Outrageous: Public Meltdowns Caught On Tape | Dr. Oz | S11 | Ep 59 | Full Episode
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Public meltdown.
Don't touch me!
Caught on tape.
That's okay!
Why did you unleash?
I just snapped.
I had enough.
And Mel Robbins on overcoming your personal demons.
Just counting backward could change your life.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Instead of yelling.
Plus, all my children's Cameron Matheson opens up about his cancer battle.
It's funny you can talk about it so many times.
Still, you know.
Coming up next.
Are you ready for season 11?
- Yeah! - If you've been watching the news or your social media feed, then you'd agree it feels like humans are being caught behaving badly more often these days.
You all see that, right?
Weird things happen with weird people doing things they shouldn't do.
Well, today we're going behind the caught on tape videos to find out what's really going on when people have public meltdowns.
Human behaving badly.
It feels like an epidemic on airplanes, in parking lots, and convenience stores.
No place is exempt from tensions and meltdowns caught on tape.
On a flight to Sacramento, this woman threatened to kill everybody on the airplane after flight attendants told her not to smoke in the cabin bathroom.
I will kill everybody on this Play!
She was arrested at the gate and charged with making criminal threats.
And watch this!
A woman vandalized a Tesla by keying it as she walked through the parking lot.
Maybe she was jealous.
Ironically, she was caught by the Tesla's own cameras.
Take a look at this woman.
She walked casually into a New Jersey convenience store and destroyed the place, knocking and throwing items from the shelves onto the floor.
And then even tried to pay for her item, leaving fellow customers baffled, wondering what would cost someone to act like this.
And then there's Chris Morgan, who became the poster child for Angry Outbursts after he unleashed in a Long Island bagel store.
That's okay!
Freaking out over how women treat short men.
Women in general, I've said it on dating sites.
You think I'm making that s**t up?
Dubbed Angry Bagel Man from Long Island, the video of his freakout has millions of views.
Go ahead and attack me.
In a daytime exclusive, Chris, the man in that video, joins us.
So you become the face of angry public outbursts.
I guess so.
Walk me through what happened there.
Why did you unleash?
Well, there were things that were leading up to that day.
I had lost a $900 cleaning account.
I had my own cleaning company and they did it very wrong, never informed me.
I purchased a van that I only had for four months.
I spent about $5,000 and then when it was time to get inspected, I think it was a storm sandy van.
The whole bottom was rust.
I had to get rid of that.
And then there were two other incidences in stores before the bagel day where, you know, just asking me stupid questions about my height at like 4 in the morning, just trying to get breakfast.
And it just led up and built up, and I just snapped and had enough.
So you snapped, in your words.
On that day, yeah, on July 10th, correct.
So you're being called the Angry Bagel Boss.
You have a Twitter feed, a T-shirt that you sell saying that.
Is that how you want to be known, as the Angry Bagel Boss?
Not necessarily, but usually when one thing happens, they just label you as that.
Do you admit that that was bad behavior?
Have you gone out and sought anger management classes?
Well, I used to go to therapy years ago.
I remember my therapist told me that, because I asked him, I said, is there any medicine that could totally calm you down?
He says, it only goes so far.
And he even said, you know, I don't blame you on certain things, that it's just natural that eventually, when a lot of things happen to certain people, it's just natural to let it out, and they just lose it, you know, so...
When I watch that video, I see a man in pain.
Absolutely.
Are you in pain all the time?
A lot of the times, yeah.
Yeah, and it pisses me off how shallow people are in Long Island.
It makes me sick, and I'm tired of it.
Absolutely tired of it.
The amount of games that, you know, they play.
You know, I'm not saying all women are bad.
There's good out there, but I think it's getting harder to find, and I think a majority of them are just their...
Just looking for the typical tall muscular or with money and all that kind of stuff.
And I think a lot of the media and all these previous shows had a lot to do with that, had a heavy influence on their mentality.
And because of it, it's unrealistic and they're waiting and waiting for something that's not going to come along.
If it does for them, God bless them.
But, you know, it's like...
People that are not in their favor or their top pick can have all these good qualities and that many bad, and that's all they focus on.
And because of that, you're disqualified.
See, I disagree.
I know a lot of women who would love to be with someone who would love them.
And they're lonely.
And they're good folks.
Does it bother you that the outburst that we see there makes people feel less safe?
Yeah, it does, and I, you know, looking back, and I understand their apprehension, and, you know, but at the same time, it's like, again, I don't want to be labeled something like that.
I mean, it was a brief thing, you know, and it's kind of unfair because, you know, people don't really know who I am fully, that, you know, I'm a great guy, you know, and it's just a lot of stuff built up, and again, I just had enough, and, you You know, I've gone on a lot of, you know, some dates and they tell me they like me and then they ghost me or they'll just flat out tell me and, you know, but they act like they really like you.
And that's been my experiences at least for eight to ten years on these sites alone or in public.
You're never going to be able to change everybody.
You definitely can change most people, but you can change yourself.
I know.
That's the one variable you control.
I try, and I've heard this from a lot of people, but it's easier said than done when you're walking in my shoes.
It really is.
And I try.
I don't think I don't.
But, you know, I have good days.
I have bad days, like everybody else.
Well, let's talk about being in your shoes.
Were you surprised that you triggered someone in that store who jumped you and flattened you?
Someone could have gotten hurt.
No, I don't regret any of that at all.
I was just speaking my mind.
And for a guy who is twice my size, I just consider him to be a useless bully.
And I'm convinced that they do it because I'm shorter.
They wouldn't do it to a guy their height or bigger.
People just, they just poke at you and poke at you, you know.
And, hey, I'm human, you know?
I get angry like everybody does.
I get happy when everybody does.
But you're embracing the anger mantra.
You're celebrating the fact that you're the angry bagel boss.
Sometimes, yeah.
Sometimes, no.
Depending on my mood.
If I vent, it makes me feel better.
As the saying goes, let the truth set you free.
I don't think that's your truth, Chris.
Look, we got a choice in the world.
All of us.
It's a power of one.
Are you going to bring light to the world?
Are you going to bring darkness to the world?
When I watched that video in the bagel shop, a bunch of people were just trying to get through their day.
Many of them have aches and pains you have no idea about.
It might be as severe as yours.
And I can never possibly truly understand your pain, but I get that you're in pain.
That's loud and clear.
I hear that on the stage right now.
But you did not bring light to the world when you were saying those things.
I disagree with you.
And I think the world today needs more of people like me.
That's not true.
Yelling the way you did, that anger outburst, it has a viral effect, literally, right?
It's like a bacteria.
Listen, here's the reality.
What happens when you get angry, and we've all been there, is you do something you wish you hadn't done.
So then, because we're smart, we've got to rationalize what we did, which means we've got to change what really happened in our mind so that it makes it acceptable we acted that way.
That's what happens.
You probably did that in your mind right now about what happened that day in the bagel shop.
I mean, I thought of that on and off.
You know, Michael, maybe I shouldn't, but I don't think anybody has the audacity to judge me at all from one video, period.
So let me be a doctor for a second.
Sure.
I would normally say, you know, count to three, but you won't do that.
So how about count to two?
Before you yell.
I'm only asking you that because you got the world's attention now, right?
And people are gonna see your actions, and they can hopefully see it as a mirror about what they're doing wrong and not do it.
But in the meantime, be a force for good.
It's all right?
Well, I try to, and that's what I want to do.
After the show, bagel boss guy, Chris Morgan, had a stroke, and we're told he is recovering.
We wish him well and hope that he can find a path to all-around healing.
Jodi Arias, guilty of killing her boyfriend.
He's stabbed him 27 times.
Now, his best friend speaks out.
I didn't see it coming.
I don't think Travis did either.
Plus...
He grabbed my hand and we let go.
An abduction caught on tape.
I don't think many would have survived under his control.
She's here revealing her ordeal.
It's okay.
It's okay.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Don't f***ing touch me!
Don't touch me.
Stop, stop.
Don't f***ing touch me!
You come touch me, I will put you right back.
I don't...
Yo, lady.
Stop it!
Stop!
Yo, if they wake up, they're fine.
Stop.
I'm fine, man.
I'm fine.
Stop kicking.
Stop.
Yo, what are you doing?
No, she's hitting me in the butt.
I'm not gonna hurt.
Please put that bullet down.
Hey, what's your problem?
Yo, it's too early for this.
She's not even fighting you back.
More and more we see videos like that, showing up on social media, viral clips of humans behaving badly.
Psychiatrist Dr. Joseph is joining us to explain why people act like this and how to handle it if you encounter someone in the middle of a grown-up tantrum.
We just watched this woman on a subway uncontrollably attacking another passenger.
That passenger seems pretty calm, not fighting back.
Psychologically, what is going on in the moment, both with the woman who's angry, but people around her as well on the subway?
Dr. Oz, I've seen the unedited version, the full version.
And if you look at this video, you see this woman turning red.
And let's remember, I haven't met her or treated her.
However, when people turn red, it's because their adrenaline is a surgeon.
And in my office, when I treat professionals who lose their temper, who have rage issues, they'll tell me that something little will tick them off and send them right into fight-or-flight mode.
And that's possible that that's what's happening here.
You say when you take care of professionals, was she a professional?
This woman was an attorney.
An attorney?
An attorney.
Is this happening more?
Are we just capturing it because we happen to have cell phones?
Have people lost it more in modern America?
So, I mean, that's a great point, because we all have devices, social media is so popular, and we're capturing these incidences a lot more.
And in my profession, we see something called intermittent explosive disorder.
It's a condition where people have these unexplained, not premeditated outbursts, where they become violent, aggressive, for no reason.
There are about 16 million Americans that suffer from intermittent explosive disorder at some point in their lives.
How many?
16 million.
Oh my goodness.
That's a lot of people.
It's a lot of people.
And there are no FDA approved medications for it.
However, there are therapies that can help you to control your anger.
Alright, so there's three basic common types of bad behaviors.
Come on over.
That's right.
We'll go through them.
The first is the grievance keeper.
Now, interestingly, the grievance keeper is sort of like that gentleman that was angry in the bagel store at the Angry Bagel Boss, Chris.
Yeah, you know, in my practice, when I see grievance keepers, they bottle in their rage.
So this is a person who gets treated poorly by their wife or their spouse or their boss, and they don't deal with the conflict because they're conflict avoidant.
So rather than dealing with conflict and frustration, they bottle it up and then they explode, like what we saw in these videos.
For him, it's his lack of girlfriends.
And I hear that's a much more common issue.
But then he's blaming women When the only person can change is yourself anyway.
Okay, mayhem makers.
Now, there's a video of a woman who's casually destroying a convenience store, right?
This is, she's certainly making mayhem.
I mean, how could you ever do this?
Watch this.
So what's going on with the mind of this person?
So these people are really bored.
They do these very provocative things because they need to feel excited.
They need to feel alive.
And finally, there's the righteous warrior.
So this is the person who's a parent at that little league game who gets really mad at the ref because the ref makes a bad call.
Or that person that gets really heated in political debates.
Oh yes, that I hear a lot.
Are you with folks like that?
In my own family I have this.
Well, you know, neuroscience shows us that our brains are hardwired to want fairness.
And if something is perceived as being unfair, we get angry.
Let's remember, no matter what the cause, if you're using anger and violence to get your point across, then you're really backfiring because you're not getting your message heard.
No one wants to see violence.
And the only pills we'll use to deal with this will numb you.
They won't deal with the underlying reality.
So, personally, I think we should avoid watching these outbursts online because we react as if we actually witnessed it in real time.
That's true, medically.
It's like you were actually there.
You get post-traumatic stress disorder if you watch enough of it.
So, when you encounter a human behaving badly, instead of pulling out your phone, just walk away, right?
Form an area, go to a place that's sort of safer, no longer in harm's way, and also that way the person gets less attention for acting out.
Dr. Joseph, thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Next, meet a mom who's fed up and loses it with her husband and kid.
We're gonna use Mel Robbins' five-second rule to help tackle her anger.
Because you may not be able to control how you feel, but you can always control how you act.
Five seconds.
That's it!
Five seconds is what my next guest says is all you need to start making your biggest life goals a reality.
If you want to finally tackle those health issues, lose weight, maybe start a new career, or have a better relationship with your family, well, Mel Robbins says she can get you started in five seconds flat.
Take a look.
If you change your decisions, you will change everything.
Mel Robbins!
Taking charge of and changing your life.
That's Mel Robbins' mantra.
And she lives and preaches it every single day.
You can improve your life any way that you want.
Life coach.
Author.
The number one female speaker in the country.
TV show host.
Welcome to the Mel Robbins Show.
Mel Robbins seems utterly unstoppable.
But she wasn't always.
It was 2008. I found myself unemployed.
We were $800,000 in debt.
Absolutely terrifying.
I felt so ashamed, and I also felt paralyzed.
But then one night, watching TV, she saw a rocket launch, and it changed everything.
And I could hear in the background the countdown to the launch, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and something clicked.
I thought, oh my gosh, that's the answer to changing my life.
The next morning, when her alarm went off, she didn't hit snooze.
She launched herself out of bed in just five seconds.
In five seconds, I had won a battle for the first time with my anxiety and my fear.
And I had also beaten my pattern of hitting the snooze button.
Mel used her five-second rule to completely turn her life around.
She went on to write the best-selling book, which became an international movement.
And now she's in your living room.
Today we're talking about something every parent and grandparent needs to know.
You too can improve your life.
I want to teach people a simple way to discover power that's locked inside them.
And then unleash it and go out and live the life they've always dreamt of.
Please welcome best-selling author and host of a new talk show, The Mel Robbins Show.
Mel Ratham.
Well, they love you.
Hi, everybody!
Thank you.
Oh, my goodness.
So, I had been watching your show, which is absolutely spectacular, and you're doing something that is incredibly difficult.
You're getting folks to have that lightbulb moment right there live on the stage.
How do you make that possible?
I mean, having been, you know, 11 years down the road on this deal, it's really difficult.
Well, I think my success comes because I earned it the hard way.
Life tested me.
And that's how I earned my expertise.
I mean, I struggled with anxiety for two decades, postpartum depression.
As you just saw in that video, just 11 years ago, I was unemployed, facing bankruptcy, drinking my problems away and unable to get out of bed.
And I had to sort my own self out.
And in order to do that, I had to break the mental patterns and the behavior patterns that were holding me back.
And it's in doing that for myself, I've been able to teach millions of other people how to do it.
Interestingly, if I look at your whole story, you're right where so many folks are right now.
But in different phases of your life, you've touched them all, which I think gives you real authenticity to speak to this.
As you try to make interventions come alive for people, real change, what surprised you the most?
I think what surprises me the most, Dr. Oz, is how many people are hurting and how stuck so many people feel and how it's the same patterns over and over and over again that keep us all stuck, whether it's patterns around self-doubt or patterns around feeling unworthy.
And your genius is in taking complex topics that are so hard for the rest of us to understand and making them super accessible to people so that they can change the course of their lives by making healthier choices.
I want to do the same thing when it comes to how you talk to yourself.
And so it's been surprising how many people are stuck, but it's also been surprising, and I know you see this too, how when you show somebody the pattern that they're in, how fast they can change.
Isn't that beautiful?
Yes.
It's a privilege.
A lot of your insights are powerful because you can sit back and in a minute grasp them.
So the five second roll, and I saw that rocket ship take off in your mind on that little video piece.
What did that symbolize to you when you finally had that epiphany, that breakthrough moment?
Well, the breakthrough moment and the rocket, you know, if you think about it, a rocket leaves the ground in five seconds.
It's that fast.
And what I realized in that moment is that there's a five-second window that defines your whole life.
There's a five-second moment where you know what to do, but then you start thinking about it.
And it's in that thinking window that in five seconds, your anxiety comes in, your self-doubt comes in, every excuse comes in.
And just the simple act of counting backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, closes the window between thinking about it and doing it.
And that is where all change happens in that five-second window.
So if someone at home right now is where you were 11 years ago.
Uh-huh.
Oh, God.
Struggling deep, right?
Yes.
And they want to change something in their lives.
What's the first step?
So the first step, and you talk about this a lot, identify what you want to change.
So is it, do you want to get out of bed and not lie there and think about all your problems and feel depressed?
Do you want to get to the gym?
Do you want to make the healthy choices he's teaching you to make every single day on this show?
So identify what is the change that you want to make in the pattern.
And then when it comes time to do it, You're going to use the five-second rule.
So let's say get to the gym.
You know you need to go.
You're going to go today.
It's at five o'clock.
Five o'clock rolls around.
You're tired.
You're looking at yourself.
You don't feel like it.
I don't want to.
Clothes don't fit.
Yeah, clothes don't fit.
I don't know what to...
Five, four, three, two, one.
Shut up, brain, and go.
That is what will make the difference, period.
Count backwards.
It sounds stupid.
I'm telling you, it sounds so stupid that just counting backward could change your life.
I know you love science.
This has hard science behind it.
It is classified as a starting ritual.
A starting ritual and habit research, as you know, is a tool that you can use to outsmart your own brain.
For a lot of folks, the most dangerous place they can be is in their head.
Absolutely.
We don't need to know where you live, in terms of your address, to know where you live.
Because we're all up here.
And I think if we were to put a speaker on your head and broadcast the garbage you say to yourself, you wouldn't be sitting here at the Dr. Oz show.
You'd be locked up somewhere.
And yet, you talk to yourself like that all day.
And I'm on a mission to teach you that you don't have to talk to yourself like that.
You can choose what you think about.
Alright, so one thing a lot of folks are worried about is their addiction to anger, especially in today's society.
So you're about to hear from a mother who says she's sick and tired of yelling at her family.
She wants to stop, but she's having a tough time about it.
And she's here for Mel to help.
Take a look.
Sanaya!
Sanaya, get up!
Sanaya, get up!
It's me!
I will go in there three, four times to wake this baby up.
Gotta get up, let's go.
By the third time, I've lost it.
So maybe come back in here, Sanaya.
I'm dead serious.
I'm a loving mom of three beautiful children who I love dearly.
Keilani's 15, Sayira's 13, Sunaya's 12, and I'm married to my wonderful husband.
Love them all dearly, but they drive me insane.
From the moment I get up in the morning, it starts.
I've already asked you to clean your room three times!
Get up here now!
With Sayira, she's obsessed with her phone.
We have very clear rules in the household that the phones have to be handed in by bedtime, literally handed in to a parent.
And so, for her last time, PM, give me the phone!
Okay, okay, I'm sorry.
It's hard to come home from work having to cook and having to not only clean, but also pick up after other people.
I have high blood pressure, and so getting frustrated and angry regularly is not good for me.
When I yell or lose my patience with them, you know, I do reflect afterwards and I do feel bad, so I definitely would love some help.
Hazel standing by.
She is here because she's ready to change.
Can she actually do that today?
Absolutely, and you're going to see it happen live.
Alright, next up, Mel Robbins' anger intervention you can't miss.
Plus, if you want to feel less angry, Mel's a trick that can stop a yelling fit before it starts.
So, stick around.
The Dish Crew is making over your mac and cheese.
From traditional to this ain't your mama's mac and cheese.
This dish is inspired by buffalo wings.
With one main ingredient.
Cheese, cheese, cheese.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
Sanaya!
Sanaya, get up!
Sanaya, get up!
It's late!
Yo, maybe come back in here, Sanaya.
I'm dead serious.
You're not gonna like it.
Stop making me ask for it.
Give me the phone.
Okay, okay, I'm sorry.
Come in here right now and get it done.
Okay, Lonnie, do you hear me?
That was footage of Hazel.
She is here today because she wants to stop being the angry mom.
Author and motivational speaker Mel Robbins says she can change.
We all can change.
It's a good thing.
It takes less time than you think, but you need a little bit of advice.
That's why she's here.
Her husband Bruce joins us here.
I'll get to Bruce in one second, but Hazel, why now?
Why do you want to change?
So I have high blood pressure, so I get exhausted after I have to have a morning similar to the one you just saw with Sonaya because I get to work and it's like, oh my gosh, I just exhausted so much energy just trying to get her out of bed, get to school on time.
I'm frantic trying to make sure that I get to work on time.
So I do know that it does affect my health.
That was a leading question.
I asked it because we checked your blood pressure before the show and it was high.
So you're not just affecting today's events, you're affecting your ability to be with those beautiful girls of yours, change their lives in the future, and be with them when they need you down the road.
That's the ultimate price you'll all pay.
Bruce, stop being polite about this.
Speak honestly to your beautiful wife about how this anger is affecting your relationship and the family.
When the yelling and the screaming and the anger starts to get a little out of control, the kids have a bad reaction to it as either they're brought down emotionally and they're starting their day or end of the day off on a bad note, which will carry over to the next day.
Second thing, which is honestly most important to me, is your health.
What it's gonna do to you.
Like, we need you there.
We need you with us.
We're not a family without you.
So without you, there is no us.
So, Mel, you've got all the ammo.
I know the five-second rule is going to be part of this, but would you mind starting us with a metaphor?
The iceberg story that I know you have used so powerfully.
Yes, of course.
Come on over here.
I want to show you something.
So we use this a lot on our show because I like to put images and words to the complex topics that we talk about.
The one we're talking about today, anger.
So first of all, anger, this is an anger iceberg.
And anger is a lot like an iceberg because...
That's you, the ship.
That's you, by the way.
Yeah, yeah, there you are.
But an iceberg, you only see the tippy-tippy top.
But most of what's going on with an iceberg is underneath the surface.
So you're expressing anger, but you're actually feeling something much deeper.
So when you see the house in disarray, or your kid is not getting up, or they're not handing you the phone, what's the deeper emotion that you're feeling?
Just pick a couple words that's underneath the anger.
I would say disappointed.
Okay.
Frustrated.
Yep.
Annoyed.
Yep.
Worried.
Overwhelmed, for sure.
Overwhelmed, for sure.
I have a question.
When you were growing up, was one of your parents a screamer?
Sorry, Mom.
Yes.
My mom is absolutely, to this day, still a yeller.
Okay.
When your mother was yelling at you as a little one, What word did you feel when she started screaming?
Did you feel overwhelmed by it?
I felt more, I would say, stressed.
Okay.
Embarrassed, you know, depending on the situation.
So here's what's interesting.
There's this concept, everybody, that will change your parenting called ghosts in the nursery.
The reason why you're doing it, check this out, it's crazy.
Is because when you were little and your mother yelled, you felt stressed.
Your nervous system remembered that feeling.
When you walk into your house and your son's stuff is everywhere, you feel stressed.
When your child is not getting out of bed for the second, third, you feel stressed.
So you are now doing exactly the behavior you saw when you were little feeling stressed.
And what you saw is your mother yelling.
So you're doing it unconsciously.
That's a pattern, right?
And so here's what you're going to do to break the pattern.
Come sit down, because I want you to process this, and I want your beautiful husband to be part of this consequence.
So here's what's happening.
You get stressed, so you naturally repeat the pattern you saw as a kid, which was yelling.
That's why you have no control over it.
So now what you're going to do is very simple.
When you start to feel stressed, you're going to use the five-second rule, 5-4-3-2-1, to interrupt feeling stressed and what you've matched it with, which is yelling.
Counting backwards, let's do it together.
Five, four, three, two, one.
It gives you a moment where you settle your body, and now you can walk in that bedroom, and you can calmly say, hey, you're gonna miss the bus.
You gotta get going.
Instead of screaming.
So do you think you can use Mel's five-second rule and this iceberg metaphor to make a change in your life?
Absolutely.
Definitely.
You'll implant it when you get home.
Yes.
You'll audit it for us, Bruce.
Thank you for sharing the story.
Listen, I want you all to learn more about what Mel's talking about.
So everyone in the audience, right, we got the five-second rule.
It's 224 pages.
We have one page for every member of the audience.
One page?
Oh, come on, Dr. Oz.
We can do better than that.
All right, you're all going home with a copy of Mel's book, The Five-Second Rule.
It has sold more than a million copies, translating the 36th language.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
You can see Mel in action like she was today and so much more.
Tune in to The Mel Robbins Show.
You see it right there.
It's on every single weekday.
Check your local listings.
We'll be right back.
Coming up, Cameron Matheson is opening up about his battle with kidney cancer.
I was shocked to learn it had been growing in me for at least 10 years.
When All My Children alum and Home and Family host Cameron Matheson revealed he had kidney cancer, the shocking news made headlines all over the world.
Well, Cameron is here today with the latest on his health.
But first, take a look at his emotional journey.
America fell in love with Cameron Matheson when he was introduced as Ryan Lavery on the long-running soap opera, All My Children.
He would go on to appear in over 1,000 episodes.
In 2007, Cameron competed and won fifth place on Dancing with the Stars.
He signed on with Good Morning America as a correspondent covering events such as the Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globes, and many other live events.
Cameron has starred in many great Hallmark movies and now hosts on Entertainment Tonight and Hallmark's Home and Family.
But behind the scenes, the always positive Cameron feared his persistent gut issues and fatigue were a sign of something more serious.
After pushing his doctor for an MRI, they made a shocking discovery.
They actually found a growth on one of my kidneys, my right kidney.
It's a tumor that's consistent with something called renal cell carcinoma or kidney cancer.
Cameron prepared to face the unknown and bravely welcomed us all to come along on his journey.
Please welcome Cameron Matheson I know I know You look wonderful.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much.
Actually, Kevin, go ahead and share with them the insight, the deja vu you just had.
I just had such a deja vu.
This stage was home to all my children for many years, and for me, 14 years.
My dressing room right down from yours.
And just watching that and sort of reliving got me emotional.
It's important to remember.
It's important to remember what that felt like in that moment, so thank you.
No, God bless you for being here.
We were all holding our breath when we heard a diagnosis.
And just to focus on the reality, you had this operation less than three months ago.
That's right, yeah.
You're walking out on the stage here.
You're back to work.
I mean, how are you feeling?
I feel so remarkably good, all things considered.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Energy levels and strength and things like that are coming back slowly, but in the grand scheme of things, I really feel very much like myself again, which is sort of astounding considering, like you say, it was about, I think, nine and a half weeks ago, I was on the operating room table, so it's crazy to me.
Well, it gets back to the issue of reading your body, which is, I think, fundamental to why you're going to live a long and natural life as opposed to what was going to happen.
So let's go back to the beginning of a saga as you found out about it.
Right.
You're out there minding your own business.
You get a phone call with your doctor's number on it.
What happened?
Did you skip a beat?
As soon as I saw his number come up on my phone, my heart definitely skipped a beat.
When I answered, he said that my abdomen area, which is where I had asked for the MRI to be because of my sort of GI issues that I thought is where the issue was.
But really, those were, in a sense, at best, secondary issues.
And he said they found a tumor on your right kidney that was consistent with renal cell carcinoma.
I mean, that's stunning.
What were you doing when this all happened?
I was actually at the golf course, and I got the call.
I took the call.
It didn't feel real.
Everything kind of slowed down, you know, because as soon as you hear the word cancer, obviously, it's very scary.
All sorts of thoughts come racing through your head, and you start thinking about family and kids, of course, and things like that.
Speaking of family and kids, Vanessa, your beautiful wife, and you've got two kids.
You've got a 16-year-old son, 13-year-old daughter.
That's right.
How did you break the news to them?
How did you tell them, hey, Dad has cancer?
Well, I told my wife right away.
I called her.
She immediately said, we're going to beat this.
this, it's going to be all right.
It's funny, you can talk about it so many times.
It's It still, you know, happened on the phone with your producers as well.
Anyway, and then I wanted to make sure that I waited a few days, I had a little bit more information before I told the kids.
So just to get everyone up to speed, your tumor was about the size of this golf ball that you'd been hitting only seconds earlier, right?
That's about right.
Anyway, your kidney's about the size of your fist.
So Cameron, everyone fits a little different, so if your kidney's that size, you've got a tumor lying on top of it.
But there's a problem with this tumor, because the kidneys are the most vascular organ.
20% of your blood, every time your heart pumps, 20% of the blood goes to the kidneys.
So there's a lot of blood going by that cancer, which can take those tumor cells in a lot of bad places.
And sometimes when those cancers grow, even if their size isn't huge, and this is a pretty good sized tumor, the devastating effect can still be there because they can have metastasized.
So how long does your doctor think that tumor was growing inside of you?
Likely it was within the range, of course, plus or minus 8 to 12 years it had been growing on my kidney.
So just take a step back.
You've been concerned about something not being right.
Yes.
Doctors like me, and I know what it's like to be on the other side, can't find anything that's obviously wrong.
I mean, look at you, right?
So we're not taking those symptoms as seriously as maybe we would have if there was something else going on.
You're pushing, pushing, pushing, saying there's nothing, you know, there's something not right here.
You've got to do something.
Right.
Do you look back and say, thank goodness I put my hand up?
Absolutely.
I mean, 100%.
It literally just wakes me up out of sleep sometimes if I just think about how unbelievably fortunate I was to make sure that I made the call to get the MRI that time, to really just kind of insist upon it.
So not everyone needs an MRI scan, but...
Listen to your body, because there's often something we can do to kick the tire, so to speak.
Right.
So coming up, never-before-seen images of Cameron's tumor.
Plus, we're going to reveal the kidney cancer warning signs that you need to know about.
Stay with us.
I am back with the great Cameron Matheson, who's opening up about his battle with kidney It's like a little surprise for you.
Cameron shared his actual images because they're stunning.
It's like Star Wars, okay?
This is the actual MRI where the doctors found the kidney cancer.
So, we're going down, there's the diaphragm there, and then you're gonna start seeing these two structures They're right there, that white thing and that white thing.
Those are the kidneys.
Now freeze that for a second, right?
This kidney is normal.
It looks like a kidney bean a little bit, right?
A little circular thing, okay?
Spines up there, bellies down here.
This kidney is supposed to look just like this kidney.
Does it look the same?
No.
No.
There's a little shark bite missing here.
Right?
That, right there, is the tumor.
Right?
So, we're gonna make it a 3D model now.
This is from USC's wonderful Institute of Urology.
And as you rotate this thing around, it goes into a 3D image.
The red is the aorta, the big blood tube.
The vein is the blue thing.
Kidney, kidney.
That green baby right there on your left kidney is the tumor.
Right there.
And you see it beautifully here.
Here's the problem.
All the blood is there.
So when you go in there, the surgery can be dangerous at times, because if you nick this or this, it's a lot of blood very fast.
Right.
A garden hose, a hole in it.
And also, because it's close to these blood vessels, the tumor can slip into this vein especially and go up and metastasize to the heart and everywhere else.
You're lucky.
I don't know how else to say it.
I've operated on people with your disease, what you used to have, your tumor, where it was caught later, and I'm a heart surgeon.
The reason I operated was I had to stop the heart to take the tumor out of the heart.
So, I brought you a little gift, because you were kind enough to give us the gift of your story.
Yeah.
Here's some purple gloves.
Oh, gee, thanks.
It's the least I could do.
Literally.
All right.
So...
I don't know if you've ever held kidneys in your hands before.
I have not.
I have not.
I've never held, no, no.
This is the first for everybody.
So don't hold them like you hold a golf club.
You have to be gentle with them.
Okay, okay, I got you.
I know you're a little bit more used to.
Okay, so if you just hold these, here's the big tube, the red tube that I was in the image is this thing here, okay?
These are real kidneys.
Real kidneys.
There's the bladder here.
Wow.
The kidney stones get stuck in these structures here.
So this is going down, but this is up?
Right.
Okay.
The head's up here, the leg's down here.
That's the bladder.
Gotcha.
And these kidneys, if you just open them up a little bit, you'll see there's an interesting structure on the inside, but they're beautiful, healthy.
This is the normal color of a kidney.
Lots of stuff in there for the blood to pass through because the kidneys filter your blood.
But there's lots of cells in there.
So if any one of those cells turns cancerous, you end up with this.
Now, this is a normal kidney on the outside.
Yeah.
But you see this little lump there?
Yeah.
And if I flip it over, you'll notice that this normal kidney here is being pushed out of the way by this big circular mass.
Yes, I see that.
This is bigger than your cancer was, but not by a lot.
So go ahead and hold that.
And you'll notice that cancer is fragile.
See how it's already cracking?
Yeah.
It's not well built the way a normal kidney is.
And this cancer is looking for one big opportunity.
How do I, because they're sociopathic, how do I squeeze the kidney out of the way and spread beyond the kidney?
Which is what your doctors were most concerned about.
Well, your version of this is in a bucket.
That's right.
In the hospital, which is a really nice place for it to be.
Exactly right.
Much better in a bucket outside my body than inside, that's for sure.
All right.
So let me share one little more information because I want you guys to see some lives today.
Kidney cancer is not usually found, you know, by accident.
You've got to sort of tell someone you've got a problem.
So do what Cameron did.
These are the classic warning signs.
Blood in the urine, right?
Not only the kidney stone or infection.
Back pain, where I showed you.
Anemia, low blood count.
Because oftentimes you have a little bit of blood bleeding, and it could actually affect your white blood cell count too, and unintentional weight loss.
You were an advocate for your health.
Yes, I was.
You stood up and said, hey, something's not right.
You became a pest until someone took you seriously.
Exactly.
What is your message to anyone watching right now who's worried something isn't quite right in their body?
Okay, well, pay attention to it.
My big lesson is to really be aware, get in tune with your body, because it could save your life.
It certainly did mine.
Wonderful, wonderful lesson.
All right.
If you or someone that you care about has a shocking discovery about your health, just like Cameron did, I want to hear from you.
So go to DrOz.com.
We've created a special link up so he can tell us your story in a more confidential setting.
Coming up, just in time for Thanksgiving on Thursday, guess what?
Cameron's revealing his number one tip for staying healthy this holiday season.
He's got a little surprise for you. - Oh, my son's great.
Whoa!
This was a huge mistake.
Oh, man.
Thank you.
I don't even know where to start.
First, eat half the whipped cream.
OK. Then?
Then, sipping into the cocoa.
Okay.
Okay.
That was a sneak peek of The Christmas Club starring Cameron Matheson, which premieres on Hallmark Channels this Wednesday night at 8 p.m.
Eastern.
That was a very important scene and movie for you.
It was.
I came out sort of being mindful.
I'm like, I've got to pay attention to the little things.
We'll be especially grateful for life this Christmas.
Good for you.
Number one tip for all of us.
I would have to say, for me anyway, is to plan.
Have a plan going into the holidays.
Be easy on yourself so that you're able to enjoy and don't beat yourself up.
Be patient.
It's been wonderful having you on.
Thank you for having me.
You're welcome.
Watch The Christmas Club this Wednesday night.
You can also see Cameron host Hallmark's Home and Family weekday mornings.
Check your local listings.
Remember, everybody, the power of change lies in the power of you.