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Dec. 1, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:32
Natural Remedies That Even Doctors Trust | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 59 | Full Episode
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Dr. Oz reveals natural remedies, even doctors trust.
From lowering blood pressure to conquering chronic pain, see how holistic ways to heal your body has gone mainstream.
Plus...
Go, go, go!
Watch what happens when Dr. Oz works the night shift.
What happened, man?
I go haywire.
Answering emergency calls with EMTs.
That blood sugar number is a toxically high number.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
All right, look around.
You see all of these alternative treatments?
Well, they were once considered fringe therapies, but now they've gone mainstream.
Modern medicine is now accepting and encouraging holistic ways to heal your body.
Today, the natural remedies even doctors trust.
Let me introduce Dr. Mao.
He's a 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine and a leading authority in longevity.
He's joining us to talk a little bit about how modern medicine is embracing these practices.
Why is that starting to happen now?
Well, there's a whole lot more studies that have shown these therapies to be quite effective, and patients are asking for it.
This whole movement towards self-care, which, by the way, you've been the big proponent of, have really got the doctor's attention.
How would you compare the strength, the power of these alternative approaches, holistic treatments, to that of the scientific approaches that modern medicine use?
How effective are they?
Well, so they're different.
So holistic treatments generally focus on the patient.
The patients, you know, really focus on you.
And also wonderful for chronic disease.
Whereas Western medicine or modern medicine really focuses more on disease and very good for acute problems.
However, having said that, The best approach is always a combination of the two.
Integration for the benefit of the patient.
You know, kind of bringing the best of both worlds.
East, West, ancient, and modern.
Let's get to the natural remedies that doctors trust the most.
First, something I personally feel very passionate about as a heart surgeon.
This is a natural solution that could lower your blood pressure.
High blood pressure may be the most dangerous risk factor for heart disease.
And most doctors treat it with drugs.
Some of them with serious side effects.
But there's a natural remedy and it's already in your body.
CoQ10 is an enzyme and powerful antioxidant found in your heart, liver, kidney and pancreas.
But it can now also be made in a lab out of beets, sugarcane, and yeast.
Doctors have started using CoQ10 to help treat heart failure, angina, and elevated cholesterol.
But a major review of alternative medicine found CoQ10 to be especially effective treating hypertension.
So Dr. Mao, why do you believe that now more and more doctors are getting behind the idea of coenzyme Q10 for blood pressure?
Well, studies are showing that coenzyme Q10, otherwise known as CoQ10, helps to lower blood pressure, sometimes up to 10 points.
Quite a bit.
So they can use it in addition to the medications they're prescribing, or maybe even replace the medications.
Yes, sometimes reducing the amount of medication they take, or sometimes it can absolutely replace, yes.
All right, so let me, if I can, show you all exactly what coenzyme Q10 is supposed to do.
So if you have high blood pressure, what's fundamentally happening is the blood vessels are constricting, they're tight.
See the multiple layers in this little animation?
Coenzyme Q10 relaxes those layers, all of them.
So as they begin to open up, they open more space for the blood to travel.
When you have more space, you've got less blood pressure problems to follow along with it.
So how long does it take to see this benefit?
Usually within a month, but I usually suggest my patients take it up to about 3 months.
And studies show that it can actually lower blood pressure by up to 10 points.
That's a pretty significant change.
That's substantial.
And who does it work best for?
What are the potential side effects?
Well, the people that need to be, you know, watching out for it is people with low blood pressure, obviously, who want to be taking it.
That's right.
And also people who want blood thinners.
You should check with your doctor before taking it.
All right.
So here, my prescription for coenzyme Q10, it's 200 milligrams.
You can take it at bedtime, ideally.
That helps prevent the usual rapid high blood pressure changes that occur early in the morning between 3 and 10 a.m.
It may actually, for that reason, help reduce heart attacks and strokes, because blood pressure, for me, is the number one problem that drives a lot of those issues.
Next, a natural solution for anxiety, mood, and sleep.
Xanax, Valium, Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro, and Zoloft.
Powerful drugs to treat the most common mental illness in this country.
Anxiety.
But with their long list of side effects and risk for addiction, doctors have been on the hunt for an alternative solution for the 40 million Americans who suffer this condition.
The answer?
A root used for nearly 2,000 years to help you sleep.
Researchers now believe valerian works in the brain in the same way as drugs like Xanax and Valium, increasing a chemical called GABA that has a calming effect on anxiety.
So Kat is here.
She takes valerian root.
Why do you do that?
Well, Dr. Oz, I have a lot of stress, as a lot of people do, and I'm not the type of person to go into prescriptions.
I'm very natural.
I swear by it, for sure.
Definitely.
It's made a big difference in your life.
Absolutely.
Dr. Mao, what is it most often used for?
Who benefits?
Well, valerian root has long history of use, widely used and prescribed by physicians in Europe and Asia for anxiety, nervousness, and sleep.
So people have trouble sleeping.
And it's really safe.
Sometimes compared to, as called, poor man's valium.
Poor man's valium.
Yes.
As much as Kat loves this, I always worry when I hear things have no side effects.
There's always something small, even if it's small, that's a concern.
So who should not be taking it?
Well, I think if you have fatigue, if you're tired all the time, you should definitely go to your doctor, get yourself checked out before taking anything, really.
And so that's really the only side effect that we observe is it'll just kind of make people a little too calm, if you will.
Okay.
Let me show you why doctors are calling this the natural valium, as Kat mentioned.
You start your day off calm.
Take a look at this as an example.
This is your day.
You want to be sort of completely comfortable.
Then over time, what ends up happening is you get a little stress, right?
And that's okay.
You can manage that.
But sometimes that stress builds up a lot.
Too much.
Anxiety about bills.
Problems happening at home.
Now those key chemicals are making you really anxious and they begin to increase in your brain.
You can't make sense out of this.
What valerium does...
It comes in and it counteracts this anxiety.
And so, by taking it at the right time at the right moment, you actually can change some of those chemicals in your brain.
So, Dr. Ma, what's the best way of getting this?
Well you can get it in tea, make a tea in pill form or in tincture extracts.
So I'll give my prescription for valerian root is to drink one cup of tea before bedtime.
That'll help calm you down so you can sleep better and all the other benefits can begin to accrue.
Next, the newest treatment doc is recognized for pain and this one can be done at home and won't cost any money.
It's one of the oldest and simplest therapies for treating pain.
The healing power of water.
And for centuries, healers have recognized that water can be its most therapeutic when alternating hot and cold temperatures.
Now, doctors and physical therapists are rediscovering the powers of this technique, known as contrast hydrotherapy, to treat chronic pain, stiffness, and soft tissue injuries like carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, and tendinitis.
Researchers believe this treatment helps heal pain by improving blood flow and reducing inflammation, all without the potential side effects of painkillers.
All these people are using contrast hydrotherapy to treat their inflammation and swelling.
Michelle is in the tub to help with her back pain.
Emily is soaking her ankle to help heal an injury.
Wendella is submerging her wrist to help with that pain.
And Donna is using a wet towel for her neck pain.
So, Dr. Mao, when is it best to use contrast hydrotherapy for these different aches and pains?
Well, first of all, contrast hydrotherapy is a little different from just pure hydrotherapy.
You're doing something opposite, hot and cold, and you're alternating it.
And the best time is about a day or two after an injury.
Are there any people who should not be using this contrast hypotherapy?
Well, I think people who are, well, you know, for extremities, it's perfectly safe.
Except for people with, let's say, diabetes that have neuropathy, numbness, and they can't really detect extreme changes in temperature because what you want is extreme hot and cold that you can stand.
Don, you've been doing this for a while.
How's it working for you?
It totally works.
So I want you off again.
You've been soaking in the hot version of what you're going to do.
Now, if you don't mind, quickly shift to the cold version.
Let me see your expressions on your faces.
We actually have one person we have to help a little bit.
Are you ready?
Yes.
Are you okay with this?
Michelle, I'm very sorry to be doing this to you.
I will hold the mic.
This is like the ice bucket challenge, but a healing version.
Yes, yes, yes.
Just pretend this is winter in New York.
Okay, okay.
You okay?
I'm okay.
So far, so good.
But ideally, of course, you go from a hot bath to a cold bath, which is what all of you have done, and you're all still surviving.
I love the concept.
We're taking advantage of a naturally known healing opportunity that we've ignored for many years.
All right.
Finally, I want to offer you a different approach to acupuncture.
Four decades after its introduction to America, acupuncture is now an accepted alternative therapy.
And now, there's a new high-tech approach to this ancient art.
Electroacupuncture uses needles or electrodes that generate gentle, continuous electric impulses to acupressure points.
This cutting-edge technique has been used effectively to treat pain, stress and nausea.
It's also painless, takes half the time and can even be done without the use of needles.
So electroacupuncture is what it's called to be used for pain, nausea, and stress.
Electroacupuncturist Mary Sabo is administering it to Janet right now.
Dr. Mao, why do you think Western doctors are falling in love with this approach?
Well, first of all, studies have been showing that for certain conditions, electroacupuncture, by adding electricity to the acupuncture needle, can make the The outcome stronger.
In other words, better results.
So you actually have, I see the needles here.
The red needles are in Mary's hand here.
And then you have the little electrodes hooked up to it.
That's right.
So think of it as jumper cables.
But they look like jumper cables.
They are kind of jumper cables.
And we're running electricity through it.
Very mild current.
There's no pain, so it's not like we're going to...
Is that true, there's no pain?
No pain.
No pain.
No pain yet.
And perfectly safe.
Perfectly safe.
And what we're doing here is a treatment for nausea.
Oh, do you have a lot of nausea?
In the morning, when I take my thyroid medicine.
Dr. Ma, how does it work?
So how acupuncture works is basically, and in this case, what we're doing is when the brain, the brain gets a signal from the stomach, right?
So the stomach is basically sending signals through the vagus nerve and telling the brain, I want to throw up.
What we do is we put acupuncture in that wrist point and hook it up to electricity, and now we're signaling to block the signal from reaching the brainstem.
So this vagus nerve then gets calmed down and the nausea is relieved.
So it actually works through mechanisms we probably understand, but never could harvest before.
Yes, yes.
Well, there's a lot of other uses for it.
Pain, for example.
I mean, we treat a lot of pain with electroacupuncture.
How long do you have to treat the patient for?
Well, the treatment itself lasts about half an hour, 30 minutes.
But in general, for nausea, it's an immediate result.
And also for a certain kind of pain, sports injury and so forth.
Generally, treatments, we recommend anywhere from 8 to 10 treatments.
And what are the risks, if any?
There are no risks.
It's very safe.
Except if someone is wearing pacemaker, we don't recommend using electroacupuncture.
In that case, we just take the electricity away and use regular acupuncture.
The old-fashioned acupuncture.
The old-fashioned way, yes.
So my prescription for electroacupuncture is 30-minute treatments with a licensed therapist.
Dr. Mal, thank you very much for all your advice today.
I appreciate it.
It's my pleasure.
For more natural remedies, you can go to DrRoz.com.
We'll be right back.
Coming up next, watch what happens when Dr. Oz works the night shift.
What happened, man?
My chest started beating fast.
I go haywire.
On the front lines with EMT emergency crews.
That blood sugar number is a toxically high number.
Coming up next.
What does your craving for sweet, salty, or carby snacks really mean?
Dr. Oz reveals what your body is really after and gives you alternatives.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
This season, I've been riding along with first responders around New York City.
Now I took a night shift, one of the busiest times for ambulances as emergency calls come flooding in.
We got one call from a diabetic whose blood sugar was skyrocketing.
And the reason for her dangerous levels?
a common health hazard many of you can control. - Right now we know that it's a diabetic We're not entirely sure of all the circumstances.
Our BLS unit is en route as well.
They usually get there before ALS. They'll let us know what's going on.
What's the hardest part about this job?
Having to be a diplomat, a medical detective, a pastor, a psychologist.
All these different aspects of trying to understand the person you're working on at the same time as you're trying to take care of them.
We're going to check your blood sugar, okay?
What happened, ma'am?
My sugar went up earlier to 279. Before I go to sleep, I tell him, test my sugar.
For some reason, I felt crampy and nauseous.
And he tested it with 379. What were you feeling?
I felt lightheaded.
I felt nauseous.
My chest started beating fast.
Any other medical problems?
Diabetic, high blood pressure, cholesterol oil.
Here, I'm going to check your blood pressure, okay?
Okay.
We'll take the medicine.
It looks like Dr. Oz.
I look like him, huh?
It is Dr. Oz.
I get that a lot.
Heart rate's 111. Have you had blood sugars that have been chasing a lot recently that you've noticed?
I go haywire.
You do?
Can I see one of your fingers here?
What causes that to happen, you think?
I don't know.
Maybe stress?
I don't know.
So we're going to start an IV and give you some fluids to help you out with that, okay?
How long have you been a diabetic for?
For about eight years, seven, eight years.
You have diabetes in your family?
Yeah, my mother and open heart surgery.
She did.
Daddy, this is Dr. An.
I didn't recognize him.
I didn't recognize him.
Do you smoke?
Yes.
So you're a diabetic, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and you smoke?
Yeah.
And you have a family history?
Yes.
So it's like the, it's the lottery for heart disease.
Yeah, right.
Hold on to these things and we're going to put seat belts on you.
Okay, I'll spot you from behind.
Yes, ma'am.
You look better in person.
Well, you're kind to say that.
Okay, Carmen, and you're 56?
Yeah.
Okay.
As long as we're giving you the fluids, you'll be okay for now.
Yeah.
But that blood sugar number is a toxically high number.
Yeah, it is.
And they're gonna treat it with insulin.
So as we rush to the hospital to get your diabetes treated, I want to talk about smoking for a second.
But I will come back to it again afterwards.
Okay.
It doesn't seem to make much sense for a smart woman like you to smoke.
I know, you're right.
So what's going on there?
I get stressed a lot.
I have a lot of stress in me.
Does it make you feel relaxed?
Yeah, it does, believe it or not, with a cup of coffee.
Yeah.
I can see that.
It just, unfortunately, makes me very uncomfortable.
Yeah, I know.
At this point, we've established an IV. We're in the process of administering a 500cc bolus, a normal saline.
Do you have any grandkids?
Yeah.
How many?
I got five.
Five?
Five good reasons to take care of yourself.
You coming in, too?
I'm coming in.
I'm taking you in myself.
Come on in.
Get her there on the back.
Got it.
Tell me about your diet.
Have you been taking all your medicines?
Yeah.
Have you been eating right?
Yeah.
Have you been avoiding sugars?
I eat good.
I eat vegetables, salads, rice beans, steak, pork chops, you name it, I make them.
Do you smoke?
I smoke cigarettes and I'm cutting down little by little now.
Okay.
Thank you, baby.
Do you get any pains in your calves when you walk?
Yes, I do.
How far do you walk before you get pain?
About two blocks and a half.
Yeah.
So that's all from those cigarettes that you love so much.
That's what it is?
Yeah.
Yeah?
That's what it is.
But I'm cutting down anywhere it is now.
I think it's a pretty good wake-up call today.
Yeah.
You don't really have good pulses down here.
You don't have much hair down here.
Did you ever have hair on your legs?
Yeah, I shave it though.
Well, there's too long hairs I see.
I missed it.
I don't care about the cosmetics.
I think you don't have a lot of hair because there's not a lot of blood there.
You don't have enough blood going to your legs and you're not going to actually have much hair.
Listen, we've got about a dozen reasons for you to change your lifestyle around a little bit.
We knock the cigarettes off.
All the other problems become much smaller.
Much smaller, right?
Okay.
Alright?
Yeah, thank you for your advice, Dr. Oz.
I've been working on it.
You're a beautiful woman.
You do care yourself.
Remember those five good reasons to do this?
Yeah.
Those kids of yours?
Yeah.
They'll copy you.
Okay, Dr. Oz.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Take care.
Thank you.
Stay welcome.
We checked it with Carmen, she says.
That night was a wake-up call for her.
And get this, she's actually trying to quit smoking.
I think she really is trying.
So far, she's cut down her number of cigarettes by half.
Let me talk a little bit about diabetes and smoking.
They just don't mix.
They worsen the levels of blood sugar, just like you saw with Carmen.
And I know it's hard, but the good news is, when you stop, you can repair some of the damage really quickly.
I mean, so fast, it reminds me of the power of the human body to rejuvenate itself.
Get this, in less than 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your heart rate Comes back down towards normal levels.
In just a month, which is nothing when it comes to the lifespan of your body, your cilia hairs, the little hairs in your lungs, they begin to go back.
They begin to filter out the bad stuff just like they're supposed to.
They regrow.
Your body wants them back.
And your brain, maybe the most important of all, it rewires in that first month off cigarettes so that the nicotine receptors can relax back down.
So you no longer have that drive nearly as powerfully as you do when you're smoking.
Guess what, folks?
You have your health back.
And that's why I'm so passionate about quitting cigarettes and some of the other bad habits we have in our lives.
So let me give you one simple thing you can try today that may help a lot of folks.
Drinking milk when you have the urge to smoke makes a big difference.
It worsens the taste of cigarettes.
They don't have the same flavor, so you're less likely to light up.
At the same time, stay away from alcohol and coffee, which not only enhance the taste so you want more of those cigarettes, but they serve as a trigger reminding you to smoke.
We'll be right back.
Coming up, your favorite comfort foods to curl up on the couch with.
Seemingly sinful dishes that may actually make you lose weight.
Revealing recipes with secret fat-burning ingredients.
Tasty dishes that let you indulge and without the guilt.
Next.
So this time of year, I know you want to curl up on the couch with some indulgent comfort food.
Well, today, I'm giving you permission to do just that, because believe it or not, some seemingly sinful dishes may actually help burn fat.
You heard right.
I'm going to walk you through this.
Jessica, Dean, and Amy are cozy up here in my living room with their favorite comfort foods, and I'm going to reveal the secret fat-burning ingredients in their seemingly indulgent foods.
You guys excited?
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
Alright, so you're all brought to different foods.
Jessica, you've got the first fat-fighting food.
You may not know it's fat-fighting yet.
It is the spicy turkey chili.
Yes, it is.
Why is this your favorite comfort food?
Well, it's my favorite comfort food for one is that it's easy in a sense that I don't have to do as much myself.
I just put it in a pot and let it go.
And for one, it's freezable.
I can batch it out.
The busiest time for me for a month, I just leave as is and that's it.
How does it make you feel when you sit back in the living room to have a little bit of this?
Oh, very relaxing.
I like the fact that you can stop it.
It has ingredient potential.
You can do it.
It's a good basis for whatever ingredients you want to put inside of it.
What's in it?
Well, we have ground turkey.
We have tomatoes, fresh tomatoes or canned.
We also have one quick ingredient that's most importantly is the sweet chilies and spicy chilies.
The chilies.
You guys like spicy foods?
No.
I like spicy foods, but I'm a spicy girl.
All right, here.
Pass that down, Amy.
I can't wait to try.
Pass that down there.
Give it a taste.
I'm going to try, though.
Now, while you're doing that, the secret fat burning ingredient is indeed the chili.
Now, we've talked about capsaicin, but it's especially important to understand this.
Capsaicin will help produce a little extra heat in your body, you know, when you begin to sweat, and it helps you burn off more calories.
Plus, you get an added bonus here.
The beans.
It can take a long time to digest, and that keeps you fuller a lot longer.
What do you guys think?
Oh, that is amazing.
I love spice.
It's really, it tastes a little like it has cumin, or what else is in it?
A little bit of cumin, oregano.
Sometimes you could use a stock reduction, so it depends on whatever you have inside of your pantry.
It's so good, you might overindulge.
You get one cup of the stuff, right?
Otherwise, nothing's going to hold you back if you have five cups of it.
Okay, that's the first dish.
Second dish is the sweet potato casserole.
Dina brought this.
Tell me about it before I reveal the fat-burning element.
Okay.
Well, besides the sweet potatoes, I use maple syrup in replacement of sugar, and also cinnamon, and chopped pecans on top.
Everyone in the family loves it?
Yes, they do, but I have to admit the kids prefer marshmallows on it, but to make it healthier we're using chopped pecans.
Can I try it a little bit?
Oh, yeah.
Please give it a try.
I want to be back in here.
There are two ingredients here that might help.
The sweet potatoes and the cinnamon.
They work together.
And they work by regulating your blood sugar.
Go ahead and give it a taste.
And the nice thing about the blood sugar is if you don't have it going all kinds of crazy places, then it can't be responsible for depositing fat in your thighs.
Smart foods, they can still be indulgent appearing.
And that small little change you made despite your kids pushing you to have marshmallows in there is a very clever one because it gives you a little bit more bang for the effort.
It tastes like it has butter in it, but it doesn't, doesn't it?
No butter.
It's so rich and creamy.
And the richness is from the sweet potatoes?
Yes, it is.
Did you roast it?
Just the pecans.
Okay.
Again, one cup limit.
It's one of those foods, again, that's so good.
If you eat it out of the whole casserole, that'll feed a family of 10, even if you're by yourself.
It definitely has to.
And Amy's got the last little secret for us, the hot chocolate comfort food that so many people love.
And how does it comfort you?
Well, it's warm in the winter and in the summer I throw it over ice and it's a great adult drink.
But it has cocoa powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, and a little bit of sugar and almond milk.
Is that your signature for how you make it?
It's a little special I heard.
It's a little bit special because actually my kids had dairy allergies when they were little so they couldn't have whole milk.
So I decided to try almond milk.
Want to taste it?
Sure.
Give it a shot.
A little secret here.
The fat ingredient, the fat burning ingredient is the cocoa.
So you've got to get the right stuff.
And it works because it has antioxidants in it, which reduces cortisol.
That's a hormone that makes us feel that we're stressed out.
So we don't feel stressed out.
You bite us in panic so we can enjoy it without depositing it again on your thighs where it doesn't belong.
But you want to get pure, unsweetened cocoa if you can.
It has more antioxidants.
And here's the real secret.
You see this stuff up here?
The best part of hot chocolate for many people is the whipped cream.
Mmm.
Now why am I eating this?
It has no sugar and less than 50 calories.
So this is worth indulging.
Mmm.
Make a little mustache for yourself.
All right, now, you guys think you're done, don't you?
I decided to make my own party favorite, the food that I indulge in, beef ribs with a spice rub.
They look like this.
If you want to know what my weakness is, this is my weakness.
I happen to enjoy large end beef ribs.
Then you trim off all the visible fat, go and pass it down.
You guys like the Flintstones there.
I'll hold this one here.
Look how big they are.
And they're still warm, so good.
And use a spicy rub instead of the gravy and the sugary barbecue sauce so many folks put on these things.
And the spicy rub that I use has cumin and garlic and cloves in it.
You guys like it?
Yeah, it smells good.
So there's no sugar in this?
No, no.
That's the key.
You don't want to have too much sugar in these dishes, because otherwise, no matter what you do, they'll wreak havoc with your hormones, so then just become indulgences rather than fat-burning indulgences, which is the whole purpose here.
You want the protein and the spices together.
And this is the best part.
I've been looking for a study like this, because when you add a blend of spices to a high-fat meal, Especially when you've got protein, it actually slows the absorption of the fat.
And that's what the holidays are about.
How do you get away with indulging yourself and enjoying life and not pay a price for the rest of the year?
I'll toast you with your ribs.
Cheers.
To all your things.
So, go to dros.com for listening to more fat-burning comfort foods.
We'll be right back.
Next.
Are we all interconnected?
AJ Jacobs thinks so.
His family tree revealed he's related to thousands of famous people.
Find out how your roots may unearth more than you know.
Your family history could save your health.
Next.
What does your craving for sweet, salty, or carby snacks really mean?
Dr. Oz reveals what your body is really after and gives you alternatives.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
What if we really are one big happy family?
Author and self-proclaimed human guinea pig A.J. Jacobs became consumed by that idea that everyone is interconnected after he received a very intriguing email.
And what he found out about his family history is not only good for his health, but good for yours as well.
It all started with this email.
Hello, AJ. You are an eighth cousin of my wife's.
A year ago, out of the blue, I get this email from a man in Israel, and he says, I have a family tree with 80,000 people on it.
Hi, Jules.
I got your email.
Nice to meet you, cousin.
But I thought, why stop at 80,000?
So AJ became a man on a mission.
He hit the genealogy sites.
He went to the library, searched census records and obituaries.
He uploaded his family tree, then merged his tree with another tree with a cousin in common.
Then he merged and merged again, ultimately creating connections to now millions of cousins by blood or marriage.
For the first time in history, you can figure out how you're related to almost any other human being on Earth.
But for AJ, building your family tree isn't just fun and interesting.
It's also important for scientific and health reasons.
I already knew that I had dementia in my family, but through this process, I've learned so much about cancer in my family and diabetes.
The more he researched, the more connections he made with newfound relatives.
Hey, cousin.
You are my fourth-grade aunt, husband's brother's wife's sixth-grade nephew.
What do you think of that?
Shh!
I can't believe how many cousins I've found.
Of course, some of his cousins are very, very distant relatives.
Here we have my cousin Daniel Radcliffe and my cousin John Legend.
He is actually married to my other cousin Chrissy Teigen.
Then there's my cousin George H.W. Bush.
We are family.
Everyone is.
And once you start to realize that, you start to treat each other with a little more kindness.
A.D. Jacobs is here.
75 million relatives.
Do you even want that many relatives?
That's nine New York cities combined together of relatives.
That's a lot of relatives.
And some are going to be a little irritating, but a lot are going to be fascinating.
Thousands of new fascinating cousins.
So how easy is it for you to couple together 75 million names?
Can any of us do this?
Well, it is.
It's remarkably easy because we're in the middle of a revolution in family history.
There are these amazing websites where you put up your family tree and they will figure out how your branches in your tree overlap with other people's branches.
And then you can combine trees and combine and combine and combine until you get these massive mega monster family trees with millions of people.
And how do you use this to figure out how it's going to affect your health, to figure out your family's health?
Well, that is incredibly important to talk to your family, your blood relatives, and find out what are the patterns, what runs in your family.
Like, for me, it's Alzheimer's and cancer and heart disease.
And that information is crucial because you can use it to prevent these things in the future.
So, a big announcement today.
AJ claims that he and I are related.
Just look in the camera over there.
You think we look alike?
Dead ringers.
Look at that.
How are we related?
Please, AJ. How are we related?
We are very close, Dr. Oz.
We are just 31 steps away.
So I have an aunt who has a 7th grade aunt whose husband is named Sam Hartwell.
And his 4th great niece's husband's great-great-granddaughter's husband is in the Asplen family.
Are you serious?
Yes.
And the Asplen, there's a woman, his second cousin is named Lisa.
My wife.
Who is married to...
Oh, you got it!
That's it.
How do you like that?
So you and I, we're basically brothers.
We are basically twins, I think.
And by the way, it's not just through marriage.
We are also blood-related because we both belong to the J2 gene group, which started in the Middle East thousands of years ago.
So you and I have common ancestor.
If you go back, our great, great, great, great, keep saying that about 400 times.
It was the same person.
It was the same person.
Any other cool family history tips?
I love this stuff.
Well, these researchers at these websites are amazing, and they found some interesting cousins of yours.
Of mine?
Yes.
I'll pray tell.
Well, you are just 32 steps away from George Clooney.
I knew it!
I knew it!
That's right.
So if you were not invited to the wedding, you should be outraged.
I'm bummed.
I'm writing him immediately.
Absolutely.
You are also related to about 34 steps away from Albert Einstein.
That's right.
It was just a matter of time until they found that out.
It's all relative, I guess.
It's all relative.
And by the way, it's not all good news.
You are also distantly linked to Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer.
Come on!
It's terrible!
But so am I, Dr. Oz, and so is everyone here.
So it's not, don't be too upset.
When I first started doing the Oprah show, I would take the organs in the igloo cooler, and I have to go through security with these organs, so I kept on thinking someone was going to catch me with these bones in a bucket, and they would think I was Jeffrey Dahmer's cousin, which turns out they would have been right.
They would have been right.
AJ says there are three steps you can take to build your own family health history.
The first is to create a family trait.
Yeah, just go and interview and make a list of all your close relatives, so your cousins and parents and aunts and uncles.
And there are some great websites you can use to put this on the internet.
And then you want to, the second step is you want to ask the right questions.
Because you want to know not only what diseases are in your family, but when, at what age were these diagnosed.
And you know the other thing, I was talking to AJ about this, there's some things we don't normally ask about.
Mental illness, good example.
Pregnancy related issues.
They tend to be very genetic actually, we don't even think about those.
The third step you say is to look for common problems throughout your family.
How do you know if something's important enough to become on your radar screen?
If you have three or more people in your family who have a disease that's possibly genetic, you could be at high risk.
So you want to write these down.
You want to make a list.
We all know to ask about our family history, but so few of us do it.
Make a list.
Bring it to your doctor.
Show your doctor or health professional so that you can come up with a plan, a prevention plan, whether it's behavior or screening tests.
It's the holidays, folks.
Whether you want to or not, you're going to be with your relatives.
You know, and take advantage of it.
Ask the questions.
You might as well.
You've got them around the dinner table.
Find out about them.
Thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Next, she's been in and out of hospitals her whole life, but this young girl born with cystic fibrosis made them her video background.
From patient to internet sensation, her dream takes center stage with a surprise from Dr. Oz.
Are you kidding me?
Next.
Every once in a while, a video starts trending that gets everybody's attention.
That's exactly what happened when 17-year-old Claire Wineland, who has cystic fibrosis and has been in and out of hospitals her entire life, turned the camera on herself.
Her spirit is infectious.
Take a look at this video where Claire highlights the perks of being in the hospital.
A lot of people think that spending time in the hospital is all bad, but it isn't.
Right off the bat, room service.
Room service 24-7.
You can literally call up chocolate pudding anytime you want.
It's fantastic.
Second of all, the nurse call button.
You can call the nurses in to come and grab you a charger that's across the room.
Do you know how many times I've wanted to do that at home and realized I don't have a call button?
Riding around in the hospital on wheelchairs.
Unlimited supply of pretty much everything you could ever want, ever possibly, as far as junk foods go.
There's no bedtime.
Unlimited Wi-Fi.
Unlimited cable.
You don't have to make your own bed.
The nurses change your sheets for you every other day.
Wonderful.
Oh, you don't have to worry about getting dressed in the morning or looking presentable or wearing a bra or pretty much anything.
You can kind of just wear sweatpants all day long and it's fine.
No one cares.
No makeup.
You can't get away with that in high school.
You have the nurses that you can blab to 24-7, like if you're having an emotional breakdown or something.
People do my laundry for me, which is wonderful.
You have a lot of time to read books in the hospital, which is really cool for me because I'm a big book nerd.
And I don't know if you know, but it takes a long time.
You need like a good chunk of time to just get all situated with a cup of tea, little glasses, read your book.
You have all the time in the world to do that in the hospital.
You know what the best thing about the hospital is?
Is the connections you make.
You're there to heal.
You're not there to be anything for anyone else.
Thus, all the BS is gone and you get to actually make real connections and real friends with the nurses and the patients.
And you kind of make amazing memories there that you never would make in your regular day-to-day life.
Claire Weiland is here.
That's what I took from that video.
And it's so nicely done, because it's just authentically you.
Hospitals, being sick, doesn't have to be scary.
It can actually be sort of cool.
How do you stay so positive?
For me, it's more of kind of...
Everyone gets very caught up in the little things in life and like you know when you get upset you make that your whole life is like the upset and you know everything's wrong but I think people get so caught up on our circumstances you know what I mean like life in and of itself I think is beautiful everywhere it's life there's pain and there's suffering and there's beauty and there's joy and there's laughter in all like spectrums of life even in hospitals and I think that's something people don't see and you know that They see the fear, don't they?
They see the thing, the darkness.
Yeah.
They don't see the light.
Why did you decide to turn to YouTube to get their message out?
Well, I started Foundation with my mom and my dad when I was around.
Mom's here, by the way.
Yeah, mom's here in the audience over there.
Nice job, mom, by the way.
Nice job.
I love you.
And so we help families who are dealing with cystic fibrosis.
We pay and cover their rent and car payments so they can be with their kids when they're sick.
And that was amazing.
And then I started public speaking after that.
And then I was like, the past four years have been insane.
Like sometimes I wake up and be like, I'm only 17. I have so much more of this to go.
But at one point I was like, what do I really want to get out of all this?
And what do I want to share?
Ever since I was really little, I want to show what it's really like in hospitals.
The behind the scenes of the hospital that everyone's like, oh, white walls and fluorescent lights and all that.
Because I've noticed so much life.
Life doesn't stop when you're sick.
You know what I mean?
It doesn't.
And so many people think that because they don't live that kind of life.
So I figure, hey, what's the best medium to be genuine?
Because I love TV. I'm on TV. You should be on TV. She's good at TV, isn't she?
Media is wonderful.
She's good at TV. Media is wonderful and all that, but I think it goes through a certain filter when it's on TV that it doesn't have to go to on YouTube, you know?
You can be yourself.
You can share the genuine, you know, pains and sufferings and the beauty all in one place, you know?
What I love the most about the video is when you're at the very end, turn a little serious and say, we can have real conversations in hospitals.
It's one of the perks.
There are lots of perks, but I didn't want you to think you could only get those perks in a hospital.
Exactly.
So, I brought you some chocolate pudding from my hospital.
I want you to compare.
I was operating yesterday, and as I ran...
You're amazing!
When I ran out of the ICU... Oh, I have chocolate teeth.
Yes, it's chocolate pudding just for you.
And I know you want to spread your message.
Now, you came on the show, as you discussed, because you're passionate about getting people to...
Oh, you like that chocolate pudding.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
I'm having a moment here.
Besides the chocolate pudding, which you didn't expect, and coming on the show, anything else you want to do while you're in New York?
Oh my gosh, there's so many things I want to do in New York.
I want to go to museums.
I want to see old buildings.
I want to go to Broadway.
Broadway?
Yes.
Okay, so I hear you're a thespian, too.
I was gossiping with this assistant backstage.
But I am a huge theater person.
What do you like?
What do you want to see?
Chicago, Cabaret.
Oh my gosh.
Cabaret?
Cabaret was my first show that I ever did.
And me and my best friend Alicia are obsessed.
Like, obsessed.
You love Cabaret?
And I have a crush on Alan Cummings.
Alan Cummings?
Like, yes.
Why do you like him?
Why wouldn't you like him?
The man is like, the man is God.
Not really.
You know, he's incredible.
And those leather pants.
He can get away with leather pants.
He can get away with leather pants.
It's amazing.
In fact, Alan Cummings can get away with a lot.
Yeah.
And I've got a little surprise for you.
Take it away, Alan.
Hello Claire, I'm Alan Cumming.
You can tell it's me because I'm in Club Cumming.
It's really my dressing room here at Studio 54. We are so delighted that you're doing so well and so happy that you're here in New York City.
And we'd actually like to invite you to come to the Cabaret tonight to be our guest at a performance of Cabaret.
I'm sending a couple of my French on the cast to hand deliver your tickets.
So I hope you enjoy the show.
I can't wait to meet you and I can't wait to see you at the Cabaret.
Would you like that?
Get ready, Kit Kat boys.
Let me breathe.
Okay.
I'm low on oxygen.
I look way too healthy.
Oh my god.
Would that excite you?
Kit Kat boys, bring out the tickets.
Come on now.
There you are.
Oh my God.
This is amazing.
You're like, oh my God.
This is amazing.
Oh!
You guys, it's unbelievable.
You can have fun tonight.
You can learn how to help Claire's mission to help families do cystic fibrosis by going to clairsplacefoundation.org, and we'll be right back.
Isn't that nice?
What does your craving for sweet, salty, or carby snacks really mean?
Dr. Oz reveals what your body is really after and gives you alternatives.
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
I talk a lot on my show about how to fight infections and heal disease and get healthy.
We talk about the foods to eat, what medicines to take, and what exercises to do.
But sometimes to feel better and heal that boo-boo, all you need is a little kiss.
Look at Lexi's boo-boo.
Oh my goodness.
Look at her boo-boo.
Oh, Levi.
Bad, huh?
Oh.
I don't think I'd get away with giving all my patients kisses at the hospital, but Levi did well on that one.
Let this video remind all of us that when people are sick or hurt, a little bit of love can go a long way.
Now it's time for, yeah, I think so too, it's fantastic.
Now it's time for, in case you missed it, I love those EMT night rides.
And during my night shift with the first responders, we answered a call from a diabetic with sky-high blood sugar.
The cause?
For smoking.
Smoking mixed with diabetes lead to higher and more dangerous blood sugar levels.
And there's one simple trick I'm gonna give you that might help you quit.
It's to drink milk when you have the urge to smoke.
It makes the cigarettes taste worse, makes you less likely to light up.
And finally, today I give you permission to curl up on the couch with some comfort foods.
Not just any comfort food though, fat burning comfort foods.
So here's some good options.
Turkey chili, the capsaicin and the peppers boost your metabolism.
Sweet potato casserole, these are good.
The sweet potatoes have regulated your blood sugar levels, ultimately helping you burn belly fat.
And finally, everyone loves hot chocolate.
The belly fat fighting ingredient is the cocoa, which is packed with antioxidants.
Finally, I want to close with a warning.
Please be careful about what you are buying online, especially weight loss pills.
Dubious people online make it seem like I'm endorsing their products, which I don't.
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