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American Morning
House Call: Viral Infection Linked to Heart Attacks, Strokes
Aired December 24, 2002 - 07:56 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to make a "House Call" right now. Sanjay Gupta is going to run through some of today's top health stories.
And my favorite one of the morning has to do with brain freeze, not related to what we do on the job here, but what we eat -- good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we all have a little brain freeze. Good morning to you, Paula.
Let me do another story before that real quick. Cytomegalovirus, the name of a virus that's most commonly associated with mono. Amazingly, researchers from the "Journal of the American Medical Association" found that if you have that particular infection, you have about a 24 percent higher chance of having a heart attack or a stroke.
Researchers have long believed an association between infections and arthrosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, has existed. This is further proof and may add to further therapies down the line.
Brain freeze, Paula, as you mentioned, most of us have had that at some point, usually from eating our ice cream too fast. Well, a 13-year-old Canadian girl who likes ice cream so much decided that she would actually study this herself with her schoolmates and actually had them eat ice cream really fast, or more cautiously, as she put it.
Her conclusions: You are twice as likely to actually get this brain freeze if you eat your ice cream faster than those people who eat it more cautiously. Good news as well, all those headaches went away within about 10 seconds.
Interestingly as well, brain freeze, the more sciency (ph) part of it, is actually caused by the ice cream getting in and super cooling some of the nerves at the top of your mouth on your palette, and that actually causes that intense pain that people have that almost always goes away.
Paula, also coming up next hour, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about holiday eating, and I've got some interesting news about how much people -- how much weight people gain on average over the holidays. I think you're going to be surprised by that, and also, what people can do about it.
ZAHN: Oh, we don't want to hear about it before we dive into our huge Christmas feast.
GUPTA: I think you're going to be surprised, that's right.
ZAHN: Is it a lot, or is it less than we think?
GUPTA: It's actually less than you think.
ZAHN: Well, that's good.
GUPTA: But that's...
ZAHN: So, we will eat those cookies today without any sense of guilt.
GUPTA: But it sticks around with you longer than you think.
ZAHN: You should see what we have in the studio today, fudge, cookies -- we've got everything here. Sorry you're not here to help us gain five pounds...
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: Yes, we've got some down here as well. I'm trying to lay low on this.
ZAHN: All right, see you in a little bit, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Yes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Strokes>
Aired December 24, 2002 - 07:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to make a "House Call" right now. Sanjay Gupta is going to run through some of today's top health stories.
And my favorite one of the morning has to do with brain freeze, not related to what we do on the job here, but what we eat -- good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we all have a little brain freeze. Good morning to you, Paula.
Let me do another story before that real quick. Cytomegalovirus, the name of a virus that's most commonly associated with mono. Amazingly, researchers from the "Journal of the American Medical Association" found that if you have that particular infection, you have about a 24 percent higher chance of having a heart attack or a stroke.
Researchers have long believed an association between infections and arthrosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, has existed. This is further proof and may add to further therapies down the line.
Brain freeze, Paula, as you mentioned, most of us have had that at some point, usually from eating our ice cream too fast. Well, a 13-year-old Canadian girl who likes ice cream so much decided that she would actually study this herself with her schoolmates and actually had them eat ice cream really fast, or more cautiously, as she put it.
Her conclusions: You are twice as likely to actually get this brain freeze if you eat your ice cream faster than those people who eat it more cautiously. Good news as well, all those headaches went away within about 10 seconds.
Interestingly as well, brain freeze, the more sciency (ph) part of it, is actually caused by the ice cream getting in and super cooling some of the nerves at the top of your mouth on your palette, and that actually causes that intense pain that people have that almost always goes away.
Paula, also coming up next hour, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about holiday eating, and I've got some interesting news about how much people -- how much weight people gain on average over the holidays. I think you're going to be surprised by that, and also, what people can do about it.
ZAHN: Oh, we don't want to hear about it before we dive into our huge Christmas feast.
GUPTA: I think you're going to be surprised, that's right.
ZAHN: Is it a lot, or is it less than we think?
GUPTA: It's actually less than you think.
ZAHN: Well, that's good.
GUPTA: But that's...
ZAHN: So, we will eat those cookies today without any sense of guilt.
GUPTA: But it sticks around with you longer than you think.
ZAHN: You should see what we have in the studio today, fudge, cookies -- we've got everything here. Sorry you're not here to help us gain five pounds...
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: Yes, we've got some down here as well. I'm trying to lay low on this.
ZAHN: All right, see you in a little bit, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Yes.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Strokes>
