Michael Douglas reveals throat cancer at stage 4
Actor says he’s optimistic he can beat ‘intense’ disease at most advanced stage
Michael Douglas said on Tuesday he felt optimistic about recovering from throat cancer but drew gasps when he told a television audience he had the most advanced stage.
The 65-year-old “Wall Street” actor told talk-show host David Letterman that a biopsy indicated that his cancer was at stage 4, which he described as “intense, and so they’ve got to go at it …”
Letterman asked whether stage 4 was a good diagnosis. “Um no,” Douglas replied, according to a transcript provided by CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman.” “You like to be down at stage one … but it has not — the big thing you’re always worried about is it spreading.”
Stage 4 cancer has spread far beyond the original tumor and is usually impossible to cure. Read more
Whooping Cough
Once you become infected with whooping cough, it takes three to 12 days for signs and symptoms to appear. They’re usually mild at first and resemble those of a common cold:
- Runny nose
- Nasal congestion
- Sneezing
- Red, watery eyes
- A mild fever
- Dry cough
After a week or two, signs and symptoms worsen. Severe and prolonged coughing attacks may:
- Bring up thick phlegm
- Provoke vomiting
- Result in a red or blue face
- Cause extreme fatigue
- End with a high-pitched “whoop” sound during the next breath of air
However, many people — particularly infants, adolescents and adults — don’t develop the characteristic whoop. Sometimes, a persistent hacking cough is the only sign that an adolescent or adult has whooping cough. Read more
On Williams Syndrome Kids Show No Racial Bias
Kids with the genetic condition called Williams Syndrome have no social anxiety and are highly gregarious–and also exhibit no racial bias in standard social-bias experiments. Adam Hinterthuer reports.
People start stereotyping early. Even toddlers react positively to members of their own race, but often distrust those from different groups. The seeds of racism are planted in most everyone. Everyone, that is, except people with a rare genetic condition called Williams syndrome.
Williams syndrome is marked by heart defects, mental retardation, and a lack of social anxiety that produces exceedingly friendly human beings. And a new study published in the journal Current Biology finds that children with Williams syndrome don’t make racial stereotypes. Read more
