This weekend marks three weeks until Christmas, and many Americans will be shopping, planning, decorating, traveling and trying to get everything just right. That's just the problem according to psychologist Jeffrey Gardere. He says you should be aiming to enjoy the season, not for perfection. Gardere warns that all the stress we put on ourselves can make us act in a way we may regret. Add that to excessive alcohol and food and we may be setting ourselves up for a very un-jolly holiday.

We teamed up Gardere with former Surgeon General David Satcher and Dr. Caroline Richardson to give you the best plan for enjoying the peace of the season - including dealing with difficult family members and finding healthy gifts. That's coming up this Saturday and Sunday on House Call at 8:30 am Eastern.

In Satcher's words: "We are more likely to get stressed out because we get caught up in things other than what our body and minds need." What are you doing to keep your body and mind healthy during this busy season?

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, and as I was researching this week's podcast on that topic, I came across something remarkable - the acronym GRID. It was actually the original name for what is today known as AIDS, but what it stands for shocked me: Gay Related Immune Deficiency. Some called it GRID. Others called it Gay Compromise Syndrome or even "gay cancer."

These names didn't reflect hatred or disapproval but rather a limited understanding of the origins and scope of the disease. But 25 years later, knowing what we know now, it really shook my sensibilities. You see, I was born in 1982, the year after AIDS was first reported, so I guess by the time I was old enough to understand this tragic disease, the world understood it better too, and had given it a much more appropriate name.

Now, more than 40 million people worldwide - straight and gay - are living with HIV/AIDS. And 25 million others have already died from the disease, and in many sub-Saharan African countries, AIDS affects more than 20 percent of the population. Those are mind-blowing numbers! Think of it this way: The only thing affecting that many people in the United States is obesity.

But coming up with a better name is not all that's been done in 25 years. Faster diagnostic tests, better treatments and researchers around the world working towards a cure are a good start. We can only hope that the attention paid to the disease each December 1 will bring us closer to eradicating a global killer.

Make sure to check out the "Paging Dr. Gupta" podcast on iTunes and CNN.com/health for some tips on how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Video gaming is an amazing industry. It generates about $13 billion a year, which rivals Hollywood. Many video games can be a lot of fun and even provide some benefit for children, such as improvements in focus and concentration. Still, there have been lingering questions about the association between particularly violent video games and subsequent violent real-life behavior. To try to find the answer, the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at more than 1,000 studies, including reports from the Surgeon General's office. Its conclusion: there is a link between violent media images such as video games and aggressive behavior in some children.

Now, for the first time, a study has probed deep in the brain to figure out what is really happening when teenagers play these violent video games. Researchers found that teenagers who played particularly violent video games showed more activation in an area of the brain called the amygdala. This is an area responsible for conflict response and emotional arousal. Additionally, these same teens showed dampening in areas of the brain responsible for inhibitions. So it seemed the violent video games caused both an increase in conflict and emotional behavior while making these kids less inhibited.

To many parents, that sounds like a prescription for disaster. It's important to remember that realistic video games can provide an almost parallel reality for young children who haven't yet had a lot of real life experiences. So, you should choose wisely when purchasing these games, much in the same way you would prohibit children from watching certain movies. And spend some time watching or even playing these games with your children - you will get a better idea of how much impact these games might have. And as we head into the holiday season, I'm curious about any other strategies parents have when buying these games for their kids.

As a doctor, I know one of the most frightening things for a patient to hear is "you might have cancer." I have had to deliver that news on countless occasions, and I know it leads to lots of worry, lost sleep and anxiety. In the case of breast cancer, 80 percent of lesions biopsied are found to be benign. That's good news for a lot of women, but it may also mean that too many breast biopsies are performed. So for years, doctors have been looking for ways to cut that number down. And they may have discovered an answer, called elasticity imaging. The results of a small study on this technology were presented this week at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Elasticity imaging is really no different from a conventional ultrasound for a patient. As with an ultrasound, the test is completely noninvasive and involves no needles. The difference lies in what happens to the images after that. While an ultrasound is very good at detecting an abnormality in the breast, adding "elasticity" software helps better define the characteristics of those lesions. So, for example a harmless breast cyst would have one distinctive appearance and a malignant tumor would look strikingly different. The hope is that one day a biopsy could be called off, based on ultrasound images alone. We are not there yet.

Your doctor, like most doctors, will probably want to see more studies before they are comfortable trusting this technology. The existing study results, though, are very good. Out of 80 women with 123 suspicious masses, elasticity imaging correctly identified 17 of 17 malignant tumors and 105 of 106 benign lesions. One downside of ultrasound imaging is that it depends very much on the operator's skill - so these terrific results might vary from hospital to hospital.

Still, it is hard to argue with data that are almost as accurate as a biopsy. Almost.

Today one of the heroes in the fight against AIDS, Father Angelo D'Agostino, is being buried in Nairobi, Kenya. The 80-year old was an American, a doctor and a feisty Jesuit priest who fought tirelessly for children in Kenya orphaned by AIDS. "Father D'Ag" rescued his kids from the streets of Nairobi, from hospitals where they had been abandoned and from families that could no longer care for them. He built an orphanage called Nyumbani, which means "home" in Swahili.

His legacy will live on. Even this week, a new village at Nyumbani is opening to care for more AIDS orphans. But as we approach World AIDS Day this Friday, it's an appropriate time to think about the work that is still needed.

According to a new report from the United Nations, every eight seconds a person is infected with HIV somewhere in the world. The numbers are staggering: 40 million people are living with HIV today, and 25 million others have already died in the epidemic's 25 years. The disease has slashed life expectancies, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where most infections occur in people ages 15-44. Some countries are at risk of losing entire generations, often the most productive people in the prime of their lives - teachers, workers who keep an economy strong, and parents. They leave behind about 12 million children who may not have a home, an education, or perhaps, a future, unless more Father D'Ags come along.

There's much work to be done.