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Nov. 22, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:37
Should You Be Taking a Low-Dose Aspirin Daily? | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 44 | Full Episode
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Almost 60 million of you take aspirin daily, but is it right or wrong for you?
Dr. Oz cuts through the confusion.
Here are three important questions you want to ask yourself.
Plus, behind the scenes at Dr. Oz's other job, in the OR, making rounds, and helping patients facing life-threatening conditions.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Well, today I'm talking about aspirin.
It's one of the most widely taken drugs in America.
And I've talked about its life-saving benefits on the show, and now an estimated one in five of you take it regularly.
But new studies are saying aspirin may not be right for you.
It's no wonder women are confused.
And today, we're answering the question, should you be taking a low-dose aspirin?
Today, about 60 million Americans take an aspirin a day to reduce the risks of heart attacks and strokes.
And new research suggests it may also help prevent some cancers.
But an eye-opening report out of Harvard has discovered that way too often, the wrong people are taking aspirin.
That study's startling conclusion, fewer than half of the people who could benefit from a daily low-dose aspirin take it, While many others take it when they shouldn't.
Clearly, there's lots of confusion.
I take aspirin every day and I'm not sure what the effects are on my body.
Is it true that just taking one aspirin a day will actually help prevent heart disease?
Or is it hurting me more than anything?
Do you really know everything you need to know?
Am I too young to start taking an aspirin?
I have a family history of cancer and I've seen headlines of how aspirin can help.
Should I be taking a daily aspirin?
We know aspirin helps reduce inflammation, which can cure a headache and prevent a heart attack.
But how concerned should you be about aspirin's side effects, ulcers and bleeding?
I've been taking baby aspirin for 10 years and it never occurred to me that it could be dangerous.
With all the confusion, how do you know if you should be taking a daily aspirin?
Today I'm giving you three questions to ask yourself to help you decide if you should be taking a low dose of aspirin.
Let me start off.
How many of you, raise your hand, take a daily aspirin now?
Show of hands.
A lot of the audience.
You know, actually, I'm part of the reason that you're taking it.
So I'll take responsibility.
I've recommended it on the show.
I've talked about it passionately.
I take it myself.
All these are reasons why, you know, I've been comfortable getting a lot of the audience taking aspirin.
But there are new reports that have shown that a lot of people who take a daily aspirin shouldn't.
And some who don't, should.
That means plenty of the folks who raised their hands right now Unfortunately, are not the ideal candidates.
And some people who didn't raise their hands might be surprised to learn you are.
So we're going to talk all through that today so you walk away from this show concrete about who should be on a very important drug and who should not be taking aspirin.
First, let's talk about why you take a low dose aspirin.
It might reduce the chance of having a heart attack or heart disease.
It helps with reducing stroke.
And there's new research showing that it may prevent cancer.
To help talk this through, I've got a lot of you excited now.
Joining me are two experts to help determine if a daily aspirin might be right for you.
Dr. Holly Anderson is a preventive cardiologist and my colleague at New York Presbyterian.
And Dr. Ruth Oretz is a clinical professor of oncology at NYU Langone Medical Center.
So, Dr. Anderson, what's the first thing you want women knowing about low dose aspirin?
The most important thing is that it's a misperception that aspirin is for everybody.
Aspirin today does not keep the doctor away and it's not a cure-all.
Aspirin is a very powerful medication that thins the blood that can cause serious, even life-threatening stomach bleeding and ulcers.
So I think the most important thing is know your risk and know that it can help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease if you are at high risk.
All right, so I wanted to make it easy for everybody.
I'm going to give you three questions to ask yourself when deciding if you should take a low dose of aspirin.
The first question, really easy one, but it takes a little honesty.
Are you 50 or over?
50 or over?
Let me see.
Everyone stand if you're 50 or over.
Let me see.
No.
Let's see.
They all look pretty honest, I guess.
Some people look pretty good, I guess.
So again, I see some people who had their hands up before, who aren't up now.
There's some overlap.
Let me start with you.
What's your first name?
Hi, Lisa.
Lisa.
And obviously you're over 50. Are you surprised that's a big indication?
No, but I'm a little nervous about taking aspirin because I have a long history of stomach ulcers.
So is that something I should take?
We're going to talk about that in a second.
I'm glad you asked the question.
But before we get to that, you weren't taking aspirin before, I guess.
No.
All right.
And is that likewise?
Yes.
I'm Laverne, and I take aspirins daily to help prevent.
You were taking it?
Yes, I do.
Okay.
Ma'am, were you taking aspirin?
No.
You weren't?
No.
All right.
So good.
This is part of the conversation we wanted to have today.
Dr. Anderson, why is age 50 such an important indicator for who should be on aspirin?
Age 50 is very important because the benefits certainly increase as we get older.
And 50 is the average age for women to go through the menopause in this country.
And once you go through menopause, we start catching up with men with respect to our heart disease risk.
And heart disease risk doubles with every decade.
And heart disease is the number one cause of death among women in this country.
And more women have died from heart disease every year than men since 1984. So Dr. Oras, there are lots of folks who are not 50. Should they stop watching?
Does it not matter to them?
Should any of them maybe be on aspirin?
Well, they should absolutely keep watching and it's a very, very important question because even some younger women may have important risk factors either for cardiovascular disease or for cancer and they should know those risk factors and they should keep listening.
Aspirin may be for them.
Alright, let's talk about that group now.
So everyone who's standing, keep standing.
If you have a family history of heart disease or cancer, please stand as well.
All the folks who have a family history.
So, Dr. Anderson, please define what a family history means, because some of you actually probably shouldn't be standing because you don't really appreciate what that phrase means.
You know, having grandparents or parents who had heart disease or died from heart disease and stroke in their 80s and 90s doesn't count, even in their mid-upper 70s.
But if you have a family history in younger people, especially under the age of 60, it dramatically increases your risk of both heart disease and stroke.
All right, so again, you can sit down.
What's your name?
Brittany.
Brittany.
So family history, now you know it means people who are relatively young.
So if you have a family history of people who are young who have cancer or heart disease, keep standing.
Everyone else can sit down like Brittany just did.
All right, Dr. Aratz, specific cancer implications, specific cancers to be worried about.
Well, the most common cancers that we think about for women are breast and ovarian cancer and for men and women, colorectal cancer and lung cancer.
The risk factors for cancer are very similar to the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Sedentary lifestyle, smoking, obesity.
Those are the things that are really going to get people sick.
Since you brought that up, Dr. Anderson, go through very carefully.
I'm going to give you a list now.
What happened to everybody?
We're standing.
There's a hat down.
Everyone 50, stand up again.
You guys are something else.
You're trying to get away with things.
No, I only wanted people who truly had a family history of people who are young, 60-year-olds and younger, who have cancer and heart disease.
Those folks should stand, too.
Those are two major.
The third risk factor we're going to talk about right now, and Dr. Anderson can go through them.
By the way, we should be standing, too.
But anyway...
The risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke include, outside of family history, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
In addition, smoking and being obese, being depressed, being sedentary, all contribute.
And if you've had high blood pressure or diabetes when you were pregnant, that increases your risk significantly.
Alright, so everybody who has those risk factors, you stand up as well.
So, for example, were you...
Let me go back to you again, because you were kind before.
Yes.
So, do you have any of those risk factors?
Yes, I do.
Which ones?
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetic.
Alright, and were you taking aspirin before?
Yes, I started taking the aspirin after the doctor told me, because I have a risk factor with my family.
Perfect.
And Micheline, over here, how are you?
Hi.
And why are you standing?
Because my mother has had quite a few strokes.
My sister's had breast cancer.
My aunt has had breast cancer.
So I take my baby aspirin just as a preventative.
And I've never asked any doctors.
I'm just doing it.
So I hope I'm doing the right thing.
Well, I do want to talk to your doctors about it because it gets sometimes more confusing than I want it to be.
But you probably did the right thing.
Let me ask you, what's your name?
Annette.
Annette.
Your relatives that have had those problems, were they under the age of 60?
Yes.
Some yes and some no.
My sister is in her 50s, 55. Perfect.
As long as some of them are younger.
Again, when you have a relative that's really, really elderly who has a problem, you can't tell if it's genetic that much.
But people younger than 60, you're pretty confident.
Ma'am, why are you standing?
I'm over 50. I have high cholesterol and my father died at 44 of a heart attack.
Alright.
I'm sorry about that.
But again, we're now getting into a pattern here.
Dr. Oratz, family history risk factors, we've got that sort of covered.
You've got the general risk factors covered.
Is there anything that I've missed?
I think you've covered it all, and I think the important thing about family history is those young people who, and same thing with cancer, young women who've had breast cancer or ovarian cancer or even colon cancer in the family.
All right, so audience, now all of you look around at the other folks, and people who are standing now should be the ones on aspirin.
Some of you, when I asked in the very beginning of the show, did not put your hands up.
Alright, so it means that some of you, especially the folks who are standing, need to have that conversation with your doctor.
People who are sitting, some of you were taking aspirin and probably don't need to.
Maybe you should reconsider.
You gonna say something?
Go ahead.
I just went to the doctor and I was taking a baby aspirin every day and he told me not that I didn't need to.
And did you ask him specifically about these risk factors?
Well, he knew about my father.
He knew about my cholesterol.
But he said he really didn't think that because of my, I guess, my exercising and my lifestyle that I didn't need to have that anymore.
Dr. Anderson, what would you tell a patient who came to you who had those risk factors?
I think this is really important.
These are general recommendations, and you need to personalize your risk with everything that we spoke about.
And with the woman who said, you know, I've had stomach ulcers, the risk of bleeding versus the benefit of reducing your cardiovascular risk.
It has to be personalized.
It is a conversation to have with your doctor.
So you can all have a seat now.
Dr. Anderson, break it down for us.
If you're going to take aspirin, give us the specifics.
How much do you take?
We recommend low-dose aspirin, and most of the studies in this country have been a baby aspirin, which is 81 milligrams.
Most of the studies done worldwide are about two baby aspirins, or 162 milligrams a day.
Dr. Oretz, if you're going to take it, does it need to be coded?
Any other tricks to make sure we don't get intestinal problems?
Well there's no magic about the aspirin being coated and it may not even really protect against the stomach bleeding issue.
I think the most important thing if you're taking aspirin is drink a full glass of water not just a little sip and that will help dissolve the aspirin that gives us the efficacy and help prevent some of that bleeding.
So probably the 81 to 260 milligrams is the right dose.
So personally, I take two baby aspirin because I know sometimes we're resistant to it a little bit.
Plus, if I miss it once in a while, it doesn't penalize me.
Please have the conversation.
I care so much about this.
The three questions that I've asked you today are going to be on my Facebook page.
I'm going to post them, a picture of them, and I want you to tag your friends in it.
Give them a little nudge to ask themselves these questions as well.
I'll be right back.
Coming up, the doctor who was his own worst patient.
I really hit rock bottom.
My lifestyle was on a road to an early death.
How he turned his life around and lost 100 pounds.
The simple steps he shares that can get you big results.
Next.
The doctor who claims he's been to heaven and back.
You've been one of the most controversial guests I've had.
Says you can tap into heaven too.
That's the thing that really gets your attention.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Today our big conversation centers around this question.
Why do we let ourselves go when we know deep down the right things to do?
It happens to all of us, even doctors.
Dr. John Ellis knew the health consequences from obesity, and yet he let himself go to 340 pounds.
When I started out in medical school, I was very enthusiastic.
I was young, I had graduated from college early, I was like the youngest student in my medical school class, and I really embraced this.
One would think that as a doctor, that I would know how to eat.
Nutrition was a small part of the medical curriculum when I was in medical school.
There is stress.
A lot of the patients would have, on average, a 5% chance of dying.
You know that everything you do can have consequences.
I found, after a difficult case in the operating room, I ate to soothe myself.
As time went on, my appetite got out of control.
And I finally got up to almost 340 pounds.
I was less active.
I had no energy.
I lived two blocks from the subway station.
I tended to avoid it because I didn't want to climb the stairs.
I had sleep apnea.
I had prediabetes.
I had high blood pressure.
So being in the operating room was increasingly difficult for me to take care of my patients, given my size and the need to bend.
I really hit rock bottom.
At that point, I realized I really needed to hang up my scrubs.
My lifestyle was really on a road to an early death.
I spent years taking care of patients and saving lives, and I realized it was time to save my own.
Now, I wanted to meet John because a lot of doctors, myself included, just don't have first-hand understanding of what's going on with their patients who are struggling with their weight.
Let's meet Dr. John Ellis.
You know, I don't usually do this with doctors, but this is unbelievable.
That is really spectacular.
Thank you.
I saw the pictures of you from before.
I wasn't allowed to see John before, by the way.
They wanted to surprise me.
Come have a seat.
Thank you.
So I got to say, I was curious about your story.
And I learned that most folks don't have aha moments on the scale or in some weird location.
You had yours in a restaurant.
I had mine in a restaurant here in New York City.
Now imagine this.
It's a couple of days before Christmas.
I'm with my family.
We're sitting in the restaurant looking at the ice skaters, looking at the tree.
Or at least we're getting ready to sit down.
Everyone gets in their chairs.
I get in mine.
And I smash the chair and fall to the floor.
And a hush came over the restaurant.
People gasped.
Are you okay?
I was hurt.
My feelings were hurt.
I mean, I was physically okay.
And I kind of stormed out there to come after me and try to console me.
And that was one moment when I said, you know, if I don't change what I'm doing, I'm not going to be here.
So, John, doctor to doctor, when you were talking to patients about health issues, especially about weight issues, how'd you feel?
You know, I'd feel a little embarrassed sometimes to be talking to people and saying, you know, because, you know, you have a lot of extra weight here or pressing on your lungs, there may be problems.
And knowing that this might be true for myself.
And I'd give lectures on this stuff.
One of my friends listened to one of my lectures on tape.
She called me up and said, John, you better take care of yourself.
Well, this season, you know, I'm going to be clear about this.
We're bringing healthy back.
That's the mantra.
We can dance it out.
We can speak it out.
There's many ways of getting the message out there.
We want to focus on little steps that all of us can do.
Everybody.
Little steps that, when they add up, can mean big results.
So I wonder if you don't mind walking us through some of the small steps that resulted from that man becoming this man.
Come on over.
The first step to losing weight obviously has to come with making some changes.
You lost 125 pounds.
Correct.
125, 130. Depends on the day.
I weigh myself every day.
Not everyone does, but I do.
So give me a brief outline.
What was the first thing you did to make a difference?
Well, you see all this wonderful cheese here.
This is something that I just adored.
I just adored.
And I realized, and I was taught this actually, I was told, John, you'd be better off eating a ribeye steak every day than eating all the fat that's in this cheese.
And so one of the things I started to do was seriously cut back on cheese and eventually gave it up.
And, you know, this was my issue.
I'm not saying this is everyone's issue, but this was an issue for me.
So the second big tip that you want to offer folks is about structure.
Now, Dr. John's journey, like many of ours, has to deal with some deep-seated changes in relationships you have with stuff, including with food.
So how did you figure out what structure you needed for your own life?
A couple of things that I was taught and that I learned is that, number one, I couldn't go hungry.
You know, I used to go hungry in the morning and think, I'm not going to eat today.
And then, of course, that'd all fall apart by night and I'd be eating the pizza.
So one of the things I eat, believe it or not, two pounds of green vegetables a day.
And I learned to cook in advance.
I learned to shop.
I learned if I didn't make my food, Or be very clear about ordering in a restaurant that I was going to get bad stuff in there.
And so, you know, try to keep on a schedule.
It can be hard.
But I learned how to bulk cook, make sure I got stuff in the freezer so that I have good choices.
Whatever those structural tools you need.
This is why people have weight loss groups they belong to, right?
They need to have some type of a program with some really concrete structure to it.
Alright, the third step in Dr. John's journey was about having a buddy.
Now, a lot of folks who put on the kind of weight you put on, especially, are emotional leaders.
That's true.
And we know that people who, you know, if they're buddies or, you know, in the same boat, that may be.
These are pictures of my best friend, Dr. Wallace Jenkins, who's up in Westchester.
My college classmate, best friends for 40 years.
Good for you.
And, you know, it's not so much, I mean, I do encourage people to work in groups, but he wasn't my weight loss buddy.
He was my buddy.
All right?
And so when it came time to the emotional eating, one of the things I learned, I'd pick up the phone, Wally, what's up?
You know, and we'd talk.
And I have to thank his wife, Geneva, and his daughter, Tia, for allowing me to share him in their life.
It's the fabric that's always held us together.
Listen, the biggest tools we throw away are the people around us, folks that can really help us.
All right, so you told me in that little piece that you had pre-diabetes, you had blood pressure problems, you had sleep apnea.
I mean, how are you dealing with all those issues now?
I'm blessed.
The pre-diabetes is gone.
The knee pain, I didn't mention that before, the knee pain is gone.
The sleep acne, I just have to wear that breathing machine.
Don't have to do that anymore.
High cholesterol, gone.
Changing the way that I eat.
So all of these health problems, for the most part, have gone away.
You can see the difference. - Yeah.
And you know, so I'm 56 now.
When I was 50, I thought I was headed towards an early death and in some ways felt powerless to change it.
And I thought, well, you know, I'm going to try and get some training and change my habits.
So at 50, I didn't think I could do this.
But it took me a year and a half to lose the weight.
One foot in front of the other.
In some ways, simple, though not always easy.
You know, doctor to doctor, you're a true inspiration.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for coming along.
We'll be right back.
Have you recently lost weight?
Tell us, how did you do it?
I've struggled with weight loss for a long time, and I've tried every diet out there.
Recently, I've stuck to the two-week rapid weight loss on your site, and it worked.
To find out how this program could work for you, head to DrOz.com.
Coming up, they come on suddenly and without warning.
More than a million Americans are affected each year.
What happens when everyday tasks become everyday risks?
How to avoid a blood clot and easy exercises to prevent them.
Stay tuned.
They come on suddenly with no warning and they can be life threatening.
I'm talking about blood clots, and some experts estimate that more than a million Americans are affected every year.
But they are preventable.
I'm going to show you exactly how, but first, I need a little bit of help from the assistant of the day.
How about round number 25?
25. Who's number 25?
We got a winner!
We have a winner.
You're dancing already.
What were you doing up there?
I was trying to stretch out my pants a little, you know, get more agile.
Oh, I thought you were doing like a victory dance.
Oh, no.
My victory dance is a lot worse.
Do women do that?
They stretch their pants that way?
Yeah, yeah.
Let me say it again.
I get into them in the morning like this, so.
You ladies know what I'm talking about.
That move may come in handy.
Put this on.
You are the assistant today.
What's your first name?
Diana.
Diana, how are you?
I'm wonderful.
Are your friends up there?
Yeah, she's right there.
She's so...
She's happily watching now.
Last time you had a cut off the top of your head?
Oh, yesterday.
Yesterday?
What were you doing?
Jumping around.
Like this, doing this.
Exactly.
So that was probably, in your case, the last time you thought about bleeding.
For most people, frankly, it's the only time I think about bleeding is when they have a little bit of it coming out of a finger or a knee or, you know, for a male, when we shave our face.
So it turns out that about six liters of blood course through an average person's body.
That's three two-liter bottles.
Okay.
Okay.
Lift that up.
See how much blood you have.
Oh my God.
Actually, it gets a little clunky.
I want you to hold on to this because you're going to need those in a second.
If that blood were to stop coursing through your beautiful veins, you'd have all kinds of issues.
And that sometimes happens.
It can even be fatal when it happens.
So I'm going to walk you through what I'm talking about.
Okay.
And then we're going to do some cool ideas to stop it from ever happening.
Let's say you're sitting around for a long time, and down the deep veins of your legs, the blood stops moving.
When that happens, you get a little blood clot right there.
And it can cause pain.
Not always, but it can cause pain.
But that's not the problem.
When that clot slips away, goes up the veins, up into the heart, and then push all the way through to the lungs, which the heart will do, it can actually block off the ability of the lungs to work.
You won't be able to breathe.
And it could even cause what's called a pulmonary embolism.
Which can be lethal.
Have you ever heard of a pulmonary embolism?
No.
Alright, so now you have.
And believe me, we hear about these all the time as physicians, because that darn little clot, which starts off so innocently in your calf, causing calf pain, can lead to huge problems if it goes to the wrong place.
So the question is, why does that happen?
The blood that's so beautifully flowing through our bodies, why does it sometimes clot off?
So you can help me demonstrate.
Okay.
You can put down your six liters of blood.
Think about it.
If you could lose all the blood, you'd weigh a lot less.
Yeah, it'd be skinnier.
Yeah, but you'd need the blood.
All right, so this is a vein in your body.
These are red blood cells.
But the other things in your blood, they're platelets, they're clotting factors, all kinds of fun stuff that do important things, white cells to protect your immune system.
Go ahead and pour those in there.
Okay.
All right.
And as you pour those cells into the blood, you'll notice that it's sort of...
You lost a couple.
You bled a little bit.
Now, take some of your blood that you preciously brought over here and top it off there.
And normally your body carries the blood through in a fairly organized way.
That's what's happening when you're moving around.
In fact, the reason we think it's really important, by the way, you see how clear that is?
That's actually the plasma of the blood.
Because most of the blood is not cells, it's the stuff that carries it around.
That's perfect.
Nicely done.
Thank you.
Finish it if you want to.
So I want you to do me a favor.
I want you to pretend like you're stretching out those jeans of yours again.
Okay.
And shake that up for me.
Alright.
Shake it up.
Upside down.
Don't drop the blood.
Okay.
Okay, good.
Now when you do that, you notice what happens to the blood cells.
They move all over the place.
They can put it down now.
Okay.
And that's what's supposed to happen.
But if you don't move around, what used to be beautifully filled with blood everywhere will now settle in and it'll begin to clot.
Because when blood doesn't move, it clots, right?
We know that if we cut ourselves and drop a little drop on the counter, it will form a clot.
Right.
So that exact same thing will happen inside your body.
Okay.
That's why I'm so passionate about people moving around.
We talked about it this season a lot, and research shows that your risk for a blood clot like this goes up 20% for every hour that you sit without getting up.
That's a big difference.
So what we want to do today is change what people do when they're sitting around.
So when do we sit around?
We sit around when we're on a plane, when we're flying, we sit around when we're working at our desk, when we're on a couch, when we're driving a car.
Which of those do you happen to do the most?
I sit at my desk, fly in a plane.
You do them all.
Yeah, I do them all.
So I end up sitting in a car a lot.
Okay.
So it's my problem, but I'm going to take you through my problem.
So come on over here.
The next time you're in a long car ride or sitting around anywhere for a long time, you can join me.
You want to drive?
You want me to drive?
It's better if you drive.
Okay, I'll drive.
I'm sitting over here.
So, we're sitting down.
And audience, you're all sitting right now.
People at home, most of you are sitting as well.
So we all do this together.
I want you to remember one key thing to do to prevent the blood clot that I just showed you.
It's really simple.
So simple, you're going to say, why don't you bring it up?
It's called tapping your feet.
You do that?
Here's why it's effective.
Think about it.
When you're tapping your feet, the muscles contract, and that squeezes the blood vessels.
It milks the blood vessels so you don't have that clotting that I showed you earlier because the fluid is being moved.
All right, so let's just put this to play.
What's your favorite song?
Um...
Forget it.
You're going to listen to mine.
It took too long.
Put your favorite song on.
All right, now bop your head back and forth.
Audience, you're with me now.
Now tap your feet to the beat.
Everyone, tap, tap.
Now disco it up.
You're going to enjoy yourself.
Once an hour, put it up there.
Okay.
You go like this.
And you're going to keep doing it.
I'm serious.
You're going to do it for just a few minutes.
Right now, you're all moving your blood, and you've been in a wonderful assistant of the day.
Thank you.
Audience, nice job as well.
For a full fact sheet on blood plastic with DrRogs.com, we will be right back.
Next, Chef Mario Batali has a better approach to making dinner.
Fresh, local foods.
He's taking your farmer's market finds and making them masterpieces.
Healthier, better tasting dinners.
Easy recipes your whole family will enjoy.
Coming up next.
We are bringing healthy back this season and want you to bring it too.
Grab your prescription pad for fun and sign up for free tickets today.
You can go to dros.com slash tickets and sign up.
The doctor who claims he's been to heaven and back.
You've been one of the most controversial guests I've had.
Says you can tap into heaven too.
That's the thing that really gets your attention.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Stop.
Stop where you are.
Step away from the fridge.
Chef Mario Batali says we're all making a big mistake when it comes to our approach to dinner.
And fixing it could not only mean making you healthier, but also meals that taste better, too.
So, what's the mistake?
Let's ask the chef himself.
Please welcome Mario Batali back to the show.
Don't bother me.
I'm busy.
It's hard to see I'm cooking.
I can tell you've been doing a very good job It smells delicious in here.
So what is the biggest mistake we're all making, choosing and making our foods?
The problem most people have is that they go to their magazine or their cookbook and they choose the recipe.
Then they go to the market and disregard what's really fresh or what's seasonal.
They just buy what they think they should be making.
And in fact, they should go to the store first, buy the best looking stuff, then come back and find the recipe that's going to match that.
So Mario actually took this to heart.
Everything Mario does is fantastic.
He's a new book.
It's called Farm to Table.
Now you went all over the place.
You visited these farms.
It seems so bucolic, but it doesn't seem very accessible to us.
So how does an average person find a farmer's market, for example?
If you go to the USDA website, there is a place that helps you identify the closest farm place to your house.
You know, we'll put it on DrOz.com.
I didn't even know that was possible.
Yes.
All right.
So, Mario went shopping.
He wore his fingers to the nubbin looking for fresh produce at the farmer's market this morning.
Yes.
What's in abundance now?
What are you going to make us?
Right now, it's the autumn.
There is all kinds of winter squashes, carrots, cruciferous greens, beets, everything delicious.
And one of the most amazing things...
That I can tell you, is that if you take any vegetable, including a pumpkin, shave it very, very thin on a mandolin, or just chop it into small pieces with a knife, dress it with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt, it will taste good raw.
Or, shred it up like I did these carrots, and you can make these little fritelli out of any vegetable.
Fritelli?
Fritelli.
Show me how to make the fritelli.
Okay, so we have carrots, we have some eggs.
Would you like to help?
You know, I am the best at eggs.
You know, Daphne got her cooking prowess from her father.
Well, she's a darn good cook.
It's a double-handed.
I can't boil water.
Daphne had it from Lisa, as you know very well.
Well, we're going to need you to do that again because we need all four of those eggs.
Don't get tired now because Daphne doesn't get tired when she does that.
There you go.
All right, good.
I got some shells in there for the calcium.
And also a little bit of that textural, al dente.
All right, so you'll dump that in there.
Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to take just a little bit of kosher salt, some freshly ground black pepper.
I'm going to take about a third of a cup of grated cacciotta or parmigiano-reggiano or pecorino, but not a lot.
You're going to see this is mostly vegetables.
So then we're going to dump the carrots in like so.
You want to stir it a little bit.
And I'm going to add what's called panko breadcrumbs.
Panko's a little bit different than the finely ground ones.
They have a little bit more texture.
They're a little bit crunchier.
They started in Japanese culture.
They use them in a lot of those little fillets and things that they saute and make up real crisp.
So I'm going to add panko.
And then instead of regular flour, we're adding rye flour.
Because I think it gives it a little bit more of an exotic taste.
You could make anything you want healthy if you wanted to, couldn't you?
Well, you take extra fat out, you get rid of processed food, particularly processed carbohydrates, and suddenly almost everything is going to be a little bit better for you than it was had you bought it in a store like so.
Now, spoon it up.
Is that right?
Yeah, hold on.
We'll get a little oil in the pan, about a tablespoon and a half.
And then you take about a spoon, just like that.
Hold on, let me just make sure.
Oh, you did a perfect job.
No, you did a perfect job.
But it would be a fool not to check.
Even the mighty doctors work, wouldn't it?
Because I'm on national TV, I don't want to blow it.
Of course, it would be terrible.
All right, throw that in there.
Hold on, hold on.
Yeah, because we're going to do a couple in one pan.
Oh, very efficient.
There you go, right.
And then we'll do this like so.
And we'll do another one.
So these are kind of like the potato pancakes or the latkes of the Jewish culture or of the Northeastern European culture.
And now you just let them sit.
I'm going to add just a tiny little bit more oil on that.
And you will cook these for about three or four minutes on the first side, then flip them over and cook them for another minute on the second side.
And you'll have this crisp, beautiful pancake with the flavors of carrots that are so delicious.
Hold on, don't taste that.
Yeah, you can.
I just want to put a little lemon on it.
There you go.
So that's what it's gonna come out looking like.
And you can make these in advance and just heat them up or hold them in a warm oven at 200 degrees on a little rack.
There's something remarkable, simple, and inexpensive.
These are heavenly.
You know what I'm gonna do?
You keep making these frittatas.
Okay.
Frittetes.
Frittelle.
Frittelles.
I'm going to go get the audience some out because I sent that whole part of the audience shopping.
Oh, good.
And this is what they found.
So let's see.
Who went to the farmers?
Who's got the kale?
What's your name?
Diane.
Diane.
You got a question?
Yes.
Mario.
Yes.
I bought this kale from my local farmer's market.
How do I use it in a salad so it's not so tough and chewy?
Excellent question.
Had you watched The Chew this week, you would have seen not only one of the great books I love and know, but you'd seen the daughter of Dr. Oz herself, Daphne, and what she does is she cuts it into one-inch ribbons, then she dresses it with a little extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and massages it for about two minutes.
It got rid of the weird kind of fibrousness to it.
It also got rid of some of the grassiness to it, and it tasted something remarkably delicious, and yet handmade, inexpensive, and easy to do.
Thank you.
I taught her that.
You did?
Thank you.
We're part of it.
There's nothing to do with it.
Lucille comes to us.
What did you pick up today?
I picked up feta.
I just don't know what to do with it.
I do the same thing.
Mario, I need advice.
What is that?
Feta cheese.
Feta cheese.
Feta cheese would go really good right on these.
Would you come down here and share it with us?
He's a very tough, tough master.
He's been beating up over this tartetta thing he's been making over here.
So when you buy stuff, one of the most common mistakes is that you would put a lot of everything in every dish.
Because you think Italian, a bondanza, it's delicious, the more the better.
But if you understand true balance...
Here, let me take some of your feta cheese.
Make sure you get it back from him.
I've seen that it disappear so fast.
This would easily fit in my pocket.
So then what you do is you just take a tiny little bit like that to anoint something so that it becomes more perfect.
Anoint.
Just go dressed on the top like that.
Crown it.
Make it something even more delicious.
Squeeze a little lemon like so.
A little lemon like so.
Chef Oz, would you like to put them on the platter?
Now those right on here.
Oh, he likes to be called chef.
Yeah, smell it, right?
Only in public.
There you go.
Smell that.
I do.
Now, that's going to be hot, so you should try this one that's resting a little bit.
Try one right there.
Now, let's see what Lucille thinks.
She's laughing right through the feta.
They're so simple.
They're great.
And not expensive.
Wow.
And inexpensive.
These are like 35 cents a portion.
Wow.
So, we should tax Mario, but before we tax him, I'm going to ask him one more favor.
You prepared some other things over here that I pretended I was making, but what did you make over here?
So here we took the bounty of the green market.
It could be anything that you want, as long as it has some beans and some greens in it.
This is minestrone genovese.
Just a classic big soup.
Want to serve it up?
So we put it right on that, like so.
And then what I like to serve it with is a little dab.
Go ahead.
I usually eat out of the label.
Oh, well, go right ahead.
There's no rules on your set, baby.
It's yours.
Then we put a little bit of pesto genovese right on top, and we serve it up.
You know what?
I actually took this for lunch.
You should try this.
This pesto was a brilliant idea.
It sneaks up on you.
You don't realize it's there.
You don't have the pasta guilt afterwards.
You've got something that's completely great for you.
But it's this remarkable, bright, herbaceous blast to your vegetables on top.
This is an absolutely fabulous book, and maybe if Mario is willing, we'll have him sign it to Lucille.
Born willing, Doc.
Born willing.
Oh, excellent.
There's all the books from the table.
It's available now.
Check it out.
We'll be right back.
Thank you.
Mario, thank you so much.
Coming up, when he's not on the set, Dr. Oz is in the operating room, helping patients who are facing life-threatening conditions go behind the scenes and watch real life unfold as Dr. Oz makes his rounds in the OR.
Coming up next.
I adore coming here every day and talking to you about your health, but when I'm not here in the studio, I'm in the OR and I'm doing rounds, helping patients who are facing life-threatening conditions.
So today, I'm taking you behind the scenes at my hospital to see my patient Joseph's amazing story.
Good morning.
Good morning, guys.
Good morning.
Today I'm going to see Joseph Caratola.
He's a motorcycle cop who had a stroke while on vacation.
He's probably gonna need heart surgery.
So tell me what happened.
I got the story pretty quickly.
I was in Florida and I had a stroke.
I was walking with the kids to the pool.
I had a dizzy spell.
They don't have any dizzy spells on them.
So I just stopped for a second.
I took another step.
I went right down to the ground and I had no control on my right leg.
And I couldn't get up.
The kids must have been petrified.
Yeah.
The worst thing in the world is when I'm hearing them in the back.
My youngest just goes, my daddy gonna die.
No dad wants to hear that.
Love you.
We love you too.
He's truly one of the good guys.
He's the one you call when something happens.
My son can't see me when my eyes closed because I guess he remembers that day.
To have my husband on the ground and my son saying what I was fearing, it was...
it was hard.
I just want to make sure that my children have a great life.
So, I mean, everything I do right now is just for them.
This is Joseph Caratola's scan, and you can see there's a hole here between the right and left side of his heart, and there's not supposed to be any kind of a hole between these two chambers.
A little bit of clot went into his heart, slipped across his hole, and went to his brain.
That's why he had a stroke.
Today I'm operating on Joseph Kirito to fix that hole in his heart.
How are you?
Good, that's my bride, Tammy.
You feel lucky today?
Yeah, so feels so good.
He's gonna get through this, and I'm gonna take Dr. Oz at his word that he's gonna give him another 30 years.
Give him back to me.
That I promise you.
I'm pretty much more nervous, right?
Open heart, it's open heart.
Do you see the hole here?
It's like a cave opening.
So a good-sized defect in the middle of his heart.
He was born with it.
And we can see two chambers of the heart connecting when they're not supposed to.
His heart's really far away.
So it makes his operation a little more challenging than usual.
He's vulnerable now.
He's never vulnerable.
And to have him down, it's just...
It's scary.
Joseph's not alone.
One in five Americans have a hole in their heart.
Now, some of you watching right now can be walking around and not even know that you've got a big problem.
Let me show you what happens, specifically when blood clots in your body and goes to the wrong place.
So the blood clots in your legs, you've been sitting too long on a plane or whatever, and it goes up to the heart.
There's usually a wall in the heart that prevents the blood from going the wrong way.
So it goes like it's supposed to go into the heart, through the valves, up into the lungs.
Not a good thing to have clots in your lungs, but your lungs are designed like a filter.
It's a little bit dangerous, but not too much, because that cleans it up.
Now, what happens if that clock goes up to the heart, but frees it right here?
Instead of normally going through the valves and to the lungs, if you have a hole like you have right here, you all see that hole?
That little hole is what I fixed in Joseph's heart.
That hole allows a clot to go past the lungs, never travel to the lungs, go across directly to the wrong side of the heart.
Let's run the animation.
When that clot goes to the wrong side of the heart, now it can't get filtered by the lungs.
It goes through different valves, gets pushed up right to the head.
And as it goes up to the head vessels, this is the dangerous part.
It eventually goes up so far that it gets stuck in one of these blood vessels and that leads to a stroke.
So you don't want that to happen.
I want you to know the warning signs to pay attention to to prevent this from ever happening to you because we can fix it like we did for Joseph.
First off, migraines sometimes are correlated with this.
Heart palpitations.
Skipped beats or dizzy spells.
Those are classic signs.
Never ignore them.
You can take control of your health.
That's what this show is about.
Now I'm going to be sharing stories like this with you all year long.
You can see the rest of Joseph's story on Surgeon Oz premiering Thursday, October 23rd at 10 p.m.
on OWN. We'll be right back.
All new Oz.
The doctor who claims he's been to heaven and back.
You've been one of the most controversial guests I've had.
Says you can tap into heaven too.
That's the thing that really gets your attention.
Can he turn skeptics into believers?
Plus, Dr. Oz helps a mother of 15. You're not alone, Tigers.
I'm here with you.
The affordable plan for anyone who wants to lose weight and reclaim their health.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Now, sign for in case you missed it.
For years, we have been talking about the life-saving benefits of aspirin, helping to prevent heart disease and stroke.
But today, there are new studies saying aspirin may not be right for everybody.
So here are three important questions you want to ask yourself to help decide if you ought to be taking a low dose of aspirin.
First off, are you 50 years or older?
Secondly, do you have a family history of heart disease or cancer?
And thirdly, do you have risk factors for heart problems or stroke like diabetes or high blood pressure or cholesterol?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, you've got to talk to your doctor who may recommend taking a low-dose aspirin.
For the best results, you can even take two baby aspirin, but again, you've got to talk to someone who's professional in this area first.
Next, it is estimated that more than a million Americans are affected each year by blood clots, and many times they come suddenly and with no warning at all.
The research shows that your risk for clots goes up by 20% for each hour you sit without getting up.
So, when you're flying on a plane or you're working on a desk, which is probably even more common, sitting on a couch, washing a tube, or driving a car, you can be at risk.
So, watch my feet.
Here's a painless method of getting your blood flowing and preventing a clot.
It's simple, but it works.
All you gotta do is tap your feet like I'm doing here.
That's it.
Everyone, please do this with me.
Tap your feet.
You've been sitting there a little bit.
It makes the muscles contract, squeezes the blood vessels, and keeps the blood from climbing up if you're having a problem.
And if you're in a car, crank up the music and have some fun with it.
So let me close with a warning.
You can stop tapping now.
Oh, the ruckus the audience is making today.
Let me close with a warning.
Please be careful about what you're buying 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 try to make it seem like I endorse their products.
I don't.
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