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Sept. 18, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:40
Ancestry Test: Can This Medium Get Answers From the Dead? | Dr. Oz | S11 | Ep 30 | Full Episode
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Time Text
Ancestry test bombshells.
I had a brother that I didn't know about.
Secret adoptions.
And they knew something about me that I didn't know about myself.
Affairs uncovered.
My father had an affair.
My mother had an affair.
Each affair produced a child.
This medium connects them to the past.
Your birth parents did look for you.
Revealing answers that shocked them.
Your father, who's not your father, is saying he is your father.
Coming up next...
Are you ready for season 11?
Imagine finding out everything you thought you knew about yourself and your family was alive.
Today, Ancestry tests bombshells.
Secret adoptions and affairs revealed.
And answers for people like Julie, who say their loved ones took these secrets to their grave.
Can this medium finally get answers from the dead that can help bring closure and healing?
Julie says her childhood was dark and it was troubled.
It felt like her own mom didn't really love her.
Now she says she thinks she knows why.
She's here in studio today revealing this test result that I'm sure shook your world.
So what did it reveal to you?
Well, first it revealed that I had a brother that I didn't know about.
And this brother looked like my dad's twin.
And he was light-skinned African-American.
And he came up on my sister's DNA match, but he wasn't showing up on mine.
Oh, my goodness.
So your father had an affair?
My father had an affair.
My mother had an affair.
Each affair produced a child and each child was a secret.
Oh my goodness.
The oddest thing was I was helping my sister who came from Europe to live in the United States.
I was helping her get settled and the night we realized we have this brother, I private messaged him on Facebook and said, I think we have a match.
And I don't know what part of the world you're in, but we'd like to talk.
And 40 minutes later, he messaged me back and he said, where are you?
I said, I'm in Falls Church, Virginia.
He said, I'm 40 minutes away from you.
Oh, my goodness.
Now, I had no business being in Falls Church, Virginia, except to help my sister, who had no business being in Falls Church, Virginia, because she lived in Europe for 30 years, and we're all from Boston.
But here we were, all within a few miles from each other.
Oh, my goodness.
So he comes over.
We ask him, what do you think about this whole DNA match?
What do you think is going on?
And he said, well, somehow we must be cousins.
And we knew he couldn't have been a cousin and looked like our dad's twin.
So we turned over the stack of pictures of dad and showed them to him.
And it was his first time ever seeing who his father was.
Oh, my.
So now I'm going to fast forward because this is a novel.
It's a movie.
But within 48 hours, I realize his DNA match is on my sister's list, but he's not on mine.
So in a minute, I'm finding out I have a brother who's not my brother, which meant my dad couldn't be my father because he's this man's father and he's my sister's father.
So who's my father?
So all within a few days, it was like the universe just gave me a thousand jigsaw puzzle pieces to fit my story together.
And within a week, I found my father.
And he was alive.
So let me just reconstruct this a little bit.
I know it's a lot.
So your father has an affair and has a child that he...
Knew about or didn't know about.
We don't even know if he knew.
But that child, because he's not your brother, it tips you off that your father's not your father.
Right.
Which means your mother also had an affair.
Right, they were busy.
They were busy.
So, I know that you and your mother had a rocky relationship.
It was beyond rocky.
You believe it's because you were the result of this affair and it caused her grief.
I've talked to a couple of psychologists, Dr. Oz, and they've said, look, every time she looked at you, you were the proof and the evidence she didn't want.
You were also the reminder of the secret and the lie she was keeping.
Maybe she kept it from her husband.
Maybe she didn't.
We don't know.
The secrets that you're carrying, secrets are so toxic.
One of my things I'd like to share with women today is please tell your children the truth.
Because when I found my father, he was 89 years old.
I was about to be 65. He was 89. He'd never married.
He never had children, and he didn't know I existed.
And at 89, he told his friends, are you sitting down?
And they'd say, yeah.
He'd say, I got something to tell you.
What are you telling us?
He says, well, I'm 89, and I just became a father, and I think I better lay off the Viagra.
Yeah.
So Julie, amazing story.
Julie connected with her biological father and found out that he lived right around the corner from her childhood home for the first 25 years of her life.
Julie's second cousin actually videotaped their first meeting ever.
Take a look.
Come in.
- He said come in. - He said come in.
- It's not like it.
- It's never.
- Oh, I'm coming home.
Unbelievable what happened, you know.
It's pretty shocking.
Yeah, yeah, it is.
It is.
Oh, there's Les taking pictures already.
Yeah.
It's quite a reunion.
Not a reunion, a union.
A union.
I didn't believe.
See, it does look like him.
Yeah.
Oh, God, yes.
He certainly is.
And I love you already.
Oh, my goodness.
You never got to confront your mother.
She died two years before.
What would you want to ask her if you could have spoken to her?
So many things I would like to ask her.
Why didn't she tell me?
Did she tell her husband?
Why didn't she tell, hi, my biological father?
So, Anna Raimondi, the medium, is with us.
It's okay, I was going to ask her to join us.
Let's do this experiment.
Maybe she has the ability to connect in a way that might be helpful to you.
Anna, you're a grief counselor as well, which could come in handy, so try to offer some closure if you can.
Your mother For everything you just said, had a very hard time looking at you because she loved your biological father.
And he made it very clear that he really didn't want to get married.
He didn't want any of that.
He wanted to be, you know, out there on his own.
Her husband, she did tell.
Later on in life, she did tell him.
Did they break up at one point?
They did.
Yeah.
You know, it was right around that time or right after that time that she told him, her husband did not know he had a son.
But he's saying that their marriage was always shaking, and the woman that he was with had a lot more in common with him.
They had music in common.
They went places together where they played music, and he really enjoyed that.
They didn't have the companionship within their marriage, unfortunately.
That's fascinating that you said that about the music.
It was one of the first things I found out from my brother, who's not my brother, because I wondered how my father would have met his mother.
And I said, my dad loved jazz, and he was always going to these underground jazz clubs.
And my brother, who's not my brother, said, my mother loved jazz, too.
And he whips out this picture, a black and white photo of the 50s, of his mother being surrounded by two very famous jazz musicians.
I just wondered if that was a connection.
But your father, who's not your father...
He's saying he is your father.
He's my dad.
And this son that he didn't know about is your brother.
Julie, what would you like to say to your mother if she's listening?
First, I wanted to ask why she didn't tell me.
And I'd like to say to her that I forgive her.
I'm processing all my pain, my anger, my hurt.
I see her as a young woman who had her own unprocessed childhood damage.
But we all make choices, and we shouldn't be ashamed of them.
We should honor the choices we make.
We should honor Our children, our truth is so important.
And if I could help one person come forward today and tell their children the truth, but it has to be in a safe, emotional space with a counselor.
I know this took a lot to come forward and talk about it, but you are helping a lot of folks, and I hope this was helpful to you as well.
Thank you so much.
Anna, thank you very much.
Up next, a family secret that was never meant to be revealed.
Will this woman get answers about the ancestry test bombshell that revealed who she really was?
Stay with us.
A food investigation that could change your breakfast forever.
What's the truth about the yolk?
What every family needs to know about eggs.
Eliminated?
What do I do?
And just what goes into your morning sausage.
Plus, Brooke Shields.
From reluctant teen idol to confident woman.
I'm now starting to celebrate my body in a way that I never felt free to do it as a kid.
That's coming up on Monday.
We're back with Ancestry Test Bombshells.
Roughly 26 million people, 26 million, have sent their DNA away in a genetic ancestry kit.
And my next guest was floored when she opened the results of her test.
Take a look.
I grew up on Long Island, New York, as the only child of two loving parents.
I had a wonderful childhood.
I have fond memories of swimming in our backyard pool with neighborhood friends.
I was a grade A student, and even enjoyed the classic family Disney World vacation.
But as I grew older, I began to suspect that my parents were holding something back from me.
Sadly, both of my parents passed away in the last 15 years, and then a cousin came and told me a secret that changed everything.
Julie's with us in the studio.
So Julie, what was the secret?
The secret was that I was adopted at birth and I was raised as their biological child.
That's a lot to bring in.
The rest of your extended family probably knew this was happening.
Did they ever talk about it?
So, some of them did know and they felt that they couldn't tell me because it would have been betrayal to my parents.
Why do you think your parents, everyone they knew they were passing, didn't share this information with you?
So I think that in their hearts they believed that they were protecting me.
And I also remember my mother once telling me that some parents adopted children and chose not to tell them because they didn't want them to feel abandoned or unloved.
Yes, by the biologic parents.
Yes.
What did you find out about your biological parents, the parents who actually gave birth to you?
Well, I learned that my birth parents were high school sweethearts.
And they had me as teenagers.
So they parted ways in high school.
Their parents insisted on it.
And they went their separate ways.
But later in life, they found each other again.
They did.
They did.
And they got married and had two children.
My full biological brother and sister.
That you didn't know growing up.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
Have you had the ability to track down your biological parents?
Yes.
And unfortunately, my birth dad had passed away about 15 years previously.
But at the time, my birth mom was alive, and I got to Skype with her, to talk with her on the phone.
And unfortunately, she passed away suddenly, just a few weeks before we were scheduled to meet in person for the first time.
So you were unable to meet in person with your biological parents and your adoptive parents passed before you had closure on awareness of it.
So are there questions you have for those people, those four people?
Sure.
I would have liked to have known for my birth parents, you know, had they ever considered keeping me?
So you're about to get some answers, if it's okay with you, from a medium, if you're willing to listen to a medium.
Is that okay?
I'm open to that.
So Anna Raimondi is joining us.
She's also a grief counselor, so she has expertise in both of the patients who may have interest.
So Anna, what do you think Julie needs to hear today?
Take it away.
First of all, your birth parents did look for you, okay?
They wanted you back.
They had to give you up.
They were teenagers.
They couldn't keep you, and you understand that.
There's also, there was family involved that would not have let them keep you.
Your birth mother, her life was complete once you made contact with her.
Does that make you feel better about this whole process?
Are you still confused?
Well there are other questions I would have for my adoptive parents.
I would love to know a little bit more about the thinking behind keeping this a secret.
Okay, first of all, who's Miriam?
My mom.
Okay.
Miriam did not want you.
She didn't want to lose you, okay, because she's apologizing.
You know, she didn't want to lose you to another family.
What if you really did find them?
So they went to their graves with this secret, thinking that that was the way to keep you.
So it was done out of love.
Yes, yes, thank you.
Is there anything else that Julie's two sets of parents would have wanted her to know?
I'm also sort of curious if they thought you would live your whole life without knowing or you would one day figure it out.
Well, I can tell you this.
They're all together, okay?
Who's Phil?
My birth dad.
Okay.
And so he died a long time ago, right?
Because he's sorry that he never got to make any kind of contact with you.
Do you have a ring from your adopted mother?
Yes.
Okay.
She wants to make sure that you pass that on to your daughter and that your daughter knows how much she loved you and how much she loves her.
Thank you.
This is...
Out of the ordinary for me.
Thank you for being with us.
We'll be right back.
This power duo, comedian Jim Gaffigan and his wife and producing partner Jeannie Gaffigan talk about how faith and funny got them through a very tough diagnosis, a brain surgery, and a brilliant recovery.
Thank you.
Purple Love stand-up Jim Gaffigan.
Life at home with his talented wife Jeannie and their kids was all funny business until healthcare gave them the biggest challenge of their lives.
I don't horseback ride mainly because I prefer to be comfortable and it's not the 1800s.
Indiana native Jim Gaffigan has carved out a successful career in comedy using his unique brand of observational humor and relatable personality.
I'm sure the horses aren't thrilled either.
They're like, why am I carrying you around?
I saw you drive up in a Honda Civic.
He's headlined countless stand-up specials, racked up Grammy nominations for his comedy albums, and even starred in his own sitcom, The Jim Gaffigan Show.
Right now, you can see him on Amazon's very first stand-up comedy special, Jim Gaffigan, Quality Time.
Sixteen years ago, Jim fell in love with fellow writer Jeannie Knott, and together they lived out a love story that was the envy of the comedy world.
They got married and together produced numerous TV shows, stand-up specials, and five children that they adored.
From the outside, their life was a romantic comedy.
Until everything changed when Jeannie received a terrifying diagnosis.
A tumor was growing on the stem of her brain and she needed immediate surgery.
That's when Jim found himself in the greatest role of his life.
I think you should take more because I think you look thin.
Being a caretaker to his wife and bearing witness to her strength as she proved she is a survivor.
Please welcome Jim and Jeannie Gaffigan.
I'm so happy you're here.
Thank you again for coming.
I'm glad you came too, but I'm especially glad Jeannie came.
So before I get started, I know that you're a little bit hoarse because you just had a procedure.
Yes.
And the horses was related to the operation you had for your brain.
I saw the tracheostomy in some of the pictures.
Yes.
But it's just fantastic that you're here.
And I want to assure everybody, you've told us you're doing well.
I'm doing great.
Okay.
I can't complain.
Thank you.
Let me take you back, if I can, to a little darker time.
So Jim, when was the first, when was it and what was your reaction when you first heard the diagnosis?
We had learned that there was something going on Easter weekend and it was very terrifying.
Cause I, you know, five kids, I can barely get dressed.
Actually, it's funny you've been saying that.
And humor is the closest distance between two people.
Yes, the lens through which we viewed the world was humor.
And so it just kind of helped me deal with the fear and the anxiety.
As a surgeon, I would much, much rather operate on the man than the female.
Because the woman will be there to help.
And the guy's usually floundering around.
In fact, you made a comment that this whole process is like, you know, having five kids is like being in water with the five kids, drowning, and then they give you another kid.
Yeah.
Is that about right?
Yeah, it is.
I mean, parenting is an incredible task.
And by the way, being a caretaker, I mean, it was an incredible opportunity and a privilege to be a caretaker.
But it's really hard.
It's a pretty harrowing experience being a caretaker.
But also, you know, when you almost lose something or someone...
You have a greater appreciation for it.
So I know that's for me.
We have a lot of gratitude for each other.
We've always loved each other and had a great team.
But now I feel like we're really grateful.
We're grateful that God put us together.
Yeah.
God bless you for doing that.
So I have an appreciation for what you probably went through just because so many women come on the show and they've ignored symptoms.
Even symptoms are sort of obvious.
So how did you finally get pulled into getting taken care of?
Well, you know, a doctor.
You know, and I really have a new appreciation for doctors and healthcare workers.
But I also think what's really important and what a lot of this book is about is that I was ignoring all these things about myself, hearing loss, headaches, dizziness, balance, that had I really sat down and thought, You know, let me take some time for myself, and let me listen to what that voice is telling me, then I probably would have gone to the doctor a little bit earlier.
I don't want to generalize, but for me, and for a lot of really busy women, is that we tend to ignore what we need to do to take care of ourself.
And if anything, I could just say that.
Well, the book's called When Life Gives You Pears.
Yeah.
Pears is not an accident.
Not an accident.
Come up here, I'm gonna show you what he does.
So Jeannie was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor, which sounds like it's okay, but it's, because of where it's located, not okay.
It was a inverted pear-shaped glob, per your description.
Yes.
We would call it a tumor in the brainstem of the brain.
It's this little green stuff here.
This is the base of your skull, right?
That's the cheekbone over here.
And it's way down deep in there.
Lots of blood supply coming there.
And if I can just actually show you the real images, because this is actually our trying to make this a little bit more Visible, but this is an actual image of your brain coming from the top down.
You're going to see your eyeballs start to appear up top there.
And here in the back middle part of your brain, that little yellowish green area, that's not supposed to be there.
And it is shaped like a pear.
It's a pretty good description.
What is it like looking at this scan, realizing what you had to beat?
Yeah, it's like I can kind of hear a time bomb ticking when I see it.
And I just, walking around with something like that and not being aware of it is shocking to me.
And I just, when I see that, I just feel so much gratitude that I'm standing here.
And I can still, you know, be alive and be here with you today.
It just gives me so much gratitude.
Thank you.
Can I show you our natural brain?
Yes.
Okay?
Jim, head over here a little bit.
I'm going to walk you to this little table here.
I've got this for you.
It's in purple gloves.
In case you want to touch it, you don't have to.
I'd love to.
But if you want to, yeah.
Put this in your pocket.
So this is actually a pretty good replica.
And if you look inside the brain, the base of the skull, it was a pear-shaped structure.
It was oriented in a sort of like that.
And I actually have a real brain that I only want to show to you because this red dot is about where it was putting pressure.
And this little circular area is Sort of command control for all the autopiloting of the brain.
And these little tiny little slivers of nerves, which you can barely make at it, go to your ear, which is one of the reasons your first symptom was hearing loss.
And if you see how big this pair was to put pressure on top of there, and what a difference it would have made if it wasn't taken out as meticulously as it ended up being removed, you realize what a miracle you are standing here.
But the thing is, this is the...
This is the toll booth to the body.
Everything from the brain, right?
It's like this.
Everything from the brain down to the body goes through that one command center.
And in an analogous fashion, you're the toll booth for the family.
Everything's got to go through you because he's not going to carry the load.
I can already tell that.
And you can do it for a while, and for five kids in particular.
And the reason you're coming out so important to me is because there are millions of women who are ignoring hopefully not as serious a problem as you have, which is why what you're doing is so important to all of us.
Thank you.
I hope you appreciate that.
Thank you so much.
The honor's mine.
What do you think about the brain, now that you've got one here, besides your own?
It's like cauliflower.
Oh great.
Do you want a bite?
Ooh, that feels weird.
That's just, and you know, the brain stem, because of Jeannie's tumor, it was, there's a version where it was all the way, it's slowly moving over, but the fact that she was walking around Like when we went in, Dr. Betterson, who's the neurosurgeon, was kind of surprised that she was...
But like the human body just adjusts.
Yeah, I'm surprised you're walking now.
And you can hear me and look the right way and everything else is a miracle.
Yeah, it is a miracle.
Jean's book is called, it could be called The Miracle, but instead it's called When Life Gives You Pears, The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People.
It's brave, funny, and poignant.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Get a copy, guys, and share what people care about.
Up next, Jim is known for food comedy, as you just saw, comparing the brain to cauliflower and his love of eating.
I've been dying to get him here in my studio, so we could, I'm gonna be honest about this, We have some healthier twists on his faves.
Jeannie and I are in cahoots on this one.
You'll see why.
Are you worried?
I am a little worried.
Stick around.
Breaking news.
Is Lori Loughlin headed to jail?
We have the latest updates on the college admission scandal.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Tuesday.
Legendary stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan is known for his hysterical food comedies.
He's here with his wife Jeannie, a comedy writer herself.
And we teamed up to surprise Jim.
But first, you talk about food a lot in your bits.
Describe your relationship with food.
I would say it's a love affair.
Well, no, I, you know, it's something that I feel like it's a universal topic.
I think people, it doesn't take long to explain and you can have a strong opinion on it and it won't really anger people.
So, I got a little surprise for you.
You spent a good part of your adult life lampooning a lot of the foods that I happen to enjoy and some other ones that I don't.
We've taken a few of those foods and asked some experts to give you their versions.
Okay.
How they might tell your jokes, right?
Now, here's the part you don't know.
You may recognize some of these adorable comedians.
They're reading your stand-up line.
So, take a look.
Here's the first one.
Okay.
Would you put bacon in a salad?
It's no longer a salad.
It just becomes a game of find the bacon and the lettuce.
It's like you're panning for gold.
So Jeannie, who is that?
That's Michael.
He's eight years old.
He's eight.
Yeah.
You got Jim's kids spoofing him, lampooning you.
So, first of all, compare that to how Chris Rock would have delivered your line.
That's, I think that's pretty, that's good performance there.
You like it?
You know, I think he, I could sense that he loved bacon also.
Yes, he does.
So speaking of bacon, come on over here.
We've got a little treat for you.
I actually made you Something.
Are you ready for this?
Yes.
That tastes just like bacon, but it is seaweed.
Now, I know how much you love seaweed.
Here, please go ahead, dig in.
This is dulce.
Dulce is the type of seaweed that actually has a little bit of a bacon-y flavor when it's been smoked the right way.
So dulce sounds like dulce, like ice cream, but you lost me with weed.
Use your fingers, it's easier.
All right, so this is seaweed, which it's like lettuce of the ocean.
Lettuce of the ocean made just for you.
Now, honest opinion.
I love it.
Pretty good, pretty good.
I love it.
Pretty good.
Yeah, it's really good.
Is it covered in animal fat or something?
No, it's ants actually, crushed ants.
Oh good.
No, I made that up.
There's no answer to that.
They actually, when you cook, that's what it tastes like.
It tastes like the ocean a little bit, but I sort of like that I like it, it has a bacon, it has a little bit of a unami.
I would totally eat that.
It's one for one.
I would totally eat it.
Okay, take a look at this one.
This is about one of my favorites.
It has to do with grits.
If you love the taste of biscuits and gravy, but without the taste of biscuits and gravy, then you'll love our man-made wet sand.
Did you enjoy that performance?
I did, that was great.
All right, our version of Grits that you might actually like is, boom, sweetened with honey from my own backyard.
Oh, wow.
We have our own beans.
You've got your own honey, too?
You have honey, too?
No.
Oh.
All right, now you can use this for this.
All right, so this is Grits.
Now, Grits...
I want to like it.
I like, you know, southern food I love in general, but like grits, I just have a hard time climbing on.
Oh, come on.
How can you not like honey?
You must have been starved.
Oh, well, I mean, everyone likes honey.
Well, then you like the grits, because then I got honey in grits.
Let's see what he says.
It's pretty good.
Two for two.
Is he hard to please at home?
He is.
I am hard.
He really is.
He's hard to please.
Picky, picky, picky?
Yes, he only likes his certain, like when I bring in something new, he's sometimes very picky about it.
I don't look like I'd be picky, but I am.
That's very good.
The next food is my favorite.
I want to make sure we can make it your fave as well.
This is very different.
This is your comedy skid by Kale.
Kale.
Can we stop with the kale propaganda?
It tastes like bug spray!
One time I was looking at a can of bug spray and it said, made with real kale.
You pick on kale, is that true?
Kale is something they feed cows.
Right?
I thought that that was what it was.
Like, we just got a little bored.
Cows would never eat kale.
That was your daughter.
That was Katie, she's 10 years old.
Alright, so here's the thing.
I actually first knew about you because of your bit with Hot Pockets.
So I made you a Kale Hot Pockets.
Wow!
That's amazing!
Only for you.
Please dig in.
Okay.
Let's see.
I know that you can't see no other Hot Pockets.
I'm hoping...
That's very nice, crusty there.
Did you make this?
No, but I know the person who did.
Uli made that.
Let's see what she thinks.
It's good.
It's good.
I mean, like how good?
Like, comedy skit kinda good?
I mean, the pastry.
I mean, you're putting anything in pastry, it's pretty good, right?
You wouldn't have taken another bite of that, aren't you?
This is a delicious pastry, so it's like, would you eat a spoonful of spinach to eat a pie?
Yes, you would.
But it's not bad.
And by the way, I just think kale takes too much You gotta do too much to it to make it taste good.
But I don't know, let me try.
I think, Jeannie, I think you gotta massage it, you have to sort of coax it, you gotta warm it up a little bit, then it comes up to you.
It's not bad.
You wanna try it, Jeannie?
Yes.
He's sharing it, even.
I'm sharing it.
While they're eating all their pockets, Jeannie's new book is available.
You can pick up a copy of When Life Gives You Pear, superbly done.
I wanna thank you both for sharing your story.
Thank you so much.
I know it took a lot to do.
God bless you, I'm glad you did well.
Thank you so much.
Take care.
Thanks so much.
Look forward to her continuing recovery.
Stay with us.
Coming up, Health Court is in session.
Could your earbuds be destroying your hearing?
Find that how I rule in the case of my best friend's plea.
Please don't stop the music.
Plus, our expert witness, Carolina Bermudez, is bringing evidence that will turn this case upside down.
Bickering couples, warring neighbors, friends and family divided.
When it's time for resolution, it's time to take them to HealthCorp, where Dr. Oz rules.
The plaintiff, Nicole, says her best friend is putting her health at risk, destroying her hearing by listening to her earbuds 24-7.
She's here to prove to her friend that earbuds aren't safe.
The defendant, Jacqueline, says she wears earbuds to drown out her friends complaining about her earbuds.
She wants Dr. Oz to help her prove sleeping in her earbuds is not damaging.
Health court is now in session.
Plato, how often does the defendant wear the earbuds?
She wears them all the time.
Like, she thinks that they're fashion.
She literally sleeps in them.
It's insane.
Why do you fear that earbuds might be doing damage to your friend?
What's your concern?
So, they are known to give off more radiation than the buds with the wires.
And people, they're so convenient that people are just keeping them in all day long sometimes.
And I mean, honestly, just the fact that she sleeps in them.
Do I need to say more?
So the fact that you are charged with wearing earphones all the time, in fact, would you mind, can I see your ears now?
Are you wearing them now?
I am Dr. Oz.
You are.
And is it true that you sleep with your earbuds in?
I do sleep with my earbuds in.
I like to listen to music when I go to sleep or like podcasts.
You say your friend is a holistic healer and that she's always pestering you.
She doesn't understand technology and she's overreacting.
What do you mean by those counter allegations?
Well, you have to adapt to the times.
With my job, I have to constantly be taking calls while on my phone.
And I mean, yes, you can eat your holistic shakes and do yoga, but no matter what, you're surrounded by radio waves.
So to help you get to the bottom of this case, I brought in an expert witness, someone I trust a lot.
She knows a lot about the art of talking and listening because she's a fan favorite iHeartRadio host who wears headphones as part of her job.
Please welcome our expert witness, Carolina Bermudez.
So I'm going to allow Carolina to take over some of the questions.
You have some issues you wish to discuss with the litigants.
I do, Dr. Oz.
So I'd like to ask the plaintiff if she wears earbuds as well.
You seem to be pretty critical of your friend, but do you ever wear them?
Earbuds without the wires?
Without the wires.
No, I don't ever wear them.
Okay, so you're practicing safely.
I'd like to ask the defendant, which podcast do you listen to and have you ever heard mine?
I have not heard yours.
I listen to comedy podcasts.
I object.
Back to you, Dr. Oz.
You're a big music person.
How often do you actually listen to loud music?
Actually, how loud is it when you listen to it?
Truthfully, I wear headphones Monday through Friday for several hours a day, and I actively have to turn my headphones down because I don't want to lose my hearing later on in life.
So it's something that I'm very aware of.
So you do have concerns, as the plaintiff does in this case.
So there are two issues, two issues before you start gloating, that come up in this case.
The first is we have to determine if the plaintiff's concerns of an elevated radiation level are warranted.
The earbuds actually reveal radiation.
And we actually have evidence to reveal what we need to know right now.
Caroline, in front of you there are two sealed envelopes.
Yes.
Right?
They both describe the amount of radiation emitted from either a cell phone or the earbuds in question.
This is a very real Perry Mason moment.
Absolutely.
So I will reveal the cell phone emits At max, 27 gigahertz.
Okay.
So the question is, what does the earphone emit?
Because you're wearing it by your ear all the time.
I'm ready.
And these, just 2.4.
2.4 gigahertz.
So I have looked into this issue independently.
And I do not feel that there's a meaningful risk from the radiation.
However, defendant, I believe the bigger concern here is hearing loss.
You alluded to this as you discussed the fact that you turned down the impact of the audio when you're actually taping your shows.
So I want to see what happens when the sound from earbuds enters the ear.
So let's go into Carolina's ear to find out.
This is actually your ear, Carolina.
Your outer ear that collects sound waves and fuddles them through the ear canal.
The sound waves hit your eardrum.
They make these very tiny little bones.
You see the bones behind there?
They begin to vibrate.
Those bones then transmit the vibrations to something called the cochlea.
That's the snail-like structure deep inside your ear.
You see it to the far right?
The vibrations make the little hairs inside the cochlea move.
That's what hearing is all about because those nerves pick up on the little moving hairs and they send messages to your brain which we process as sound.
When the sound is too loud, you notice what happened to the left there?
All those hairs have been damaged from loud noises, heard repetitively over periods of time.
So it leads me to the big issue.
Is the sound coming out of the defendant's earbuds loud enough to do damage to your hearing, to wipe out those little hairs I just showed?
the truth to that question when we come back.
Welcome back to Health Courts.
Today I'm presiding over the case of a best friend's plea, please don't stop the music.
The plaintiff Nicole is frustrated that the defendant uses earbuds 24-7 and worries she's putting her hearing at risk.
She's wondering who's her real best bud.
Is it her or her earbuds?
The defendant Jacqueline loves her earbuds and pleads with her best friend to please don't stop the music.
So we got both sides battling.
Joining me in court is our expert witness, TV and radio personality, Carolina Bermudez.
What do you think of this case so far?
Do you think earbuds could be doing damage to our hearing?
You know, I think they're generally safe, but I think there is a legitimate concern.
For example, with my toddlers, they have specific earphones where you can put the volume on low, medium, or high, and I wish that adults had that same restriction so that we could take care of our hearing so that later on we're not saying, what?
Or, you know, because that's exactly what happens.
So here's the deal.
Music and sounds heard at 85 decibels or higher for long periods of time can contribute to hearing loss.
I was shocked to find out the max amount of decibels in earbuds.
Carolina, in front of you, you have earbuds.
Yes.
Please demonstrate the earbuds.
These are the earbuds.
And on the back, on the bottom, is written the number of decibels, the max that they will be able to put into your ear.
That's right, Dr. Oz.
And the big reveal, 102 decibels.
They max out 102 decibels.
That's high, right?
And it's not just the volume.
It's also the length of time that you're listening to it.
So we need you to figure out if there's actually hearing damage to your ear.
So we decided to send you and you agreed as part of this protocol to actually get your hearing evaluated, right?
If you're all the time hearing earbud support is actually affecting your hearing.
Ready, ready?
Let's find out.
I have the results in front of me, and Carolina, you can see them here.
Yes.
Normal would be here, and in fact, yours is completely normal.
Oh, great.
Completely normal.
The earbuds are not impacting on your hearing whatsoever.
With this evidence in hand and with your expert testimony, I'm ready to make a final ruling in the case of best friend's plea.
Please don't stop the music.
I will not.
I rule in favor of the defendant.
Jacqueline.
The act of using earbuds does not automatically cause damage to your hearing.
For that reason, you're welcome to keep using them.
I don't have a concern with earbuds, at least in your case, because of your findings.
Perfect.
So, I also rule that both of you should be tuning in to Caroline and Greg T in the morning.
Thank you.
I'll listen to something that's useful.
With or without earbuds.
Sounds good.
The verdict.
I don't feel...
It was completely accurate.
I do take precautions to protect my hearing.
I don't really listen to such loud music all the time.
So I think the verdict was just...
Do you want to take someone in your life to HealthCourt?
Go to DrOz.com slash HealthCorp to submit your case.
There's new research about two foods, two foods that can help reduce your breast cancer risk.
Are you ready for this?
My favorites, onions and garlic.
Now, before you crinkle your nose, I have a new way to eat them together that you will be obsessed with.
For the first time ever on this show, there's a sauce that science says can be linked to a 67% reduction of the risk of breast cancer, and it is called sofrito.
Popular staple in the Puerto Rican kitchen.
Melissa is here.
She's coming out with Aunt Carmen, right?
And they have this sofrito recipe.
I'm going to ask Grandma in a second, because I know this comes back years and years.
But explain what sofrito is and how you make it.
So, Doctor, sofrito is a sauce-like, very flavorful ingredient that has onions and garlic and peppers and cilantro with some olive oil.
Did grandma teach you how to make this?
She did.
What's the secret to your recipe?
This is important.
She brought a little something special.
There's something missing here.
Why isn't it red?
Where are the tomatoes?
No, no tomatoes.
I don't put tomatoes.
No tomatoes?
No tomatoes.
I just put a green leaf.
You know what?
Researchers actually looked into this.
This is how important this is.
You might be just making it for fun in Puerto Rico, but these guys were looking at whether the secret sauce had the weapons of garlic and onions, and they make a difference.
They have flavanols.
There are other compounds that are anti-carcinogenic.
They literally can turn the cancer cells off, which is really cool.
You all know this already.
Yes.
They've been holding back on me.
Yes.
All right, we're gonna put Grandma Carmen's recipe online for everyone to share.
Remember, the power of change lies in the power of you.
Just one person, one voice, it's all you need to speak the truth.
Goodbye, everybody.
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