Mindful meditation the breathing, the movements, small, subtle or more involved all techniques that any and everybody can benefit from. One way or the other. Inhale. Reporter Einstein Medical Center offers spiritual care and mindfulness to all its patients and employees. Its definitely like mind, body, soul. Rising and passin passing. Lakeesha murray has only been at it for few weeks and already she feels benefits at home and working with patients. I feel more flexible. My sleep pattern has improved like im not as restless. Ive been going to bed earlier. Reporter all that she says from simple breathing techniques throughout her day. Absolutely more than breathinbreathing. Theres Health Benefits ranging from helping us with stress, anxiety, depression. A whole host of coping with physical illnesses, cancer, irritable bowel, psoriasis. The range is really broad. Reporter einstein spiritual care and mindfulness director laura romano says no, it wont stop stress from coming and it wont shut off all your thoughts. Just help you manage it before it spirals out of control. Mindfulness is much more in the main stream now and that the thats thanks to all the scientific research. Reporter cancer patient and those with chronic illness are most surprised even in the middle of grueling treatment. They can enjoy a moment with Family Member or a friend. But its hard to enjoy that if your mind is busy being really afraid of whats going to happen next week or, you know, even beyond that. Reporter lindsay birkland gets centered before she gets out of her car. Ive calmed down a little bit and it wasnt like you have to do intense yoga breath its super labor. It was just sitting there for five minutes and allowing yourself to do that. All right. Ticks you know those scary bugs you check your body for after going in the woods they can cause Serious Health problems. In fact those tick bites can kill you. A local university is at the forefront of battling the consequences of those insects as one heart broken family tries to spread the word. Heres joyce. I mean in six days he went from, you know, just being sick to passing away. And were like in total shock. Reporter a healthy and very active husband and father of two. Jeff, of newtown, buck county, cut down right before his fami familys eyes. Fever, sweats, jaundice. Reporter organ failure, live support. Its really terrifying. I mean he was only 50 years old. Reporter didnt make it to see his daughter off to college, his son enter high school. And the fact that this is from a tick its just so senseless. Reporter but chrissy says jeff had been bitten boy lots of ticks in his lifetime. Some right in their backyard. But this one tick apparently carried a parasite. It raged right through his body like malaria doctors say before it was diagnose. Then Everybody Knows about lyme disease what to look for but nobody knows anything about this. If you know what youre looking for. You can move faster. They can get the drug treatment they need and get better. Reporter Drexel University micro biology and immunology researchers are asking people all over the country to send them ticks. All kinds of ticks. All colors, all sizes, dead or alive. What were trying to figure out in here is what kind of bacteria, what kind of viruses, what kind of parasites are inside of these ticks. Reporter what they found so far up to 60 different bacterias. What . Yes. 60, one of our ticks we found 60 different bacterias. Reporter and dr. Control says you might react to more than one bacteria. We know that ticks can cause 20 different diseases. Reporter making earlier detection even more crucial. Its not easy to treat single infection but if you have more infections its even harder. Reporter while scientists do their work, chrissy is spreading the word of the nightmare her family still suffers. I want to bring the airway airwaysness out there. I want people to know. Report roar joyce evans, fox 29 news. Those drexel researchers are encouraging towsend in ticks dead or alive in a sealed vacuum bag for their studies. For more information about ticks just head to fox 29. Com. All righty. So you ditch the soda. You went for that fizzy water like joyce and i do. Think its healthy, right . Oh, dentists says think again. Thats next. You probably thought you were doing yourself a favor passing up those darker colored sugary showed todays for something clear and bubbly like seltzer water. Right. But could you be doing just as much harm to your body . Specifically your teeth . That is horrifying to me. Joyce has the details that probably wont leave you smili smiling. Reporter no sugar, no calories, no color. Little to no sodium. Flavored or unflavored watch could go wrong. Some of these teeth theres probably almost 50 tooth structure lost. Reporter not from this . All about the ph of these beverages is too low. Just started to weaken the enamel and almost just dissolve all the enamel away to where now the more of the underlying tooth is exposed. Its the people that abuse it and drink it like all day every day. I mean we see it all in time in dentistry. Reporter dave and mike say theyre repairing more than damage caused by teeth grinding. Fairly young as well. Reporter they say the damage to teeth teeth from heavy soda drinkers with or without flavors and sugar is often overlooked. Its still not that well known in the dental community. If your grinding in the presence of acid it can accelerate it even faster. You can make the condition worse if its not diagnosed properly. Reporter they say by trapping the acid inside a night guard, for example, or by brushing your teeth right after youve had some fizzy drink. Really . Youre actually brushing acid right into your teeth. Youre actually causing more harm than good many. Reporter doctors say they know no body is going to go cold turkey on their favorite drink. I mean thats just hard to do. But at least cut it down or dilute it with some water or try to drink through a straw. Those are some Different Things to try to avoid direct contact witness teeth. Joyce and i still have our fizzy waters now and again of course. Nothing wrong in moderation, thats fine. That was our problem was the moderation part. Joyce tackled another claim as well that those fizzy bubbles can expand your stomach making you feel hungrier there are are therefore eating more and gaining instead of losing weig weight. She talk with nutrition and weight loss experts who say dont believe the hype. Good, thats right. Some veterans dealing with ptsd say medical marijuana is saving their lives. True or not . Does it even matter . And you could have diabetes and not even know it. In fact doctors say its a lot more common than you think. A diagnosis of post Traumatic Stress disorder could qualify you for medical marijuana in many states but one study says no evidence shows that marijuana is an effective treatment for ptsd. Or many kinds of chronic pain for that matter and that in some cases marijuana may even make ptsd worse. Joyce talked with a number of military vets wondering how the va study might affect prescriptions for medical marijuana including a marine corps veteran who says its saving his life but its not the only thing. I would rather be a little bit anxious than be drooling on myself or want to commit suicide the way that the pills that i was on made me feel. Reporter retired marine Staff Sergeant mike rider came home from iraq and kosovo facing anxiety, depression, ptsd pain. Over period of five years i was on 40 different medications. Reporter now hes down to two pills a day and his medical marijuana. I can tell that you cannabis works for me. It might not work for everybody. Reporter mike explains it didnt happen overnight and it takes more than cannabis to keep his fears, pain and demons in check. If i just used cannabis and didnt go to therapy and didnt really work on myself to try and get over the hurdles that high to get over, i wouldnt be where i am now. Reporter he says hes felt the side effects outlined in the new va study finding marijuana may not help with most chronic pain and might even make ptsd symptoms worse. I wasnt being careful about how much i was taking. I wasnt being careful about dosages. I was more interested in getting stoned, right . So id take big dab havent panic attack. Because thats what happens when you consume massive quantities of cannabis it makes i was little anxious. Reporter much more than anxious according to anxiety and depression experts who worry that too much mary want is being used too often as a coverup, not getting to the roost of the problems. Still they agree that the va study is inclusive and much more is need. I think theyre trying scare people a little bit. But i think that the doctor needs to follow along and see how the patient reacts to this strain. How the patient reacts to this strain. Possible connection between poor hearing or eyesight and dementia its something researchers have been looking into for years particularly with much older americans. You know they found the prevalence of dementia doubling every 20 years among 70 and 80yearolds are we taking enough care of our senses decades before we get there . Heres joyce. How is your hearing and your vision . I think its good enough. Reporter have you had your hearing checked . Its been awhile. Its been awhile. Reporter they might want to think the results of a recent study looking at people just a generation older. Your parents or grandparents. It found further evidence that poor or uncorrected vision and hearing abilities can put such a drain on the brains cognitive functions that it can speed up the onset of dementia significantly by three to sick years. Im surprised to hear that. Your brain has to process at a higher rate in order to fill in the gaps of what youre not really hearing. Reporter or seeing. Even more surprising says jefferson ent surgeon dr. Thomas wilcox the effect can begin at very mild. You dont have to be severely impaired and theyre seeing evidence of earlier and more pronounced dementia theres a greater trend towards dementia. Reporter exactly how it happens theyre still studying but folks like martha, have their theories. You know what i really worry about . How were all wearing headphones almost all the time these days. And nobody knows at what volume were listening to. The personal listening devices have been more regulated. Reporter heres worried about the reasons why possible dont get their vision and hearing checked or corrected. Especially the hearing. Theres social stigma appearance. People dont want to be seen with hearing aids. Well wear glasses. Reporter hearing aids arent very fashionable and they can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. You become socially isolated. You need to get your vision corrected and your hearing corrected just your brain is not for to do over work. Type two diabetes and pre diabetes numbers are staggering but once the numbers of people who are Walking Around with it havent no idea. Its come to point that doctors are wondering just what it will take to get people to pay better attention to their blood sugar levels. Joyce spoke with couple of patients and some medical experts who say it takes more than just medicine. Like a normal thing. Running back and forth to the bathroom. Normal to meme the times i felt jittery i just didnt feel like myself i just felt like its the heat. Reporter any excuse Karen Henderson could think of for months. I started feeling really bad and i was Drinking Water and i was laying around and i was like wait a minute this is not normal. Reporter her doctor confirmed it. She said, maybe we need to check you for diabetes. I was like, oh, it aint that. You know. I aint no diabetic. Reporter karens blood she garey sealed type two diabetes but the good news only oral medication was required. Want this medicine y want to did he pepped on because if i miss then what do i do. Reporter karen has lots of company. 100 million americans have diabetes or prediabetes, and heres the worst of it. Theyre coming in with the disease already in play and they dont even know it. Reporter according to the cdc, tens of millions of pre diabetics had no idea they have a condition putting them at hire risk for Heart Disease and stroke. It is very rare that someone presents with a classic signs and symptoms. Reporter another reason people may not know says Nurse Practitioner gale partridge at Drexel Universitys 11th Street Family Health services center. They come in for a cold. I say youre overdue for your labs and i grab their labs. We get their labs and, boom, diabetes or prediabetes. Reporter some are already severe enough they need insulin immediately. I was like, i cant. Reporter dzhokhar ren dug in. This is for the family. I changed my weight habit totally. I lost 28 pounds even havent been on my medication for three years. She was so good at dropping or cutting back the bad foods and creating new recipes for healthy meals that taste good that she volunteered to show others. She was so good at that, she was hired to run a cooking Nutrition Program at the 11th Street Family Services clinic. You have to wanted to this. Reporter she even got her fiance mark beckham working to drop his meds, too. Ive lost 8 pounds, you know, i come to the gym here twice a week and i do my personal training twice week, and it works for me. Youre determined. You feel better. Much better. Both karen and mark say they have so much energy now. Theyre more active with their young grandkids. Eating better and cutting back on grease, sugar and portion. Exercise some and they follow their doctors orders. We have more details about diabetes on our website easy to find just head to fox29. Com. All right. I know that you havent been sniffling or sneezing lately. I have been, though. Dealing with dreaded allergies. You might be at home as well. Is there anything you can do . Yes, there is. Sniffles and itchy eyes weve seen a lot of it even in our newsroom. If youre treating it with medicine are you sure you got the right kind . Joyce evans talk to the experts about how you can feel better. I feel like were in the tropics. Reporter at least for the past couple of weeks or so allergy sufferers are feeling it. But not 14yearold dominique d. I matteo he does not skip his weekly allergy shots. Severe seasonal allergies side lined his budding football play three years ago. I was very miserable. I was not feeling great. 19yearold field hockey player alexis says all meds used to relieve her misery but not so much any more. The allergies have just been a mess. Ive been all over the place. Everything is red on me. Ive been itching. Reporter shes being reevaluated at asthma and Allergy Associates for possibly starting allergy shots. Its constant battle. But if youre aware of what triggers your symptoms, youre ahead of game. Reporter allergist dr. Sandra, says most people really dont know exactly what sets off their allergies or what exactly is irritated. You can have seasonal asthma where your symptoms only occur during a pollen season. Reporter she says you might need an inhaler, but you start taking the wrong meds way after the suffering is already started. You start the anti histamine. Many over the counter inter nasal steroids that are available. You start those and use those daily. Reporter but they dont work right away. Reporter so people get impatient then stopped. She said it takes from three to ten days to start feeling some row hef. Im doing pretty good. Reporter dominic has been doing so well the doctor change his shot schedule from weekly to every two weeks. Hes really worked at it. Exactly. Thats why you want to see your local allergist so you can find out what youre allergic to so you know when to start the medicine before the season and also to go on allergy immuno therapy to change how your body reacts. Immuno therapy actually work. My son is a allergic to cats and he was on shots and it worked. Good for him. Right. Thats it for us tonight. Stay right where you are. Fox 29 news at 11 00 is next. Hello, peco. Hi. Can you help me save on my energy bill . Old appliances. Like a hot water heater . Its around here somewhere. Nope. Nope. What is this thing . Sir, have you looked in the basement . Huh. Oh, yeah. No wonder. It was hidden behind all of my free weights. If youre not an expert, peco can help. We have lots of ways to help you save energy and money. Peco. The future is on