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American Morning

Top Health Stories Across Country

Aired December 16, 2002 - 07:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Early "House Call" this morning, we want to check in right now and see what the top health stories are across the country. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us now live in Atlanta.
Good morning -- Sanjay. What are you looking at today?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, I thought I would start off with some sports health news. First of all, rookie quarterback, the No. 3 overall draft pick out of Oregon, Joey Harrington was taken off the field yesterday in the second quarter with an irregular heartbeat. Always a bit of a concern when a young person, especially an athlete, has an irregular heartbeat. Apparently, he had felt some palpitations, maybe even had a little bit of chest pain, was taken to the hospital where his irregular heartbeat was confirmed.

But by this morning, apparently it is back to normal, and that's exactly what most irregular heartbeats do -- that is, go back to normal. Hopefully, he'll be able to play next week. That's what his doctors are thinking right now.

Also, an interesting story we're hearing about, Bill, about caesarean sections -- that is the type of delivery other than a normal delivery for a baby. And what we're hearing is that there has been a natural retreat away from natural child birth. And about 24.4 percent -- almost a quarter of all childbirths are actually done by caesarean section now. And that number actually increased by 7 percent just over the past year.

And that's sort of an alarming number. A lot of people are trying to figure out why is this number actually going up? Is it because more women are just opting naturally for a caesarean section, even for their first babies? Or is it because more of the medical risk? Those answers are a little bit harder to figure out.

But it's a pretty remarkable number there. Again, about a quarter of all births are actually being done by caesarean section now -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, interesting. Next hour, seasonal affective disorder, something called SAD. You're going to fill us in. It has something to do with the winter blues.

GUPTA: That's right. Depression that gets worse in the winter, gets better in the spring and summer. A lot of people have it. What can you do about it? We'll try and figure that out in the next hour. HEMMER: Good weather makes us feel good oftentimes.

GUPTA: That's right.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. See you in about 30 minutes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 16, 2002 - 07:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Early "House Call" this morning, we want to check in right now and see what the top health stories are across the country. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us now live in Atlanta.
Good morning -- Sanjay. What are you looking at today?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, I thought I would start off with some sports health news. First of all, rookie quarterback, the No. 3 overall draft pick out of Oregon, Joey Harrington was taken off the field yesterday in the second quarter with an irregular heartbeat. Always a bit of a concern when a young person, especially an athlete, has an irregular heartbeat. Apparently, he had felt some palpitations, maybe even had a little bit of chest pain, was taken to the hospital where his irregular heartbeat was confirmed.

But by this morning, apparently it is back to normal, and that's exactly what most irregular heartbeats do -- that is, go back to normal. Hopefully, he'll be able to play next week. That's what his doctors are thinking right now.

Also, an interesting story we're hearing about, Bill, about caesarean sections -- that is the type of delivery other than a normal delivery for a baby. And what we're hearing is that there has been a natural retreat away from natural child birth. And about 24.4 percent -- almost a quarter of all childbirths are actually done by caesarean section now. And that number actually increased by 7 percent just over the past year.

And that's sort of an alarming number. A lot of people are trying to figure out why is this number actually going up? Is it because more women are just opting naturally for a caesarean section, even for their first babies? Or is it because more of the medical risk? Those answers are a little bit harder to figure out.

But it's a pretty remarkable number there. Again, about a quarter of all births are actually being done by caesarean section now -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, interesting. Next hour, seasonal affective disorder, something called SAD. You're going to fill us in. It has something to do with the winter blues.

GUPTA: That's right. Depression that gets worse in the winter, gets better in the spring and summer. A lot of people have it. What can you do about it? We'll try and figure that out in the next hour. HEMMER: Good weather makes us feel good oftentimes.

GUPTA: That's right.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. See you in about 30 minutes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.