daily dose of health news: Michael Douglas discusses stage 4 throat cancer on Letterman show

From the AP:

"You've never looked better to me, and this proves that you're a tough guy, for God's sakes," the talk-show host said, drawing cheers from the studio audience, according to a CBS news release.

"Let's just say ... I'm pretty lit up right now," Douglas replied.

Michael Douglas waves to the Late Show audience after a hug from host David Letterman during the Tuesday taping of the show in New York. Douglas said he faces an "eight-week struggle" against throat cancer but is optimistic about his chances for recovery.

Photo courtesy of CBS

The disease was diagnosed three weeks ago, he said, although he had complained of a very sore throat earlier this year and underwent testing that failed to find a cause.

Douglas, 65, who has two children with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, said he enjoyed the summer traveling with his family before returning to the doctor. A biopsy found he had late, stage-four cancer, "which is intense, and so they've had to go at it," he said.

However, Douglas said the cancer remains above the neck and that means expectations are good, with an 80 percent or better chance of recovery.

The never-ending Happy Meal

What does a McDonald’s Happy Meal look like almost five months after the purchase date? Eerily similar to what it did the day it was purchased, according to a Toronto Star article. 

A Canadian-reared New York artist named Sally Davies has been documenting the Happy Meal daily since April 10. According to the article, she’s not the first one to get this idea. Another woman has been keeping tabs on her McDonald’s hamburger since 1996, according to this blog. It looks exactly the same as it did on the purchase date; she uses it for show and tell for a workshop on childhood nutrition. Both women say they’ve done nothing to preserve their meals.

Federal Trade Commission files 54 lawsuits to stop healthcare scams

Don’t have insurance? Don’t confuse a medical discount benefit plan with health care. The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on bogus “medical discount plans” for deceptive marketing. The FTC filed 54 lawsuits in 24 states this month to stop the scams, targeted at those who don’t have health insurance, the unemployed and the uninsurable.

“With so many Americans struggling to deal with the costs of health care, these medical discount benefit plans sound appealing because they masquerade as health insurance,” David Gladbeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in an FTC press release. “But they are not insurance. They don’t offer the benefits of health insurance, and victims don’t know they’ve been ripped off until after they’ve tried to use the service and paid their bill.”

Juliana Keeping is a health and environment reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter