Caffeine Powder Dangers: Understanding the Risks | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 8 | Full Episode
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It looks like cocaine, and its effects can be just as lethal.
A Dr. Oz exclusive.
A popular kid killed by a deadly and legal new product.
The equivalent of 250 cups of coffee in their blood, like that.
Now, his parents break their silence to Dr. Oz.
We need to have this product banned.
The dangers of caffeine powder abuse.
I'm appalled that something this potent is on the market.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Take a look at this substance.
It looks like cocaine, maybe even heroin, and its effects can be just as deadly.
Now I'm talking about caffeine powder.
It's a growing trend, and what you don't know is why is it dangerous and why is it legal?
Well, tonight the Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to avoid pure powdered caffeine sold on the internet.
This past summer, shocking headlines about a seemingly harmless drug most of us take in some form every day.
Eighteen-year-old Logan Steiner of LaGrange died in May.
The mysterious death of an Ohio high school honor student put the hidden risks of powdered caffeine into the national spotlight.
Medical authorities were astonished when an autopsy revealed the teen had died of a caffeine overdose.
Until now, a virtually unheard of event.
Anyone, including children, can easily buy caffeine powder in health food stores and online.
The cost is the same as a six-pack of soda.
The government classifies it as a dietary supplement, so caffeine powder is not regulated by the FDA. But that doesn't mean it's healthy or safe.
The medical community is only now realizing powdered caffeine will be responsible for a growing number of ER visits and now death.
The FDA is so alarmed that it has begun carefully monitoring all products with high concentrations of caffeine.
But until powdered caffeine is regulated, your safety is up to you.
It's difficult to predict each person's response to caffeine.
Some people are just more sensitive to it than others.
But let me put caffeine into perspective.
One cup of tea, a cup of tea, 26 milligrams of caffeine.
Well tolerated by most folks.
A cup of coffee, 95 milligrams of caffeine, depending on who's making it.
Again, we know what the impact of that is.
One serving of an energy drink, that can be 200 milligrams of caffeine.
That's why sometimes they make a big deal about these.
But caffeine powder is so concentrated that just one teaspoon, the amount in this little vial, has as much caffeine as almost 18 cups of coffee.
Now, as a parent and a doctor, the first time I really took this dangerous trend seriously is when I read about 18-year-old Logan Steiner.
It was only one week to high school graduation, and 18-year-old Logan Steiner was excited.
This straight-A student, star wrestler, and high school prom king was about to start a new life as a college freshman in the fall.
But Logan never received his diploma.
No one knows for certain why, but Logan decided to try some powdered caffeine given to him by a fellow student.
That turned out to be a deadly mistake.
18-year-old Logan Steiner died in May after consuming that powder.
The coroner's report found enough caffeine in Logan's blood to trigger severe and ultimately fatal arrhythmias.
A tragic death that's become a wake-up call for parents everywhere.
Katie and Dennis Steiner are here.
I can't tell you how sore I am.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I don't have any idea how you're coping with this.
Dennis, when you first heard about that autopsy report, about arrhythmias, about seizures, what did you think it caused this?
I wasn't sure, but I knew he was a very healthy young man, a wrestler, and just didn't know.
Didn't make any sense at all.
Didn't make any sense at all.
Kay, the day Logan died, you went into his room.
I can't imagine again.
Yeah, the day after.
The day after.
Yes.
Just, I guess, trying to make sense of what happened.
And you found a substance that looked like what's in this vial.
Yes.
What did you think it was?
I had no idea.
I had no idea.
I took it downstairs and showed it to my older son and said, what is this?
Because he's in college.
And he said, I have no idea.
And all of our friends were there that morning and they were looking at it, staring at it.
What could it be?
There was too much in the bag to be a street drug, I guess, when we turned it over to the police right away.
He said it wasn't no street drug.
So we had no idea what it was.
And his girlfriend had said he was carrying something around.
She told us right away when she got over that day that she found out he was gone.
And said he had something he was calling caffeine, but he was toting it around like it was a bag of potatoes.
You were just carrying it around like in a sandwich bag?
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Had you ever heard about caffeine powder?
No.
Either of you?
Never.
No, and I pride myself on trying to watch the synthetics and the online traffic and no.
You know, we do everything to protect our kids.
It's our calling.
And then things we don't even know about, I hadn't heard of it either.
Right.
Sneak up on us.
Let me show you, if I can, everybody, what this caffeine powder does and why I'm so concerned about it.
So, caffeine powder Let's just talk about caffeine for one.
You take caffeine in because you're feeling tired or down or whatever the reason might be.
It goes into your stomach and gets rapidly pulled into the bloodstream, and from there it goes to your heart where it makes your heart beat faster.
You feel that sometimes, but it goes up to your brain.
It stimulates the neurons.
They begin to shoot electricity up more rapidly than they normally would.
That actually makes you feel more alert, right?
That's why you sometimes feel perked up a little bit, a little happy.
But with caffeine powder, Too much of a good thing becomes a problem.
When this stuff is ingested into your body, it starts to fire those neurons so quickly you can begin to have those seizures.
They go haywire and short out in the heart because they rapidly beat so quickly it can't keep up after a while.
These surges of electricity throughout the system can lead to fatal arrhythmias.
When your heart's beating as fast as it can with a little bird heart, it can't keep up.
And these two combinations.
Ones that affect your brain with seizures and that affect your heart with the arrhythmias can become fatal.
Yes.
And the question is, how much is too much?
So Katie, when they actually looked in Logan's blood, in his system, how much caffeine did they find?
There was 100 micrograms per liter of blood.
I did the math.
Yes.
And I calculated out that the amount of caffeine found in his blood Could have been accomplished, could have gotten there if he had drunk 250 cups of coffee.
Dennis, how do you feel when you hear a massive number that anybody could get access to something that could give them the equivalent of 250 cups of coffee in their blood like that?
It's not good.
Most people that we talk to, we hear the same thing.
We didn't know, but we talked to our kids and they did.
So parents are not educated, so creating awareness is real vital for us.
So I asked a world expert to join us.
Dr. Nicole Avina is a nutrition and addiction specialist at Columbia University.
This is what she does for a living.
How concerned are you about this caffeine powder?
I'm very concerned, just like you as a doctor and as a parent.
We know that approximately 75% of our young people are using caffeinated products on any given day already.
Typically that's in the form of sodas and Other types of beverages, energy drinks now, energy gum.
And they're using these products to help them study, to stay awake, to work out.
Athletes are using them, and some even use them to help with weight loss.
But the advent of this caffeine powder, I think, really complicates things and makes it on another level.
I'm appalled, appalled that something this potent is on the market.
I actually bought some products.
This is something I bought off the web.
Yeah.
I have a bunch of others as well.
I want you all to look at this label carefully.
I checked the labels.
The majority list absolutely no warnings whatsoever about overdosing.
It's not even mentioned.
I can't understand how this could be possibly out there for our kids to rapidly get access to without parents, like all of us here, understanding it.
So I reached out to the FDA and asked them what they were going to do about caffeine powder.
Here's what they said.
The agency is working to collect additional information about powdered pure caffeine products and will consider taking regulatory action as appropriate to protect consumers.
In the interim, the FDA recommends that consumers avoid these products.
I'm going to say that again.
The FDA is recommending that we avoid these products.
Katie, I don't know how you're going to put the pieces together.
We will.
I'm sure you will.
You're strong people.
I'm incredibly proud that you're going to come tell your story on our set.
I know how uncomfortable this is, but I wanted to give you the platform now.
Tell America what you want them to know, what they can learn from Logan's loss.
Dennis?
Parents need to find out about this product themselves and talk to their kids, spread the word.
We need to put pressure on the FDA to have this product banned.
It does not need to be in the hands of consumers.
We don't actually know, because caffeine powder is not regulated, how much actually is in the stuff when you buy it, if your kids do get it.
We don't know the concentration in different brands, but I echo your sentiments.
I'm calling on the FDA to ban caffeine powder.
We don't need any more injuries, and we sure as heck don't need any more deaths.
We'll be right back.
Coming up next, the voicemail heard round the world.
That wrecked the career of TV personality Pat O'Brien and forced him into rehab.
That's next.
Pot.
Make to look like harmless snacks.
And getting into the wrong hands.
Oh, that was easy.
Should it be banned?
Why put pot in a form that's so appealing to kids?
That's begging for problems.
That's coming up on Monday. .
I read this brand new book.
I'll be back right after this.
It's by Pat O'Brien.
And if you want to know what it's like to be an addict, you should read it too.
Pat O'Brien is one of the most successful television personalities in America, hanging with presidents and movie stars.
But the disease of addiction tore his life apart and almost killed him.
He rose to the top of the broadcasting business with his charming personality, distinctive voice, and smooth delivery.
Pat O'Brien was a successful sportscaster on CBS for nearly two decades before moving to entertainment news, making his mark on shows like Access Hollywood and The Insider.
To outsiders, Pat was living the dream, but the reality was much darker.
Pat struggled for years with alcohol and substance abuse, but it took an infamous string of sexually graphic voicemail messages to finally bring his world crashing down.
Let's get crantic and some coke.
Kyra hooker.
Let's get out of any of these f***ing f***ers too.
Precious f***ers, sex, and fun, drugs.
F***ing f***ing so crazy.
Bye.
Those messages derailed Pat O'Brien's long and storied career in an instant.
Yet it took four stints in rehab before he truly hit bottom and finally got sober.
Please welcome Pat O'Brien.
Let me just start off.
Try to understand what your life was like before alcoholism took it over.
My life's pretty good now, but before I had the dream life.
I mean, if you could write a script for a kid from South Dakota to end up going as far down the tracks as you can and end up like this with Hollywood hosting shows, every major sporting event in the world, having people want to be on your show, want to be with you.
I mean, it was a very big life.
Pat writes in the book about this three-day binge that he took, which is almost surreal, unbelievable, where he blacked out, doesn't remember what occurred, woke up in a different part of the country with all of your bosses looking over you from above, and then they tell you, you go into rehab, you don't have a choice.
What was it like being shuttled to rehab, coming out of that, and especially, I'm so vividly describing those first 24 hours, being separated from what you were addicted to.
It was a blackout, and that call was made during a blackout.
I still don't remember it.
The first time in rehab was, I couldn't believe it.
I mean, here I am, Pat O'Brien, and you knew me back then.
I mean, we've known each other for a long time.
And you have this entitlement that nothing can happen to you.
You always think that nothing will happen to you that you read bad things about other people happening.
So I show up at rehab and suddenly I'm one of them.
And there was no way I wanted to identify myself as an alcoholic.
I thought it was shameful.
I thought it was, you know, I was remorseful about it.
And they fill you up with drugs.
My body was gone.
And I was detoxed.
And I remember the first day they put me in W.C. Fields' cabin at this place.
Perfect.
Who was the great, great, most famous drunk in the world.
And so they'd given me all my medication, and I was trying to get back to the cabin.
And it starts to rain, Dr. Oz, and I guess a message from somebody.
And there I am, and I'm thinking about my dad, thinking about My mom, if she'd been alive, could she have seen this?
Thinking about my lovely son.
What's he going to think?
And I just started crying.
I just broke down and cried.
And then the drugs kicked in and then I couldn't walk and then I was starting to fall and I grabbed a hold of a pole.
And I'm sliding down this pole, and it's in the mud in my pajamas, and I'm saying to myself, what has happened to me?
Please, God, what has happened to me?
And I just wept like a baby.
And, you know, that's the consequence of it.
It's a disease, and you know that.
You've talked about it.
That's the consequence, and that's the one I had at that moment.
And then I just tried to go from there.
I thought when I heard that part of the story, we've all heard stories like this in our lives.
I thought you'd hit rock bottom, the proverbial place from which you'll return.
No, I hadn't.
On the way home, you stop by and get some wine.
You relapse, which is actually the more The more vivid, the more real observation that I make about alcoholism.
What is that like to realize you're killing yourself and yet to go back to it again?
Well, you don't realize you're killing yourself.
Alcoholics and people with depression, we can get into that later, my friend Robin Williams, poor Robin, but it's the only disease where you don't admit you have it.
You know, people will not admit they're an alcoholic.
You actually differentiate the alcohol from the"-ism." Yeah.
Help folks understand that.
Okay, the alcohol part is easy.
Sort of.
You stop drinking.
I mean, anybody can do that.
And the world's record, I have about six years now.
55,000 hours.
to try that.
But the world record's 24 hours.
And so you can stop drinking for a day.
But the ism is everything that's inside you.
It's the way you grew up.
It's the hole in your heart.
It's people you don't like.
You know, that's the ism.
And that's what you have to work on every day.
That's why there's recovery.
And that's why people out there who think they have a problem know that there's more to just stopping drinking.
You've got to take care of yourself, love yourself, forgive yourself, and move on from there.
Hallelujah.
Words of wisdom.
While you're going through all this therapy, you're busy killing yourself.
Literally, I mentioned the blackout, but you're sustaining big-time head injuries.
I mean, you should have died.
Thank you.
I thought you liked me, Dr. Ross.
I do.
It's why I was so pained to read it.
You know, alcoholics do stupid things.
You know, one night I fell down two flights of stairs and hit my head so hard I broke my neck.
Another time in New York City, right after Anna Nicole Smith died, and I feel like our show contributed to her death by putting her out in the spotlight.
I got back from the Bahamas and I fell on the floor and when they found me, they thought it was a crime scene.
There was so much blood, they thought I had been murdered or something.
So why did you finally, after four stints in rehab, Get this sort of extended period of freedom from alcohol.
You know, the first one was a joke.
The second one, I didn't care.
The third one, I finally listened.
And my therapist or my counselor, Chuck Rice, a great man, said, you know what, you're going to die.
You have to stop thinking about disappointing your son, disappointing whoever.
You're going to die.
And I was walking through a forest at Hazelden.
This happened.
And it's in the book.
And I'm walking and I see all these big trees.
Anybody see The Wizard of Oz?
Please tell me you have.
I've seen it.
In color.
Please tell me you have.
So you walk through and I'm seeing these trees and I said to myself, by God, I'm Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz because I realized That I could have gone home all the time.
Not by clicking my heels, but home was always there for me.
And that's the day I got sober almost six years ago.
It's so telling.
And you describe it so poignantly, and this is your life as a broadcaster, because you bring these stories alive.
Stories that we struggle with.
Addiction.
A lot of us are really reeling at the suicide of Robin Williams.
Give us the message we should be hearing.
Well, Robin Williams died sober, thank God, and suffered from debilitating depression.
When I got out of rehab the first time, Robin was one of the first people to grab me and he hugged me and he goes, Papa, welcome home.
You're in a safe place now, and you have to find that safe place, and that's rooms of recovery.
24 million people, Dr. Oz, are alcoholics.
Probably another 30 aren't.
They all need treatment.
44,000 people died last year from depression, another not spoken of.
It's not a joke.
It's not funny anymore.
The stigma should be gone.
I'm proud to be an alcoholic.
My life is so much better.
I'm going to have a bigger career, a better career because of it.
But if you think you have a problem, there is a solution.
Watch Dr. Oz.
He does more to let people know about their bodies and about...
He's not paying me to do this yet, by the way.
But no, I mean, you have to know your body and know your mind and don't let those voices in your head talk to you.
Find voices other than your own.
Because the voices in your head will tell you, your ego, and I have a big one, your ego will always lie to you.
The ego is there to mess with you.
God bless you.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you.
This is an absolutely fabulous book.
I'll be back right after this is available now.
You can also do your net shirt on DrOz.com, and I'll be back right after this.
Coming up next, Dr. Oz is on a mission to reclaim your health.
I am bringing healthy back.
Untangle the problems that are bringing you down and take back your life.
Next.
All right, today I'm kicking off my year-long mission to bring healthy back.
I went coast to coast to hear which part of your health you want to reclaim this year.
I'm hitting the road to get you revved up.
We are bringing healthy back!
To be the best you you can be.
I want to know when it comes to your health.
Hi everybody!
What do you want to get back?
I want to get my waistline back.
I want to get my cholesterol down.
I have diabetes.
I want to be around for my granddaughter.
What are you doing to bring healthy back?
I want to get my body back the way it used to be.
This is gonna be the best day of my life.
My life.
This is gonna be the best day of my life.
My life.
I howled at the moon with friends, and then the sun came crashing in.
Whoa, oh, oh.
Have you ever heard of Teddy Bear's Heart?
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
I'm never gonna look back.
Whoa, oh, oh.
I'm never gonna give it up.
No, John.
Hey fellas!
I want to get my energy back.
I like this look.
You sounded off, America.
I want to get my cholesterol down.
Reducing stress in my life.
Eat less sweets.
And your message?
I feel healthy, but I can do more.
Was clear.
Good health This is gonna be the best day of my life Bring it healthy back Alright I've met a lot of folks, a lot of folks just like you who want to take that very first step.
All right, take a look at Holly.
She's here all the way from Nashville.
She wants to reclaim her house so she can achieve a long-term goal.
Greetings from Nashville.
My name is Holly and I'm 38 years old.
For most of my life I have struggled with my weight.
I've been on my weight loss journey for almost two years and to date I've lost almost 60 pounds but I'm not done yet.
My goal for this year is to run a 5k with my daughter and it will give me a great sense of accomplishment to complete that goal.
The one thing that is keeping me from achieving my fitness goals is pain.
When I get out of bed in the morning, I have foot pain.
It feels like all of the bones in my feet are broken.
I want desperately to get a hold of my pain so that I can cross that finish line with my daughter.
You know, pain affects so many folks.
And there's so many different ways you can treat it.
But what I've done this year is made sure I've got the best experts in every problem.
And pain is a good example of this.
And I want you to have access to these guys.
They're going to be on the show.
They'll be on the website.
We're going to get their best advice and make it easy for you to get access to it.
Because if I can get these specialists to commit to making your life better, you're going to do it for yourself.
And I don't want you to think that it's magic.
It's not.
There's concrete things we know work out there.
Paint me a picture of what you're going to look like, what you're going to feel like, if I can get your pain out of your life and get your health back.
Dr. Oz, I'm going to run a 5K. I'm going to be able to go to the gym and to exercise without having terrible pain the next day.
I want to keep going on this journey so that I can reach a healthy goal weight.
Very achievable, very doable, and I like the fact that you're concrete about it.
All right, now look at Sean Marie.
She wants me to get involved in a stress quick check so she can live a more balanced life.
Greetings from Avon, Connecticut.
I'm Shawn Marie and I'm 49 years old.
I am a can-do working mom and I'm constantly running around.
I feel like I'm always in motion and I do love the hustle and bustle.
One of the things that gets in the way of my happiness is daily stress.
I'm a social worker, and it never is a 9-to-5 job.
I'm always checking my emails, taking phone calls.
It is just absolutely nonstop.
When I'm at work, I stress about my kids at home, and then when I'm at home, I stress about my job.
And then it becomes a vicious cycle.
I feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel.
This year, I want to learn how to stress less in my life.
Jean-Marie, what would a picture of a healthy you look like?
Someone that's less stressed, able to manage my daily life without worrying about the phone ringing every single minute, being able to spend time with my grandchildren.
I'm 49 years old and my health is an issue with stress and I want to be able to share a healthy life with them stress-free.
You almost said 39. I want you to feel like you're 39. That's part of it.
We think that our best years are behind us.
They're not.
You should feel like you're 39 even though secretly you're 49. Now, why today?
Why do you want to make that change right now?
I want to take my stress back.
I want to be able to, you know, Live life.
My coworkers are worried about my stress, my stress level, the activities that I'm constantly running nonstop, my family.
I just need to be able to enjoy what I'm doing and not have to worry about every single second that something else has to be done.
I need to be able to take control.
You mentioned stress.
Stress is one of the major agers.
Inside each and every one of us, there's that version of you that you love, that you want to be the person you know you are.
And we've got this crusty external shell made up of all these major agers that holds us back from recognizing that we should be living the good life.
And that's our mission.
It's a year-long mission.
We're all going to do it together.
We need each other's help to make this happen.
And I'm going to give you an example.
One of the key things is reprioritizing your life.
So this is a pretty good totem pole of what we do with our lives.
Come on over here and join me.
So most of us put family way up here.
Stand over here so you can watch with me.
I don't want this toppling on you.
Because sometimes life topples on you and that causes stress, right?
So we all put our family up here, right?
And we do it because we think it's the right thing to do.
We think, you know, if we do this, it's the best thing.
But in fact, I want to take this.
Go ahead and hold that.
And step back for one second.
You go ahead and hold clean in the house there.
And I want you to grab keeping up at work and paying the bills.
Hold that over there if you don't mind.
I know it's hard.
And I'm going to take you, and we're going to do it together.
And go ahead, put down clean in the house.
Put down, you know, don't mind helping the next year put the bills.
Put it on top of clean in the house.
And then keeping up at work, go ahead.
Family needs, it all goes up there.
And guess who goes on top, folks?
Guess who goes on top?
We're all doing it together.
You go up on top.
You move you from the bottom to the top, and you put yourself in the first place, and it all comes together.
And you know what else?
A bunch of other things fall in place, too.
I'm giving you time-saving strategies, because I know this is not easy to do.
Right.
By saving you guys time, we'll make it easier for you to do the right thing, which is to put yourself in the right place.
And I've got a couple strategies that I know are bulletproof.
They'll work.
But there's two steps you're going to adopt right now.
First off, I want you to tweet or Facebook me on how you're going to get your healthy back using hashtag bringinhealthyback.
You can post it online so your friends see it.
You can all do it together.
I want you to challenge each other to bring healthy back.
And then tonight, I'm going to be answering your healthy questions.
All the questions about how you can bring healthy back, I'll be on my website answering those questions for you.
I also want to hear from you what's worked so you can pass it along and build a healthy back community.
And don't forget, when you're trying to be healthy, you are already healthy.
That's what it's all about.
We'll be right back.
Coming up.
Those pesky black dots.
Blackheads be gone.
But should you pop?
Can I squeeze them?
Or not?
This is called triangle of dots.
The safe and simple way to get rid of a blackhead.
Oh, that feels good.
Next.
Pot.
Made to look like harmless snacks and getting into the wrong hands.
Oh, that was cheap.
Should it be banned?
Why put pot in a form that's so appealing to kids?
That's begging for problems.
That's coming up on Monday.
They wage a war on your face.
First, a few appear.
Then five.
Then ten.
Twenty.
And before you know it, your beautiful skin is covered with those pesky black dots.
What are they?
Well, they're blackheads.
And today, I'm going to tell you how to safely get rid of them.
But to do that, I need my assistant of the day.
So, if you're sitting in seat number 75. Where's 75?
Come on down.
75. Oh, I'm so happy you are here.
Oh, God.
Oh.
What's your first name?
Diane.
Diane.
Are you happy?
I'm so happy.
But we're talking about blackheads.
I know.
So good.
You like squeezing people's blackheads?
I like squeezing my own.
Ooh.
Where do you get them?
On my nose.
Yes.
Isn't it the best to get them out of there?
I put the hot compress and I squeeze them.
Women love this.
It's something, it's in this, the other X chromosome has it.
Yeah, may I look at yours?
Of course.
Okay.
So I've got a little, little camera here.
Let's see what we got here.
I can't stop laughing.
No, you don't have to yet.
There's your skin.
Oh, there's one.
Oh, those are good ones too.
Oh, look at those.
Don't you wish you could squeeze those out?
You know what the difference is between a blackhead and a pimple?
Let me show you a little picture.
This will help clarify the difference between a pimple and a blackhead.
It's really important for what we're talking about.
So on the left side of your screen, you all see what a pimple looks like.
Now, remember, pimples are covered by skin.
Okay.
So you have to pop the skin to get the pimple out.
Blackheads are just plugged pores, which is why you can see them on me and you.
They're basically oil and dead skin that clogged up the area, usually in that triangle area right around here.
This is called the triangle of death.
Hmm.
I'm going to show you why.
Come on over here.
So much fun with this.
Blackheads are open to air.
This is why you want to squeeze them.
It's so tempting.
Right.
So I built you a little model.
Do you pop pimples also, by the way?
Yes.
Of course you do.
Of course I do.
Thanks for being honest about that.
So we're going to actually try to stop that urge, at least to pop with our fingers and do it in a more insightful way.
But it'll still go away fast?
It'll still go away fast.
You're going to like this so much, I tell you it's going to change.
So first, you need your gloves on.
Whenever you pop things, you want to put some gloves on you so you don't spread the stuff all over the place.
And then what you're going to do, I'm going to teach you this right now, is differentiate a pimple and a blackhead.
Now, put some rubbing alcohol on there.
Okay.
And then...
And then you take...
This is the pimple, right?
Now, your initial instinct is to go like this.
You might go like this.
No more!
Instead, you take a needle.
You clean the needle.
Very gently clean the needle.
Good.
Okay, once it's cleaned, see how sharp it is?
You can do it together.
You can put the alcohol down now.
Actually, the alcohol should also clean the pimple, obviously.
Then, you're going to go horizontal.
The skin is here.
So you're staying horizontal to the skin.
Are you ready?
Yes.
You pop in.
Don't go too deep because you'll hurt.
Go out.
This won't hurt you at all because this skin is pretty much dead, right?
Then lift up.
Now pop.
Go ahead.
Oh, that feels good.
Oh, that feels good.
All right.
I think you cured me.
Very well done.
All right.
Now, I thought that was fun, but squeezing a blackhead has a very different issue that worries me.
Because see down here, the red stuff?
That's the blood supply.
And it's right next to the back of the blackhead.
So go ahead and squeeze this blackhead.
Get that little pimple out of there.
Watch what happens underneath here, everybody.
You see that?
Ooh!
Ooh!
See that pus going down there?
Ugh!
All that pus just got pushed into the blood supply behind the blackhead.
So now that blackhead's blood supply...
Look at that.
You don't want this in there because that flies around and goes up to the blood vessels in your brain, which is why it's called the triangle of death.
Now, what do you think about squeezing those blackheads now?
I won't do it anymore.
I know you're gonna do it anyway, so here's a better idea if you're gonna do it.
I actually really like Epsom salts for this.
The Epsom salt, go ahead and put a couple teaspoonfuls inside of a cup of water.
Just pour that in there.
And then what you do, after it's mixed up a little bit, You put a cotton ball in there.
You just gently apply it to that precious area next to your nose, just like that.
You can just leave it there for a few seconds.
And then, you know, about 30 seconds of soaking it, take it off, let it baste in there for a few minutes.
Sometimes blackheads will come out more comfortably.
If nothing else, you can go at them.
Do it gently.
Do it gently.
I promise.
I loved having you here.
Thank you so much.
We'll be right back.
Is there a skin problem you've had to suffer with?
I used to struggle with acne.
My teenage years were a nightmare.
Glad I'm done with that.
If you have the secret to give blackheads the boot, tell us on Dr. Oz's Facebook page.
Coming up.
I knew I had to meet this woman.
The selfie.
It's all jiggly.
That saved her life.
I was so fearful.
With more young women having strokes.
What to do fast if you're having one.
The symptoms you need to recognize.
next.
Most of the time we take selfies In fact, here's a selfie I took with my nurses in the operating room this week.
They're all smiling.
Being an advocate for your own health is why I love to do this show.
And when I saw this selfie recently posted on YouTube, I knew I had to meet this woman.
For three days in a row, Stacey Jeppes experienced the same troubling symptoms, slurred speech, numbness in her face, and a mysterious inability to lift her left arm.
She went to the hospital.
Tests came back normal, so doctors told her to manage her stress.
But by the third day, the numbness began radiating down her left side, so Stacey pulled her car over and recorded on her phone what doctors later diagnosed as a stroke.
This sensation is happening again.
Smile they said.
Smile.
It's all tingly on the left side.
On the left side.
I don't know why this is happening to me.
It happened this morning again.
So now I'm taking a picture for an example of what happens.
My hand is hard to lift up.
Unbelievable.
Please welcome the selfie survivor, Stacey Jeppis.
Incredible.
How did you even have the wherewithal to take a selfie of yourself, to video yourself?
It just seemed like the most natural thing I had to do to be able to show somebody what was happening to me because this was the third time it was going on.
I guess as a physician, and I'm sure your doctors felt the same way, it is absolutely terrifying to see a stroke in progress.
How old were you, by the way, when you took the video?
48. 48?
You know, most people don't know this, but a fifth of people, of women, who have strokes are under the age of 55. So you're not rare, although some might think you are.
What did you feel like when you realized this is just catastrophic, this is a problem?
I was so fearful, and I kept thinking of every public service announcement on TV, thinking, these are signs of a stroke, but it can't be.
I'm 48. I'm in good health.
I don't have high blood pressure.
I didn't have high cholesterol.
And I was just so fearful of what was going on.
Well, let me show you, if I can, everybody else, what was going on.
Because the medical students can actually use your video now to really see what's going on.
So, we actually made a video exactly of you.
I have the anatomy from your doctor.
So, let's go into your brain.
And when we go deep into the brain, there's these big blood vessels that pump blood to the brain.
But inside the brain, there's this big blood vessel that's really important that has blood coursing into it really fast.
And in your brain, you have that blood vessel that has a little plaque on it.
Not a big problem, but it ruptured.
For reasons we're not sure why, that plaque ruptured and went up downstream to a small little tributary where it got stuck.
And when it got stuck in that little branch, it actually began to kill off the brain tissue, as though someone had punched you and caused a charley horse in your brain.
So that's actually what happened, which is why it was hard to diagnose, because doctors weren't even thinking about that possibility.
But your video made it really clear that there was something important happening.
So instead of telling you to manage stress, Which I'm always worried about recommending to folks because it's a cause, but not the dangerous cause of these problems.
They began to look more carefully.
Here's the scan that they were worried about.
Now this is a normal scan, not yours.
You see how symmetrical it is?
Yep.
Everything is sort of balanced, left and right equal.
Let's look at your scan.
Okay.
Notice that this side looks like that side does, but there's a little white area here that's not symmetrical.
This little white area is where the stroke happened.
Wow.
Did you have a history of stroke, by the way?
Nothing.
My mom and dad are in good health.
My brother, sister, my uncle, and my grandfather had a heart attack, but my grandmother lived to 104 and was in perfect health on no medicine.
So you mentioned those public service announcements.
I'm going to give you all a very simple acronym.
You need a FAST reaction, right?
You got to move quickly.
But that word FAST also stands for the test we're going to do.
F-A-S-T. It's the acronym.
So I want everyone to do this with me right now.
Everyone at home do the same thing.
And this is something you're going to remember and share with people in your life.
So let's do it together.
You did the first one.
F stands for face.
The smile.
So give me that beautiful smile.
Look in the camera there.
Smile.
When we smile like this, there's one side of your face drooped down.
If the person that you're trying to help can't smile, your video is a perfect example of it.
It means that there's obviously either they don't understand you or they can't do it.
Okay, A is for arms.
Everyone in the audience, please at home do this.
Put your hands straight in front of you and try to hold them at equal length, at equal height.
If you can't hold them at the same height, but one's less than the other, for whatever reason, something's going on.
Your brain's supposed to be able to figure out that they're not equal, which is what you look for.
The S in FAST stands for speech.
You are a good example of this.
Words are garbled.
Sometimes you can't pick the phrase words.
Sometimes you just repeat a phrase.
Like you'll say, hi, hi, if I ask you what your name is.
So these are not just a subtle thing.
These are important clues.
And the T in FAST is for time.
And time in particular, you call 911 immediately.
You saved your life of making that video.
That's not what I'd normally recommend as a first course of action.
But while you're on your way to the hospital, go ahead and video yourself to give us some ammo.
You look beautiful.
Are you feeling okay?
I am feeling good.
I've done some rehab to get the strength back and it's the new normal learning how to live with a stroke now, but I am generally doing good.
Your normal is pretty darn good.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
You're an example.
This is an example of what I'm talking about.
You took control of your health.
You lived it.
You knew what was going on.
You wouldn't take no for an answer.
And you're the example.
You're my role model.
I want more Americans to be just like you to be able to step out there.
And just to make that easier to do, I've got a printable stroke symptom checklist that you can keep with you, anybody at home.
You can get off DrRoz.com.
We'll be right back.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Pot.
Made to look like harmless snacks and getting into the wrong hands.
Oh, that was easy.
Should it be banned?
Why put pot in a form that's so appealing to kids?
That's begging for problems.
That's coming up on Monday.
Now it's time for In Case You Missed It.
First up, the growing trend that could be right under your nose, powdered caffeine.
The caffeine content is so concentrated, it could be lethal.
It doesn't come with any warning labels, so I urge you to talk to this about your kids, because guess what?
They're using it.
Find that if it's in their school, that way you'll at least be aware of it.
Don't be surprised like the parents that we met today.
And finally, the next time you get that urge to squeeze your blackheads, here's how I want you to reduce them.
Combine a cup of warm water with a little bit of Epsom salts.
Mix it in.
It'll dissolve pretty readily.
Then soak a cotton ball in there and apply it to the blackhead areas for about five minutes.
It'll help the skin that's around there loosen up a little bit.
It'll help clear those pores as dead skin sloughs away.
Finally, I want you to be your own health advocate.
If you think you or anyone you love has symptoms of a stroke, remember the FAST test.
F is for face.
Does one side of the face droop?
If they smile like this, if this lift comes down, that's not symmetrical.
The A in FAST is for arms.
Can they raise both arms to equal height?
They should be equal, not one lower than the other.
The S is for speech.
Their speech sounds slurred.
They're not able to articulate it.
They're garbled when they say things.
That's a concern that there's a problem that's related to the brain, not that they're drunk.
And T is for time.
I'm going to call 911 immediately.
You don't have a lot of time for this, so F-A-S-T. And I want to close with a warning.
Please be careful about what you buy online, especially weight loss pills.
There are some dubious people online that prey on folks like you who are trying to do the right thing for your health.
Sometimes they even try to make it seem like I endorse their products.