today on getting answers. when you think of a doctor, does a male or female face pop into your head? if you pictured a man's face? a new ucla study suggests maybe you should think again. and us news and world report has just come out with

its list of best public high schools in america, and several bay area schools made the grade. what is lynbrook high school in san jose doing right? but first, we're not doing right by our planet, and that's causing us to suffer from more severe allergies. you're watching getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us. if you feel like your allergies have been getting worse, these past few years, you're not alone. and don't blame it on just your genetics. blame it also on climate change. joining us live now to talk about this growing issues is doctor jyoti tirumalasetti, an allergist and immunologist with stanford health care. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. so happy to be here. >> it's really great to have you because we need some clarity surrounding this issue. it does seem like a lot of people are suffering from seasonal allergies. what are the numbers in terms of one in how many? >> it's about 1 in 5 adults who suffer from seasonal allergies. and like you mentioned, it has been getting worse more in more

recent years as we have seen more intense pollen seasons and longer pollen seasons developing . >> and why is that? why are we getting these longer, earlier pollen seasons? what does that have to do with climate change? how is that triggering that? >> there are several studies that point to climate change as part of the reason why this has been happening. and as our climate starts to get warmer and we see more extreme weather patterns, more rain, we see a lot of the vegetation just really growing more and producing more pollen and so this is happening sooner because of the warmer weather. and these trees are really producing higher quantities of pollen as well. and it's not just trees, it's a lot of other plants as well that produce pollen and things like weeds can also cause allergies and grass pollen as

well. >> so how long is the season now like when does it start and end? usually for us here in california. >> so for our area it really starts in december and it can go on until june. as far as the tree pollen season goes. and then we see throughout the year other allergens starting to pop up like our grasses start to pollinate throughout the year. and also our weed pollens as well. >> okay, no wonder i've been, you know, sneezing and getting itchy eyes, watery eyes for quite a while now. and as you said, more pollen means more intense reaction, right? more severe allergies. so talk about some of the most common symptoms that you're seeing in your patients. >> so i'd say the common symptoms this time of the year when the tree pollen is really high, the itchy eyes are a huge part of it. so itchy watery red eyes trouble sleeping at night because of a stuffy nose. sneezing maybe five six, ten times in a row and a runny nose

may also be a part of your symptoms this time of year. >> which populations tend to be affected most or is it kind of equal opportunity? >> it's equal opportunity. we do see a lot of allergies in children. so kids may be affected by this more this time of year. and those who spend a lot of time outdoors as well can be affected by allergies more and can it get even worse in the future? it can. you know, we're seeing longer and stronger pollen seasons across the country, and we're seeing that our trees are blooming earlier, not just here in california, but even in the midwest. they were detecting tree pollen several weeks sooner. and so we're seeing this trend where mold has also increased. and so again, it's something we're going to have to track in the coming years. but it has been getting worse. >> and is there an economic cost to us collectively when we have these longer and more severe

allergy seasons? >> absolutely. you know, allergies can cause missed days at school, missed days at work because the symptoms may really disturb your sleep and cause you to feel tired and sick during the day. and it can really disrupt our ability to work and function well. >> let me ask you this. i mean, we've been taking the old claritin zyrtec, a standbys, and they've worked for a lot of people and providing relief. but will they continue to work if, as you say things could get worse? >> it depends. i think that a good number of people can get by with taking over-the-counter allergy medicines, and for others, they just don't seem to help as much as we'd like them to. and that's where i think talking to your doctor can be really helpful, whether it's discussing, adding additional medications like nasal sprays or maybe getting allergy tested and thinking about getting on allergy shots, or what we call immunotherapy to treat your allergies. long terme. >> yeah, that's something a lot

of people might not have thought of. and also, are there new drugs in development, new medications that could be breakthroughs as there have been a lot of new medications in the field of allergy over the past decade. >> a lot of these are being used to treat allergic asthma, allergic skin diseases, and also chronic sinus problems. and we hope that we can continue to develop more drugs and treatments for those with seasonal allergies as well. >> all right. in the meantime, what are some ways that we already have to cope to minimize the suffering? >> that's a great question. i think that checking the pollen counts can be helpful in your area, and on those high pollen days, maybe limit the time you spend outdoors and do your workout inside, and if you are going to be outside and you are someone who just can't live without your outdoor activities, it's a good idea to take your allergy pills before you head

out and when you get back home, wash that pollen off, change your clothes, maybe shower to get those invisible pond particles out of your eyelashes. you know, out of your mucous membranes. >> yes, it was life changing when i heard guess what? you know you might want to wash your hair before you put your head down on your pillow and getting all that pollen you've connected, you know, collected throughout the day. uh- onto your pillow where it's there all night, just making you sneeze. but what about something a little more drastic, like changing your landscape? i've heard something about that. >> that's a little tougher because especially on these windy, windy days like we saw yesterday, the pollen can be spread all over and it's and it's really spread out wide. so while changing your landscaping may help the microclimate and kind of the pollen right in your area, those tree pollens and weed pollens are going to be spread everywhere. so that might help a little bit. but we're still going to see mold and other things in the environment around us.

>> all right. well, doctor tirumalasetti, before i let you go real quickly, just for folks who are suffering in silence, kind of just putting up with it, your best advice is to consult their doctor because maybe their treatment methods that they haven't even thought of or know about. >> absolutely. i think that you can work with your doctor to find targeted treatments that would work best for you. short terme and long terme. so that's a really great idea. >> all right. doctor jyoti tirumalasetti with stanford health care. thank you so much for your insight today. >> thank you. >> coming up next, your doctor and your health, a study finds you might be better off with a female doctor, especially if you're a

health. turns out it can. a new study led by ucla finds women are less likely to die when they're treated by female doctors. joining us live now to explain why is doctor lisa rosenstein a primary care physician and assistant professor at ucsf, who coauthored the study? doctor rosenstein, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> before we dive into the study, just indulge me for a moment here, and i'm going to pose a puzzle, a brain teaser to our viewers that i think you and i might know, but half to three quarters of americans can't figure out. so here it goes. a father and son get into a car crash and are rushed to the hospital. the father dies. the boy is taken to the operating room and the surgeon says, i can't operate on this boy because he's my son. how is this possible? judging from your face, i know you know the answer to this teaser. how is this

possible? >> that is a female surgeon. and that female surgeon may have better outcomes for her patients. >> that's exactly what i want to talk about. people are thinking what? but yes, we've long had more respect and trust in male doctors. but a new study, the one that you were part of this one from ucla, says, let's reconsider that. so tell us exactly what the study set out to find. and what did you find? >> we wanted to understand how the gender of the physician uh- affects mortality rates and readmission rates for hospitalized patients cared for by female versus male doctors. and we found lower mortality and readmission rates when patients were cared for by female physicians. we also dove even further to try to understand how the gender concordance or discordance of physicians and patients may affect outcomes for patients. so did it make a difference that female physicians treated female patients and in fact, it did.

>> so let's break that down a little bit. first of all, what was the difference in mortality rate. >> yes. so to put it into context, there were about 3% differences in relative terms for both mortality and readmission rates for patients treated by female as compared to male physicians. >> and that's for both male and female patients like both had better outcomes with female doctors. >> both had better outcomes with female doctors. that's exactly right? okay. and then i wonder if you also saw a same sex benefit as in, right where your aligned patient and doctor. >> yes, we did see a same sex benefit and specifically the benefit of receiving care from female patients was large or from a female physician was larger for female patients than for male patients. and it's about a 0.16 percentage point difference. but i think that that, what you have to understand is that it is, it's

about people. and so that's one in every 420 patients who can have a differential outcome, one additional death for every 420 hospital admissions that could be avoided, for example, by a patient being treated by a female physician. and so even if the overall percentages are small. yeah ultimately we want to make people better. and that is the difference. >> okay. so my mind is blown. but now we get to the most important part, which is how do you explain this? i mean, what are the theories or data that can explain this difference in outcome. >> so there is a large literature base showing showing that female physicians actually approach the care of their patients differently. they spend more time with patients, they engage in more shared decision making. they spend more time on the electronic health record. they send more messages back and forth to their patients, and so it is likely that these different behaviors by female

physicians explain in some of the benefits we are seeing for patients being treated by female physicians. >> well, maybe this is a better question for a sociologist, but what explains the female doctors behavior versus the male doctors ? >> that is a great question, and maybe i, i, will answer it in a different way because i think many of us would like to deliver the care we see delivered by female physicians. and i actually am not sure, even if we are taught, about this type of care in medical school, i am not sure that it is incentivized. our current payment systems more often incentivize us, to see more patients to help patients get out of the hospital faster, and so actually, in addition to teaching physicians how to engage in this patient centered care, it behooves us to think about how we're incentivizing our physicians to deliver the right care. so, for example, in the outpatient setting, we know that female physicians spend more time with patients, but

that also means that they get paid less because they see fewer patients. >> right? i mean, that structure does need to be amended, right? you're right. the incentives are not exactly in favor of the patients right now. i also wonder if it's somewhat a female patient could be more comfortable talking more to their female doctor, giving them more information, or maybe being a little more assertive about saying, but i didn't tell you about this yet. or no. one more question, because i know maybe i'm a little more comfortable doing that with a woman. >> i think that is completely possible. and there is evidence showing that female patients in general are less likely to be believed about their symptoms, they are less likely to get pain medication when they are experiencing pain, and their symptoms might even present differently for the same conditions as compared to male patients. and so given that and our findings, it suggests that it's possible, exactly as you said, that female physicians are more likely to be listening to their female patients, to taking

to take their pain seriously, their symptoms seriously, or to understand how specific symptoms manifest uniquely in female patients and therefore be able to advance their care. >> i mean, i hope these lessons are already making their way into the medical schools, but given these findings, how should people choose their doctors? >> it should never be based on one variable, right? >> can't just be gender alone. >> yeah, but i think that what these findings underscore is that, there may be different patterns of care delivery, based on gender, but they're also based on other characteristics. and so, if you find somebody that you're comfortable with that you feel listens to you, is taking you seriously, and is really helping to advance what's important to you, that might be a really good doctor for you. again, our findings looked at differences in mortality rates and readmission rates. and they can't quite get at the

mechanisms we're talking about. but putting our findings together with a broader literature, our findings do suggest the likely benefits of working with a doctor who you mesh really well with and you feel, like is uniquely advancing your care. >> and what are some other signs, you know, of a good doctor patient relationship? and how can you ensure that you have that? >> again, i would emphasize feeling heard, somebody taking their time with you and, somebody knowing about you as both a person and the range of issues you deal with. the other thing that our study found was that the benefit of female physicians, was also particularly evident for people with more conditions. so more complexity of illness. and so if you are dealing with multiple chronic conditions, it's important to seek out a physician who is comfortable managing all of that, and really , taking charge of your care in

a way that advances it. >> all right. wow. doctor lisa rosenstein with ucsf with this fascinating study. thank you so much. really appreciate your time. >> thanks for the discussion. >> up next, a top honor for south bay high school. it's among the bestn e nati i. what makes it great. the

colleges and high schools always send schools, parents and students into a frenzy. well, it has just released its list of best public high schools in the golden state is well represented. nearly one tenth of the best schools are in california and within california. here are the top ten. well, most are in southern california, but three are in the bay area. number seven, lowell high school in san francisco. number eight, pacific collegiate charter in santa cruz. number

nine, lynbrook high school in san jose. lynbrook also came in at number 82. in the national rankings. not too bad. out of 25,000 schools. joining us live now is lynbrook high school's principal, maria jackson, principal jackson. hello hello and congratulations. >> hi. thank you. it's really wonderful to be here today. >> okay. so i'm going to give you five minutes to brag, and i hope you'll take it all, but also to give us some food for thought on what makes a school great. so what are the things you think that make lynbrook great? the things that factor into the rankings. maybe >> i know lynbrook is known as a stem school and our students are very focused in stem, but there are so many opportunities for our students as well. we have thriving business programs. we have an outstanding music program, an amazing drama program. there are just a thriving club environment. and i think what's amazing about lynbrook is there are plenty of places for every student to thrive, and i think that's

really essential. i think a lot of public schools can feel forced to kind of choose like one place to focus. and i'm really thankful that lynbrook high school is an amazing, comprehensive high school, and we have so much to offer our students. they're so involved. these are pictures from homecoming that you see and our students really work together and collaborate on really meaningful things to them. and i think homecoming is really an example of just how much they work together, where hundreds of students come together and we don't really learning has no limits. and we want to make sure that our students have access to opportunities for them to explore. >> well, these pictures here certainly show the school spirit in a very visible way, and certainly i can tell you you've got some great dancers there and into the arts, but you're right, lynbrook is famous for its science as well. i know you're a robotics team is always, you know, in the state national competitions, and they do amazing things. so let's go

ahead and show people because your robotics team, they were kind enough to get back to us and say, yes, we're so proud. here's some videos of some of our recent robots, talk to us about the stem and the level of engagement in that. >> well, for our robotics program, that's really a club. and what i love about this is you can see how many students are in those photos. it's not limited to the number of seats in a classroom. so as many students as we can really are able to embrace this, there are lots of female students, male students, all genders, students in there working together to really make this happen. and with robotics, it's you'll notice that they're working a lot, on robots in these things. but there are multi facets to this as well. there's a business aspect to it as well as a marketing and an art. there's so much that happens in robotics and these they really we have learned to really master teaching each other how to get things done. i think what some of these students do in high

school graduate level students are doing, and i really think that that's what makes it so meaningful to them is they decide where the limits are and what percentage of your graduates go on to college. we have about 86% of our students that graduate to go to a four year college, and then many more that go to community college. >> yes. >> yeah. so that is an amazing number. yeah. >> it's really amazing. >> let me ask you this because in these conversations, people always go, well then is that just a wealthy school? is lynbrook exceptionally well resourced, well, i do think in fremont union high school district as a whole, we are, i think, really well resourced. but i have to say we're a neighborhood high school, there's no admission test or anything to get into lynbrook. if you live in our neighborhood, you come to lynbrook. so we take whoever lives in our area, and they come to our school, and we make lynbrook be whatever those students need it to be. >> i'm sorry i'm so distracted

by this awesome robot that that can be in the nba shooting hoops as accurately as it is. that's really cool, i have to ask you, though, right? with all the intense, rigorous, you know, academic mix, all the ap classes that you guys have and all these academic inc. clubs and activities that kids seem to choose to be a part of. do you ever see, stress amongst the students with this heavy load? do you ever see mental health as a price they pay for success, and how do you deal with that? >> well, i, we at lynbrook, we really try to encourage students to make decisions based on what they're what they find meaningful. so don't just load up on a bunch of apps for the sake of just taking them, we really want to help them make wise choices. i have to say, we have an amazing, school counseling program that works a lot with parents and students to help them make good choices that are really right for them. and i have to say, part of what creates a lot of the stress. and

i don't think it's just for lynbrook students, i'm going to say, for students in general, is the extremely competitive college admissions, environment, that it's just really difficult. and i think if you look ahead and at, you know, where kids are going to school, they're going to amazing places. but it gets it's getting harder and harder to get in and so i think students are really finding it very difficult to distinguish themselves. and, you know, we don't want a lynbrook brand like that's that's not the whole point of lynbrook. we want each student to come out of here as amazing individuals who have discovered who they are and are going out into the world, and i think that's what can be difficult is i think students try to find a brand, and we really try to do what we can to offset that, to try to just discourage that and have students really take the opportunity to kind of discover who they are. >> yeah, well, that issue with college admissions and the pressure is beyond just lynbrook, those are systemic

things that i want to have more conversations about with colleges. but thank you so much, principal maria jackson. congratulations. we'll be right

it's built to command attention. it's not just a comfortable interior. it's a quiet refuge. ♪ ♪ they're not just headlights. they light the way forward. the fully electric audi q8 e-tron. get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer.

with experts from around tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the images coming in now. protesters clashing with police in riot gear on campuses across the country. also tonight, the hostage video shown to the world tonight. the american israeli son seen alive for the first time in 201 days. and what he says to his parents. and tonight, the american husband detained,