Sam Childers was once a drug dealer whose work often turned violent, but in the summer of 1992, he attended a church revival and decided to abandon his life of crime. After traveling to war-torn Sudan to find a way to aid children there, he founded an orphanage with his wife in what is now South Sudan. Childers came on The Takeaway in September to discuss his life, his orphanage, and making amends.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that fracking may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution. The controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells has been a source of debate across the country. The E.P.A. found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals. Health officials last year advised them not to drink their water after the E.P.A. found low levels hydrocarbons in their wells.

30 years ago, the first cases of AIDS were reported in the United States. Since then, more than 25 million people worldwide have died from the disease, and more than 34 million people are currently infected with HIV. Being diagnosed with HIV used to be the equivalent of a death sentence. But over the past few years, anti-viral drugs have become less expensive and more effective in fighting the disease, allowing life to go on for millions.

Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have petitioned the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses. Rhode Island and Washington state have already decriminalized medical marijuana in their states. But marijuana is currently classified by the federal government as a Schedule I controlled substance — the same category as heroin and LSD. It's a confusing distinction for many medical marijuana patients in those states. Governors Gregoire and Chafee say the federal government should reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance in order to cut down confusion for medial marijuana patients.

In Cleveland, Ohio an 8-year-old boy was removed from his home on the grounds that his severe obesity was the fault of his parental care. The young boy weighed over 200 pounds. For comparison, the average weight of an 8-year-old boy is about 60 pounds. The question isn't whether the boy was overweight, or whether his family could have done more in the 20 months that they were notified that his weight was a serious problem under consideration by the state. The question is whether or not foster care is really the best way to solve extreme obesity.

Perhaps the most common trade-off for working parents is the inability to give their kids home-cooked meals—even if they work in food service. John Besh, a working dad and James Beard award-winning chef who runs eight acclaimed restaurants, has written a book about his experiences trying to fix the gap between the food he prepares in his home and at work.

What's not to love about brisket? Author Stephanie "Stevie" Pierson is convinced that a good brisket will not only satiate your appetite but improve your life. Pierson wrote "The Brisket Book" after realizing that while the delicious dish is in many cookbooks it doesn't have one of its own. They're not hard to find either, as you can pick up a brisket at your local supermarket.

All month we’ve been talking about innovation — speaking to innovative people and discussing innovative ideas. Now we hear from  a woman who has designed a product for diabetics that not only solves a problem but is changing attitudes too. Jessica Floeh is the creator of Hanky Pancreas, a line of insulin pump accessories — scarves, neck pieces and other decorative items — that make the functional medical device fashionable.

The world’s population is set to reach seven billion on Monday, October 31, 2011. The Takeaway is talking about what this monumental number means for people, resources and the planet. One of the biggest questions is who exactly the seven billionth person will be and what his or her life will be like. Suzanne Petroni is vice president for global health at the Public Health Institute, and she has some surprising predictions on who this person might be.

Malaria kills about 780,000 people a year, and most of them are children in Africa. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made eradication of the disease a top priority. On Tuesday, the organization touted the results of a study that showed a vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline protected nearly 50 percent children from severe malaria. As far a success rates for vaccines go, those are not the best odds, but even that amount of protection would save millions of lives over a even just a decade of use. And the news does indicate that scientists are on the right path toward eventually preventing malaria.

On April 12, 1955, Edward R. Murrow interviewed Dr. Jonas Salk on the CBS show, "See it Now." Salk’s polio vaccine had just been proven effective in preventing the disease. Murrow asked who owned the vaccine. "The people I would say," Salk answered. "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" Medical research culture has changed dramatically since Salk's time. Had it been invented today, it seems likely that the polio vaccine would have been patented immediately, and that Salk would have worked for a pharmaceutical company, rather than a university.

The federal government wants to make school lunches healthier — which also may mean raising the cost for students in certain areas. The White House's child nutrition bill suggests costs go up by 10 cents at the most, but some places are raising prices more than that. Some people are worried that this might generate some backlash from recession-strapped families. How much should Americans have to pay for a healthy school lunch?

This weekend, the virus disaster film "Contagion" was the top-grossing new movie in box offices across America. The film stars a heavy-hitting cast of well-known actors, including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. It's unsettling to watch for many people, because it's about a global pandemic of a deadly virus, which threatens to end civilization as we know it — which prompts the question: could this really happen?

It doesn't take a scientist to conclude that going through the foreclosure process is stressful. Even the threat of being foreclosed on can make one's blood pressure rise. But science can show the very real effects that these tough economic times are having on America's health. A new study links the rise in foreclosures to more hospital visits related to diabetes and hypertension. More specifically, for every 100 foreclosures there was a 7.2 percent rise in emergency room visits, an 8.1 percent increase in diabetes cases for people aged 20 to 49, and 12 percent more hospital visits related to anxiety in the same age category.

Pat Summitt has had a successful career, leading the University of Tennessee’s Lady Vols to eight NCAA championships. Yesterday, the 59-year-old legendary coach announced that she has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. WNBA player Tamika Catchings played for Coach Summitt at the University of Tennessee for four years. She said she was shocked by the news, but, she explained, "When you think about all of the things Pat’s been able to accomplish, a lot of it has come from her determination and she’s had so many trials and tribulations throughout her life, but look at her. You know, she’s still standing strong." Despite her fighting spirit, Summitt's diagnosis raises questions about Alzheimer's disease, particularly because Summitt is younger than most who suffer from Alzheimer's.

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann acknowledged earlier this week that she suffers from chronic migraine attacks, a familiar problem for the 36 million other Americans that experience them. But some people are now speculating as to whether or not Bachmann's migraines might interfere with her ability to do her job. This kind of talk could amount to a minor setback for Bachmann's campaign, considering some polls show she's the front runner for the Republican bid for president.

An article published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association says the state should intervene in cases of morbidly obese children. The authors say that parents should lose custody in the most extreme cases of childhood obesity. This opinion has drawn criticism from several lawyers and members of the bioethics community.

Two new studies released on Wednesday show that taking a daily pill designed to fight AIDS can actually prevent an uninfected person from contracting HIV. Donald G. McNeil, Jr., science and health reporter for The New York Times, wrote about this potentially monumental find in today's paper, and has the latest on the story. 

Until recently, few medical schools taught what most of us call "bedside manner," the ability to empathize and compassionately care for patients. Even fewer schools considered prospective candidates on their ability to communicate with patients. But now a growing number of medical schools are evaluating students through the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) in addition to M-CAT scores and grade point average. The MMI tests for ethical reasoning and communication ability. 

Google announced last week that they would close the doors on their medical project, Google Health, leaving an opening for a new player in the medical record tech industry. Google Health was designed as a “personal health record service," a place where patients could voluntarily store all of their health records, in hopes of centralizing their treatment information. The medical industry has limitless room for growth, considering that almost 80 percent of medical records are on paper.