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SANJAY GUPTA MD

Health Workers Under Attack; World Cup Medical Breakthrough; Spice It Up

Aired June 14, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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


DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN HOST: Hey there, and welcome to a very special edition of SGMD.

I'm reporting from India all this week you can see the Taj Mahal behind me. It's beautiful. It's one of the seven wonders of the world. People come from all over the world to visit as you can see.

You know, it was built by an emperor and dedicated to the love of his life. It took an army of more than 20,000 artisans, engineers and architects more than 20 years to build. It was completed in 1653.

I'll be showing my three daughters this for the first time. You're going to meet them later in the show.

Just ahead, a story that I can't wait to share with you. It's about a paralyzed soccer player who is kicking off at the World Cup literally. You're going to see this paralyzed person walk across the field and kick a soccer ball.

How is this possible? Let me give you a clue. It involves a mind control vest.

Also, I love spicy foods. Some of it can be quite good for your health, but how do you know which ones? I decided to put together a guide today, spicy food as medicine.

But, first, earlier this week, I was in Pakistan where there's been this wave of awful violence. It started with a big attack on the airport in Karachi and I was sleeping not far away. In fact, my crew and I were woken up at about 1:00 a.m.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: There doesn't appear to be the passengers themselves, either passengers are waiting, passenger are arriving, were targeted or any of them had been involved in this particular attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Gun fights and grenades being launched, suicide bombers. At least 30 people were killed. And it lasted more than five hours coming to a stop just around the time of morning prayers. And within a day CNN was coving yet a second wave of attacks.

I've seen this type of violence in so many places around the world and I've also seen how harmful this type of instability can be on the health of a nation. Sometimes in unexpected ways. Case in point, the international campaign to wipe out polio. This area is one of the last parts of the world where this is still a problem. I've seen it first hand on one of my previous trips to India 10 years ago.

I spent time then with health care workers who were going door to door, giving out drops of polio vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: This is Moradabad, India, northern Indian, and you can see some of the conditions here that might lead to the spread of polio, first of all the water. You can see how dirty it is.

Where are we going here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The household of the family.

GUPTA: We also stopped at a clinic where a nurse was tending to a line of small children. First, a shot to prevent tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.

And then the polio drops. To be effective the child needs to get the drops on at least four separate occasions.

It will take millions of dollars and people as well. But what it comes down to is this, going house to house, and taking these children and make sure they get the polio vaccine and then documenting in chalk outside their house the name of their house and the date which they were immunized, that's going to be the strategy to once and all eradicate polio from the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Back then, polio was a big problem in India, but not now. In fact, there have been no new cases reported here in three years, 99 percent of polio in the entire world has been wiped out, but it has recently made a comeback, most alarmingly in Pakistan. That's the country I just left. And a big reason for that is that violence and also the threat of violence that targets health care workers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): They call these people stoppers, as in stopping polio.

(on camera): You go door to door?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: And when you go, and you knock on somebody's door and they answer, what do you say to them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When someone doesn't answer, I go back.

GUPTA (voice-over): You'd think they'd be welcomed, protecting people against a virus that leaves children paralyzed or dead, but lately, it's become dangerous work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're attacked by armed gunmen.

GUPTA: Last year, I spoke with a stopper who was shot and nearly killed near Karachi.

CONSTANT: We just saw two guys on a motor bike. They just crossed us and started shooting at us. One guy was wounding two people in the hand. He was just shooting.

GUPTA (on camera): When you turned around and started fleeing, were they pursuing you? They were trying to kill you?

CONSTANT, VACCINATOR WOUNDED IN SHOOTING: They were trying to kill us.

GUPTA (voice-over): Constant and his driver survived, although Constant took a bullet to the abdomen and spent months recovering. Since then, the attacks have only become more common. More than 30 health care workers killed in just the past two years.

TAHIRA PARVEEN, UNICEF: Law and order situation is not good over here. Because of this, they are feeling fear, and they can't reach every child at their homes. This is the major problem.

GUPTA: As I saw this week, violence is a threat even in Pakistan's most developed cities.

A report from the global coalition working to eradicate polio calls the situation here dire. Polio, like other diseases, thrives on chaos. Last year the virus spread from Pakistan to Syria, where an outbreak took hold in the midst of a civil war.

Another big polio trouble spot is Nigeria, which has been fighting off the Boko Haram terrorists. All told, polio is still paralyzing children in 10 countries.

Despite the dangers here in Pakistan, the stoppers will be out in full force again this week with bravery and fresh determination. Constant is no longer in Pakistan but he is still on the job.

(on camera): What about your own safety?

CONSTANT: I know for sure God will save me. He's ready for the battle to save the children and make sure that polio is eradicated from the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And many of the health care workers I have met, they're also angry about this episode they have said that made things even worse. This is quite a story you may not know but when U.S. forces tracked down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad two years ago, they were helped by a local doctor who was running a vaccination campaign.

Now, these weren't polio workers per se, but nevertheless, many workers think it made them even more of a target for radical fighters. Just imagine that. You're trying to help others, and you're coming under attack yourself.

Well, just last month, the White House made public a letter which specifically spells this out -- the CIA will not use vaccination campaigns as a cover for spying or for military operations. That's the promise. We'll see what happens. Still a lot of trust to win back.

Now, one thing I should point out is the World Health Organization recommendation that anyone who leaves the country of Pakistan be vaccinated against polio and provide that documentation.

Well, next, I'm going to shift gears from the Taj Mahal you see behind me, this monument of love, to another object of passion -- and this is one for hundreds of millions of people around the world.

If you haven't guessed what I'm talking about by now -- of course, it's soccer. The amazing medical breakthrough behind the kickoff at this year's World Cup.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUPTA: Welcome back to a very special edition of SGMD from India. That's the Taj Mahal behind me.

Now, no matter that India's team did not make the tournament in this year's World Cup. Everyone is still talking about soccer. In Brazil, the games are already under way, but for me, I'll tell you the biggest thrill so far was the ceremonial kickoff.

I don't know if you heard about this, but it is the culmination of some amazing work that I've been following now for the past two years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): This man is paralyzed and only able to walk with the help of this mind controlled exoskeleton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is like a robotic vest the two legs that a paraplegic person could wear.

GUPTA: The exoskeleton is the brainchild of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis. I first met aim at his Duke University lab a year and a half before the World Cup.

(on camera): So, what are we looking at here?

DR. MIGUEL NICOLELIS, DUKE UNIVERSITY: This is actually a brainstorm.

GUPTA: By brainstorm you mean, a burst --

NICOLELIS: Yes, a burst of electrical signals coming from hundreds of neurons over time. This is the alphabet of the brain. GUPTA (voice-over): And that alphabet becomes a language roughly

translated that can be understood by the exoskeleton.

NICOLELIS: These are the connectors.

GUPTA: Paper thin electrodes receive and transmit signals from the brain, allowing it to communicate with the exoskeleton and make it move.

NICOLELIS: You can read the signals and send them to devices, and these devices will move according to the voluntary motor intention of their primate. What we see here is the first prototype of the exoskeleton.

GUPTA: When I visited Dr. Nicolelis, the exoskeleton was working well with primates, the true test on the world's biggest stage would be an exoskeleton controlled by a human.

With just days before the World Cup opening ceremonies, Nicolelis and his team were working furiously.

NICOLELIS: We're in a race to try to get that demonstration going.

GUPTA: You see, it's not just about walking, but coordinating brain signals, muscle movements and spinal cord activity, and having all of that end with a kick.

According to Nicolelis, the exoskeleton's next steps could be even more stunning, helping all kinds of patients who are immobile.

(on camera): Maybe somebody who is quadriplegic, for example.

NICOLELIS: Yes. Or somebody that is quadriplegic, somebody with ALS, people with other neurodegenerative disorders. In our lifetime, we'll be walking New York or Sao Paulo and we will see a person walking on the street that could not walk before. I think in our lifetime, we will see that.

GUPTA: Kind of gives me shivers.

NICOLELIS: Me, too. Yes, I've been waiting for that for 30 years, so I think we will be able to see it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: You see something like that and, of course, it gives you hope. I mean, how can it not? But also part of the reason I wanted to share this story was because we all got a jolt this week when we heard that Amy van Dyken, she's the six-time Olympic swim medalist, severed her spine in an ATV accident and lost the use of her legs. Imagine this amazing athlete.

Now, the long-term prognosis isn't clear for her, whether she has a chance of even walking again. But she's not giving up. In fact, she sent a photo of herself with a big smile on her face. But for Amy and countless others, there is this woman out there who is trying to help by drawing on her own tough experiences.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): At 14 years old, Sabrina Cohen was your average teenager. She was building a social life simply trying to fit in. So, when a few older boys offered Sabrina and her friends a ride to a party, they jumped at the chance.

SABRINA COHEN, FOUNDER, SABRINA COHEN FOUNDATION: I just remember being concerned with things like not putting my seat belt on because I wouldn't have looked cool.

GUPTA: Getting into that car and not buckling up was a decision that would cost her dearly.

COHEN: Within minutes, they took off drag racing down one of Miami Beach's most dangerous streets about 90 miles per hour. The other car lost control, hit the car that I was in. We hit a tree. And I instantly became a quadriplegic.

GUPTA: Sabrina spent the first several months in denial.

COHEN: You know, I was more, like, I'm going to work out and I'm going to walk again.

GUPTA: It wasn't until she saw others with her condition that the reality set in. After several months of grueling rehab and soul searching, Sabrina decided to use her experience to help others.

COHEN: My principal approached me and said to me, would you do our school a favor and talk to the seniors about reckless driving and that was -- that was the start of my mentorship in public speaking and motivational speaking.

GUPTA: She graduated at the top of her class from high school, on time. Then she went on to get a dual degree in advertising and psychology from the University of Miami. A few years after college, she started the Sabrina Cohen Foundation.

COHEN: My focus now is to basically allocate funds to people who can't afford to get the best therapy.

GUPTA: She says leading by example especially when talking to children is key.

COHEN: I think I am an example that life can go on, and you can live a full life as I do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: That's a great story, an amazing one, and also among other things a reminder you obviously need to wear your seat belts.

Now, this week I spent a lot of time on the road. India's a big country. When I travel, I always try and eat like the locals -- the food, one of the best things about this country. The same goes for my friend Anthony Bourdain. In fact, we've got some tips on all this for you. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUPTA: Well, reporting from India today as you can see behind me, the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world.

One of my favorite things about traveling in India is the food and I recently spoke with my good friend and fellow traveler Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN's "PARTS UNKNOWN". He knows a thing or two when trying to eat on the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Welcome to the program. I'm a huge fan of yours. I love the program.

It's a fascinating job. I'm jealous at times to see the places that you go.

How do you pick?

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, CNN'S PARTS UNKNOWN: Literally, I sit around looking at a map with my camera people, and we talk about where's interesting, where can we go and that we've been before and tell a story in a new way or where we can go that we've never been before. How could we look at places we think we know about in a different way?

And also sometimes, just simple as what would be fascinating and fun for us. If I'm not having fun, I see no reason for anyone else to have fun.

GUPTA: Right.

Are there certain foods when you go into these places? Because you have such a variety of things. You go to a place like Vietnam, how do you select what you want to share with the viewer?

BOURDAIN: The thing we're always looking for first when we visit a place is we'll ask locals what are -- what's the food you are proudest of, the food that if you were away from home for a few months that you would miss most ferociously. The sort of -- the most typical, everyday beloved thing that expresses your personality, your personal history, your past.

GUPTA: How many days -- when you're in full shooting mode, what is your travel schedule like? How often are you traveling?

BOURDAIN: Generally speaking, for about the last decade or so, I've been traveling about six to nine months out of the year.

GUPTA: Wow.

BOURDAIN: Generally, about three weeks of travel per month around.

GUPTA: So, I'm sure you have routines. I travel a lot, not as much as you do, but you develop routines for on the road. Just in terms of your own health starting off with staying fit. Do

you exercise on the road? How do you find it in all these different places?

BOURDAIN: I try to pace myself. A real rule of thumb that we all follow on the crew is if the local people are eating it and a lot of them are eating it -- meaning if it's a street stall, it doesn't look particularly hygienic but it's packed with people, all of them enthusiastically eating something unidentifiable, we will eat that, and we will it with gusto and with chances are, it will be good and there'll be no payback.

We found over many years experience that you are far more likely to get ill from the breakfast buffet at the Western-style hotel or the tourist-friendly restaurant that tries to be, you know, everything to everybody. You can have the local specialty. But also nachos. That's -- that's going to be a problem.

GUPTA: Do you take anything ahead of time to -- I mean, vaccines just the routine ones I imagine? Anything else in terms of your stomach, things you need to do to protect yourself?

BOURDAIN: Extra time in the bathroom will happen. Other than the, you know, something to moderate that. We bring powerful antibiotics or Cipro or something like that if someone does get really badly poisoned.

But it almost never happens. I mean, India being an example of a place I've been many times. We just filmed in Punjab, the food is excellent.

GUPTA: Yes.

BOURDAIN: The hygiene is something that, you know, mom probably would be dismayed by, but I've never been ill in India, and I've always eaten well. And that's a place I never have any worries.

GUPTA: You're talking about the deli belly, of course, which some people have suffered from and will know what I'm talking about.

Anthony Bourdain, thank -- like I said, it goes without saying, I'm a big fan and just love having you here and will continue to watch. Thank you.

BOURDAIN: Thanks. It was fun.

GUPTA: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: What immediately hits you when you're here is the rich spiciness of the food and those spices aren't just about flavor, they're also about your health.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GUPTA: I'm here in the spice market of Old Delhi and it's just filled with these distinctive smells, something that I grew up with. My mom cooked a lot of Indian food in the house and served it to us and often with a healthy dose of "it's good for you".

Well, it turns out mom may have been right. Decades of research now show the benefits of some of these spices. Take these cumin seeds, for example, that's a really distinctive Indian flavor and also in Mexican food and it could help potentially with digestion and also the active ingredient in some asthma medications as well.

Something else you see in a lot of Indian food red hot chili peppers. Now, for a lot of people, that makes you cringe right away just thinking about red hot chili peppers. But even if you don't want the added kick to your food, you can take the active ingredient known as capsaicin and they use it in creams to help alleviate pain.

What about this? Turmeric, that's that distinctive color. You see them in a lot of Indian food. This may be one of the most potent antioxidants around and been help boost brain power and even help ward off Alzheimer's disease.

Now, one over here I may take home with me -- this is ginger, simple ginger. But also a very important spice when it comes to your health, especially when it comes to potentially warding off nausea and motion sickness, something that you may know that I'm prone to getting.

The point is that your food can be your medicine. It's a motto I live by and you can as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Here's a little tidbit from an Indian. My favorite Indian dish is something known as mutter paneer, cottage cheese and peas.

Now, the food isn't the only thing that's hot around here. The thermometer hit nearly 120 degrees this week. You can tell by looking at my face. And sometimes, it's just impossible to stay cool, so the single most important thing you can do anywhere in the world.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUPTA: The temperatures here in northern India are something we haven't seen in a long time, haven't had a heat wave like this in nearly two decades. Temperatures are getting up to 120 degrees. You can see the Taj Mahal behind me here.

People are walking around in this heat is very, very challenging for them. The smart ones are back here as you can see in the shade, trying to do anything to try and stay cool. But I can tell you, this is no joking matter. It's astonishing how quickly your body temperature can rise. You develop crams. You start to develop heat exhaustion and even heat stroke. The single most important thing you can do, this is very important, is to stay hydrated. We talk about this all the time. If you wait until you're thirsty, you've waited too long. What you really want to do is make sure you are drinking constantly.

And here's a simple mathematical formula -- take your weight in pounds and divide it in half, that's the number of ounces of water you should be drinking. You weigh 200 pounds, it's 100 ounces.

Also, a couple other things you can do. Check your pulse. It will rise 30 beats for every temperature rise of 1 degree Celsius. Pretty incredible. Again, a huge impact.

And also, keep in mind, if you stop sweating, I haven't done that yet, but if you do, that means your body's cooling system has already malfunctioned.

As I mentioned I'm here at the Taj Mahal, with my wife Rebecca and my daughters, Soleil, Sage, and Sky. And you know what? We're going to take our water. We're going to go see the Taj Mahal.

That's it for SGMD. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again here next week. Say good-bye, girls!

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: It's so hot!