of young teenagers and twenty-somethings, and mine, was, well, let’s just say mine was a tale of a much, much older woman who was having her wisdom teeth extracted!

My new dentist was surprised to learn I still had my third molars at my age.  They had to come out he insisted. There was decay, and some bone and tissue damage.

And then came the stories  — of faces swollen beyond recognition, and unbelievable pain.  I was warned: “Hey, this is oral surgery. This is serious business.” 

I was warned about a horribly painful phenomenon called “dry socket,” the most common complication after surgery.  This occurs when the blood clot in the socket where the tooth has been pulled comes out  — theoretically if you do something like sip or suck on a straw — exposing bone and nerves.   I was told I needed to avoid dry socket at all costs.

So I did what any serious journalist in search of detailed information does: I popped online and got a crash course on wisdom tooth extractions.  (I even watched a video of an extraction on YouTube.)

It seems I really was something of a freak! In most people, wisdom teeth come in between the ages of 15 and 25. Often they’re taken out almost immediately.  Most oral health specialists recommend early removal in order to eliminate problems down the line such as an impacted tooth, trapped within the gum, which can damage or destroy the second molar, as mine apparently did. 

According to the American Academy of General Dentistry, an impacted wisdom tooth is the most common developmental ailment.  That’s because they’re the teeth most likely to decay because they’re so difficult to reach and clean.

I found out there are some pretty serious problems tied to impacted third molars, including  bacteria and plaque build-up, cysts or tumors, infection, and jaw and gum disease.  And I was well on my way to some of these problems.  My surgeon and I couldn’t understand why none of my former dentists suggested taking them out!

Maybe it’s because I never had any major symptoms.  Perhaps I’m now making up for lost time.  The surgery went well, but I’m in pain.  Of  course the painkillers help.  There’s been swelling and I’ve been icing my jaw for days now.  I’m on antibiotics to ward off infection.    So I’ve spent the last three days popping pills, taking it easy and eating soft foods like mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs.  Eating hurts! 

All in all, it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  I’m feeling pretty good although  today — Day 3 — is the day the major swelling is supposed to kick in, according to my dentist.  And here’s something else to look forward to: Because he did only one side (top and bottom), more surgery is in my future.  I think I’m too old for this!  Or am I?

Am I truly that much of an anomaly, or are there plenty of you out there whose wisdom teeth were removed much later in life, successfully and without much fanfare?

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Miriam Falco
CNN Medical Managing Editor

How crowded is your neighborhood emergency room and could it handle the aftermath of a terrorist act? That’s been the topic of two hearings on Capitol Hill this week. On Monday we learned that lawmakers had surveyed hospitals in seven cities (New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Minneapolis, Minnesota) to see whether their emergency departments would be able to handle the flood of injures after a conventional terrorist attack, such as the subway bombing in Madrid, Spain, four years ago, which killed almost 200 people and injured more than 2,000.

Of the 34 hospitals surveyed on March 25 (a randomly chosen date, according to the House Committee), more than half of the hospitals said their ERs were already above capacity and only five had available beds in their intensive care units. Washington and LA hospitals were in particularly bad shape in terms of capacity.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, commissioned the survey and held these hearings because new Medicaid regulations are taking effect as early as May 26, which will cut tens of billions of federal dollars to public and teaching hospitals nationwide.

Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff were grilled by the same committee.

Asked if they thought the nations’ level 1 trauma hospitals had the capacity to deal with such a terrorist attack, Chertoff said he did, and Leavitt said repeatedly that even though some hospitals were not able to handle a terrorist threat, Medicaid dollars are not the solution. “The job of Medicaid is to take care of people who are poor, or indigent, or disabled,” not institutions or hospitals, as Leavitt told the committee many times.

One ER physician I spoke with said he was “dumbfounded” when he listened to today’s testimony. Dr. Art Kellerman, a long-time emergency room physician at Grady Hospital in Atlanta and Dean for Health Policy at Emory University continued, “This is mind-boggling. It’s deeply disturbing that the two cabinet secretaries most responsible simply are not going to take responsibility for the current crisis in our Emergency Departments.”

For the American College of Emergency Physicians, overcrowded emergency rooms have been a concern for quite some time. “This is an EXTREME crisis, not just for surge capacity (in the event of a terrorist attack), but day-to-day capacity,” the group’s president, Dr. Linda Lawrence, told CNN following Monday’s hearing.

A few years ago, my husband sliced his hand in the kitchen. Fortunately, I knew of a smaller hospital nearby. Its ER wasn’t too crowded and he got in pretty quickly. I couldn’t do that today. That hospital is closed. Today I would have to go to a different hospital with the potential of an overcrowded emergency room and a long wait.

Have you been to an emergency room recently? Did you have to wait a long time?  Are you concerned about emergency departments in hospitals in the city where you live being able to handle ordinary patient care, let alone coping with the disaster following a terrorist attack?

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caleb Hellerman
Senior Medical Producer

Having a baby is stressful. Even the third time around, there’s a room to prepare and clothes to pull from storage (”My God, those are tiny!”); there’s the actual birth (my wife does the heavy lifting) and there are siblings to reassure: “Why does the baby get to sleep in your bed?”  This month, my wife and I wrestled with another tough question: Should we sign up for cord blood banking?

Unless you’re a relatively new parent, this begs explanation.  The blood from a baby’s umbilical cord is rich in stem cells, the versatile cells that could eventually play a role in treating countless diseases.  Already they can be used to treat childhood leukemia, sickle cell anemia and a few other devastating conditions.  Stem cells from cord blood are considered especially useful, for their versatility in treatment and because they’re untainted by the outside environment.

Your doctor may be able to get stem cells through a public bank - but the odds of finding a genetic match are much better with cells from a family member, or, better yet, yourself. The stem cells from our newborn’s cord would be a perfect match for him, and could probably help his brother or sister, too.

So why not give it a shot? For one thing, as the glossy brochure points out, it costs almost $2,000, not to mention another $125 a year for storage.  We’re fortunate in that we can even consider writing a check that big, and it doesn’t come with a guarantee - at this point many promised stem cell therapies are still just theoretical.

With my first son and daughter, we donated the cord blood to a public bank.  But this time, in the end, we bit the bullet and signed up. The kit for the hospital is sitting on the counter by the phone, next to my wife’s toothbrush.

Is banking your baby’s cord blood a good idea? What’s the toughest medical decision you ever made as a parent? 

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Chief Medical Correspondent

Ever since we had our two daughters, my wife has been insistent on buying organic milk. She looks specifically for milk free of added growth hormone, or more specifically free of rBST, recombinant bovine somatotropin. It’s more expensive, sometimes more than double the price, and I was never quite sure if it makes any difference. Still, I understand her concern.

Well, Wal-Mart does too apparently. The company recently announced that its store brand milk will come solely from cows free of artificial growth hormone, which is given to cows to increase milk production. They join Kroger, Safeway, Publix and Starbucks, to name a few. The change seems to be fueled mainly by public concerns rather than specific science.

As we investigated this story, I found that most of the peer-reviewed science out there does not support a link between hormones in milk and cancer, nor with early puberty in girls, which is a widely circulated concern. Common sense, my wife tells me should prevail. “How could artificial hormones possibly be good for a growing child?” she asks the way only a mom can ask.

Often times, I am left without a response. “But, the science…” I say in vain. But, she’s already off to the grocery store to buy more.

I guess the good news is that the price of milk free of growth hormones will probably come down, given the movement and more offering of this type of milk. But, still, is it worth it?

Check out an AC 360 take on hormone-free milk.

Editor’s Note:  Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.