LKL Web Exclusive

By Dr. Deepak Chopra

The best thing that could come out of the debate on health care reform won't be the passage of a bill in Congress. It will be a shift in personal attitudes. Health care happens one person at a time. So let me speak personally to you. If you want the best possible health for yourself, the most important thing you can do  today is talk to your genes.

I doubt that any doctor has ever made that recommendation. All of us, including medical students, were led to believe that genes are fixed. The ones we are born with don't change; new ones cannot be added. Those facts remain the same, but there's a huge story being overlooked. Genes have no effect unless they are switched on, and when you switch on beneficial genes, every cell in your body benefits.

Recent research by Dr. Dean Ornish and his colleagues has shown that adopting positive measures including exercise, meditation, and diet creates beneficial changes in five hundred genes.

This single finding could revolutionize your health, because what it means is that every bite of food you eat, every step on the treadmill, every moment of deep relaxation is talking to your genes. And your genes talk back by sending chemical signals to every cell indicating how your life is going.

Genes are alert, and when you change anything in your life, they respond.

Nothing is left out. Your cells are getting chemical signals right now that tell them if you are in a good or bad mood. They know if you ate trans fats at lunch, if you are in love, or if you inhale polluted air.

Now is the time to take advantage of this breakthrough by talking to your genes in a new way. Forty years ago it was an uphill battle to convince Americans that smoking was dangerous, but eventually attitudes shifted and a major health risk was dramatically diminished. At present the big risks are just as controllable. They include obesity, sedentary living, and stress.

Start to talk to your genes about these issues. This isn't just another call to get you to exercise, meditate, and diet. Those are all good things, and yet most people ignore them. Why? Because despite their best intentions, people are conditioned by old habits. Your body can't break those habits on its own, but it can become your ally.

To win your body over, take a walk when it's beautiful outside, devote five minutes to meditation or stress management, nourish yourself with healthy food, and above all, be aware that the power to change rests with you. Small beginnings can lead to major results once you know that each step is like a conversation with your body. Your genes are listening.  Tell them something good as often as you can.

Deepak Chopra is the author of over 50 books on health, success, relationships and spirituality, including his current bestseller, "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul," available now at  http://www.deepakchopra.com.

Filed under: Health • Larry King Live • LKL Web Exclusive

World champion fighter and Olympic gold medalist, Oscar de la Hoya, cut the ribbon on a brand new building for his Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter School in East Los Angeles this morning. De la Hoya, who has donated millions of dollars to open the school, answered our "5 Questions" about education, motivation and giving kids a 'fighting' chance...

5 Questions for Oscar de la Hoya:

LKL Blog: You've donated millions of dollars of your own money to create and build this school. Why was it so important to you to see this school opened?

Oscar de la Hoya: Well, it's all about opportunity for the kids. Ever since my mother passed away from breast cancer in 1991, her dying wishes were that the more you receive, the more you give back. So whatever I can do to help out in, first off, my community & in my country, I'm going to do whatever it takes. And this opportunity presented itself and it was a no-brainer for me because all we're doing is giving these kids the opportunity.

LKL Blog: What are the challenges facing kids today – not only in East Los Angeles, where this school is, but in other parts of the country?

Oscar de la Hoya: I think the challenges are them feeling that people don’t care, that people are not paying attention. What we've done here at the Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School is that we've made sure that the parents are involved. We've made sure that the teachers care about the students, they pay attention, they treat the students as if they were their own kids. We make sure that we devote our time & give them the necessary time to succeed. All the kids want is someone to care. Someone to care, someone to feel they care & someone to pay attention to them.

LKL Blog: What was school like for you? You grew up in East Los Angeles and have said it's important to keep a positive attitude and focus on your goals. What motivated you to do that?

Oscar de la Hoya: Well I went to Garfield High School which was a very difficult neighborhood to grow up in which was in East Los Angeles. It was overcrowded, kids obviously wanted to learn but we didn't have too many passionate teachers who wanted to teach us. It was very difficult. Very difficult but I've always maintained my focus. I've always been able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think the most important thing today is that kids have to keep a positive attitude, the feeling of never giving up. Yes, life is a struggle. Life is difficult. And to reach your goals can take a very long time but the ultimate message here is to never give up.

LKL Blog: Was there a teacher or a person who you looked up to? Who was that? How did they change you?

Oscar de la Hoya: My government teacher in High School, Mr. Benson, who I owe everything to because there were times when I had difficult moments in my life where I did want to drop out of school, or I didn't care, or I wasn't paying attention to my grades. And Mr. Benson cared about me. He cared about what I did with my life; he cared about my future. He spent time with me during the class teaching me & telling me and just feeling that energy from him that he did care of what I became, really changed my life. That's what kids want today: people who care; teachers who really take their time to make sure that the students are going to be well off.

LKL Blog: The Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School, which is celebrating the grand opening of its new facility this week, has been ranked #53 in the nation by US News – what do you attribute that success to? What is the school doing differently?

Oscar de la Hoya: I believe that it's the devotion, the passion and also the fact that the parents have to be involved. They have no choice but to be involved with the education of their kids. One thing that the Green Dot Schools do, including my school, is that parents have to sign contracts and donate several hours a year to be with their kids and teach them and donate their time. And I believe the fact that it's a school in Los Angeles and it's a school named after my name makes the kids feel proud. They feel proud that they're representing a champion, a champion in boxing. I believe it's a school becoming where yes, I became a champion in boxing but the students have an opportunity to become a champion in life. So they really want to succeed and make me proud, and make the school proud, and ultimately make their city proud, and eventually making their country proud. That's one of the reasons why I feel this school has been very successful.

Filed under: 5 Questions • Larry King Live

By Gerald Posner via The Daily Beast

Last week I received a telephone call from a photo agent in London who I had met in 1999 while investigating the death of Princess Di for Talk magazine.

Then, he had helped me chase down rumors of photos snapped immediately after the accident in the Pont Alma tunnel. In the spring of ’99, surrounded by tight security in a clandestine location, I was shown low-resolution images of a dying Diana still trapped in the crumpled Mercedes. Those pictures were offered to me for $2 million. I passed.

Some of the less graphic ones were finally aired in 2004 by CBS’s 48 Hours. CBS was widely condemned for showing the pictures, from Diana's brother who said he was "sickened" to Prime Minister Tony Blair who called the broadcast of the grainy black-and-white images "distasteful."

But the call from London was not this time about Di. It was about Michael Jackson, and an equally distasteful photo, one supposedly snapped at Jackson’s autopsy. “There are rumors that a photo is being flashed around Los Angeles,” he told me. “Supposedly was given to someone from who was at the autopsy.”

If what he told me was true, it would constitute a remarkable breach of security for the Los Angeles investigators on the Jackson death probe, as well as the coroner’s office where the autopsy was conducted.

Since that call, The Daily Beast followed a trail through dozens of people in the U.S. and Europe and tracked down a prominent Los Angeles restaurant owner who has a high-resolution copy of what is evidently a photo from the Jackson autopsy.

That person has shown it to friends on his BlackBerry, including several California-based television executives. The restaurant owner told at least one of those TV execs that the photo had been given to him by a “high-ranking police friend.”

(READ MORE)

Filed under: Michael Jackson

(People.com) - Jon Gosselin has more relationship drama on his hands.

Hailey Glassman said her reality star boyfriend is emotionally abusive - and she's sick of it.

"He'll call me and take his anger out on me," Glassman, 22, said in a two-part interview scheduled to air on "The Insider" beginning Thursday. "He has 'mantrums.' I shouldn't have to put up with being emotionally abused. I cry and say, 'Why are you so mean to me?' "

But she may not get a straight answer. "Sometimes he has trouble with the truth," she said, "and he will dance and dance around his lies. He's like Jekyll and Hyde. But I still love him."

Ever since she started dating Gosselin, Glassman said her life has changed - and not necessarily for the better.  "I met Jon in a bubble," she said. "I'd never seen the show. I had no idea."

(read more)

Filed under: Jon & Kate Gosselin • Larry King Live

She had come alone to the Richmond High School homecoming dance, gorgeous in a sparkling purple dress and faux diamond baubles. The DJ played salsa, meringue, rap. When the teenager disappeared, her friends thought she had gone home early.

Except she never said goodbye.

"We were going to go look for her," said Kami Baker, 16, a junior at the school.

The next day, Baker learned the ugly truth about what had happened to her friend.

She had been gang raped and beaten for almost two-and-a-half hours and left unconscious under a bench shortly before midnight Saturday night.

"I busted up crying," Baker said.

The campus incident in the Bay Area city north of Oakland has shaken students and their families. Baker was one of many people connected to the school and the community who lashed out at officials at a public safety hearing Wednesday.

Baker blamed school district officials for not doing enough to protect her school - and her friend. She said none of the four officers who were at the homecoming dance was patrolling the school premises even though there were a dozen young men hanging out just a few feet from the gym entrance. She says school officials chose not to take any action.

(read more)

Filed under: Justice • Larry King Live

via CNNMoney.com

Stressful jobs that pay badly

High stress and a meager paycheck are just another day at the office for fundraisers, therapists and probation officers. Here are 15 of the most overworked and underpaid professions out there according to those surveyed by PayScale.com.

(Stressful Jobs That Pay Poorly)

Filed under: Larry King Live

By Jim Farber via New York Daily News

It's impossible to have just one reaction to the new Michael Jackson documentary, "This Is It." Every scene in the film – which chronicles the star's rehearsals for his proposed comeback – brings on a bottleneck of emotions, from sadness to exhilaration, promise to loss.

How could it not, considering the film recreates the preparation for something that never happened, starring someone who's no longer here?

In that sense, "This Is It" operates as much like a mystery story as a documentary, raising a series of nagging questions:

• Would the expertly reconstructed rehearsals shown in this film have resulted in the peak shows Jackson pined for?
• Would the event be thrilling enough to upstage – at least temporarily – all the garish headlines that have chased the star for years?
• And would Jackson be fit enough to go through no fewer than 50 of these hard singing and dancing extravaganzas planned for London's 02 Arena?

We'll never have the answer to any of those questions. But at least the evidence left by this 111 minute documentary definitively ends one nagging notion: That Jackson entered this venture cynically or without proper preparation.

(READ MORE)

Filed under: Michael Jackson

Filed under: Larry King Live

Sherri Shepherd, co-host of The View, star of the Lifetime comedy, Sherri, and author of the new book, Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break, recently sat down with Larry to talk about her life.   After the show, she answered our "5 Questions."

1. LKL Blog:  Your new book is about giving yourself permission slips to make mistakes in life.  Is it harder to forgive yourself for mistakes that you’ve made or to forgive others for mistakes that they’ve made?

Sherri Shepherd

Sherri Shepherd: I think it’s harder to forgive ourselves for mistakes that we made because we keep dwelling on it.  We want to know how it affects other people, if they liked us for it, if they didn’t like us.  I think we stress over it, we replay it in our mind.  It becomes an old tape that years later we continue to play it in our mind.

2. LKL Blog:  Besides yourself, who is the last person that you had to forgive?

Sherri Shepherd: My son, because we were wrestling and he kicked me right in my eye and I said, “you hurt mommy.”  And he didn’t care!  He laughed manically.  I really had to forgive my son because I know that’s going to happen a lot.

3. LKL Blog:  You talk very candidly about the struggles you’ve had in your life.  What’s the best piece of advice someone has given you and why?

Sherri Shepherd: The best piece of advice someone has ever given me was 'do it scared'.  And no matter if you’re scared, just go ahead and do it anyway because you might as well do it scared, so it will get done and you will feel so much better if you step out of your comfort zone.
Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: 5 Questions • Larry King Live

Filed under: Larry King Live • Michael Jackson