On May 3rd, 20-year-old Amanda Sechrest, a freshman and Saint Mary’s College, received her heart transplant. The next day, a transplant was performed on William Wylie-Modro, a Gunn High School senior who is planning to attend UC San Diego. On May 5th, 18-year-old James Spencer of Lassen County received his new heart.

All three were born without serious heart defects, but faced early deaths without the surgeries.

KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports:

Sechrest, Wylie-Modro and Spencer were all reunited at the hospital on Friday with their medical teams and families.

Packard Children’s Hospital is the only medical center that performs pediatric heart transplants. According to the hospital, 15 transplants are typically performed in a year.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Professor Dennis Wall of the Harvard Medical School created a test that requires just seven questions and a quick home video.

“Being able to detect something as early as possible and intervene with therapy as early as possible is something that I’m very passionate about,” Wall said.

Related Links:
The Wall Lab At Harvard
Wall Lab – Short Survey For Autism Diagnosis
Submit A Video To the Wall Lab

His passion comes from his sister-in-law, who has autism, and he has seen firsthand the impact the disorder can have on a family.

Getting kids needed therapy as early as possible is the goal at the Wall Lab. Currently the average diagnosis age for autism is around five years old.

“Getting diagnosed at five means that you’ve passed through critical developmental windows where early behavioral therapy would have had an impact,” Wall explained.

The traditional autism diagnosis takes hours. Families have to go to a doctor’s office, fill out lengthy forms, and be evaluated throughout the day. Wall’s approach is completely online with no waiting.

At the Wall Lab, the key is access. Anyone can send in the home videos and answer a survey online. Wall and his team of trained researchers score the videos while they watch.

A computer program then crunches the numbers to get an instant diagnosis.

“We can do this for a much greater percentage of the population and do so repeatedly,” Wall said.

Wall said kids are normally more relaxed at home than in the doctor’s office.

“Because he or she is operating within and behaving within their home environment, with their siblings and so on, we are able to see the signs much more easily and much more rapidly,” he said.

Right now the Wall Lab is still testing the program. So far, it’s been right nearly every time.

Bill Skillman would have jumped at the chance to have had access to a program like this when his daughter was young.

Katie is now 25 years old and Skillman remembers meeting with specialists for hours when she was little.

“It was like sculpting the fog. You struggle through and you do the best you can,” said Skillman.

Katie never received an official diagnosis as a child, but the family believes it is autism. Skillman said Wall’s approach “provides an avenue to just get there early and start to make a difference in your kid’s life.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Few details have been released about the contagious individual, who has since been placed in isolation and is receiving treatment.

Officials say the Solano County resident visited Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento during the latter half of March and NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield in early and mid-April.

Sutter says the person was not a hospital staffer.

Parents of 20 babies in Sacramento County and 15 babies in Solano County are being notified about possible exposure to the sometimes fatal respiratory illness.

Solano County Chief Medical Officer Michael Stacey said he believes the risk of infection in this case is low.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

From the moment Rachel Wells discovered she was pregnant with twins, eating became more important than anything else.

“I wanted to make sure that I was still putting the best things I could into my body so I ended up eating a ton of walnuts and a ton of Greek yogurt,” said the new mom.

Wells isn’t the only one to go gaga over Greek yogurt.

“Oh Greek yogurt is so popular today. It’s amazing how the sales have increased so rapidly,” said Jo Ann Hattner, a nutritionist and registered dietician. Hattner is a Bay Area expert on yogurt and probiotics and author of “Gut Insight.”

In the United States, Greek yogurt is a billion dollar industry. One in four yogurts sold here is Greek, and all the major yogurt makers are taking a bite.

“So we quickly launched our four packs and we added a lot of unique flavors in the segment and we also added flavor with granola over caps to differentiate and to stand out,” said Yoplait Marketing Director Michael Harad.

Greek yogurt is Greek not because it’s imported from Greece. The yogurt is strained, which removes much of the liquid, making the yogurt thicker and creamier.

Hattner said since liquid is removed, Greek Yogurt packs more protein when compared to regular yogurt; roughly twice the amount in a single serving.

“So you’re getting a higher protein because it’s a thicker yogurt,” said Hattner, adding that Greek yogurt can make you feel fuller for a longer period of time.

The straining removes some of the carbohydrates and sodium that’s found in regular yogurt, but it also removes some of the calcium.

How much depends on the brand so you really need to read the labels.

All yogurts is made by fermenting milk with two active bacteria cultures: L. Bulgaricus and S. Thermophilus. Hattner said that the more of these live active cultures that you find in yogurt; the better it is for a healthier gut.

With Greek yogurts, Lucerne and Yoplait list two strains, while Wallaby and Open Nature list four.

Voskos, Chobani, Fage, The Greek Gods, and Stonyfield Oikos display five strains.

But Nancy’s regular yogurt has the edge with a whopping 13 different strains.

“I like traditional yogurts that have lots of active cultures,” said Hattner, who is a big fan of Nancy’s.

Traditional yogurts may also have the edge when it comes to the environment.

It takes a lot more milk to make Greek yogurt. The leftover liquid contains whey, and too much whey can be a problem if it gets into water.

“Something that may not be bad to you and me can be very bad in certain doses.” said Bruce Wolfe, the executive officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board.

Wolfe explained if too much whey waste ends up in water, it can hurt aquatic life and even damage important California crops.

Here’s how: In surface water, uncontrolled whey wastewater can have an impact because whey is very heavy in sugars and carbohydrates. As it degrades in surface water, the bacterium that breaks it use up oxygen. Less oxygen in the water can stress aquatic life, even kill it.

In groundwater, whey wastewater if uncontrolled can have a detrimental impact on certain important California crops that are salt-sensitive. That includes citrus crops.

Wolfe said for Greek yogurt makers, it’s a challenge to make sure that they are controlling whey wastewater. To reduce waste, some makers are actually working on anaerobic digesters to convert the waste into energy.

Greek yogurt is also more expensive, but Wells is willing to pay extra for her kids.

“It’s not about me any more and what I eat, said Wells. It’s about what they get from me. I’ll pay whatever I need to pay to make sure my kids are growing well,”

Even so, beware of Greek yogurts bearing added sugar. In the United States, we eat a lot of yogurt that contains added sugars.

“Well, the Greeks might be thinking “what have you done to my yogurts?’” laughed Hattner.

Instead of buying a product with added sugars, pick a low fat or nonfat plain variety and then add your own fruit to sweeten it and add fiber as well.

But move over Greek yogurt, a new contender for your hard earned cash is on the way. Icelandic Yogurt is also strained. As to what the difference is? We’re not sure, it’s all Greek to us.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The exposure happened at the NICU at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento and NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, when a Solano County resident with an active case of TB spent time in both facilities. A total of 35 babies were exposed.

State health officials will also be contacting other patients, visitors and staff who may have been exposed.

“From the medical evidence we have reviewed so far, we believe that the risk of infection with TB in this particular case is low,” said Dr. Michael Stacey, Solano County’s chief medical officer. “We will take the necessary measures to ensure that all those with significant levels of exposure are tested and, if necessary, treated with antibiotics.”

The period of exposure at Sutter Memorial’s NICU was from March 14 to March 31. The exposure at NorthBay Medical Center was from April 11 to April 19.

Tuberculosis is a serious, treatable, and slow-growing bacterial lung disease. It is transmitted by coughing, sneezing, talking or singing, according to the state health officials.

People with an active case of tuberculosis may cough, become weak, have a fever, lose weight and cough up blood.

The Solano resident with TB is currently isolated and receiving treatment.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

For Virden, liposuction is often the least desirable alternative. He’d prefer patients adopt a Paleo lifestyle, changing diet and health routine to lose weight.

“I think of obesity as a bigger problem than just having to have fat sucked out of you,” explained Virden.

Complete CBS 5 Coverage Of The Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet worked for Stacy Cunningham, a hotel manager in Reno who struggled with her weight for years.

“I hadn’t been under 200 pounds since giving birth to my daughter 14 years ago,” said Cunningham.

Once she “went Paleo,” Cunningham lost 55 pounds over a period of six months. She also realized that “Paleo wasn’t just a diet, it was a lifestyle change.”

She worked with lifestyle coach Sandra Bledsoe of Renovation Medical Spa, who said people can take control of their own fight against obesity.

“We may not have charge of a lot of things in the world, but we have charge of what goes into our mouth and how things are prepared,” said Bledsoe.

Cunningham said she liked the simple approach to healthy eating.

“(dieters are able to) eat as many fruits and vegetables and proteins as you can, stay away from the things that come out of the boxes or the cans, and drink lots of water.”

In a real life example of the old admonition “Physician, heal thyself” Virden said he put himself on the program and lost 20 pounds.

“If I’m on it and I believe in it, it’s a real simple sell,” said Virden. “I like how I feel, so it was a natural.”

Virden said patients are often surprised when he balks at operations and sends them out to get healthier first.

“When you think about a surgeon, you assume our motives are financial,” he said. “I don’t think that way.”

Even for those who end up having liposuction, the results are often better if they have at least stabilized their weight through a Paleo approach.

For Virden, if one revenue stream dries up, others may flourish. Patients who no longer need liposuction have money for other procedures.

“I might be doing their eyelids,” he said. “The money they didn’t spend on liposuction (goes to) another part of their body.”

Stacy Cunningham, for instance, had a breast lift.

She said she feels better than ever. Her cholesterol is now in check and she qualifies for a better health insurance rate because of her weight loss.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The program is called Lifesquare. Users are given stickers to put on everyday items that are easily accessible. Emergency crews are then able to use their cell phones to scan the sticker to retrieve the patient’s name, age, contact person and any preexisting medical conditions.

“One of the biggest problems in health care is that information is not shared between hospitals,” said Ray Choi who developed Lifesquare while he was a medical student at Stanford.

Marin County Battalion Chief Mike Giannini says that the program has the potential to save lives. During an emergency, crews often spend precious time trying to figure out essential information about a patient and Lifesquare allows them to start delivering the appropriate kind of care immediately.

Joan Levison of Tam Valley is the mother of two teenage boys. She said Lifesquare gives her peace of mind if one of her kids were in an emergency. “I don’t know I could give my own phone number if my child is hurt…there is no way you can focus on anything but taking care of that child,” she said.

Lifesquare is doing a pilot program in Marin County and is free to all residents. The company plans to expand throughout the Bay Area.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Most of the students who have fallen ill attend Ocean Shore Elementary School, and there have been a few cases at Ortega Elementary School since the bug first surfaced on May 8, said Superintendent Wendy Tukloff.

“We have our children who play sports after school together, and so we did have some students who came up with it at Ortega,” she said.

KCBS’ Mark Seelig Reports:

Only a handful of students missed school on Friday, and some parents have praised the district for taking proactive steps to make sure children who got sick stayed out of school until they had fought what is commonly called the stomach flu.

“The other thing to watch for, I believe, is not to send them back too early,” said Tukloff, adding that students should not return to class unless they’ve been symptom free for 48 to 72 hours.

Vomiting diarrhea and stomach cramps are all typical of a Norovirus infection. The virus typically spreads in enclosed environments such as schools, hospitals and nursing homes.

Nearly 30 schools in Contra Costa County saw Norovirus outbreaks last winter. Even dormitory environments in rural settings can offer ideal conditions for stomach flu to spread, as happened in 2011 at Walker Creek Ranch in Marin.

Tukloff said the two schools affected in Pacifica were given a thorough scrubbing as advised by the San Mateo Health System’s Communicable Disease Control Program.

“We’ve done what they called a deep cleaning,” she said.

Letters advising of possible Norovirus exposure have been sent to parents of all children in the Pacifica School District, including those who use the district’s child care facility, Tukloff said, “so that they know this is happening, to prevent it from spreading.”

“We appreciate the fact that all parents are being vigilant about monitoring their child and making sure that they do not come to school if they’re ill.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Eva Twardokens of Santa Cruz has spent years as one of the nation’s top skiers, and she has the scars to prove it.

A member of the U.S. ski team for 14 years, with six national championships in alpine skiing and a World Cup bronze medal, Twardokens has had multiple knee surgeries.

In an effort to restore her body, Twardokens turned increasingly to her diet for help.

CBS 5 HealthWatch Series On Paleo Diet

“People have a misconception that athletes are the healthiest people on earth, and a sport like mine took a toll on my body,” said Twardokens, who participated in two Olympic Games and was recently inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame.

“It’s time to reverse the clock,” said Twardokens. “Diet is probably the biggest thing you can do for your health.”

She eats meat, fish, poultry, nuts and seeds. No grains and almost no dairy.

Dr. Loren Cordain, author of “The Paleo Diet,” notes that elements of a westernized diet, especially dairy and grains, promote chronic low-level inflammation, which has been linked to inflammation in the joints.

Research shows a paleo diet can also stabilize insulin and blood sugar levels — which is good for the body and the mind.

“I just feel like I’m a more stable, even-keeled person,” said Twardokens. “I think as an athlete you’re either really happy, or really mad or really sad, that’s part of being an athlete.”

She said she also feels sharper, more focused.

“The best athletes are the ones that are able to keep that very, very intense focus over a long period of time and foods can enhance your focus and also ruin your focus,” she said.

So how does this former Olympian train today? She argues that you’ve got to maintain your joints as you get older, and with that in mind she looks for the “minimum effective dose” of exercise — “the amount that keeps you healthy and keeps your body composition where it needs to be.”

“For me it’s sprinting, I lift weights, and I try to get out and play a couple of times a week,” said Twardokens. Play, as in surfing, which she does off Capitola. She said find what you love to do, your “play” thing, and then you need to train to support your play thing. “Enjoy what you’re doing, have fun doing it and don’t sweat it.”

As for her paleo diet helping turn back the clock, Twardokens said “I think it’s made me look and feel better than anyone close to my age.”

Still, she isn’t afraid to admit that her approach to this dietary approach is less than perfect.

“I really like the ‘Haagen-Dazs 5′ ice cream,” she said. “That’s my cheat.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

“This is a diet that would be good for anybody,” said UCSF nephrologist Dr. Lynda Frassetto, who has been studying the paleo diet for years.

CBS 5 HealthWatch Series On Paleo Diet

A key factor, according to Frassetto, is limiting the level of acid in the body. Acids, which are regulated by the kidneys, tend to build up as people grow older and their kidneys work less well.

But paleo proponents believe that the right diet can bring acids back into balance. Specifically, this means eating more fruits and vegetables, the so-called “base foods,” and eating fewer animal proteins and grains, which are high-acid foods.

“When you look at things like what do hunter-gatherers and chimpanzees eat, you get a diet that has meat in it, and a lot of fruits and vegetables, and no dairy products and no grains,” explained Frassetto.

Video:  Should Everyone Eat A Paleo Diet? – Lynda Frassetto, MD

There is also some evidence that a healthy diet, along with exercise and stress reduction, can help protect a key ingredient in the aging process called telomeres.

“Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of the chromosomes,” explained Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a 2009 Nobel Laureate. “If the caps are eroded away, the cells will stop replenishing.”

But it turns out that telomeres are dynamic – they can change, and the choices people make can affect that change.

“Physiological interventions like exercise and stress reduction and dietary changes are positively associated with improving telomere maintenance,” said Blackburn.

No one knows for sure yet whether a paleo diet will actually improve life span. But Robb Wolf, author of “The Paleo Solution,” believes his 40-year-old body is a decade younger thanks to his paleo lifestyle.

“I had some biometrics done with bone mineral density and muscle mass, which put me at age 28,” said Wolf, “With the telomerase analysis, I’m somewhere around age 32.” He said he’s been eating like a caveman for 12 years.

Nora Gedgaudas, certified nutritional therapist and author of “Primal Body, Primal Mind,” said one of the real strengths of the paleolithic diet is that it helps to keep insulin levels in check.

“There’s tremendous anti-aging potential in that. It tends to have the result of normalizing weight levels and improving things like mood and cognitive function,” said Gedgaudas. ‘Having an anti-aging effect is sort of unprecedented in terms of diet.

“It’s the most logical, rational, I think dietary approach, and if it’s a fad diet, then it’s the oldest fad diet known to humankind.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

“American consumers are really left in the dark when it comes to picking a good sunscreen,” said Leeann Brown, of the group’s Oakland office.

Brown said her organization reviewed more than 1,800 personal care products that claim to offer sun protection. She said many contained one of two questionable ingredients: retinol palmitate and oxybenzone.

>>Environmental Working Group Sunscreen Guide

Brown says retinol palmitate, a form of Vitamin A is, “an ingredient that’s been shown to expedite the development of skin tumors and skin lesions.” She says Oxybenzone “has been linked to hormone disruption.”

The Personal Care Products Council is disputing the report, calling it “irresponsible,” and “wrong.”

The report also found improvement in the quality of sun protection products marketed to children. Brown said 60 percent of those did not contain questionable ingredients.

“We were glad to see the children’s market look a little bit more positive,” she told CBS 5 Consumerwatch.

The E.W.G. recommends consumers look for sun protection products that contain zinc oxide, avobenzone and titanium dioxide. The group also recommends buying sunscreen that with an SPF between 30 and 50.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Armando Rodriguez, 34, was arrested and booked in the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp for violating TB Control Orders of County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Furst. The arrest was made by Stockton Police at the request of Public Health Services and the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.

San Joaquin County has over time arrested and jailed a number of patients and on occasion non-patients for failure to comply with written TB Control Orders of the county health officer. Doing so is a misdemeanor and can be punished by up to one year in the county jail and two years probation.

This case is not believed to have created an issue of exposure as there is no allegation that treatment was lost for a significant period of time, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Rodriguez reportedly first broke an appointment to be home on May 2 and failed to resolve his matter with the Public Health Services by phone calls and attempts to find him through May 9. A warrant was signed on Monday and Stockton Police arrested him Tuesday.

The county has had more than 30 tuberculosis prosecutions since 1984, prosecutor Stephen Taylor said. It also has prosecuted a woman accused of knowingly giving syphilis to her sex partners and refusing treatment.

Taylor said San Joaquin County is more aggressive than other jurisdictions in prosecuting tuberculosis patients to get them to take their medication.

“The criminal cases we’re dealing with generally involve drug users who are harder to treat and manage because the TB medicines conflict with street drugs,” he said. “We have to throw these people in jail and treat them as in-patients. They don’t cooperate as out-patients.”

Rodriguez was discharged in March from San Joaquin General Hospital with four medications for active tuberculosis and agreed to take the drugs under observation by a county health official on weekdays and on his own on weekends, authorities said.

He failed to self-administer the drugs on one day, telling a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver, Wick said in her letter.

He allegedly refused to take the drugs on another day and then was not at home on three occasions and missed an appointment.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

On January 12, when the valves of the Coyote Dam were opened, a small amount of hydraulic oil leaked into the reservoir. But this is the not the first time it has happened. There have been eight such leaks since 2001.

KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports:

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the leaks but Santa Clara Valley Water District Spokesperson Marty Grimes said the spills have had virtually no impact on water quality.

“The amount is very small. It gets dissipated so there’s no evidence that we have any impact to the environment or to our water quality,” he said.

Grimes said they plan to replace the leaky hydraulic systems at a price of $5 million each, but that won’t happen until the reservoirs are drained as part of a retrofit project over the next 10 years.

The DA’s Office has notified the Water District that they could be fined up to $25,000 in connection with the latest spill.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The city stands to lose $7.8 million in federal HIV/AIDS funding in the fiscal year starting July 1st.

Among the supervisors urging the mayor to act was David Campos, who represents District 9.

“Every single cent that we’re trying to restore is a cent that is going to save lives,” said the supervisor who represents parts of the Mission, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods.

KCBS’ Anna Duckworth Reports:

Supervisor Christine Olague, who represents District 5, said it was the obligation of the “three representatives of the queer community to strand strong behind this.”

The third supervisor was Scott Wiener of District 8 which includes the Castro.

Wiener said they’re working with the mayor whose budget proposal is due June 1st.

“We hope he’ll back them 100 percent. If not we’ll have to do the job when the budget comes through the Board of Supervisors,” Wiener said.

The Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center cares for and treats over 400 HIV positive Tenderloin residents. Lance Toma, the center’s executive director, said nearly $8 million from the Ryan White Care Act and the Centers for Disease Control allowed San Francisco to build an impressive but fragile network.

“It is like a tinker-toy structure. Remove a stick here and remove a spool there and it will crumble. Without this network, HIV will be a death sentence for our most vulnerable residents,” Toma said.

Dr. Joanna Eveland with the Mission Neighborhood Health Center said the loss of $7.8 million would be too great. Eveland said the services they provide simply aren’t supplemental and that scientific studies show they’re every bit as important as the prescriptions patients receive.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Switching to a Paleo Diet means cutting out a lot of carbs, salts and processed foods and loading up on veggies, fruits, nuts and proteins.

On her blog “Nom Nom Paleo,” you get a good look at how Michelle Tam and her family cook.

On the menu are items like Roast Beef, Asparagus and eggs in prosciutto.

“I try to make it enticing and I try to make the pictures look like something you would want to eat it,” said Tam. “It just so happens to be healthier for you.”

Paleo Guru Robb Wolf says the real challenge for modern cavemen is learning how to cook again.

“People have forgotten how to cook, they don’t want to spend time in the kitchen, they want everything really fast…there’s kind of a trade off there, particularly with food,” said Wolf.

Switching to a Paleo Diet means cutting out a lot of carbs, salts and processed foods and loading up on veggies, fruits, nuts and proteins.

To learn more about the Caveman Diet, Check out our previous coverage.

Get More Recipe Ideas For The Paleo Diet.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Researchers now believe something commonly carried by cats could be controlling you, a tiny parasite called Toxoplasma Gondi.

“This is a very clever parasite,” said Dr. Patricia Conrad, an expert in the parasite at the U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Conrad added that some people consider toxoplasma to be the most successful parasite in the entire world.

The parasite can only sexually reproduce in the intestines of cats. Infected cats then excrete millions of microscopic eggs, called oocysts, in the soil, in water, and in litter boxes. That’s why pregnant women are told not to handle litter boxes.

“There is a risk that then the parasite will go from the mother to her baby,” said Dr. Jose Montoya, an expert in infectious diseases at Stanford University – as well as the Director of the Toxoplasma Serology Laboratory at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. The Lab is the national reference lab for toxoplasmosis in the United States.

If a pregnant woman passes the parasite to her unborn child, the baby can then suffer serious brain damage, even die, explained Dr. Montoya.

But because cats poop outdoors, infected cats excrete far more oocysts into the environment. These oocysts endure for months, if not years. Many Americans who don’t own cats or handle litter boxes can get infected. They pick it up in the environment.

According to the Centers for Disease control, an estimated 60 million Americans are infected with the parasite, and they actually are chronically infected and show little ill effect.

“So it’s our immune system that really helps to control the parasite keep it in check,” explained Dr. Conrad.

But now there’s growing evidence that the parasite can creep into your brain, and directly manipulate your behavior.

“It’s a little creepy actually. It’s almost like a science fiction story but it’s probably what’s actually happening,” said Dr. Robert Yolken, an infectious disease specialist and neuro-virologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

His research found people infected with toxoplasma were two to three times more likely to develop schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. He said that, while the parasite doesn’t directly cause mental illness, he believes strongly that toxoplasma is a risk factor.

The work of Czech scientist Dr. Jaroslav Flegr takes it a step further. Dr. Flegr is an evolutionary biologist at Charles University in Prague. Flegr discovered that individuals chronically infected with the parasite develop subtle personality changes. The organism appears to tweak brain circuits, slow down reaction times, and cause individuals to take more risks.

“He postulates that this is due to the fact that they don’t actually have the right conception of risk, of what its like, say, to cross the street when a car is coming against the light,” said Dr. Yolken.

But why would a parasite steer you into oncoming traffic, potentially killing you?

“It wants to survive and it’s very good at it,” commented Dr. Conrad.

Dr Conrad’s team studies the parasite in wild and domestic animals. In her Davis lab they grow the parasite in cultures and then cryogenically freeze them for future research.

Dr. Conrad said that since the parasite ultimately needs to get back into a cat to sexually reproduce, a number of studies — including one very good one by Stanford researchers — show how it performs a pretty nifty trick: If mice are infected with toxoplasma Gondi, Conrad said, the parasite goes to their brain and it alters their behavior.

Instead of running away from cats, mice will flock to cat urine. Here you find cats. The cat then eats the mouse, and the parasite gets back into the cat.

“That’s fatal attraction for a mouse.” said Dr. Conrad.

And while we’re not mice, once upon a time we were potential prey for bigger cats, said Dr. Flegr. That might explain why the parasite slows us down. It wants to get back into a bigger cat.

Not only that, but a small study done by Flegr on students found, when infected with toxoplasma, the male students preferred the scent of cat urine.

Dr. Montoya cautions while there is no hard evidence linking parasite to mind control in humans, he said that it’s worth studying. If you can prevent an infection, he said, it’s better than trying to treat the illness after the fact.

“The more we know about the potential consequences of this parasite, in the brains of humans, the more we will know where to act and how to prevent those unwanted consequences,” said Dr. Montoya.

But in the meantime, as a precaution, should we get rid of cats? For that answer, we turned to the experts and every person with whom we spoke was emphatic:

“Oh please no,” said Dr. Yolken, who owns cats.

“Absolutely not,” said Dr. Montoya, who has studied and done research on toxoplasma for 20 years.

“Of course not,” said Dr. Flegr who added cats really benefit our health.

“Everyone in our lab has cats. I have three cats,” said Dr. Conrad.

There are steps you can take to protect your cat. Cats get infected by eating infected wildlife, such as birds or rodents.

If you can, keep your cat indoors. Dr. Conrad said they will live longer, be healthier and then stay away from infected creatures.

If your cat needs to go outdoors, make sure they’re always well-fed so that they don’t hunt birds and mice for food. Also, make sure to bring them to the vet for regular checkups.

You can also put a bell on their collar to scare away their prey.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself. Wash all fruits and vegetables very carefully. If you camp, drink bottled water. Don’t drink water from streams or rivers. And since the parasite can be found in warm blooded mammals, cook your meat and game very thoroughly.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

South San Francisco-based Genentech has won the right to use its experimental drug Crenezumab in the government-backed trial.

Genentech Executive Richard Scheller said the trial will be done in Colombia, where members of an extended family of about 5,000 people carry a gene that causes early onset Alzheimer’s, with some showing symptoms in their mid-30s.

KCBS’ Anna Duckworth Reports:

“We will test our drug in people who have this mutation prior to the onset of the disease to see if we can prevent the disease from occurring,” Scheller said.

Crenezumab has proven in patients already diagnosed with Alzheimer’s to break down build-up of a protein in the brain believed responsible for the disease’s debilitating effects. But it didn’t improve thinking and memory.

Scheller said the clinical trial will last for five years.

“If the drug is working extremely well, we might even be able to see positive signs of efficacy after two years,” he said.

$16 million of the trial’s $100 million cost is being paid for with a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant.

Another $15 million is coming from a non-profit health organization with Genentech footing the remainder of the bill.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Bay Area blogger and paleo diet enthusiast Tara Grant said she lost more than 100 pounds in 2011 following the diet – today, she’s even slimmer. “I’ve lost about 15 more pounds, I don’t even weigh myself anymore,” said Grant. “And I’ve never felt better.”

Grant is part of a growing trend of “Caveman Converts” who swap processed foods, dairy and sugar for meat, fish, poultry, nuts and seeds, and fruits and vegetables galore.

Complete HealthWatch Coverage Of The Paleo Diet

It’s an elimination diet that has also worked for Tennessee neurosurgeon Dr. Jack Kruse. Seven years ago, Kruse tipped the scales at 357 pounds. He changed what he ate and saw dramatic results. “Within three months I lost 77 pounds,” said Kruse,”and within 11 months I had lost 133 pounds.”

Mark Sisson, author of “The Primal Blueprint,” was a top endurance athlete in the late 70′s and early 80′s. A marathoner and triathlete, Sisson was training really hard, putting in a lot of miles and following the conventional wisdom of the time — carbohydrate loading — taking in about 1,000 grams of carbs a day, mostly complex carbohydrates, mostly based on a grain-based diet.

Sisson said the combination of the diet and the training was actually killing him.

“I was one of the fittest people on the planet, I was the picture of health and inside I was falling apart,” said Sisson. “I had irritable bowel syndrome, I had chronic respiratory tract infections six or eight times a year, I had osteoarthritis in my feet, I had chronic tendonitis in my hips, I was a wreck.”

Sisson quit competing and began researching the types of food he was eating and how his body responded to them. “I saw that much of what I was eating was pro-inflammatory, was causing systemic inflammation throughout my body.”

So Sisson changed what he ate. “Six to 11 servings a day is the base of the food pyramid, I cut those out entirely,” said Sisson, “(and) replaced it then with fruits, veggies, and meat.” He said it’s not even lean meats. “If I have a 2-pound ribeye steak and I can’t finish it, I cut out the lean parts and give it to my dog, and I finish the fat,” joked Sisson.

“Grains are probably the worst thing in the human diet,” said Sisson. “We have just not evolved to withstand these little mini-toxins, these anti-nutrients that are in grains.”

Dr. Lane Sebring, a specialist in integrative medicine, argues grains over-stimulate the immune system and can actually block the absorption of better food that we should be eating.

“If you remove the insults that leak through the intestinal wall and cause chronic inflammation, the immune system starts to calm down, the liver is able to take care of metabolic waste products that our own body is producing and not the stuff that is leaking through the gut wall, and you start cleaning things up,” said Sebring.

Sebring said the human body is wonderful at repairing itself – feed it well and it will do just that.

He believes it is also important to give up seed oils, another inflammatory food.

“Soybean oil, corn oil, safflower, sunflower, canola those are sources of omega-six fat,” said Sebring, “(which) can get way out of balance and cause systemic inflammation throughout the body.”  These oils are ubiquitous, especially in processed foods.

Added sugars are another thing paleo dieters do without. Added sugars boost insulin levels, make you feel tired and hungry. Sisson said give up those three things, “grains, the industrial seed oils, the sugars, and you are 95% of your way to being healthier just by making those small changes in your diet.”

Nora Gedgaudas, author of  Primal Body, Primal Mind used a fire metaphor to explain the impact of sugars.

“When we eat a diet that’s carbohydrate-based, that’s based on sugar and starch, it’s like relying on kindling to fuel your metabolic fire,” said Gedgaudas. She means you need to be constantly preoccupied with keeping that fire burning, you’re constantly having to eat more and more carbohydrates. If, instead, you rely on fat as your primary source of fuel, it’s liberating.

“Once you put a nice big fat log on that metabolic fire, you are free to go off and live your life,” said Gedgaudas. “If the fire starts to burn down, put another log on the fire, but it is not a constant preoccupation.”

Fat, she explained, is a very even burning fuel. “It doesn’t go up and down, it doesn’t take you on a roller coaster ride and it doesn’t stimulate the release of insulin,” said Gedgaudas.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

In 1978, at the age of 24, CJ Hunt suffered a cardiac arrest while running on Memorial Day at Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles.

“I went a lap and a half and dropped dead,” said Hunt. He spent 10 days in the cardiac care unit at UCLA and learned he had a heart birth defect known as IHSS, idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis. “I was given predictions of greater than a 50% chance of dying in the next 2 years.”

The experience started him on a quest for good health. He changed what he ate and experimented with a variety of traditional and non-traditional diets. He followed the standard U.S. Dietary guidelines, he was vegetarian, and even was a raw food vegan for 5 years.

Then a radical about face – Hunt turned carnivore. He started eating meat, fish, and poultry. And, it wasn’t just meat. Hunt, a former reporter, landed on the diet of our ancient ancestors – meat, fish, fowl, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, while staying away from sugars, grains, and dairy. He said he felt great.

Hunt’s dietary conversion led him, in turn, to an around-the-world investigation of the “caveman diet.” His journey is chronicled in the new documentary film, “In Search of the Perfect Human Diet.”

For the film, Hunt interviewed anthropologists, archeologists, authors, and top scientists to piece together a cohesive explanation of the science behind this way of eating.

He went to a dig site in the south of France to see what has been learned from the bones. Hunt found that, while our caveman ancestors were big and strong, once humans began to cultivate grains there was a change for the worse.

“This is when we dropped 4-6 inches in height,” he said. “This is when we got weak and brittle bones. This is when we got rotting around the orbits of our eyes and dental caries.”

Hunt said the introduction of grains fueled brand new diseases, adding “it was not good for our bodies. Tt was the wrong fuel and we paid a big price.”

Science writer Gary Taubes, author of “Why We Get Fat,” said grains and processed foods are fueling our current obesity epidemic.

“The fundamental argument is we didn’t evolve to eat certain foods, and those are refined grains and sugars, foremost. So you remove those from the diet and you see pretty dramatic results pretty quickly.”

Robb Wolf, author of “The Paleo Solution,” agreed.

“What’s the definition of insanity?” asked Wolf. “It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Our medical approach to managing obesity (and) Type 2 diabetes is broken.”

Hunt’s film ends up in a grocery store for a simple “How To Paleo’ lesson with another physician, Dr. Lane Sebring, who said skip the biomolecular nutrition and the evolutionary nutrition—just keep it simple.

“(Sebring) creates these distinctions between human foods and non-human foods,” said Hunt. “You can’t get any simpler than that.”

Additional Information:

Previous CBS 5 coverage of the Paleo Diet

For more information on the film visit: www.perfecthumandiet.com/

Tickets available at: http://tinyurl.com/perfecthumandiet

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Tom And Margie Morjig’s phone began ringing off the hook shortly after the magazine hit the stands. Their daughter, 26-year-old Jamie Grumet, has become an overnight crusader.

“She’s really, really confident in herself and confident in what she is doing,” said Tom Morjig.

The article is about encouraging breastfeeding into toddlerhood, co-sleeping and baby wearing. Attachment parenting, as it is known, wasn’t something that Grumet read a book on. She learned it from her own parents, who said that closeness was just a way of life in their family. Jamie nursed until she was six-years-old.

Her mother Margie said she long ago became accustomed to taking criticism similar to what he daughter faces now.

“I had to go through a lot in the 80’s,” said Margie. “People did not want to see me nursing as much as I was, and I was picked on.”

Now her daughter is taking over the cause she started decades ago.

“I talked to her last night and the heat was coming in from everywhere and I asked her ‘you okay with this baby’ and she said ‘Yeah, Daddy I’m alright. I’ll get my message out,’” recalled Tom.

“I am excited to watch and see what Jamie does next because I have all the confidence in the world in her. After all she takes after me,” said her mother.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Hospital spokeswoman Deborah Moore announced the arrest on Wednesday, a day after the assault. She did not release the patient’s name or provide details about the incident although she did say the staff member was treated at a local hospital.

A union representative tells the Napa Valley Register the employee—a psychiatric technician— was injured while staff members were placing a patient in a restraint.

Brad Leggs of the psychiatric technicians’ union said the incident occurred in an area housing non-criminal patients.

Napa State has been roiled in recent years by patient attacks on staff members, among them the strangling of a psychiatric technician in October 2010.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Colorectal cancer is highly treatable if caught early. Gastroenterologist Dr. Jim Allison says a colonoscopy is a good screening test, but it isn’t the only one that works.

“There are at least three tests that are excellent tests for colorectal cancer,” said Allison.

Colonoscopies are expensive, costing up to $5,000 in the Bay Area. The procedure can also be uncomfortable and carry a small medical risk.

”I think if we got off the idea of there being only one good test, our screening rates would increase, especially in the uninsured/underserved population,” said Allison.

The affordability aspect makes the FIT test a good alternative to colonoscopies. The test detects blood in the stool from larger polyps and cancers, which tend to bleed. FIT can be done in the privacy of your home and costs around $8. Tests are recommended about once a year. If the FIT test comes back positive, the patient will need a colonoscopy.

San Francisco General Hospital has been using the test in clinics and have seen increased screening rates of around 30 percent in just one year. Click here for more information on the SF General Program.

Read more about the accuracy of the test in American Journal Of Gastroenterology.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

In a series of votes, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of the daily pill Truvada for healthy people who are at high risk of contracting HIV, including gay and bisexual men and heterosexual couples with one HIV-positive partner.

The FDA is not required to follow the panel’s advice, though it usually does. A final decision is expected by June 15.

Gilead Sciences Inc., based in Foster City, has marketed Truvada since 2004 as a treatment for people who are infected with the virus. The medication is a combination of two older HIV drugs, Emtriva and Viread. Doctors usually prescribe it as part of a drug cocktail to repress the virus.

While panelists ultimately backed Truvada for prevention, Thursday’s 12-hour meeting highlighted a number of concerns created by the first drug to prevent HIV. In particular, the panel debated whether Truvada might lead to reduced use of condoms, the most reliable defense against HIV. The experts also questioned the drug’s effectiveness in women, who have shown much lower rates of protection in studies.

Panelists struggled to outline steps that would ensure patients take the pill every day. In clinical trials, patients who didn’t take their medication diligently were not protected, and patients in the real world are even more likely to forget than those in studies.

“The trouble is adherence, but I don’t think it’s our charge to judge whether people will take the medicine,” said Dr. Tom Giordano of Baylor College of Medicine, who voted in favor of the drug. “I think our charge is to judge whether it works when it’s taken and whether the risks outweigh the benefits.”

Panelists stressed that people should be tested to make sure they don’t have HIV before starting therapy with Truvada. Patients who already have the virus and begin taking Truvada could develop a resistance to the drug, making their disease even more difficult to treat. The experts grappled with how to protect patients while avoiding hurdles that could discourage them from seeking treatment.

“If we put up too many hoops to jump through, there will be people who don’t make it through those hoops,” said Daniel Raymond, the panel’s patient representative.

Truvada first made headlines in 2010, when government researchers showed it could prevent people from contracting HIV. A three-year study found that daily doses cut the risk of infection in healthy gay and bisexual men by 42 percent, when accompanied by condoms and counseling. Last year another study found that Truvada reduced infection by 75 percent in heterosexual couples in which one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not.

Because Truvada is on the market to manage HIV, some doctors already prescribe it as a preventive measure. FDA approval would allow Gilead Sciences to formally market its drug for that use.

But Truvada’s groundbreaking preventive ability has exposed stark disagreements on prevention among those in the HIV community. While Truvada’s supporters say the drug is an important new option, critics worry that the drug could give users a false sense of security, and encourage risky behavior.

During the meeting’s public comment period, FDA panelists heard from more than two dozen doctors, nurses and patients who said patients would not take the drug as recommended—every day, in addition to using condoms.

“Truvada needs to be taken every day, 100 percent of the time, and my experience as a registered nurse tells me that won’t happen,” Karen Haughey told the panel. “In my eight years, not one patient that I’ve cared for has been 100 percent adherent.”

Other speakers worried that wide scale use of Truvada would divert limited funding from more cost-effective options. Truvada sells for about $900 a month, or just under $11,000 per year. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which opposes approval of Truvada, estimates that 20 HIV-positive patients could be treated for the cost of treating one patient with preventive Truvada.

“Truvada for prevention will squeeze already-constrained health care resources that can be better spent on cheaper and more effective prevention therapies,” the group states in a petition to the FDA.

The FDA is legally barred from considering cost when reviewing drugs. Medicare and Medicaid, the nation’s largest health insurance plans, generally cover all drugs approved by the FDA and many large insurers take their cues for coverage from the government plans.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV, which develops into AIDS unless treated with antiviral drugs. AIDS causes the body’s immune system to breakdown, leading to infections which are eventually fatal. Gay and bisexual men account for the majority of cases—nearly two-thirds.

The number of new HIV infections in the U.S. has held steady for 15 years at about 50,000 per year. But with no vaccine in sight and an estimated 240,000 HIV carriers unaware of their status, doctors and patients say new methods are needed to fight the spread of the virus.

Nick Literski, a federal worker in Seattle, has been taking Truvada for HIV prevention for more than a year. His partner is HIV-infected and his doctor prescribes the drug as a precautionary measure, even though it is not yet FDA-approved for that use. Literski pays a $40 monthly co-pay for the once-daily pill.

FDA approval of the drug for prevention would be “a huge step forward” in the fight against AIDS, he said in an interview Thursday. But he said rejection would be devastating, threatening gay relationships like his that involve one partner who is HIV infected and one who isn’t.

“Many HIV-positive men end up ending their relationships with HIV-negative men out of fear of infecting their partner,” Literski said, and he worried about that happening to him before he started using Truvada.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Kevin Albanese is a busy San Jose executive who is used to tackling the toughest construction projects, but when he tried to dump chewing tobacco the task proved two difficult for the father of 2.

“As strong as I believe I am, nicotine controlled me,” said Albanese, who said he began dipping tobacco when he was 11. “I chewed all day, every day.”

He knew he needed help but he wasn’t going to find in the form of a pill or a patch or some expensive treatment. Instead Albanese found it in the Arizona desert, in Scottsdale. He flew into town specifically to get help from medical hypnotherapist Dr. AlVera Paxson.

Paxson uses hypnosis to treat clients for any number of problems, including addiction, pain, weight, even to enhance athletic performance. But, she insists that she is not the miracle worker.

“It’s not me doing it. It’s me knowing how to talk to your body and mind.” Said Paxson.

CBS 5 traveled to Scottsdale to see a typical session. The client was a woman who suffered from a tobacco addiction.

The session began with Paxson talking with the client to identify issues, feelings and emotions. Dr. Paxson spoke to the client about hypnosis, how it worked and what the mind does. She then spoke about the dangers of tobacco and what the science shows. They then both opened up a cigarette and Paxson identified what was in the tobacco.

After this discussion, it was time for the client to fall into a deep state of relaxation.

By just using her voice, Paxson helped the individual go into an almost dreamlike state. But it’s not what you’d see in the movies.

“There wasn’t any watch. I wasn’t walking around quacking like a duck,” Albanese said of his experience.

Paxson explained how, during hypnosis, the mind can become more focused on changing a behavior. After a single three-hour session, Albanese said it worked immediately.

“I woke up and I was done chewing tobacco,” said the executive.

How did Albanese even know about Paxson in the first place? Look no further than AT&T Park. San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy is a believer.

“It was the best thing…the best money I ever spent,” said Bochy.

Bochy saw Paxson a year ago. He wanted to quit his 40-year habit of dipping tobacco.

“I didn’t know any better when I started playing baseball. My roots are in North Carolina… my parents had a tobacco farm and we all chewed as kids,” said the manager.

During the team’s road trip to Arizona in April 2011, Bochy booked a session.

“All I know is when it was over, she said ‘how long do you think you were in the chair?’ And I said ‘at least half an hour’ and she said ‘you were in that chair for over three hours.’ That’s how relaxed you are. I said ‘Oh no. I missed the game.’ I had a night game in Arizona,” Bochy laughed.

The Giants manager made the game, but he lost the habit.

The story got picked up by news wires, The San Francisco Chronicle and even ESPN. Paxson’s phones started ringing off the hook.

“The first day, there were 200 calls,” said Paxson.

Ever since, a steady stream of people from as far away as Thailand have beaten a path to her door.

“I’m a believer. I’m an absolute believer. She was amazing,” said Albanese.

“I’m glad to hear these stories that people are going to see her, getting off it and quitting,” said Bochy.

Both men believe the habit is gone for good. Paxson had no doubt. She said it’s mind over matter.

“Once the mind accepts it, it’s very easy for the mind to do It,” said the medical hypnotherapist.

The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association recognize hypnotherapy as an effective tool.

Most hypnotherapists are licensed medical doctors, registered nurses, social workers, or family counselors who have received additional training in hypnotherapy. It’s recommended that you find a licensed or certified hypnotherapist.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

But the seven-time Tour de France winner faces a steep climb in his quest to raise tobacco taxes in California to fund cancer research.

If voters approve the tax measure Armstrong is championing in the June primary, smokers in the nation’s most populous state will pay an extra $1 for each pack they buy, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.

The money would go to a new committee that would fund research projects, smoking-reduction programs and tobacco law enforcement. It also would support the infrastructure to fuel that work.

But higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products could mean huge losses for Philip Morris USA, RJ Reynolds and the other major tobacco companies, which are bankrolling the campaign against Proposition 29. The industry calls it a badly flawed measure that will force California taxpayers to pay for a bloated bureaucracy that could send research dollars out of state.

The tobacco companies and anti-tax groups that oppose the initiative had raised nearly $39.8 million as of May 7, while Armstrong and his supporters had raised $4.9 million.

“It doesn’t matter how much you support the tobacco companies’ right to do business; they’re on the wrong side of this,” Armstrong said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’re still losing hundreds of thousands of Americans every year to cancer. On the one hand, that can be very demoralizing. But for me it’s very motivating.”

Armstrong beat testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs more than a decade ago. Since then, he has thrown himself into anti-smoking campaigns nationwide and served on the President’s Cancer Panel.

His Livestrong Foundation contributed $1.5 million to support the initiative in California, one of just three states that have not raised taxes on tobacco since 2000.

The independent Legislative Analyst’s Office says Proposition 29 would generate about $735 million a year in revenue if voters approve it. That would be in addition to fees already collected through the state’s existing 25-cent tobacco tax, which raised $298 million in the last fiscal year for cancer research.

Armstrong says more money is needed for the campaign and has made brief public appearances in the state to support the ballot initiative, named the California Cancer Research Act.

Mike Genest, a former state finance director, wrote an economic study for the opposition campaign and said voters need to weigh more than just their concerns about cancer.

He said Proposition 29 could pose a future burden on taxpayers if the bureaucracy it creates cannot be supported as cigarette tax revenue declines. He also said it could end up raising millions of dollars yet produce little research that actually develops new cancer treatments.

The measure’s supporters say both charges are baseless.

“Voters need to look at how it is actually written and ask, ‘Will this thing work correctly, or is this thing going to become another embarrassment to our state?”’ said Genest, who served under former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 2006, tobacco companies spent $66 million to defeat a previous measure that would have created an extra $2.60-per-pack tax. This time, they are giving their money to Californians Against Out-Of-Control Taxes and Spending, a campaign committee that includes the California Taxpayers Association and some small-business groups.

Proposition 29’s critics note that it does not require the money raised to be spent on research in California, so some of that could go to researchers elsewhere.

They also question a provision in the measure that would allow the committee to build or purchase buildings, and say it could lead smokers to seek cigarettes on the black market to avoid the higher taxes. The latest figures from the state Board of Equalization show tobacco tax evasion reduced revenues by an estimated $276 million in 2005-06.

The centerpiece of the opposition campaign so far is a series of radio and television commercials starring a Central Valley physician who warns that the tax would create “a huge new research bureaucracy with no accountability run by political appointees who can spend our tax dollars out of state.”

Anti-smoking groups point out that Dr. LaDonna Porter, the Elk Grove physician featured in the ad, also starred in anti-tobacco tax campaign ads in 2006 and in ads opposing strict regulation of the water pollutant perchlorate.

Schwarzenegger also appointed Porter to a state advisory board charged with identifying toxicants in 2005. A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, Evan Westrup, said the Democratic governor has not yet decided whether to reappoint Porter.

Porter did not immediately return calls seeking comment, but in a statement provided by the campaign said she got involved as an “unpaid volunteer.”

“I have not and will not be compensated in any way,” she said. “Between now and the election in June, I will continue to join with others who oppose Prop. 29 because of the many flaws it contains.”

Chris Lehman, campaign manager for the Yes on Prop 29 campaign, said the tobacco industry’s critiques were an attempt to obscure its true motives.

“This is going to cost the tobacco industry about a billion dollars in sales, and that’s why they’re so unhappy about it,” said Stanton Glantz, a tobacco researcher who directs the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. “Prop. 29 will keep money in the state and create jobs and economic activity.”

With less than a month before the primary, many voters have yet to make up their minds, said Dean Bonner, survey project manager for the Public Policy Institute of California.

The institute’s March poll found 67 percent of likely voters approved of the measure, but Bonner warned that could change, especially since primary elections tend to draw a higher percentage of party loyalists to the polls. Even so, he said ballot measures have historically passed at higher rates during primaries, as opposed to general elections.

“Taxes on things like cigarettes or alcohol tend to garner a decent amount of support generally, but overall this campaign hasn’t been that prominent, so the ads may be able to sway people on this,” Bonner said.

Armstrong and a coalition of anti-smoking groups, including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, American Heart Association and California Medical Association, do not have the money to fully counter the industry’s TV and radio campaign. In the final month before the primary, they plan to hold community events throughout the state featuring cancer survivors and caregivers.

“I was not raised to back down from a fight, and this is the fight of millions of people,” Armstrong said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

There is an especially good reason for Reno’s new approach; Under Nevada law, the so-called “Heart-Lung Bill,” if a police officer or firefighter has a cardiovascular event after they have been employed for five years, it’s considered to be work related. A single workers comp claim for such an event can easily cost the city $1.5 million.

In an attempt to reduce such claims and improve the health of city employees, Specialty Health, the worker’s compensation company that takes care of Reno’s injured police and firefighters, has developed a program to assess risk.

“We look at Body Mass Index, blood pressure, smoking history. We look at a basic lipid panel. We look at sugars. We do a metabolic syndrome calculation,” said Dr. James Greenwald, with Specialty Health. If there is a suggestion of increased risk, Greenwald said, physicians look further with something called “advanced lipid testing.”

Dr. Tara Dall, a Wisconsin-based lipidologist who is working on the Reno project, said it is very important to test for the right things. Many at-risk individuals are missed because of improper tests, she said.

“Half of all people who have cardiovascular events have normal cholesterol levels,” said Dall, who recommends checking lipoproteins, the particles in blood that carry cholesterol and triglycerides. She said it’s not the passengers (the cholesterol), it’s the cars (the particle number) that is most important.

“It’s the (lipoproteins) that really define risk,” said Dall, adding that lipids give a window into diabetes because they began to change long before sugar levels get elevated.

The screening has paid off in spades – they are finding young, healthy-looking police officers and firefighters who are actually insulin resistant and therefore at high risk for diabetes.

“We know now that we can see Type 2 diabetes coming, in the form of insulin resistance, 15 or 20 years in advance,” said Greenwald. “That’s when we have to be aggressive, that’s when we have to go after these people.”

Dall said the lipid tests cost roughly $100. That is money well spent if it identifies insulin resistance and changes the course of so many diseases that have insulin resistance at the root cause: diabetes, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, even certain cancers. It is especially money well spent in the context of giant work-related health claims.

Finding insulin resistance is only the first step. The next is reversing it – something Specialty Health hopes to do using a 4-pronged approach based on diet, exercise, weight loss and medication.

“These problems are complex. They’re nutrition and lifestyle driven, and so there need to be nutrition and lifestyle solutions to address the problem,” said Robb Wolf, author of a book The Paleo Solution. Wolf, who lives in Reno, has also teamed up with the Specialty Health program.

The first behavioral change is diet. Specialty Health prescribes a “Paelo” low-carb diet – with basic foods and nothing processed.

“Certain foods make you sick,” said science journalist Gary Taubes. “If you don’t eat them you won’t be sick, you won’t be fat, you won’t be pre-diabetic, or diabetic, you won’t get heart disease.”

Exercise is another important consideration when treating insulin resistance. Exercise raises the HDL (good) cholesterol and promotes insulin sensitivity in muscle.

Weight loss, even just 5% of body weight, can have a significant impact on metabolism – especially dangerous belly fat.

And in some cases, Specialty Health prescribes medication, such as Metformin, which promotes insulin sensitivity and fights the progression of insulin resistance and/or the development of Type 2 diabetes.

Taubes is excited by developments in Reno. “When people realize how it works and how well it works, that will begin to change the public health approach, the clinical approach to this obesity epidemic.”

So far, the approach seems to be working for Reno Police and Fire, and now casinos are interested in adopting it for their employees.

Bruce MacKay, who is with Eldorado Hotel and Casino, says it helps business if healthy people work with customers. MacKay said that over the last 10 or 15 years his business had seen a gradual increase in the number of employees with diabetes and obesity. So now the casino is implementing the prevention program.

“If we can stop even one heart attack, it’s going to pay for the program,” said MacKay.

For more information, visit http://www.liposcience.com/about/

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Meat glue is a powdered enzyme, transglutaminase, harvested from fermented bacteria that the Food and Drug Administration considers safe to patch together various pieces of meat into a single steak.

Sen. Ted Lieu said reports of allergic reactions to meat glue prompted him to request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture study whether products made with transglutaminase pose any health risks, or have a greater chance of becoming contaminated.

“When you think of a whole steak straight from a cow,” he said, “the inside is sterile. But not when you glue it together from different parts.”

Lieu worries that filet mignon and other products glued together from different parts might require more cooking in order to ensure harmful bacteria have been killed, adding that better labeling may be necessary.

“You should have a right to know if the steak you are about to have is actually glued together from 25 different parts,” he said, a practice many consumers are unaware of.

Lieu also pointed out that products assembled with meat glue may also pose additional challenges for investigators trying to trace the source of food born illnesses.

Lieu sent a letter Thursday to the USDA, and urged the food industry not to wait for a federal investigation to adopt better labeling practices.

“We had a lot of responses to this story because consumers were just unaware that this was happening,” he said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Globally, there are 1 billion people without safe water, and over 2 billion without proper sanitation.

“And yet many of these people who don’t have this basic human right happen to have a mobile phone,” explained Meena Palaniappan, Director of the International Water and Communities Initiative at the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, which prepared the report exploring the potential for mobile phones to address key governance challenges in the water and sanitation sector.

“They can be used as reporting devices, to find out if projects are still working five or ten years down the road, and they can be used to make visible the invisible for the urban poor,” she reasoned.

Palaniappan said the key for developers is to understand that user participation is driven by ease of use, relative to the application.

The Institute is conducting a pilot test in two Indonesian cities, where people text information about water access, which in turn can then be used by advocacy organizations and in policy making and budgeting.

KCBS’ Anna Duckworth Reports:

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The San Francisco congresswoman said in a statement that she’s concerned about federal actions that threaten marijuana access for suffering of California patients.

Pelosi said she is troubled the Obama administration crackdown is endangering patients and undermining the federal government’s stated policy of deferring to states on the issue.

Federal prosecutors maintain pot suppliers are using California’s 1996 medical marijuana law as a cover for making huge profits.

Dispensary landlords were notified that they are violating federal drug laws and could lose their property or face criminal prosecution.

Since October, hundreds of California marijuana dispensaries have shut down because of evictions or fears of prosecution.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The researcher, identified by the medical examiner’s office as 25-year-old Richard Din, died Saturday morning after working all week with a rare strain of the bacterium meningococcus that has no available vaccine, said Dr. Harry Lampiris, chief of infectious disease at the San Francisco VA.

Din’s research included growing the bacteria and isolating parts of it in the hopes of finding a vaccine, Lampiris said.

KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:

After leaving work on Friday, Din apparently started feeling sick around 7 p.m. When his symptoms worsened Saturday, he was taken to the VA medical center where he died, according to Lampiris.

Din died just 17 hours after developing acute symptoms of meningitis. He had complained of flu-like symptoms Friday night that worsened quickly into a full-body rash.

The disease caused by the bacteria has an incubation period of three to five days, which “makes us think he was probably exposed during the workweek,” Lampiris said.

As a precaution, Din’s girlfriend, housemates and the five people working with him at the lab were given antibiotics to prevent them from getting the infection, he said.

About 60 people who were involved in treating him at the medical center also received the antibiotics, Lampiris said.

He said employees at the center have been “profoundly devastated” by Din’s death.

Din has been described as smart and careful by his supervisors.

VA officials held a town hall meeting on Monday for its employees to discuss the tragedy and to offer grief counseling. About 200 people showed up, Lampiris said.

The lab has been closed indefinitely while the VA investigates the incident, he said. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating Din’s death.

Lampiris said there were “no obvious malfunctions or laboratory spills” that may have led to Din becoming infected.

“We’re waiting for further guidance on what we might be able to do to prevent this from happening in the future,” he said. “Laboratory safety is always an ongoing concern, and I’m sure this will lead to some changes in our practices.”

Cal/OSHA spokeswoman Erika Monterroza said Din was employed by the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing veterans’ health research that is based at the VA medical center at 4150 Clement St.

Cal/OSHA has six months to complete an investigation, and if any workplace violations are uncovered, the employer could face citations and fines, Monterroza said.

Monterroza also said that state and federal officials are working together to figure out what caused the death, which she called unusual.

“I’ve worked here going on four years and this is the first case like this that I’ve seen,” she said.

Dr. Roger Baxter, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, said this is a tragic case.

“The laboratory is a potentially dangerous place,” he said. “There are other pathogens that are much worse than this that people do get. You definitely see problems from infectious diseases in laboratories. It’s not rare, but it’s really rare for someone to die like this.”

San Francisco Department of Public Health spokesperson Eileen Shields said because the young man died on Saturday and because the incubation period is 3 to 5 days, it’s unlikely that anyone else has been infected.

All local hospitals have been put on alert to watch out for anyone coming in with the symptoms and to immediately contact public health, but as of this time, there have been no reports.

The bacterium in question is Neisseria meningitidis, which is spread through close contact, for example kissing or using the same toothbrush.

According to the World Health Organization, Neisseria meningitidis only infects humans. The bacteria can be carried in the throat and sometimes, for reasons not fully understood, can overwhelm the body’s defenses allowing infection to spread through the bloodstream to the brain. Although there remain gaps in our knowledge, it is believed that 10 to 20 percent of the population carries Neisseria meningitidis in their throat at any given time, with a relatively small number ever falling ill.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The 7-year-old boy was digging in the Highland Child Development Center’s playground, located at 1322 86th Ave., on April 25 in the afternoon, Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint said.

The boy attends New Highland Academy around the corner and is part of the center’s afterschool program, Flint said.

At some point the boy stuck himself with the syringe he had found. His parents took him to the hospital for treatment to prevent possible infection.

Site staff did a search of the childcare center the following day and by the end of the week had thoroughly cleaned the area, Flint said.

Flint said that a letter will go out Thursday to nearby East Oakland community members explaining the situation and district efforts to prevent another incident, including continual searches for dangerous, unhygienic items in the area around the school and child center.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The man, identified by the medical examiner’s office as 25-year-old Richard Din, died Saturday morning after working in a lab at the medical center, said Erika Monterroza, a spokeswoman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is investigating the death.

The cause of death has yet to be determined, but Din had apparently been working with the bacterium meningococcus at the lab prior to his death, Monterroza said.

She said Din was employed by the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing veterans’ health research that is based at the VA Medical Center at 4150 Clement St.

The institute notified Cal/OSHA of the death on Sunday, prompting the agency to launch an investigation. The California and San Francisco public health departments were also notified, Monterroza said.

Cal/OSHA has six months to complete an investigation, and if workplace violations are uncovered, the employer could face citations and fines, Monterroza said.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health was trying to locate everyone who had close contact with the researcher during the time he was infected.

City health spokeswoman Eileen Shields said friends and people who worked with man, as well as about 60 health workers involved in his treatment, were being given antibiotics.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Joe and Lisa Betts-LaCroix from San Mateo County are part of a rapidly growing movement where personal everyday activities are routinely tracked and measured, using the latest in digital technology.

The movement is called “Quantified Self.” Members who belong love to use new technology.

“There’s definitely a geek appeal at Quantified Self,” said Lisa.

The idea behind the movement is that, instead of hacking into computers, you hack into your own body – by using smart phones, mobile apps and any number of wireless devices. The goal is to fine-tune and improve your life.

Walking into Joe and Lisa’s home gives you an idea that the family looks at life differently. In their living room, they have two hammock swings. On a lower level, Lisa uses a treadmill for a desk. But nowhere do thinks stand out more than in their bedroom – where before they go to sleep, they put on headbands and dark out masks.

“If I have only seven hours to get some sleeping done, then I want to do the absolute best sleeping that I possibly can do,” said Joe.

At night, they track their sleep cycles using a Zeo Sleep Monitor. The headband measures brain waves and sends the data wirelessly to a bedside base station. In the morning, the couple can see a bar graph of their sleep cycles, indicating their amount of deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep, and even instances of waking.

Joe and Lisa know they wake up periodically, but they don’t know why. This question prompts an experiment.

“Did she wake me up? Did I wake her up? To solve the answer to that question, we have a newly installed “stealth cam,” said Joe, pointing up to the ceiling directly above their bed.

For the next few weeks, an overhead “stealth cam” will record a minute’s worth of video any time it detects motion.

“If its turns out that one person is always the person waking up and waking everyone up, then the solution would probably be…to help them get a deeper sleep,” said Joe.

Joe and Lisa use a FitBit to measure their activity and a Withings scale that measures their body weight and sends the data wirelessly to their mobile devices – Giving them several indications of their overall health.

The movement began with a handful of people. Now there are chapters around the world.

“We’re taking advantage of all these new technologies to learn more about ourselves,” said Rajiv Mehta. Mehta is one of the co-organizers of Quantified Self.

At a recent meet-up at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, self-quantifiers gathered to share experiences as well as experiments.

“I do think society will benefit as a whole if we’re all more fulfilled,” said Yoni Donner.

Donner developed an App called the Quantified Mind. Using online cognitive testing, you can hack into your own brain, and see under what conditions you can boost your performance.

“Yoga, meditation, exercise chocolate, (are) all things that are claimed to influence our minds, but there is so much we can learn about exactly how they do this,” explained Donner.

Also attending the event was Stan James. James created an experiment called Life Slice, where he set up his computer to take a snapshot of himself every half hour – measuring how he spent his time.

And while you might think that these measurements go too far, physician Paul Abramson believes there can be a benefit to all this self-tracking. He knows because he’s tried it.

“I’m in much more control, I think, of my own health,” said Dr. Abramson.

Using mobile Apps and wearable devices, Dr. Abramson has tracked his own health for roughly a year.

His blood pressure, weight, sleep, diet, exercise and more are streamed real time or synced wirelessly into an extensive data base. By analyzing patterns, the doctor dropped 15 pounds, and discovered how sleep was affecting his headaches.

“What I’ve started to see is there are a lot of people with real medical problems where self-tracking could be very helpful,” said Dr. Abramson.

Joe Betts-LaCroix tracked his own blood pressure and saw it going higher. He changed his behavior.

“Now my blood pressure is completely normal, and I’m happier and more relaxed,” said Joe.

It’s a change he said he can count on.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The California Nurses Association (CNA) reports as many as 4,500 nurses walked off the job, affecting several Sutter Health hospitals. But according to Sutter’s corporate spokeswoman a number of RN’s crossed the picket line. One figure was as high as 62 percent and another much lower estimate was at 29 percent.

“Each of our hospitals reported to us the number of nurses who decided not to support the union strike,” said Karen Garner.

KCBS’ Dave Padilla Reports:

CNA spokesmen Chuck Idelson disputed the figures.

“They use almost the same numbers they used in December. They just make these numbers up,” he said.

When Idelson was asked how many nurses did cross over, he answered “probably a few.”

Sutter reports an RN working full-time at a hospital earns on average $136,000 plus health benefits. “Not true,” said Idleson.

He contends this strike would not have occurred had Sutter withdrawn concession demands.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Yoga is actually the fastest growing health and fitness workout in the world. Twenty million Americans practice yoga. The billion dollar industry is booming, especially in the Bay Area. Practitioners at Bladium in Alameda are especially blissed out with their yoga class. Patrons said they were connecting with their bodies and easing minor pains.

“This is like the one time out of your day you give something back to yourself and just slow down,” said Yoga Instructor Tracie McCants.

New York Times journalist and senior science writer William Broad took a serious look at the science of yoga to get a better idea of its benefits. His book offers a revealing look at what’s real and what’s not in the world of yoga.

Broad found scientific evidence that yoga relieves stress, benefiting the heart by lowering blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.

“It’s wonderful for your cardiovascular system,” Broad told CBS 5.

Additional research showed Broad that all the spinal flexing, bending and stretching might also benefit your back. The movements may help to better deliver nutrients to the discs and that may fight spinal deterioration.

Broad also collected studies, many done in the San Francisco Bay Area, that yoga may be a good anti-aging tonic.

“There’s cutting-edge evidence that suggests that it can lengthen the lifespan of individual cells in your body,” said Broad.

A lot of research also backs up the claim that yoga can be a real boost to your sex life. Certain poses, like the Cobra, bring increased blood flow to the pelvis.

“There are some pretty interesting logical results to that, and they can measure it clearly; Testosterone levels go up,” said Broad.

However, there are lots of claims that yoga will help you lose weight. Broad found the opposite is true. His research shows with yoga, you run the risk of actually packing on a few pounds.

“Yoga for sure will help you lower your metabolism,” explained Broad. He said there is no scientific evidence to back up claims that even the more strenuous styles of yoga can increase your metabolism or help you lose weight.

Broad points to the research performed by scientist Mayasandra S. Chaya.

Chaya, an Indian physiologist in Bangalore, led a team of scientists who studied yoga and metabolism on more than 100 men and women. In 2006, Chaya published a study that showed how yoga lowered metabolism by about 8% in men and about 18% in women.

If you are a stress eater, you may be able to lose weight because yoga is so relaxing. But Broad emphasized that you lose weight despite of yoga not because of it.

Another myth, according to Broad’s research, is the claim that yoga is so aerobic, or that it’s the only exercise you need. Broad said that’s misleading, even if you include the more strenuous forms of yoga.

“You can get your heart going fast, but even so it’s not fast enough to meet even the minimal aerobic recommendations of public health officials,” said Broad.

So for all you yoga lovers, to achieve more balance, consider adding some aerobics to your routine.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The controversy erupted earlier this week when a grocer in Rhode Island pulled Kashi cereals off his shelves, citing a report that the Kashi brand uses genetically-engineered, non-organic ingredients in the majority of its cereals.

The report by the Cornucopia Institute, an organic and agriculture policy group, came out last year, but didn’t get much attention. The grocer’s protest did, however, with pictures of his store shelf quickly going viral.

The Natural Grocery Company in El Cerrito stocks about a dozen varieties of Kashi cereals, both those with GMO ingredients, and those without. The store distinguishes between the two by using green shelf labels in front of the non-GMO products, and blue shelf labels in front of those with the controversial item.

Assistant Manager Jennifer Sandkuhler says she welcomes the controversy.

“I think it’s great,” she said. She hopes it will lead to decreased use of GMO ingredients, and more support for a California bill that would require GMO products to be clearly labeled. “We want consumers to be informed about what they’re eating.”

Kashi’s list of GMO-free products

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

It’s obvious that all these workers aren’t happy about something at their workplace, but for some Golden Gate Bridge District employees it’s not about wages, considering what some of them are paid.

Painters of the Golden Gate Bridge average about $88,000 a year. The captains of the ferry boats that went on strike make about $80,000 to $90,000 a year, while the deckhands earn $60,000.

It’s more about health care. It’s about how they’re going to pay for something that’s becoming increasingly difficult for everyone to manage which is the rising cost of health care.

KCBS, CBS 5, and SF Chronicle Insider Phil Matier reports:

There are about 14 unions in negotiation with the Golden Gate Bridge District and one of the more militant groups went on strike. Initially they were reluctant to bring in the Occupy movement. An invitation was extended to them for help, but the initial plans to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge had some of the unions thinking “this is nuts” and that it would do them more harm than good.

So they backed off a bit and instead we have this one-day strike. Bringing in or associating with some of the more militant and fringe Occupy protestors could politically backfire. You only have the pull with the government when you have the pull of the public.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

CEO Mark Zuckerberg says U.S. and U.K. users will be able to enroll as organ donors via links on the world’s biggest social networking site.

Facebook users who are already organ donors can add that information to their Facebook Timelines.

Zuckerberg says his friendship with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who had received a liver transplant before he died last year, helped spur the idea.

Zuckerberg announced the organ donor update to Facebook Tuesday.

Facebook Inc., based in Menlo Park, is busy readying an initial public stock offering said to be pegged at $5 billion. Facebook’s IPO could place the company’s value at $100 billion.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The California Nurses Association of Oakland has been talking about a contract for more than a year. The main issues include sick pay, a reduction in worker benefits and health care premiums proposed by Sutter as part of contract talks.

According to the nurses’ association the hospital wants to change the sick-leave policy by putting sick days, vacations and holidays into a paid-time off “bucket.” Nurses said that would cut their paid time off by 10 to 20 days a year.

The hospital also wants nurses to pay a premium if they want health care outside of Sutter Health, according to the CNA.

This is the third time in the past seven months Sutter nurses have held a one-day strike. Bay Area hospitals affected include Alta Bates Summit hospitals in Oakland and Berkeley; and Mills-Peninsula Health Services and hospitals in Burlingame and San Mateo.

The hospitals will stay open with replacement workers although elective procedures could be rescheduled.

Though the strike is only supposed to be one day, the nurses have been told they won’t be allowed back to work until Sunday.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Angelina and Angelica Sabuco were the guests of honor at a coming out party Monday attended by some of the 40 doctors and nurses who cared for them during last fall’s 10-hour surgery and two-week hospital stay.

Wearing matching pink dresses and different colored hair bows, the California toddlers looked like any other pair of identical twins.

Angelina slept the entire time in her aunt’s arms, while Angelica shyly rebuffed her mother’s entreaties to sing for her well-wishers.

Plastic surgeon Peter Lorenz, who implanted custom-made plates in each sister’s chest to make up for their missing sternums, says their bodies are healing right on track and will continue to outgrow the evidence they once were conjoined.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)