Researcher Sara Bleich, who is an assistant professor of Health Policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wondered what happens when the adult doctor and patient are both overweight and if people would take weight loss advice from a chubby doctor, so she surveyed 500 physicians to find out.

Click here to read the rest at CBSSF.com.

The two schools elementary schools are Railroad Flat and West Point elementaries in the Calaveras Unified School District. One classroom reportedly had 12 of its 14 students come down with symptoms.

However, the schools continue to operate as normal and classes have not been canceled.

“Viral gastrointestinal illness starts rapidly with vomiting and stomach cramps. Some people have diarrhea, fever, headache and body aches as well,” said Calaveras County Health Officer Dr. Dean Kelaita in a press release Thursday.

“Symptoms of viral gastrointestinal illness usually last for about eight hours but can continue for up to two days. Rest and plenty of fluids are important if someone in your family has these symptoms. If they are not able to keep fluids down you should contact a doctor, clinic or emergency room.”

To prevent the spread of illness at home and in the community the Public Health Department recommends:

• Staying home from work or school if a person is vomiting or has diarrhea;
• Staying home for at least 48 hours after symptoms stop;
• Washing hands often and thoroughly. Help young children wash their hands, especially after going to the bathroom;
• Using a household disinfectant to thoroughly clean any areas where vomiting and diarrhea occur

Residents can call the Public Health Department at (209) 754-6460 or visit its website for more information.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Kaiser Permanente workers throughout Northern California staged a one-day strike Tuesday in a dispute over a new contract for mental health and optical employees, but a Kaiser spokesman said the majority of nurses reported for work.

The dispute involves 4,000 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, who have been bargaining for a new contract since 2010.

Two other unions have also walked off the job in a sympathy strike. They are the California Nurses Association, which represents 17,000 nurses, and Stationary Engineers Local 39, which represents 650 building and equipment workers.

The one-day strike could involve a total of about 22,000 Kaiser employees across the region. However, Kaiser reported Tuesday afternoon that about 80 percent of nurses at Roseville Medical Center crossed the picket line and about 70 percent showed up to work at South Sacramento Medical Center and Sacramento Medical Center. Region-wide across Northern California, Kaiser says 66 percent of its nurses went to work as scheduled.

Kaiser is covering any staffing shortages with temporary replacement workers.

Five local Kaiser Hospitals are taking part in the strike including Sacramento, South Sacramento, Roseville, Modesto and Stockton.

The dispute involves wages, health care coverage, retirement benefits, patient care and staffing levels.

Health officials say eight tick samples have tested positive for the disease which can cause fever, headache, fatigue and a rash. If left untreated, Lyme disease can affect the joints, hearts and nervous system.

Although most people associate tick and Lyme disease with summer months, there has been a population increase since the late fall in Placer County.

“We are concerned that with the milder winter we have been experiencing, a lot of folks will be taking the opportunity to engage in outdoor activities, such as hiking in tick habitat, and potentially putting themselves at risk for tick-borne disease,” said Joel Buettner, General Manager of the Placer Mosquito and Vector Control District.

The District advises residents who may be working or recreating in tick habitat to exercise caution and implement the following tick-borne prevention strategies:
• Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts. Tuck pant legs into boots or socks and tuck shirts into pants.
• Wear light-colored clothing so ticks can be easily seen.
• Apply a repellent, such as DEET, registered for use against ticks. Always follow directions on the container and be careful when applying to children. Before entering tick habitat, permethrin spray may be applied to clothing to kill ticks.
• Stay in the middle of the trail. Avoid trail margins, brush and grassy areas.
• Inspect yourself frequently for ticks while in tick habitats. Once out of tick habitat, thoroughly check your entire body for ticks up to three days after being in tick areas. Parents should examine their children, especially on the scalp, hairline and skin folds.

For more information on ticks in Placer County, contact the Placer Mosquito and Vector Control District at (888) 768-2343 or visit www.placermosquito.org.

First lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new guidelines during a visit Wednesday with elementary students. Mrs. Obama, also joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, said youngsters will learn better if they don’t have growling stomachs at school.

“As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet,” Mrs. Obama said. “And when we’re putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria.”

After the announcement, the three went through the line with students and ate turkey tacos with brown rice, black bean and corn salad and fruit — all Ray’s recipes — with the children in the Parklawn Elementary lunchroom.

Under the new rules, pizza won’t disappear from lunch lines, but will be made with healthier ingredients. Entire meals will have calorie caps for the first time and most trans fats will be banned. Sodium will gradually decrease over a 10-year period. Milk will have to be low in fat and flavored milks will have to be nonfat.

Despite the improvements, the new rules aren’t as aggressive as the Obama administration had hoped. Congress last year blocked the Agriculture Department from making some of the desired changes, including limiting french fries and pizzas.

A bill passed in November would require the department to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The initial draft of the department’s guidelines, released a year ago, would have prevented that. Congress also blocked the department from limiting servings of potatoes to two servings a week. The final rules have incorporated those directions from Congress.

Among those who had sought the changes were potato growers and food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools. Conservatives in Congress called the guidelines an overreach and said the government shouldn’t tell children what to eat. School districts also objected to some of the requirements, saying they go too far and would cost too much.

The guidelines apply to lunches subsidized by the federal government. A child nutrition bill signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 will help school districts pay for some of the increased costs. Some of the changes will take place as soon as this September; others will be phased in over time.

While many schools are improving meals already, others still serve children meals high in fat, salt and calories. The guidelines are designed to combat childhood obesity and are based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

The subsidized meals that would fall under the guidelines are served as free and low-cost meals to low-income children and long have been subject to government nutrition standards. The 2010 law will extend, for the first time, nutrition standards to other foods sold in schools that aren’t subsidized by the federal government. That includes “a la carte” foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines.

Those standards, while expected to be similar, will be written separately and have not yet been proposed by the department.

It’s the first results from the use of embryonic stem cells in humans.

The research published online Monday in the journal Lancet involved two legally blind patients. They received an injection of cells derived from embryonic stem cells in one eye.

One had the “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration and the other had a rare disease that causes serious vision loss.

After four months, both did better on a standardized eye test.

The work was done by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles and Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts. A third patient in London last week underwent a similar stem cell injection as part of the company’s ongoing tests.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized seized the drugs Sunday Los Angeles International Airport.

The substance, known as tadalafil – the generic form of Cialis – was in several heat-sealed pouches in the carry-on luggage of a 40-year-old Korean man, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Jaime Ruiz said.

The chemicals were valued at $179,000, he said.

“The passenger claimed the powder was a Chinese herb,” Ruiz said.

Approval is required to introduce a new drug into interstate commerce, he said.

ROCKLIN (CBS13) — Doctors say a new tool in ambulances could save countless lives. There’s just one problem — one company says it can’t afford to continue to install them because of state budget cuts.

Lives are saved every day thanks to emergency medical help before a patient gets to the hospital. A high-tech monitor wirelessly transmits critical patient data to the hospital where doctors and nurses can diagnose a heart attack before they even see the patient.

“It’s incredibly important,” said Kate Carleton, a registered nurse at Sutter Roseville Medical Center. “Every minute that you can get, that you can shave off and you can get oxygen to their heart quicker is time where you’re going to save their heart muscle.”

But this new technology doesn’t come cheap. And it isn’t reimbursed by the state.

“It’s extremely expensive and we are to the point in this state where our patient population or 50 percent of our charges go unpaid,” said Jason Sorrick of American Medical Response.

The program is up and running in Placer County and AMR ambulance service planned to expand it statewide. Then the private company learned about a 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal reimbursements.

“They are not going to be seeing those programs implemented because of those cuts,” Sorrick said.

The average ambulance transport costs just under $600 dollars, but the state’s Medi-Cal program only reimburses $135, forcing EMS providers to absorb the rest. That’s why people with insurance often get charged twice the actual cost.

The state says cutting 10 percent will save more than $600 million in general fund costs each year.

But AMR worries those cuts could compromise public safety and ultimately increase response times and reduce the number of ambulances on the street.

“The state just does not simply understand that when we make these cuts they are impacting everyone and they are actually moving the EMS system backward instead of forward,” he said.

RN Carleton agrees.

“It’s concerning, it’s very concerning,” she said. “We all want to do what’s best for our patient.”

AMR says it has recently filed a lawsuit against the state to stop the cuts from taking place, but if the lawsuit doesn’t stop the cuts, the company expects them to take effect in the next few months.

The agency said in a letter to the juice industry Monday that an unnamed juice company contacted FDA in late December and said it had detected low levels of carbendazim, a fungicide, in the company’s own orange juice and also its competitors’ juice. Carbendazim is not currently approved for use in the United States, but is used in Brazil, which exports orange juice to the United States.

There are no safety concerns at the levels detected, the FDA said, and the agency has no plans to pull orange juice off store shelves. FDA officials said testing will determine if levels are higher than previously thought.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The state released the infection data for 2009 and 2010 on Friday. Hospitals had sued the state to limit surgical infection reporting but the court ruled against the hospitals and required disclosures for 29 different surgical procedures.

Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, says for years California lagged behind other states in reporting hospital infection information but has now become a national leader in such disclosures.

This is the second annual report issued by the state, which is required by Niles Law, a 2008 law that aims to encourage hospitals to improve infection rates.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press)

The insurer’s spokesman Steve Shivinsky said Wednesday that they settled the suit brought in 2008 to avoid the ongoing costs of litigation. Blue Shield did not accept blame in the settlement.

The lawsuit was filed by former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, seeking up to $1 billion in fines and restitution for Californians who allegedly lost insurance coverage after becoming ill.

The city attorney’s office said the insurer is committed to taking aggressive, proactive steps to provide better access to health care.

The settlement will be split by the city and the county.

(Copyright 2011 The Associated Press)

LODI (CBS13) – A new kitchen and a hotel-style room service option for patients and family members has been unveiled at Lodi Memorial Hospital, offering a novel counterargument to complaints about hospital chow.

The $14 million kitchen has been serving patients for a little more than a month, offering items from 13 menus that cover a wide range of potential dietary restrictions. While many hospital cafeterias offer bland food, the new kitchen features dishes like herd-encrusted chicken, fresh salads and steak cooked to order.

“It’s a concierge room service,” said Terry Turner, who has been in the hospital for more than a week after his surgery. “They’ve just been wonderful.”

His favorite dish? “The tri-tip,” he said.

Spokeswoman Carol Farron said Lodi Memorial is the only hospital in the region with this type of program, and patients have responded well to the new culinary options.

“I think they are just really surprised at such a novel thing coming from a hospital,” Farron said. “It takes them a while to absorb how good this is for them and how good the food is.”

The cost of meals is included for patients, and family members can eat with their loved ones for $6 for each meal.

A program launching Tuesday enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline through Facebook’s “chat” messaging system.

If a friend spots a suicidal thought on someone’s page, he can report it to Facebook by clicking a link next to the comment. Facebook then sends an email to the person who posted the comment encouraging that user to call the hotline or click a link for a confidential chat.

The service is Facebook’s latest move aimed at improving safety on its site.

Facebook says the goal is to get a person in distress help as quickly as possible.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

At least not the Chinese-made light-up version.

Customs agents say they seized 151 life-size Santa light figurines last month at the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex because their UL certifications were phony. They also confiscated a snowman and a polar bear.

Authorities say the phony labeling means the Chinese figurines might not meet U.S. electrical safety standards.

Officials said Monday the figurines had an estimated value of $110,000.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

Researchers now say bedbugs are able to inbreed with close relatives and still produce healthy offspring. That means that if just a few bedbugs survive in a building after treatment, they repopulate quickly. It helps explain why they’re so hard to eliminate.

The new research was presented Tuesday in Philadelphia at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Bedbugs are wingless, reddish-brown insects that bite people and animals to draw blood for their meals. Though their bites can cause itching and welts, they are not known to spread disease.

Researchers also say they found many different strains of bedbugs throughout the East Coast, meaning they’re coming into the country from lots of different places.

(Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.)

A statement on the website reads:

“A scene in the latest Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn: Part One, has reportedly caused seizures in at least two audience members. The scene contains flashing lights, which can sometimes trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.”

“If you have photosensitive seizures, please take this information into consideration when deciding whether to see this movie. Around 3 percent of the nearly 3 million Americans with epilepsy have photosensitive epilepsy.”

Brandon Gephardt says he and his girlfriend were watching “Breaking Dawn: Part One” at a theater last week when he began convulsing during a graphic birthing scene. He said he doesn’t remember anything until he woke up on the theater floor, but his girlfriend said he was, “convulsing, snorting, trying to breathe.”

Paramedics took Gephardt to the emergency room and the theater had to cancel the rest of the movie for that showing.

Several reports on internet movie sites show reports of other people suffering similar symptoms during the same scene, which contains flashes of red, black and white.

While rare, the condition can be triggered by flashing red lights in people who are genetically predisposed.

A single seizure should not cause long-term damage to most patients, said Dr. Michael G. Chez, the medical director of pediatric neurology and epilepsy for Sutter Sacramento. Wearing sunglasses with cheap blue lenses can filter the red light for moviegoers who want to be on the safe side.

CBS13′s Neda Iranpour visited a local mall to get a closer look at the places germs like the most.

No. 8
You likely tend to try it before you buy it but of all the germy places at the mall makeup samples come in at No. 8. They found traces of staph, strep and e coli in the Health Magazine survey.

No. 7
Next on the list, gadget shops. People want to touch and play with all the latest technology, which means they’re passing around plenty of bacteria.

No. 6
The No. 6 nastiest place would be the fitting rooms — not from the hooks or the doorknobs but from the clothes you’re about to try on. Germs can spread from skin cells and sweat so at the risk of stating the obvious, that’s way it’s important to wear underwear.

No. 5
If you’ve ever let your kid run wild in a toy store, you probably agree it should make the list. Consider anything inside there covered in germs.

No. 4
No. 4 on the list would be the ATMs in the mall. Researchers have found 1,200 germs on these buttons so instead of using your fingers they suggest you use your knuckles — there’s a less likely chance you’ll stick your knuckle in your nose.

No. 3
Next on the list are the handrails at the escalator. The survey found traces of urine, feces and mucus.

No. 2
It’s hard to go to the mall without heading to the food court. But it’s not the hot dog on a stick or Cinnabon that’ll hurt you. It’s the tables. No matter how much they wipe them down, it’s the rag they use that can really spread harmful bacteria.

“They don’t change that sanitizer water for a few hours,” one girl at the mall said.

No. 1
Not surprisingly, No. 1 on the list involves the bathroom. But we’re not talking about the dirty toilet or the doorknobs, but rather the sink. Bacteria festers on the faucets.

Experts advise to use hand sanitizers or wipes when venturing out to the malls for that holiday shopping.

The California Department of Public Health is warning people to throw out or return bagged salad products from Ready Pac Food Inc. because of possible E Coli contamination.

The recall includes bags under the Ready Pac, Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Dining In Classic labels. The recalled romaine products were distributed to retail locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Products have a use by date of November 18th.

The recall was issued after random testing of bagged lettuce came back positive for E Coli. No illnesses have been reported.

For a list of the all the recalled products, go to the FDA’s Recall Website.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A company-issued desktop computer with patient information was stolen from Sutter Medical Foundation’s administrative offices in Sacramento the weekend of Oct. 15, the health group announced Wednesday.

Information on nearly 4.3 million patients was included in a database on the computer, the health group said. The computer stolen was password-protected but unencrypted, the health group said. Encryption technology scrambles a computer’s data in a way that makes it difficult for an unauthorized user to retrieve the information.

After the discovery of the theft, Sutter Health immediately reported it to the Sacramento Police Department and began an internal investigation. The computer did not contain patient financial records, Social Security numbers, patients’ health plan identification numbers or medical records.

However, while no medical records themselves were on the computer, some medical information was included for a portion of patients.

After an internal review, Sutter Health discovered that the stolen computer contained a database that included two types of information. According to a press release from the health group:

• For approximately 3.3 million patients whose health care provider is supported by Sutter Physician Services, the database included the following patient demographic information dated from 1995 to January 2011: name, address, date of birth, phone number and email address (if provided), medical record number and the name of the patient’s health insurance plan. SPS is an organization that provides billing and managed care services for health care providers with which it contracts, including facilities within the Sutter Health network. Patients who think they may be affected should visit www.sutterhealth.org/noticeforpatients to see the list of impacted health care providers.
• For about 943,000 Sutter Medical Foundation patients, the database contained the above demographic data as well as the following information dated from January 2005 to January 2011: dates of services and a description of medical diagnoses and/or procedures used for business operations. Because the data of SMF patients was broader in scope, the health group said it has begun the process to notify these patients by mail. Patients should receive letters no later than Dec. 5.

Sutter Health has established a toll-free help line to answer questions and assist patients in determining whether their data was on the computer. Any concerned patients can call toll-free at (855) 770-0003, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.. When prompted, patients should enter this 10-digit reference code: 7637111511.

“Sutter Health holds the confidentiality and trust of our patients in the highest regard, and we deeply regret that this incident has occurred,” said Sutter Health President and CEO Pat Fryin a prepared statement. “The Sutter Health Data Security Office was in the process of encrypting computers throughout our system when the theft occurred, and we have accelerated these efforts.”

Sutter Health said it is also reinforcing security practices across its system.

The 2-year-old twins, Angelica and Angelina Sabuco, were set to make a brief appearance at a news conference at the hospital Monday afternoon with their mother, Ginady Sabuco, and an aunt.

Read more at CBSSF.com.

The protest is in response to a recent announcement by the four U.S. attorneys representing California that the federal government will step up efforts to enforce federal law prohibiting the use of and growing of marijuana.

California passed a law allowing for medical marijuana use in 1996, but federal prosecutors say too many people are using Proposition 215 as a shield for illegal growing operations.

CBS13′s Mike Luery reports from downtown Sacramento.

The complex procedure to separate Angelina and Angelica Sabuco, of San Jose, began at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Hospital spokeswoman Reena Mukamal says that if all goes according to plan, the 2-year-olds will be out of surgery by mid-afternoon.

The operation will involve cutting along the girls’ skin and muscle and separating their diaphragms and livers.

Lead surgeon Gary Hartman says severing the liver will be the riskiest part of the procedure because of potential blood loss.

Hartman has done five separation procedures at medical centers around the country and says he expects the operation to go well.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – With the weather turning chilly, you may want to build a nice toasty fire in your fireplace, however, you could face a fine if you use your fireplace on the wrong day.

Today kicks off the San Joaquin Valley’s “Check Before You Burn” program.

The program designates when you can and cannot burn wood based on the current air quality.

When you burn wood, tiny pieces of soot and ash can get into the air and enter peoples’ lungs causing serious health effects especially for the elderly and people already suffering with lung and heart disease.

There is an exception if burning wood is your only source of heat.

Otherwise, you should check before you burn at valleyair.org or sparetheair.com.  You can also call the Smog Info line at 1-800-766—4463.

The Los Angeles Times says he’s 37-year-old Charles Whitmore Riske of Costa Mesa.

Coroner’s officials haven’t determined the cause of his death.

Riske was about two hours into the 13.1-mile race Sunday in downtown Los Angeles when he collapsed. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

It was the only serious health incident during the race.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It might be hard to describe, but it’s impossible to miss. People want to know: What’s that smell?

The scent of fall is supposed to be settling in, but one sniff is all it takes. To some residents, there’s more than fall in the air in Sacramento’s Pocket area.

“It’s kind of a strong sewage type smell,” one resident says.

Sacramento City Council member Darrell Fong has been very determined to sniff out the cause, for his constituents, yes, but also for his own quality of life.

“We slept with the windows open at nighttime and the smell was so bad I thought we had a sewer leak in my house or my dog had an accident,” Fong tells CBS13′s Tony Lopez.

Talk about barking up the wrong tree. No, this smell isn’t from a dog, cat or dumpster. So, Councilman Fong, any ideas?

“Now, could it be coming from the West Sacramento side? Yes, I believe with the Delta breeze, it carries it across the river,” Fong says. “It may be coming from their detention basins or canals.”

Not so fast, said West Sacramento Councilman Oscar Villegas.

“I got a courtesy call from Darrell,” Villegas tells CBS13. “He said, ‘Hey, you know what? I think it’s coming from West Sacramento.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know what? I’m not so sure you’re right about that.’”

West Sacramento even sent out crews at night to try to track down the source. Their conclusion? Neither city is to blame. Villegas says the smell is coming from the Yolo Bypass.

“Actually, it’s a decomposing, organically derived vegetation that occurs in large-standing bodies of water,” Villegas explains.

Villegas could be on to something. Officials confirm the same sort of thing is happening in the wetlands area off Highway 37 near Vallejo, where a restoration project is digging up vegetation that is hundreds of years old. They call it marsh gas, and they’ve been smelling it from Vallejo to Napa County.

Officials are guessing the same type of gas from the Yolo Bypass area is causing our local stench.

“If you think about the bypass, it actually runs all the way south of Clarksburg, so if there’s something happening in that area, I could see how it could just sort of drift over the river,” Villegas says.

So with that explanation, West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon tweeted that he expects to hear from Sacramento … or else.

“I am waiting for a private message clarifying/apologizing before launching nuclear missiles across the river,” he joked in a tweet before tweeting again “all is good.”