Attorney General Michael Mukasey, 67, collapses while giving a speech at the Federalist Society dinner in Washington.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Last night, Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed while giving a speech. CNN had a camera rolling during the event, giving us an unusual look at what happened. I got a call in the middle of the night to come take a look. (Watch Video)  Even doctors, while we read about diseases and see patients after they end up in the ER, we hardly ever witness things like this. I decided to blog about it this morning, hoping we might all learn something from seeing what happened to Mukasey.

During his speech, he seemed to have word-finding difficulties. He started to say a word, paused and repeated it. He then began to slur his words, and had a slight drooping of the right side of his face. After that, he slumped forward and passed out, requiring assistance to the ground. All of these events serve as clues as to what may have caused the problem in the first place.

Word-finding difficulties are sometimes an indication there is a problem with the speech center of the brain, typically located on the left side of the brain. It could be because of inadequate blood flow to the brain or sometimes bleeding within the brain itself, as was the case in late 2006 with Sen. Tim Johnson. (Read more) The fact that the right side of his body began to droop and he slurred words was also important signs. After all, the right side of the body is controlled by the left brain. Another clue:  He seemed to pass out, probably because of overall decreased blood flow to the brain. And, finally, he reportedly is now doing well able to talk and in good spirits. Clearly, whatever caused this seems to be temporary.  It could have been a fainting spell.

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

When I am in the operating room, I am a very good decision maker. I make the right decision, and I make it quickly. Place a burr hole here instead of there. Extend the fusion to T1 instead of C7, or use a fenestrated clip instead of a straight one. I am good at those decisions. Ask me to pick out a tie in the morning, and I am seemingly paralyzed until my sleepy wife comes over and yanks one out and hands it to me. It is always the perfect tie and no surprise; she thinks I am a terrible decision maker. She thinks I can be wishy washy.

When it comes to decision making, I am apparently not alone. And, thanks to Sam Wang, a neuroscientist from Princeton, (read study) I may have a pretty good defense. There is no question there are still a lot of people who are undecided when it comes to picking a president, and Sam has a pretty good idea why. He, along with his colleagues think peering into the brain may offer a few clues.

Generally speaking, decision-making can be broken down into two distinctive pieces. The first part is when you gather evidence, and then second part is when you commit. That can be like a switch going off. In the brain of an undecided voter, it may be that “evidence gathering” part that is simply taking longer. It’s not that these undecided are indifferent, according to Wang, but they are more willing to take their time, essentially trading off speed for accuracy. At some point though, they typically hit a tipping point and the decision is activated.

Other undecided voters may have an even more interesting process happening. They have already made up their minds, but they haven’t committed yet. They will tell you they are undecided, even though their brain has gathered the necessary evidence and a decision has been activated. Often times, people around them already know the individual’s decision, before the individual does. When my wife picks out that tie for me, she may already know that tie is my preference, even though I haven’t decided yet. There is a third group as well. This is a group that thinks they have decided, but when it comes to actually voting, they switch their minds at the last second. They thought they were committed emotionally, but the brain had gathered evidence and pointed them in a different direction.

It gets a little confusing… Read More…

Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

I’m not a big fan of massages. As a neurosurgeon, I’ve never been completely convinced that the science behind them is all that sound. Yet there’s no denying that they’re popular — particularly among baby boomers and others who try to get active and stay fit with bodies that seem to grow achier all the time. But increasingly, research is showing that all those boomers may be onto something — that there are solid reasons for just about everyone to consider getting a good rubdown.

Investigators at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine recently took a close look at the effect of massage on a very specific group of people who might be most in need of pampering: cancer patients. In a study of 380 adults with advanced-stage cancer and at least moderate pain, the researchers found that those who received massage therapy had greater improvement in pain and mood than patients who were touched in a manner similar to massage but without the precise motion and pressure a trained therapist uses.

For these patients, even a little relief can mean a lot. Generally, about a third of cancer patients experience significant pain. As for mood, according to the National Cancer Institute, 15% to 25% of cancer patients become clinically depressed at some point during their illness. And the very nature of treatment for a serious illness often makes things worse.

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta interviews Leslie and Jack Warden in Herculaneum, Missouri.

Chris Gajilan
CNN Medical Senior Producer

It’s been one of the toughest and most complex stories I’ve ever worked on: Smokestacks belching dark clouds of lead, arsenic, cadmium into the air; children live with more than four times the safe limit of lead pumping through their blood; people who believe they have lost loved ones to the toxic conditions of where they live.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta and I have been traveling for the upcoming documentary “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines.” We visited the small town of La Oroya, Peru a couple of times during the past year. This town nestled in the Andes mountains is home to the Doe Run Peru smelting complex, where metal-laden rock is brought for processing into raw materials such as lead, copper and zinc. It is a place where the air irritates the eyes, befouls the mouth, stings the nostrils and heavies the chest. In this town of 35,000 people, 99 percent of children living in and around La Oroya have blood lead levels that exceed acceptable limits, according to studies carried out by the director general of environmental health in Peru in 1999.

Consider this: People shouldn’t naturally have lead in their bodies. The upper safe limit set by the World Health Organization is 10 mg/dL. But even more recent findings from La Oroya show that the situation is still very grim. We were joined there by Fernando Serrano, a St. Louis University researcher, whose 2005 study found that children had an average blood lead level of 36.1 mg/dL to 32.4 mg/dL. That’s more than three times the safe limit!

Lead poisoning is insidious. Children who have high levels of lead in their bodies can appear healthy but may suffer long-term consequences such as developmental disorders, mood disorders and in some cases, retardation. The young are most at risk because their tissue is more susceptible to the toxicities of lead.

Read more…

Programming note: Don’t miss CNN Special Investigations Unit “Fit to Lead” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET

Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about double standards when it comes to the health of the presidential candidates. An ad from the group Brave New Films that ran in the New York Times called for Sen. John McCain to release all his medical records to the public, not just journalists. McCain campaign officials told us this was a double standard, reminding us that Sen. Barack Obama released only a one-page summary, basically stating he was in excellent health.

But, when it comes to double standards, there is something else worth considering. We have retirement ages for many different professions in this country. CEOs at many large companies including American Airlines, Boeing and Exxon are required to step down at 65. Airline pilots, for example, must retire at 65, a limit set by Congress. Generals and admirals in the U.S. military face a mandatory retirement age of 64, even though their commander-in-chief does not. As we all know, there is no mandatory retirement age for president.

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CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta uncovers the health secrets of presidents past and future.

A few weeks ago I saw something extraordinary: the medical planning book for one of President Bush’s presidential trips. It was almost three dozen pages. Not a briefing book, not a policy paper, just collected medical information, itineraries, routes and contact information for every possible specialist who might be in the area. What was really extraordinary is that this was no special moment – just a simple day trip, a half-day of official business in another state.

The president is no ordinary patient. As we put together a documentary, “Fit to Lead,” about White House medical care, we’ve seen again and again that caring for the president comes with special considerations. The logistics alone are staggering. Along with planning books like the one I saw, the president always has his doctor nearby, or one of a handful of backups on the White House medical staff. Air Force One has a mobile operating room on board. When the president is in a foreign country, some poor medical staffer has to lug around a heavy cooler filled with containers of the president’s blood type.

The stakes are high, but presidents are flesh and blood, subject to the same ailments as the rest of us. It’s just that when the president gets sick, it can change the course of history. Franklin Roosevelt was suffering from congestive heart failure at the Yalta peace talks after World War Two. He died two months later. Some historians say he wasn’t thinking clearly – that he never would have given Joseph Stalin so much control over Eastern Europe if he weren’t so sick and physically weak. Of course we’ll never know for sure.

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Programming note: Don’t miss CNN Special Investigations Unit “Fit to Lead” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th at 8p and 11p ET

Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us into a small village near Lima, Peru hospital where tuberculosis is running rampant, in part due to the impoverished living conditions. He looks at the work Partners in Health and the Peruvian government are doing to prevent and contain outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

While on assignment in the mountains of Peru, Dr. Sanjay Gupta experienced the dangers of altitude sickness firsthand. After ten minutes of pure oxygen treatments, he felt much better and returned to work reporting on a dangerous public health threat in a nearby village.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows how people in La Oroya, Peru, try to reduce exposure to arsenic, lead and other heavy metals thrown off by an American-owned smelter. Health and environmental groups have filed a petition urging the Peruvian government take urgent action to protect people from illnesses and death.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta | Bio
Chief Medical Correspondent

Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us into the tuberculosis ward of a Lima, Peru hospital. Donning a mask, he shows us patients who are masked and hospitalized to contain infection. He also shows us x-rays of a TB infected person.