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Nov. 6, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:33
The Ultimate Wheat-Free Guide To Transform Your Health | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 12 | Full Episode
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Millions have devoured this doctor's bestseller that claims, lose the wheat, lose the weight.
It's the ultimate wheat-free guide.
If you want to lose belly fat and get your healthy back, this is the show for you.
Plus, Angelina Jolie's effect on cancer.
Is she inspiring a movement or unnecessary surgeries?
And the simple test that can determine your cancer risk.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Thank you.
When this book came out, it rocked the diet world and changed what many of you think about the one food that's just about every meal you eat.
Wheat.
Now the author is at it again with a brand new book, and you want to get your hands on it.
This time, he's not just worried about your belly.
He's also worried about what wheat does to your total health.
Wheat is a big reason, if not the biggest reason of all, why Americans are the most overweight population in the history of man on earth.
He's the doctor who wrote the New York Times bestseller that got even me to rethink wheat.
Dr. William Davis is a controversial cardiologist who has dedicated his entire career to preventing heart disease.
And in the process, he's discovered that wheat may be killing us.
There's so many...
Adverse components of wheat.
I wonder why we even try to eat this stuff.
His movement to completely eliminate wheat from our diets shocked not just everyday folks who like their pasta, pastries, and bread, but also doctors and nutritionists who believed eating whole grain wheat was healthy.
Now Dr. Davis is back, promising that cutting out wheat will not only help you lose weight, but also transform your heart, brain, and bone health.
Dr. William Davis is joining us.
He says everyone should cut back on wheat.
Why is that?
Dr. Oz, it was a mistake that we incorporated this thing, this seed of grass.
I mean that quite literally, a seed of a grass.
We started 10,000 years ago out of desperation.
The irony is it has ballooned now to dominate diet, and along with it, this whole collection of health problems.
You've used words like poisonous to describe it.
You say it's addictive.
Those are pretty strong words.
I mean it, because there are poisonous components.
The addictive component is very important.
That's the protein called gliadin.
Because the seeds of grasses, Dr. Ross, are indigestible.
So it's broken down only partially, broken down into small pieces, peptides, that act as opiates on the brain.
They don't make us high.
They don't provide relief from pain.
They stimulate appetite.
So the average unwitting consumer of healthy whole grains is prompted to consume more calories per day every day.
You're hungry all the time.
You can't control weight if you're consuming an appetite stimulant.
So I've been asked so much about your work that I made a little animation that I think will describe it to a certain extent.
And I want to walk everyone through exactly why you're worried about this and what we can do about it.
So, let me explain it in the context of what happens biologically inside of your body.
When you eat wheat, you take these seeds of grains, as Dr. Davis was describing, you put them into your mouth, and you begin to digest them.
The carbs, which are in these foods, begin to get converted into...
Sugars.
In fact, your blood sugar starts to skyrocket as well as insulin to keep up with it.
Over time, your body is less able to handle that sugar.
You're bouncing, but you can't get over the hump.
So what happens?
The carbs, sugar, is turned to fat, which is stored on your hips, but also inside your belly, around organs, and they become little factories, literally making molecules, chemicals that create irritation, and ultimately that leads to inflammation.
And that inflammation affects your entire body.
Very specifically...
It changes some of the critical organs in your body.
For example, if you look from the ups on top of somebody, heads up here, legs down here, it affects the kidneys, which are organs that of course are precious to us regulating things like blood pressure.
It affects the liver, making it fatty.
And it affects ultimately the heart by enlarging it.
These are the critical structures that I worry about as a surgeon, as a heart surgeon especially, But Dr. Davis, you're actually worried that the wheat affects much more than just these vital organs.
It affects our whole body.
In fact, so much so that you say that a recommendation I've been giving for years, which is switch from simple carbs to more complex ones like whole wheat, 100% whole grains, that's still a flawed recommendation.
Why?
Well, we have to dig deeper into the science.
We have to talk to agricultural geneticists and scientists, and we find out there are multiple components in this plant, this seed of a grass called wheat, that are poisonous to humans.
There's not a single organ system that is spared.
You're absolutely right.
Liver, kidney, heart, brain, gastrointestinal system, these are all disrupted.
You may not perceive it.
You may perceive it as acid reflux, heartburn, bowel urgency, irritable bowel syndrome.
You can perceive it as autoimmune diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, mind effects, appetite stimulation, of course, like we talked about, but also mind fog, difficulty with memory, depression, anxiety.
There's a whole list of mind effects of this stuff.
So there's nothing, nothing in the human body that escapes the effects of the seeds of this grass.
How did this happen?
How did this become such an important part of our food supply?
The nutritional community fell into a trap, Dr. Oz, and that is, if you take something bad, white flour products, and replace it with something less bad, whole grains, whole wheat, and there's an apparent health benefit, and there is, there's no arguing that, then a whole bunch of the less bad thing must therefore be good.
So, to me, that's like saying unfiltered cigarettes are bad, filtered cigarettes are less bad, let's smoke lots of filtered cigarettes.
It sounds absurd when you put it in those terms, but that is the logic that the nutrition community has fallen into, this mistake they've fallen into.
So, understanding this large constellation of potential problems ranging throughout the body, Dr. Davis has therefore coined the term Franken-wheat.
Frankenwheat.
And you say these are hidden in foods throughout our supermarkets.
Please walk us through some of these foods.
You're going to find wheat and other seeds of grasses, by the way, because these grasses are promiscuous.
They mate with each other more than humans do, and they share genetics.
So wheat, for instance, is closely related to corn, as well as barley, rye, rice, and some other seeds of grasses.
If you go into the grocery store, you're going to have a hard time, in fact, finding foods that don't have wheat or other seeds of grasses.
So you're going to find them in Crackers, pizza crust, dry soup mixes, taco seasoning.
Grits, of course, is corn, so that's another seed of a grass.
Vegetable oils are typically from corn or other seeds.
Soy sauce.
Well, let me ask you this.
If I just went gluten-free, if I let everyone in America just go gluten-free, is that good enough?
Oh, I'm glad you asked that because that's a mistake.
I want to be very clear to the audience on this.
Gluten-free is a big mistake.
So my message is not about being gluten-free.
Several problems.
The better message is being grain-free, free of all the seeds of grasses.
And gluten-free is often a trap because if a food doesn't have this undesirable component, One of many components in wheat called gluten, it means foods that don't have it are often regarded as healthy.
And so gluten-free foods are often made with unhealthy ingredients, typically cornstarch, a seed of a grass, rice flour, potato starch, or tapioca starch.
Foods, Dr. Oz, that send blood sugar sky high, even higher than wheat does.
So, you know, jelly beans are gluten-free.
Yeah, they are.
But they're not good.
Another one's dismayed.
All right, so if we get rid of food, let's just take the wheat specifically in almost every meal.
You've made a plan that helps us get past this.
If you don't mind, explain how these work.
And you actually say that it's actually easier than it sounds.
I think that's true, because when you get rid of this appetite stimulant, you find that you eat for sustenance.
You're not driven to eat all the time.
You can have a beautiful breakfast, say of three eggs and maybe some bacon, and you're happy after eating at seven, maybe you're happy until three.
You're not on that constant search to fill that appetite.
So it's a return, Dr. Oz, it's a return to real single-ingredient foods that we know don't have any of the seeds of grass in it.
So that would include such things as nuts and broccoli and other vegetables, meats.
If we're going to eat meats, I advocate eating the fat.
I say buy inexpensive fatty cuts.
Eat that fat.
Eat the marbling.
Eat the fat on the edge.
Eat the dark meat.
Eat the skin on your poultry.
So that's part of my message.
Don't be frightened of fat.
But how is that?
I mean, you're a cardiologist.
Why would you not be concerned about fat, not just in meats, but also in cheeses and other sources?
Well, saturated fat, of course, was blamed for a lot of the cardiovascular risk and disease.
I believe we have sufficient data now that has exonerated saturated fat as a cause of heart disease.
If we look at more detailed studies that tell us how heart disease develops, we find it really has little or nothing to do with saturated fat.
It does have plenty to do, though, with carbohydrate, including the worst carbohydrate of all, the amylopectin of grains.
So, if we eat this, and you say unlimited amounts of this, we can effortlessly, without too much difficulty, shave off how many calories in an average day, you think?
400 would be typical.
So, for this and other reasons, weight, for people who want to lose weight, falls off.
It melts off people because you're not being exposed to an appetite stimulant.
There's sources of sugar, because we have to have a little bit of sugar in our life.
You say are limited to fruits and I guess some vegetables, but you also put a lot of beans in there.
You put rice.
Rice surprised me.
I mean, rice is a seed of a grain, right?
Exactly.
So go lightly.
So we know as a nation, as a world, We have terrible problems now with blood sugar.
Diabetes, pre-diabetes, and what I call pre-pre-diabetes.
So lots of us have these issues.
So you've got to be aware that even natural sources of sugars can raise your blood sugar.
So I advocate smaller servings.
You know, it only takes a half a banana.
Or half an apple or half an orange before you start to have high blood sugars.
So you want to keep those serving sizes small.
Berries are the best.
Rice you have to be careful.
As you point out, exactly so.
Rice is the seed of a grass.
It's the least protein content of all grains, and so it has the least adverse effects like appetite stimulation and bowel disruption.
But it is largely starch, 85% starch, so it can raise blood sugar.
So the key with that one is very small portion sizes.
So the only grass we can eat is rice.
Just be clear for everybody.
You're going to trade out wheat, because a lot of us want something more substantive in our meals.
We can trade out wheat for a limited amount of rice, and we'd still be okay.
It's the most benign.
Just go carefully.
All right.
And the wheat diet?
Who's it right for?
Who do you think right now should be starting on it?
If you breathe, you should be grain free.
That's how humans have done it for as long as we've walked the earth.
So it's important for everyone to realize that we added these seeds of grasses.
And I highlight that because it highlights the absurdity of what we've done.
We only added them a moment of time ago.
That's not what we're adapted to consuming.
Dr. Davis, his wonderful new book is called Wheat Belly Total Health.
To read an excerpt, you can go to DrRoz.com and everyone in today's audience is going home with a copy.
We'll be right back.
Next, experts call it the Angelina Effect, an increase in genetic breast cancer screenings after the actress went public with her.
Is she inspiring a movement or unnecessary surgery?
Plus, the simple test that can determine your cancer risk.
Next.
The common fibroid surgery, once considered the safest, could be spreading hidden cancers.
Should this cutting edge and invasive device be banned?
I'm going to die of this cancer.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
In just over a year, genetic testing for BRCA1 and 2, the so-called breast cancer genes, has doubled.
The reason for this sudden spike?
Experts are calling it the Angelina effect.
It was hailed as a brave, even heroic move when Angelina Jolie announced that she had a double mastectomy to reduce her chances for getting breast cancer.
In May of 2013, Jolie wrote an emotional essay for the New York Times revealing she carries the faulty BRCA1 gene, which her doctors estimate put her risk for breast cancer at an astounding 87%.
Undergoing the double mastectomy reduced that risk to under 5%.
Since Jolie's landmark announcement, genetic testing for breast cancer has doubled.
Today we're asking, would you know if genetic cancer screening was right for you?
Join me now is Dr. Marisa Weiss, founder of BreastCancer.org and a breast cancer survivor herself.
Angelina's decision to have a double mastectomy, it dramatically seems to have changed the way we screen for cancers.
Absolutely.
It was so brave and generous of her to share her story.
I mean, it made women so much less fearful and more comfortable sort of even talking about genetic testing.
I mean, if someone as beautiful and smart and powerful as her stepped forward and went through with genetic testing, they felt like it was something that they could do.
And just on the heels of Of her disclosure, the Supreme Court actually removed the patent on the breast cancer gene testing, which made many more companies come into the marketplace and offer testing at a lower price.
So in the short time since Angelina shared her story, there's been an explosion of new information Not just about BRCA1 and 2, but a whole lot of other genes that go along with cancer risk.
So we are learning so much more, so quickly, about how to better take care of these women.
Stu, when you see something double in just a year, you start to think, are all the right people getting tested?
Do you think it's happening?
Absolutely.
I mean, breast cancer genetic testing is not a fad.
You know, people are really being smart about it.
I mean, breastcancer.org, there are a lot of people coming and saying, is this right for me?
So I think it's been really good news.
A lot of women are stepping forward, men too, and seeking questions about their family history of breast cancer as well as other cancers.
So of the viewers out there, who should be getting tested and what does it entail?
So what's involved is sort of looking at your family history, seeing who's affected, not just breast cancer, but is there ovarian cancer in the family, pancreatic, melanoma?
Is it happening at young ages?
Are men affected too?
All those other cancers would also be part of the same gene problem?
They can be part of the same story, yes.
So it changes, not just about breast cancer.
And how do you actually do it?
So how you do it is, it can be just a simple blood test, or this thing called swish and spit.
You take this fluid, swish it around your mouth a bunch of times, and spit it in there.
I've done genetic testing myself, you know, multiple times over the years that we've been learning about this.
First a blood test, and then I just did a swish and spit.
So easy.
It looks like a urinal.
It does look like that, doesn't it?
You just spit into it and that's it?
Very easy, yes.
And they cap it up and they send it off.
And what does it cost?
So the mini test costs around $500, $600.
But the panel of jeans, you know, because we're learning so much more about a lot more than just BRCA1 and BRCA2, the panel costs between $3,000 and $5,000.
And if you qualify, most insurance companies do cover it because that is a big price tag, right?
Yeah.
But genetic testing is becoming more available and covered.
So I gather since insurance companies are covering it, there's some value.
Exactly how important is it in order to predict that you have a problem or a future problem with the cancer?
Right.
Well, if you inherit one of these genes, then your risk of breast cancer can be as high as 87%.
And your risk of ovarian cancer can go up to about 40%.
But the good news is...
There is a lot you can do with this information.
It's very powerful.
And as a doctor, we advise people every day the best way to prevent, detect, and treat it so that you can plan for a full life full of all the wonderful things that you would want to have, like, you know, kids and a career and, you know, growing older and enjoying everything.
I mean, a full life is still very possible.
So let me shift gears if I can.
I'm understanding the genetic issues.
There's this other problem that a lot of women are deliberating about whether they have a double mastectomy or not.
And I understand Angelina, Julia had hers after this diagnosis of a genetic problem.
If you don't have one of these genetic issues, it might not be the right thing to do.
Are too many women getting double mastectomies when they're diagnosed with breast cancer?
Well, let's just say for Angelina looking at a high risk, double mastectomies lowered her risk by over 90%.
So that actually made a lot of sense, right?
But for women in general, they don't usually have the gene.
Only about 5% to 10% of women who get breast cancer have one of those single inherited genes that produces a high risk.
But you're right, for women in general who get breast cancer...
Many of those women are choosing bilateral mastectomies.
And it's important to know that it doesn't improve survival.
And there's a great alternative, which is lumpectomy and radiation instead of mastectomies.
So I reached out to Dr. Christy Funk.
She's been on the show in the past.
She's from the Pink Lotus Breast Cancer Center.
She's a surgeon who performed a bilateral mastectomy on Angelina Jolie last year.
She said that Angelina continues to do well after her mastectomy, so I'm happy for that.
And she and her team are thrilled with the increase in genetic screening that's now going on looking for cancer as a result of her announcement.
You can visit DrRoz.com to read my breast cancer fact sheet.
Learn much more about preventing this disease and the BRCA testing.
I'll be right back.
Coming up next, first you're up, then you're down.
What are the real reasons for those mood swings?
You'll be surprised.
What to eat to beat that bad mood and how to stay in a good one longer.
That's next on The Dr. Oz Show.
Are your mood swings worse today than they were 10 years ago?
Does a bad mood seem to linger longer?
Well, today I'm going to tell you the real reasons for your mood swings.
I'm going to show you how to stay in a good mood.
I need my assistant today to help with this.
So who's in the seat?
How about 55?
Oh my goodness!
God, you're close!
I don't know where the numbers are.
That was really close to me.
Usually the yelling is in the back somewhere.
What's your name?
Malika.
Malika, where are you from?
I'm from New Jersey.
New Jersey?
Yes.
I brought you to Manhattan today.
Yeah, go ahead.
I have a jersey, too.
Oh, my God.
I'm so sorry.
Is it girls out?
Who are you here with?
I'm here with the love of my life, Jerome, and my sister, Jenea.
Jerome and Jenea, how are you?
So I could ask Jerome, but maybe I'll ask you just to be polite.
Do you consider yourself a moody person?
Jerome?
Don't answer, Jerome.
Trust me, don't answer.
You get in the mood sometimes?
Yeah.
You do?
Yeah.
How long do they last when they happen?
There's no telling.
Anywhere from five minutes to a year.
A year?
And has Jerome felt the brunt of these moods sometimes?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he looks so shocked over there.
He's not answering anything.
He's not making any motions whatsoever to be misinterpreted.
Let me show you what's behind those mood swings.
This is something that a lot of women don't appreciate, and it actually explains why there's always changes going on.
So put these gloves on, because now that you're assistant today, you get to actually do some organ work with me.
I'm going to show you something that's sort of cool.
Okay.
It is the source of moods.
Ta-da!
Wow.
What is that?
That is a uterus.
Wow.
And these are ovaries on the side.
Let me explain something that you might actually find intriguing.
So, you know, you ever heard the word hysteria?
Yes.
And have you heard the word hysterectomy?
Yes.
It's sort of interesting they're so close to each other, isn't it?
Yeah.
So, in the old days, doctors thought that women got hysterical because of their uterus.
Wow.
I know it sounds sexist and crazy, but it actually does explain some weirdness that was going on in medicine 100 years ago.
But that is actually the root of it.
But they were wrong, obviously.
It doesn't come from the uterus.
However, it does come from the ovaries.
Moodyness comes from the ovaries because the ovaries make a hormone called progesterone.
We all know what estrogen is, right?
Right.
But progesterone travels with estrogen.
It's important for making babies.
Birth control pills have it oftentimes in it.
And it's actually interesting because it calms you.
It's a natural antidepressant.
So when you make a baby, for example, you'll tolerate your belly being all big and all.
This is a pregnant lady right here.
Put your hand up there.
I noticed her.
She may give birth later this segment, by the way.
When you're past due as she is, you get big like that.
I mean, how do you survive that?
You do because you've got this natural volume going on.
And abnormal levels of progesterone, they contribute to insomnia.
Have you had problems with that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because of Jerome or because of something else?
Something else.
But it also makes those mood swings happen and it makes them last longer when they do happen.
Because it is, at its very core, this progesterone hormone, it's the body's natural valium.
Wow.
It's really sedating and it allows you to go through life without getting all messed up.
When you're younger, you don't have big moods and you stay in a better mood longer because you have more of this hanging around.
Right.
But you lose it.
So you can appreciate how special those glands are.
But the question is, what about the hormone that comes out of them?
And as we get older, when those ovaries begin to get smaller, you can take your gloves off.
You can touch it if you want.
Go ahead.
When the ovaries get smaller, they're unable to make the kinds of hormones we need.
So without the progesterone, without that Valium, things start happening that we don't want to have happen.
And then people around us blame us for that.
So I want you to, if you can, play act this for me.
I'm gonna walk through life with you.
So just step on the foot paces.
Go ahead and get on the first one.
And the second one.
Good.
Now let's just say you're sad.
Okay.
And as you go through life when you're young, Right?
Younger.
Yes.
Let's go.
You walk through life and you get past sad.
Not a big deal.
And you get to angry.
Not a big deal.
And you keep going.
Because of the progesterone, you're in the happy land.
You stay in the happy land forever.
That's how you want life to be.
Yeah.
You feel pretty happy?
Yes.
All right.
That's good.
Now, that's unfortunately not what poor Jerome over there is experiencing.
Let's walk back on over here.
Come on over here.
You can go all the way back.
You can rush back here.
I want you to take those beautiful shoes of yours off.
Okay.
And I'm going to put...
The shoes of age on.
These are the shoes.
You can be Cinderella.
Let's just sit down there.
Put these on here.
There we are.
Oh my god, I have Dr. S putting on my shoes.
Yes.
Are they on?
Now these shoes are gonna...
There we are.
One more here too.
I wish I had a shoe horn.
And I'm gonna tie these up for you.
Just to keep you safe.
Now, as you walk in these shoes, it's going to be the equivalent as if you'd aged a little bit and your body no longer has the amount of progesterone that it needs.
So your travels through these different hormones might not be quite as comfortable.
We're going to find out.
You're going to demonstrate it for me and everybody else in the audience because I am sure you're not alone.
Am I tying these the right way for you?
Right.
Yes.
You know, surgeons are very good at knots.
My knots never come out.
Oh, that would be a problem if it did.
Okay.
Are you ready?
Ready.
These shoes look good on you.
Don't look good on her.
Hop up here.
Now, stand up here.
Good.
Just walk through life again.
You're sad.
Wow.
It's a little slower to get past life.
Now you're angry.
Now you've got to get over there.
You've got to climb over.
Let's go.
It's hard.
It's hard to get past angry.
And finally, she makes it.
All right.
So here's the deal.
When you have small things like hormones that aren't working in your body, they're like a wrong pair of shoes on.
Something's not right, but you can't quite figure it out.
And this can happen by the time you're in your early 30s and people start to get upset about the fact.
They blame themselves.
I don't want that happening anymore.
It's often because you're not giving yourself the raw materials to make the progesterone.
And after menopause, when your ovaries call it quits, your progesterone drops altogether.
And that's a very dangerous time for men.
Because women get really moody and really upset.
So how do you get unstuck, so to speak?
Walk very carefully with me because those shoes are slippery.
Walk carefully with me.
How do you get unstuck and beat the bad moods?
Very straightforward.
A couple things you can do.
One of them is you can get more zinc and magnesium in your diet.
Both of those are important because they are valuable in raising whatever progesterone levels you have.
I suggest you eat these foods early in the day for Jerome's benefit, but everyone else as well, because you get those into your bloodstream early, they'll make more of this progesterone.
Oatmeal is a fabulous source.
I love oatmeal.
You do?
Perfect.
Make it part of what you do every single day.
And interestingly, hash browns would work.
Wow.
Both great breakfast meals.
But I saved the best for last.
This is a little present for me since you're coming all the way from New Jersey to New York.
Do you like oysters?
Jerome does.
Jerome does?
But Jerome's not up to you.
Yes, I do.
You do?
Okay.
Let's try it.
Oysters are a superb source of both zinc and magnesium.
You can have them three times a week.
And you know they have canned oysters now.
So you can even get them in cans.
They're very inexpensive.
But I happen to like them raw.
And I'll toast to you.
Thank you for being here.
We'll be right back.
We all deal with the occasional mood swing.
What causes yours?
100% of the time, my mood swings seem to be directly related to something stressing me out.
Sounds like I need more meditation.
Do you have a mood swing trigger?
Share your story on Dr. Oz's Facebook page.
Next, constipation cramping your life?
I know you're supposed to go once a day.
I sometimes only go once a week.
Stomach issues a mystery?
I've completely changed my diet.
This is my buffet of laxatives.
Don't suffer in silence.
Next.
The common fibroid surgery, once considered the safest, could be spreading hidden cancers.
Should this cutting edge and invasive device be banned?
I'm going to die of this cancer.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Everyone knows what it's like to have a stomach ache.
But when you're constantly bloated, constipated, and gassy, it can really take a toll on the quality of your life.
Now, I know a lot of you are going to relate to Christina's story.
I have a confession to make.
I'm constipated.
I'm not even embarrassed anymore.
I know you're supposed to go once a day, but I sometimes only go once a week.
Six times.
Being a teacher and having that feeling of having to go and not be able to go is by far one of the worst possible things that can happen.
First I feel pain.
My stomach will cramp.
Then run to the bathroom.
And nothing.
I sit here for hours among hours.
Sometimes I can almost finish a whole book.
My son will knock at the door.
Just a little bit longer.
This is my buffet of laxatives.
I've completely changed my diet.
I now eat a ton of celery and spinach, high in fiber.
None of the things I've tried have worked.
I want to get my body back to normal.
So when I actually go to the bathroom, I go.
So Christina is here.
We decided to start this tooth poop.
Thank you for being brave about your story.
Thank you for having me.
So we actually keep a poop journal.
I know it sounds crazy, but it's actually what you do, the first step to figure out what's really happening.
So the average person goes to the bathroom, number two.
They go to the bathroom either up to three times a day or at least three times a week.
That's not me.
Not you.
So you mentioned up to a week.
On average in your poop journal you're going to the bathroom about every four days.
Four.
Sounds about right?
Yes.
So it's not where we want to be.
No.
So I actually want to show you why this concerns me and then go over some of your information over here.
Okay.
So this is an x-ray I pulled, just a normal person.
This is an intestine that shows there's a lot of air in it, and normally the bowel will move up this path, around, and back down.
And when you go to the bathroom, you should completely evacuate this left side of your intestine so it's completely full of air.
There's nothing left inside of you.
You shouldn't have a feeling like you're still full.
This is an x-ray of someone who's constipated like you.
You notice that colon now is full of stuff.
See all these things here?
Yeah, you can definitely see all that.
You can see the pieces of poop here.
And they're still in there because they haven't been able to be pushed out by the intestinal system.
When this happens, it begins to enlarge the intestines a little bit.
It irritates the colon for that reason.
But it also causes problems pushing it out, hemorrhoids.
It's just impossible to do what you want to do.
And sometimes it gets so bad that you actually have to operate on people.
So we want to intervene early, especially a young, healthy person, so that we don't develop any long-term problems there.
Don't go like that.
So how painful is it when you go through this?
It's extremely.
It's always discomfort, there's always a bloating feeling, and just extremely discomfort.
So you've done some things.
You're proactive.
Yes.
And we've pulled some of those records together.
Your doctor gave you a test where they actually gave you some pellets.
Yes.
And then they took x-rays as the stuff passed through your body.
All right, so I'm going to show you.
This took place over the course of about six days.
So on January the 4th, you started this.
And these little red things are all the little markers that were being dispersed through your colon.
So now the food has made it down where it's supposed to go.
And then three days later, took another x-ray.
You notice those red dots?
Well, they're pretty much all gone.
You've got one left behind.
Hopefully we'd have gotten rid of all of them, but you only have one left behind at three days.
And by January 10th, which is almost a week later, completely empty.
You still have stuff in there that you don't want to have in there.
You don't have the air like you're supposed to have it, but your muscles were actually pushing the food through at a reasonable pace.
So that's a good sign.
That's a good sign.
That means you don't have a fundamental problem with how the muscles of the intestines work.
And some folks have that.
So the question then becomes why are you constipated?
So let's come back to the truth tube.
I'll put you over here again.
So you have no muscular dysfunction.
We know how frequently you go to the bathroom.
The next question I always ask people is how much fiber do they get?
Do you think you're a good fiber eater?
I do.
I think I eat quite a bit.
Okay.
I think.
I mean, right.
So we actually had that food diary that we actually had to keep was actually very helpful for this.
So the average woman really should be getting 25, maybe even 30 grams of fiber a day, especially if you're constipated.
You're taking in 28 grams of fiber.
Okay.
Which is just fine.
Okay.
So again, I think that's not the issue either.
Then we do it one step further.
We wanted to see if there's parasites or other kinds of craziness going on in your stool.
We took a sample, sent it off to the laboratory.
Yes.
And, drum roll, no parasites.
You got nothing else going in there.
That's right.
So what's left?
We've covered all the major things that I think about when someone's chronically constipated.
And I'm not seeing any smoking guns.
And there are a lot, a lot of people like you out there who have tried to figure out what's happening.
They haven't even done the studies you've had done.
And they just feel lost.
And I actually think they're the big group out there.
And you've thankfully come forward to raise this issue.
Yes.
It's just a real story, and I love the fact that it just puts it in an obvious context.
A healthy person trying to do all the right things still has constipated.
If you were not chained to the bathroom, what would your life be like?
Be a lot better.
I would like to have more family time.
I'm constantly in discomfort, so I'm not constantly complaining.
So there goes my husband and my son.
Stop complaining, mommy!
Let's go do this!
Let's go do that!
So I wish I could just get my life back and not have to change the bathroom or not know when I'm going to go or the bloating and not fitting in my pants and so...
All the bad stuff.
Yes, yes.
You want to get it back today?
Yes, I do.
Here's what I did.
I teamed up with a renowned physician.
She's a functional medicine doctor who has a plan for Christina, and by the way, for everybody else out there as well who wants the digestive tract back.
It's the gut flush that will keep you regular when we come back.
Coming up, stop letting constipation consume your life.
Oh, so what can I eat?
A gut flush everyone can use.
Simple steps to take back your digestive health.
We're getting out the bad and then we're adding in the good.
Stay tuned.
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That's coming up tomorrow.
If you're suffering from a gastrointestinal problem like bloating or constipation, it's time to stop suffering in silence.
I'm back with Christina who says her constipation is consuming her life.
So I asked Dr. Amy Myers, a doctor specializing in functional medicine, to be here today to help out.
She's a gut flush that everyone can use to take back their digestive health.
So I'll comment on these mystery stomach ailments where you actually look everywhere and there's no answers.
In my practice, it's extremely common.
I have people coming in every day complaining of symptoms just like Christina.
Gas, bloating, constipation.
They're at their wit's end.
They're just not getting any answers from their regular doctors.
And conventional medicine, frankly, doesn't always have the answers in their testing.
So when I have somebody like you coming in and they're complaining of these symptoms, particularly the gas and the bloating, I think you're probably either feeding an infection or you're eating some foods that you're sensitive to, or possibly both.
Okay.
So we've got a gut flush plan.
Let's go back and work on it.
This is going to help tackle the possibilities that might be responsible for the problems you're facing.
The first step is to deal with an elimination program.
We've talked about elimination diets in the past, but you have a very interesting take on it.
Well, yeah, first we want to decide if you have any food sensitivities.
And I know you tried that with the dairy and the gluten, and you did those each one at a time.
Right.
But what I have all my patients do is actually remove more foods.
So gluten and dairy are pretty common, and people think about that, but they don't always think about corn.
And even the hidden ingredients, like high-fructose corn syrup or cornstarch and things, there are a lot of hidden ingredients with both gluten, dairy, and corn.
You do it all at once, not one at a time.
Yes, absolutely.
That's the other part.
I want you to do it all at one time, not one at a time.
And then what you're going to do is gradually add one food back in at a time, allowing a couple days in between each food.
So you can tell if your symptoms are getting worse when you add the food back in.
Okay.
So again, for Christina, she cuts all this out for how long?
For probably two to four weeks if you can.
The longer, the better.
Okay.
The longer, the better, and then gradually adding it back in one at a time.
That sounds hard, doesn't it?
I know.
Looking at it, I'm like, oh, so what can I eat?
There are a lot of things that you can eat.
A lot of things that you can eat.
We're going to actually talk about that in a second.
Okay, perfect.
Stage two is to flush out the bad bacteria.
Now, again, I never thought that bad bacteria could be causing constipation.
Dr. Meyer says it's, in fact, very, very common.
How do you know if it's actually an infection that might be causing the constipation or bloating that you're experiencing?
So I have a checklist.
And so when I hear symptoms like yours, the gas and bloating and the constipation, and then if you have any one of these, the brain fog, unexplained rashes, itchiness, nail fungus, if you have yeast infections frequently, if you're eating a lot of carbs or you've been on antibiotics, that could mean that you have an imbalance in your gut bacteria and mean that you likely have an infection such as a yeast overgrowth or a bacterial overgrowth.
So audience, let me just look at that list again.
How many of you have one of those symptoms?
You don't have to have all of them.
We have a couple folks who are honestly putting their hands up.
I might have been asking if you're constipated or not.
It's a fairly comprehensive list of problems that we often don't have answers for.
We can sort of try to deal with them without realizing that they're actually symptoms.
So if you do have an infection, as for example manifests with one of these symptoms, and you're constipated, what do you do about it?
So I like to get out the bad bacteria or yeast and add in the good stuff.
It's sort of like overhauling your kitchen.
You're remodeling it and you want to get out all the old stuff and put in all the new stuff.
So how do we do that?
Well, I like to first, well, you can actually prescribe antibiotics or antifungals, but everybody doesn't have access to that.
So I want something that you and the listeners can do at home.
Which is to starve out the bad bacteria or yeast by getting rid of high carb and high sugar diet.
And then we're actually going to try to kill it with some herbs like oil of oregano.
Okay.
How do you take the oil of oregano?
Well, you can take, it depends on the bottle, but you're usually taking two capsules in the morning away from probiotics and other foods and two in the evening as well.
There are other herbs that can help kill these bacteria as well.
Do you have some of those symptoms up there that we showed?
Yes, yes.
It might not be a bad place to start either.
No, that definitely sounds like a plan.
And then stage three is to replenish with good bacteria.
Now, we've talked about probiotics in the past, but Amy has a very different take on this.
You say we can replenish with good bacteria, but actually make it part of our food.
And you have starters to get us going.
Yeah, so first, just a reminder, we're getting out the bad, and then we're adding in the good.
And so a way to add in the good is fermented foods help feed all those good bacteria and help replenish it.
So we have some starters that actually help ferment the foods that then break down the food to allow it to become food for your good bacteria to eat.
So we have a gluten-free sourdough starter to make gluten-free pancakes, and we have a cultured vegetable starter to help ferment the salsa there on the chicken.
So when you say, what am I going to eat if I take out all the good stuff?
Right, right.
This is what you start eating.
And again, just do the experiment.
In fact, everyone ought to just do this experiment for two weeks.
Give yourself a chance.
First of all, you'll lose weight and feel good.
But that's a side benefit.
The real opportunity is to figure out and make a diagnosis.
So for everybody out there, and for everyone who's thinking about this, Dr. Myers is going to have a nutritionist check-in on my friend Christina.
If it's okay with you.
Definitely.
I'm definitely excited for this start.
And you're going to blog, so you will keep a poop journal for us.
Yes, yes, I will.
So follow along with Christina every pregnant day waiting for something to happen.
Yes.
And we'll keep track and hopefully be able to show folks the way to a very different bowel system.
Yes, I hope so.
You can go to dros.com to get the full gut flush plan.
We'll be right back.
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All new Dr. Oz.
The latest on the medical war you can be a casualty of.
The common fibroid surgery once considered the safest could be spreading hidden cancers.
Eighty percent of women have fibroids and don't even know it.
Should this cutting edge and invasive device be banned?
Doctors are fighting over who's right and who's wrong and you could be stuck in the middle.
I'm going to die of this cancer.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
All new Dr. Oz.
The latest on the medical war you can be a casualty of.
The common fibroid surgery once considered the safest could be spreading hidden cancers.
Eighty percent of women have fibroids and don't even know it.
Should this cutting edge and invasive device be banned?
Doctors are fighting over who's right and who's wrong.
And you could be stuck in the middle.
I'm going to die of this cancer.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
That's time for In Case You Missed It.
First up, Dr. William Davis says a wheat-free diet will prevent inflammation, which leads Watch out for hidden wheat in some of your processed foods.
For example, all these things we often take for granted, including things like soy sauce and dressings, will often have wheat products in them.
Instead, start incorporating foods that naturally don't have wheat in them.
Not gluten-free foods, foods that don't have any wheat in them.
He calls wheat frankenwheat because you're so worried about how it affects your entire body.
All these are foods you can eat as much as you want of.
What happened in the world?
He even said you can eat things like saturated fats.
You know what?
Let me talk about mood swings for a second.
If you find yourself having lots of them, it might be because you're lacking a few important minerals in your life.
Oatmeal, hash browns are my favorite, along with raw oysters, because they contain lots of zinc and magnesium that naturally raise your progesterone levels.
And with that progesterone, which is the body's natural volume, you'll balance your mood more effectively.
If you suffer from constipation, I want to give you one last little tip.
Give yourself a gut check.
I want you to look for these symptoms.
If you've got brain fog, unexplained rashes, itchiness, nail fungus, frequent yeast infections, a high-carb diet or antibiotic use, if you have any one of those, then you might be suffering from underlying bacterial infection.
Lots of symptoms there.
You know, it could be happening in many different ways in many different places.
But if you have yeast overgrowth or a bacterial infection, you want to add more good bacteria to your gut.
One thing that might help you is oregano oil.
It's high in probiotics.
Let me close with a warning.
Please be careful about what you buy online, especially weight loss pills.
There's some dubious people online that prey on folks like you who are trying to do the right thing for your health.
Sometimes they even make it seem like I'm trying to endorse their products, which I don't.
To see a full list of our trusted sponsorship partners, please go to drraz.com and enjoy your oysters.
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