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Dec. 6, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:35
Barbra Streisand's Fight for Women's Heart Health | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 65 | Full Episode
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Time Text
Today on Oz.
The one.
We watch you every day.
The only.
I'm still a work in progress.
Barbara Streisand.
I want women to be powerful.
Her passion to fight the number one killer in women.
One out of three of you will die of it.
And the moment she never expected.
Have you ever held a heart?
No, but I'd like to.
Oh my God.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
I'm happy, so happy today that someone I consider a dear friend is joining us today, Barbara Streisand.
She's one of the most accomplished and famous entertainers in the world.
She's also, though, a loving wife, a mom, and a fierce advocate for women.
Today, she's here with important health information I want every woman to hear.
Please welcome Barbara Streisand.
Thank you.
- RJ invited you here for quality control purposes.
Now, I'm going to tell you why.
So five years ago, we just launched a show, and I get a note from Barbara.
She says, I need to meet with you.
It's important.
So I went over, and I walk in the room, and she has a big, long legal pad with all these notes, and I thought, there must be some health crisis going on here.
So I'm just trying to be as professional as I can.
And she starts off by saying, you know, when you walk in front of the truth tube over there, there's a big shadow on your neck.
And your makeup makes you look orange.
And you talk too darn fast.
And this went on and on, an entire pad of stuff.
So I'm very appreciative.
I followed all your advice.
I'm speaking much more slowly.
Well, I speak like a director, so I'm looking at you going, you know, very objectively.
And that's because I love you.
Thank you very much.
And we tape your show and we watch you every day.
Thank you.
When you care about so many things, and I get emails from Barbara, and I'm not going to go through all of these.
There's one here about aspirin.
When's the right time to take it, morning or night?
Right, right.
Question about what's the right source of omega-3s.
This is an interesting one.
Watching your show about back pain and mustard, but you didn't say you eat it or rub it in.
Now, you're supposed to, by the way, eat the stuff.
You eat one of those mustard packets for back pain.
What would have happened if you hadn't emailed me?
Would Jim be slathering you up with mustard?
Because when I was a kid, my mother used to put mustard plasters on me, and that got rid of your cough.
I bet you that was better than what they have today.
It probably is.
In fact, you look at a lot of different ways of healing.
You and Jim both, I love the fact that you've been so curious about your health.
What do you think is the single most important thing that you guys do to stay healthy?
What we do to stay healthy?
Hmm.
Things you can talk about in national television.
Yes, yes, yes.
Well, we try to eat very good.
Very well.
Very well.
During the week, that's what we do.
In other words, Renata, who's been with us for a very long time, you know, makes very healthy things.
Mostly vegetables, lentils, things like that.
Quinoa.
During the weekend, though, all bets are off.
That's alright.
You enjoy life.
Because I love coffee, ice cream, and we go to friends' houses, and I can't resist even the bread.
I am a food addict, to tell you the truth.
I am literally a food addict.
I cannot stay away from foods that I love, which are bad for me.
You know, like carbs that are bad.
So I'm still a work in progress as far as...
Well, you've done it very well.
Now, we had the best time.
The new issue of The Good Life.
Barbara agreed to be in the magazine.
We did a big photo shoot.
It's an issue you're passionate about with women and heart disease.
But just to give you an idea, I asked Jim, who's a dear, to just pop down for the photo shoot.
So I actually saved this picture.
When I asked him to pop down, this is literally what he did.
He popped down in his surfer pants.
That is my jacket.
My jacket took off my back, by the way, that he's wearing.
He looks very good in it, better than me.
Is he wearing shorts?
Wearing shorts.
I didn't publish that picture, by the way.
It's very funny.
Thank you.
On his behalf.
But I love the way that you've made so many issues comfortable for people to get around.
But the issue of women and heart disease is not one that you've been able to make peace with.
You're actually angry about it.
You're very passionate about it.
Well, because I cannot bear gender discrimination.
I can't bear that women are still second-class citizens.
And so they don't get paid as much as men in the workforce.
They're only 19% of Congress.
And in medical research, it's even worse, because especially heart disease, the research has been done for the last 50 years on men.
Now, how can you do research about women's heart disease on men?
We have different plumbing, right?
We bear children.
We have hormones that are different, and it's just not fair.
As a matter of fact, I found out recently when I went to Washington to lobby for more funds because we have very underfunded women's heart research, and I found out that even the laboratory mice are males.
They are?
And I said, well, we're trying to find out about women's heart disease, which kills more women than men since 1984, right?
One woman dies of heart disease every minute, and women die of heart disease more than all cancers combined.
Now, can you imagine that?
I couldn't wrap my head around that.
I swear, I checked it out every which way you can.
That is the truth, girls and women.
And what's happening nowadays is that more young women are dying of heart disease.
Absolutely.
Part of this problem, and I think this has been an issue that we've overlooked, is that a lot of doctors practice bikini medicine.
You know what bikini medicine is?
We focus on the parts of the body with the bikini covers.
Your breasts, vaginal area, cervix, reproductive organs.
That's frustrating.
What's interesting, don't get me wrong, breast cancer has done a magnificent job in making people, women especially, aware of what's at stake and so forth.
We haven't caught up with them in terms of how to make women aware of heart disease.
And ten times more women die of heart disease than breast cancer.
Those are the facts.
People can't wrap their hand up.
Let's speak about this issue.
There are very few people who have syndromes coined after them, but there's something called the Yentl syndrome.
As you might suspect...
If women come to the hospital looking like men with their symptoms, and in heart disease that's important, then you get diagnosed correctly.
But if you come not looking like a man, what happens?
Right.
You go misdiagnosed, and therefore untreated, and therefore you could go home the next day after the doctor has said, you know, take an antacid or an aspirin.
And then you, a lot of women, I mean stories that I've heard, the next day they're dead in their living room because they weren't taken seriously again, you know?
And it's like women stay in the house, blah, blah, blah.
But women should understand that because they now go to work and take care of the family, really they're the center of the family, They will put other things ahead of themselves.
So they have to know.
Get heart checked.
When you go to your doctor, you ask for an EKG. Tell them your family history.
You know, know your cholesterol, your blood pressure, and so forth.
Have you ever held a heart?
No, but I'd like to.
You'd like to?
Yes.
Want Barbara to hold a heart?
We're bringing you up.
I have been looking forward to this day.
Delivered right to me.
Yes, delivered right to you.
There are some purple gloves.
Okay.
You know, you speak beautifully, artistically, about the fact that women's heart disease is emblematic of the fact that women aren't treated right around the world.
And I think you're right.
And I want women to see, and hopefully you can describe, now that you can actually put your creative mind to seeing and feeling these organs, what we're really talking about.
So, this is the majestic female heart.
I want you just to hold that.
Oh my God.
Wow.
This is what they mean by a heavy heart.
No, no.
That's a normal heart.
That's a light-hearted person.
I mean, it's really substantive.
It's special.
Very special.
It's this coiling python inside your body that beats you.
Is this fat around the heart?
There's always a little bit of fat around the heart because the heart wants a little bit.
Let me show you what happens when you have more than a little bit of fat.
Oh my God.
This is someone who's had heart damage.
See, these are little areas where they've actually had some surgery done.
So let me take the...
Actually, hold your other hand out.
I want you to feel and compare these and describe this to everybody.
And the heart compensates by getting larger.
I'll hold this over this way.
Right, right.
So when you get examined, he could tell, or she could tell, the doctor, could tell if you have an enlarged heart or what?
They can tell this pretty quickly.
But what you're trying to do, and why I adore this mission that you're on, is to catch people here.
Right.
Before it becomes like this.
Right.
I've seen too many women who should be here who end up like this.
Right.
So when you realize and appreciate, not that you're actually feeling it for the first time.
It's amazing.
So you're...
Looking at different ways of getting women to appreciate this reality.
And you've got this campaign called The Lady Killer.
The Lady Killer.
Where many women might be...
May I take these off?
Please, yes.
Many women might be distressed by what they see, but I, in a sense, wanted to scare them.
You know, to bring attention to heart disease in women strikes every age, every color, every nationality, you know.
And they know, I want them to know they're at risk.
So, Fight the Lighting Killer Campaign.
It's a wonderful one.
It's made possible by the Women's Heart Alliance.
It's a joint effort between Barbara's Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai and the Perlman Heart Institute at my hospital, New York Presbyterian.
Please look at these very carefully.
For generations, heart disease has been our number one killer, striking women of every age, color, and culture.
Fight the Lady Killer is a national campaign to bring awareness to the women's heart health epidemic.
Jennifer Hudson is lending her support and making it personal in this new PSA. I don't know about you, but I intend to stay alive.
Ed Norton is also getting involved, lending his voice to the cause.
I quietly kill one woman every minute, and yet so many of you still act like I don't exist.
The campaign hopes to encourage women to talk to their health care providers, understand their risks, and most importantly, get their heart checked.
I love the way you harvest your creative juices to tell a story, which is really what it is, that might actually resonate for many women for the first time.
What's your goal?
You're looking at a very emotional approach with these stories.
Yeah.
I just, you know, I want women to be powerful and to know themselves and care about themselves enough to take some precautions, you know, in life.
Like you eat nuts.
Yes, I do eat nuts.
For saturated fat, but it's good fat, right?
Yep.
And grains, certain grains and legumes and so forth and fruit and vegetables.
You have to be able to splurge and, you know, have your piece of cake or something.
Otherwise...
All right, coming up, we're going to talk about the symptoms and the risk factors for heart disease that are unique to women.
This is important stuff and the test to keep you safe.
Stay with us Coming up Barbara Streisand On what's closest The beauty of thinking positive.
What she wants you to know about symptoms of heart disease.
One out of three of you will die of it.
And why she's dedicated to fight this number one killer of women.
Coming up.
It's the worst kept secret in America, but no one expected this.
The truth one in five women is hiding, hooked on antidepressants.
But at what cost to their health?
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back with my friend Barbara Streisand, who's passionate about combating heart disease in women today.
She's donated millions of dollars of her own money and helped raise millions more to open the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center.
I felt like I was underwater and couldn't breathe.
For over a year, Ashley felt like she was having tiny heart attacks all day.
So she came here to the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center, where educating, diagnosing, and treating women's heart disease is their primary focus.
First I felt nauseous and thought I was getting the flu.
And then I had pain down my left arm.
I had pain going up into my jaw.
I thought maybe I could be having a heart attack.
The center is also pioneering long-needed investigations into the specific ways heart disease affects women.
Dr. Noel Berry-Mers is the center's director.
We actually have only been studying the differences between women and men about 15 years, and we're probably about 45 years behind.
But the Streisand Clinic is making up time fast through groundbreaking research and state-of-the-art screening.
Just about to get into the movies of the images.
The center is also developing new tools and treatments that not only save the lives of women like Ashley...
I'm really lucky.
I've had great medical care.
...but reduce the chances of women ever developing heart disease.
We're joined by the director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center, Dr. Noelle Berry-Mers.
Thanks for being here.
My pleasure.
So you're an absolute world expert on this topic, and she really is.
I've had the honor of talking to you about these themes a lot.
The obvious symptoms women know about, high blood pressure, family history, diabetes, these are issues that I think a lot of folks realize are important risk factors, but there are a lot of secret ones, newly diagnosed and identified ones.
Do you want to walk through some of those if you don't mind?
And sex-specific, so it's an opportunity for us to do better in women.
So number one, of course, is irregular menstrual cycles, sometimes linked with polycystic ovary syndrome, which women may or may not have an infertility problem, but also linked with low estrogen levels.
Some women have menstrual irregularities because of other problems, other diseases.
Adverse pregnancy outcomes, so things that happen during pregnancy, high blood pressure, sugar diabetes, or even preeclampsia.
These are complications of pregnancy that then go away but put women at a higher risk for the coming decades of heart disease.
Migraine headaches with auras, increased risk of stroke and heart disease.
And then autoimmune disease, more prevalent in women, so lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, These are game changer issues because we never thought about these problems before because they weren't usually that commonly found in men.
Men don't have menstrual cycle problems.
They don't have delivery problems during pregnancy.
In addition to the risk factors, then there are the symptoms.
And remember you felt that heart and you saw how thin that blood vessel is.
The female heart is just very different from a male heart.
I'd love if you just go through some of the symptoms, especially the ones that women tend to have more often.
Women more often will have things that are ascribed to stomach indigestion, or they might attribute it to esophageal reflux, that, you know, heartburn feeling.
And then extreme fatigue, back pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, these are all considered atypical symptoms, and yet with the majority of women now being the victims, they should be typical symptoms.
So here's the thing.
You're bringing a whole different angle to this problem.
Noelle and I and many others have been talking about this, but you want to tell the story in a way that captivates women.
Well, first of all, I saw your show, I think it was last week.
Yeah.
You had three women on there, very young women, 27 I think, 30 and 32. All three of them have had heart attacks.
And it's really hard, and it's wonderful, and I feel bad for the women, and thank God they're okay now, but they have to be careful with their lives and so forth, how they take care of themselves.
But it just shows, and more women, younger women are dying more from heart disease, right?
They are.
It's the one group that it's going up, not going down.
By the way, you told me something really wonderful, Dr. Murs.
When we first met, well we did a TED talk and you said, I was sitting with a lot of women, you said, you looked down from the podium and you said, look to your right and look to your left.
One in two of you will have cardiovascular disease in your lifetime.
One out of three of you will die of it.
It's true.
And by the way, the Yentl syndrome, you also told me something else that was wonderful.
You know, Yentl syndrome means that if you present your symptoms like a man, You will get properly diagnosed, probably.
They will probably give you the test that shows you what's in the blood for a heart attack, right?
Yep.
So she said, lie.
This is a good lie.
This is a good lie.
In other words, just say, you know, I'm now feeling chest pains and left arm pain.
It's very interesting.
To mimic a male.
To mimic a male, and then they might diagnose you properly.
So what are the tests that we should be doing?
If folks listen to the videos, if they understand more about this and they've been scared into action, what should the tests be?
So we're very big on Get Heart Checked.
This is part of our Fight the Lady Killer.
The new guidelines, as you know, came out last year.
These are much better guidelines.
They are more specific for women and particularly women of color.
So it is getting your blood pressure checked, your blood cholesterol checked, your blood sugar checked, and then adding this into that simple calculator that you can download onto a smartphone.
If you can get to a pharmacy, you don't even need a healthcare provider, right?
Some of them will do the finger stick cholesterol.
You could calculate your own risk.
You get a 10-year heart disease risk, and you get a lifetime heart disease risk.
So this is a card that you can actually print out from DrIs.com.
The Women's Heart Alliance has made this possible.
You can put it in your wallet after you printed it out.
It has all those important heart test numbers.
In addition to having this on DrRoz.com, you guys were very kind enough to write a beautiful piece for the Good Life magazine, which I get outlines in a very clear way, but I want you all to pay attention to with your hearts.
Do it for yourselves.
Do it for the people that you care in your lives.
And again, I think it is emblematic of the fact that women aren't cared for by others, and they don't care for themselves the way they need to.
That's right.
And I love the fact that you're doing this.
Do it for yourself, your mother, your daughter.
Everybody.
I couldn't let you go.
Without taking a moment for all of you, Barbara has had a remarkable accomplishment.
This is her new album.
It's called Partners.
She didn't want me to talk about it.
She really didn't want to.
I wanted to talk about it.
It's another number one hit.
Now, that makes her the first performer in history to have a number one album in six consecutive seconds.
Thank you.
And I'm going to 35. That's right.
Isn't that amazing?
It is quite.
I was very proud of it when I heard that.
I went, really?
Would you ever imagine this would have happened in your life?
No.
No.
No, I'm thrilled.
I'm really thrilled.
What did you think you would be?
Well, basically thrilled.
No, no.
When you were a little kid years ago.
Oh, no.
I kind of had a feeling about it.
You did?
Yes, because I read a book when I was 16 years old called The Quintessence of Ibsenism by George Bernard Shaw.
I was going to acting school.
I wanted to be an actress.
And it said that thought transcends matter.
And so I thought, huh, I could think these things.
And maybe that, you know, the strength of the will, whatever, could actually manifest reality.
So that's the beauty of thinking positive, I think.
Well, you've done some wonderful things in your life.
Listen, everybody, the entire studio audience is going home with this album.
You all got your own copy of Partners.
Enjoy it.
Be right back.
Next, your body clock dictates what makes you tick.
From when you're hungry to when you're tired, knowing yours could be the secret to more energy and a happier life.
Learn the tricks to master your body clock to eat, sleep, and work more efficiently.
Next.
Your body's clock controls so many things, from when you're hungry to when you're tired.
So what makes your clock tick?
New research tells us there are three types of body clocks, and knowing yours can be the secret to more energy and a longer, happier, and healthier life.
You know the saying, the early bird catches the worm?
Well, it's true.
This early riser body clock is up at 5 a.m.
and most in sync with our 9 to 5 world.
They're active, cheerful, and generally feel healthier than everyone else.
Most of us have this body clock when we're younger, but your clock changes as you age.
The most common of the three types is the balanced body clock.
Up at 7 and in bed by 11. This balanced bird is downright flexible, ready for action morning and night.
This body type puts a premium on shut eye and spends the most time in bed.
The night owl burns the midnight oil.
This body clock type is rarely in bed before 12. They're most energetic in the afternoon and evening and are more creative and can stay mentally alert for more hours than an early riser.
Your body clock is determined by genetics.
So, which type are you?
And what do you need to keep your clock ticking all day long?
The first body type...
Is the early riser.
Debbie's a classic early riser.
She says she wakes up every morning at 5 a.m.
on the dot.
All right, so I heard about this story from your twin daughters.
Uh-oh.
Who were kind enough to take a picture for me.
Oh, my gosh.
This is you catnapping right around when you're supposed to be running errands.
Yeah.
And this is actually a very common problem with this body clock.
I'm mortified.
Yeah, I'm mortified.
Let me show you someone else who naps.
This is Thomas Edison.
This is him napping as he's probably inventing electricity or something, right?
So, you know, he's actually looking pretty comfortable over there.
Yeah.
How long do you nap for usually?
A delicious nap for me would be 30 minutes to an hour would be the yummiest.
So let me give you some advice.
I would love that.
Early clock people actually do very well with naps.
Oh good.
And I advise you taking it, but you can't take it for more than maybe 15-20 minutes.
Like a power nap?
It has to be a power nap or a cat nap because when it goes longer than that, you go into the deeper stages of sleep, it knocks you down and you don't come back from that.
In fact, you want to sleep the whole night after that.
Right.
So that's one big tip.
Cat naps, short ones, not the one you were just taking.
Okay.
And the second big tip is to do something in the middle of the afternoon that takes a little heat off the rest of your day.
So white tea, oolong tea, is wonderful.
Make a cup of it, about 3 in the afternoon.
Very low in caffeine, so it won't keep you up late.
But it has a lot of, because it's very young tea, a lot of nutrients that naturally come with tea leaves, which will make you feel more energized.
Buy you an extra few hours, so at least you can get to 9, 9.30 when bedtime hits you.
Perfect.
I love that.
Thank you.
Thanks for showing your body clock type.
Thank you.
Okay, next up is Kelly.
She's the balanced clock type.
It's actually the most common type of them all.
Welcome to the show.
Let's get your day.
Walk me through it if you don't mind.
This is pretty typical for a lot of us.
Correct.
7 a.m.
I'm up.
Head right to work after breakfast.
And lunch around 12.30.
And right around after lunch, I'm just...
Right in there?
Woo!
All right.
12.30.
Oh, I'm just out of it.
So let's think of what you do for lunch, which for a lot of us, this is a very common type.
This is a sandwich.
What is that, by the way?
It's a nutty peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Extra nuts.
Extra nuts.
I think this is a problem for you.
Because you need to have something sustained.
You can't get the quick bolus of energy because it fades an hour later and then you feel like you're in a coma state.
So I want you to add something called pectin to your sandwiches, to your lunch in general.
It's a dense type of fiber, found in many different places.
It allows your digestion to slow a little bit, so your energy seeps into your body.
It gives you the sustaining energy that the body clock type you have desperately needs.
So one serving of pectin.
You can get it in many different fashions.
Bananas, firm bananas.
Not when they're soft.
You've got to have them when they're a bit firmer.
Half a cup of berries has them.
There are many sources of pectin.
Apples.
But put them in there, or add them next to it, and it'll make you feel a bit more energized for the rest of the afternoon.
Great.
All right.
The next bite o'clock type is the night owl.
Teresa says she doesn't go to bed until 2 a.m.
I mean, you're a mom, aren't you?
I am a mother.
I'm a mother of three boys.
I have a five-year-old, a four-year-old, and a three-year-old.
Well, they're not up to two in the morning.
What are you doing?
No, they're not.
After I tuck them to bed, usually around 7.30, I have mommy time, and that's when the kickboxer comes out.
You're a kickboxer?
I love kickboxing.
All right, don't hurt me.
Just use my last hand.
Well, I'm wearing a skirt, but I'll be careful.
Ready?
And heels.
Forget the heels, it's too dangerous.
Okay, sorry, sorry.
So when you do the kickboxing until whatever time you do it...
Yeah.
About an hour, and then I'll go on the computer.
I've always been a night owl.
Let me ask you this, when you wake up in the morning, night owl that you are, what's it like?
I'm groggy.
I am.
I go over, and I love the snooze button.
Unfortunately, that doesn't work with kids.
I tried the snooze button on them, but it doesn't work.
No, they're not snooze buttons.
Come over here.
So let me show you why the snooze button can really mess up your energy for the rest of the day.
Here's your brain asleep.
It's enjoying it.
Life's really great.
And then all of a sudden, the alarm goes off.
When the alarm goes off, you're woken up.
And you hit the snooze button.
Go ahead.
And now, because it's a false alarm, your brain thinks that you go back to a nice, deep sleep.
And then after a few minutes, 10 minutes later, what happens?
The alarm goes off again, wakes you up again, hit it again.
Now your brain is taken by surprise.
It results in this groggy, fuzzy feeling, which we've all lived through, when your brain going back and forth through these deep layers of sleep that we're not supposed to go through.
You just get up and go.
So I don't want you doing that anymore.
From now on, when that alarm goes off, you know you to get up.
So I want everyone across America, set the alarm 10 minutes later or 20 minutes later so you forget to snooze.
It's a bad idea.
Know when it goes off, you're up.
And because of that, you'll avoid the sort of craziness that happens to our brain basically with that snooze button.
Can you do this for me?
I will, Dr. Oz.
Those kids of yours will appreciate it very much.
And your kickbox is even better.
All right, you can take a quiz to find out your body clock type at DrOz.com.
Be right back.
Coming up next, has reading food labels become so intricate, complicated, and completely confusing?
You just don't know what they stand for.
You can learn to decode what your health food labels really mean.
Coming up next on The Dr. Oz Show.
Discover your body's true age with real age.
Take the test and get personalized tips to grow younger.
Visit DrOz.com today.
It's the worst kept secret in America, but no one expected this.
The truth one in five women is hiding, hooked on antidepressants.
But at what cost to their health?
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
How many of you have looked at these food labels and don't know what they mean?
Well, you're not alone.
Food labels make them so intricate, so complicated, and downright confusing, you just don't know what they mean.
So today, I enlisted an expert to help you decode what your health food labels really mean.
Stephanie Sachs is here.
She's a culinary nutritionist and author of the new book, What the Fork Are You Eating?
Great title, by the way.
Thank you.
And how did food labels become such a catastrophe, so confusing?
You know, it's so true.
I think really what's happened is our government does not really regulate a lot of these labels.
They define some of them, but they don't regulate them.
And so companies take it upon themselves to smack what kind of labels they want or claims on their food with little regulation.
So the first label we're going to talk about today because I've got a bunch of them.
Come on the other side if you don't mind.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to spin this.
It is called the all-natural label.
How many people in the audience do you know what all-natural means?
Nothing.
Confident?
Some people say nothing, some people say everything.
Here, let me go for you first.
It doesn't have anything artificial.
It means?
It doesn't have anything artificial in it.
Okay, that's what all-natural means.
What does it mean to you?
Healthy.
Healthy, good.
Good for my family.
Healthy food that you should be eating.
It's better to have all natural food, right?
Or is that true?
Stephanie, why is this label so confusing?
What does all natural really mean?
So, unfortunately, all natural is really not defined by our government.
It simply means minimally processed.
And so companies today are slapping all natural on everything from cereal that's been highly processed to a bag of whole oats, which are truly all natural.
So what do we do instead?
What do we look for?
What we can look for is we can look at the ingredient lists, because the ingredient lists tell the story of our food.
That's really where it begins.
See, all of you guys got it wrong.
Aren't you glad you came to work today?
Alright, the next health label is one that is equally confusing to me.
Yeah.
It is antibiotic-free.
Now, I gotta say, this seems pretty obvious.
Why is it deceiving?
It does seem obvious.
And again, this is defined by our government, by the USDA, but again, it's not highly regulated.
So how do you actually know if it's truly antibiotic-free?
That's a great question.
And what you have to do is look for third-party verification.
So third-party verification comes through other organizations.
So USD Organic is one, Certified Naturally Grown.
And there are many others out there that are actually going to farms and certifying them and ensuring that these producers are actually doing what they say they're doing.
Alright, this last label, the next one, not last one, that needs decoding is one that I find extremely confusing.
It's in the bread aisle.
Yes.
It's whole grain.
Yeah, it's also in the cookie aisle.
Okay, is that a good thing, whole grain or not?
Oh, I love this show.
I love the audience and everything about it.
Why is whole grain not as good as it seems?
Okay, so we do want whole grain, okay?
Ideally, if it's truly whole grain.
So again, there's a third-party verification, the Whole Grains Council, that will verify that whole grains are in fact used, and that contains the entire grain intact, and that has the most nutrition, okay?
So that doesn't have to be true when it says whole grain?
Well, not necessarily, no.
You can go and you can buy a loaf of bread.
So we see this loaf of bread here, for example, and whether it looks like it's whole wheat-based or it's white flour and it can have oats on the outside, and you can presume that it's whole grain.
It can say whole grain and you can presume that it is whole grain, when in fact, if you turn the ingredient list over and you look, the first ingredient can be enriched wheat flour.
You want it to say 100% whole wheat flour, and then you want other grains in there like barley, oats, rye, buckwheat.
So I always, when I go shopping, look for 100% whole grains.
Is that fine?
100% whole grain, but again, you want to flip it over.
The ingredients are telling the story of your food.
Just to make sure.
Alright, there's another label that most of you probably haven't seen before.
It's a label that's popping up in stores all across America.
So I was curious how many of you knew what it was.
Look at this label right there.
So I actually took a poll on DrRoz.com because I was curious what generally is being thought.
72% of our audience, the smartest in television, Has never seen this label before.
So Stephanie, what's the label?
What does it mean?
Yeah, so that's the red Dora symbol.
And the red Dora symbol means that your food has been irradiated.
So it's been exposed to radiation.
Gamma rays is one of them.
X-rays.
Okay, electrons.
To prevent foodborne illness.
Spoilage.
Insect infestation.
That's what it's there for.
So it's used for theoretically good reasons, but you should know what it is.
Some of us, if we're going to buy something that's alive, like a nut, might not want to have it irradiated.
So I just think you should understand what these labels are.
Well, and that's what's critically important, is people should make choices from a place of knowledge, versus not really understanding what a lot of these things on our foods are.
So I always say, turn over the ingredients, look at the ingredients, and make some better choices.
That's the main takeaway.
I've got a wonderful list of food labels and some information to help keep you out of trouble.
My guide's on DrRoz.com.
Be right back.
Coming up, a garbage man, once nearly homeless himself, is inspired to give back to the needy along his daily route.
His selfless generosity of feeding the hungry became his life's mission.
The inspiring story of how one family can make a difference.
Next.
Whoever said a doctor's visit isn't fun has obviously never been to the Dr. Oz show.
Is that right?
Make your appointment today.
- Okay, go to DrRoz.com/tickets and sign up for free tickets.
Inspiration can strike you at any time.
That's exactly what happened to Arnold Harvey, a garbage man inspired to give back after noticing homeless people on his trash route.
Now, more than seven years later, Arnold and his wife Theresa have made it a family mission to lend a hand.
It's 5 a.m.
in Silver Spring, Maryland.
And while most people are still home asleep, Arnold Harvey is already hard at work.
I am Arnold Harvey.
I am a trash man.
I'm just an ordinary guy.
This trash man is far from ordinary.
In fact, to the homeless, he is an angel.
See, you only got one blanket.
This isn't enough.
So we're going to leave this blanket.
I'm going to put this on him while I'm here.
Hey man, it's Arnold.
How you doing?
Great.
Good to see you, man.
God bless you, man.
Arnold drops off backpacks filled with food, blankets and toiletries.
He calls them love bags to anyone he finds sleeping on the streets.
Which one?
Are you ready?
Y'all already had them picked out.
Thank you, sir.
Good to see you this morning, man.
Good to see you too, bro.
You blessed me.
You blessed me.
Including JR and Keith, who had just woken up.
Imagine being on the edge and somebody saying, jump.
But you know you can't jump because it's so far down.
But then this man comes out here with a backpack and pulls me back and says, you don't need to jump off that ledge.
You don't need to jump off that ledge.
I'm going to help you.
Arnold's goodwill towards the homeless started in 2007, after the recession, when he noticed more people showing up on the streets.
2 o'clock in the morning.
I was going along my route, and I went to lift up an eight-yard trash can.
And once I got it off the ground, my headlights hit a family of four.
Between the can itself and the fence is where they were laying at, four of them.
It touched my heart real deeply, you know.
I think it changed all of our lives that day.
With the help of his wife, Teresa, Arnold jumped into action.
They began collecting clothing and coats and made lunches to hand out to the homeless.
Brown bag lunches started very simple in our kitchen with peanut butter and jelly and whatever we could gather.
Yeah, we didn't know if they were going to be acceptable to them or not, but they took them right off.
Those first steps led the couple to create a non-profit called God's Connection Transition, GCT. Today, GCT provides food and supplies to 5,000 families a month.
We schedule appointments.
Shepherds come in.
They're able to pick freely.
It's just a way of sense of freedom that you're not in the situation that you're in.
They don't judge.
They don't make you feel any less of a person.
I don't have to worry about where my next meal is going to come from.
For those hardest hit, the Harveys' acts of kindness provide comfort and even a little hope.
Everyone goes through a storm.
It's just how you go about it, how you approach it, but it too shall pass.
We just got to outlast the storm by one day.
And I just want to be there to help someone through their storm.
Please welcome Arnold and Theresa Harveys.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
How have you seen your work transform people's lives?
So many ways.
I've seen so many people changed by it, but there's one that comes to mind.
There's a guy who's been fighting cancer for a few years on the street who's finally got his first apartment.
He comes back to the nonprofit to serve, to give back for those who's coming up behind him.
It does touch your heart, as you said.
Yeah.
You were once on the other side of this equation.
You were nearly homeless yourself.
How does that change your perspective?
Well, for us, it's, you know, that there's hope on every end of the line.
There's no situation that you cannot get over the challenge, and there's always hope.
There's always people like you willing to chip in.
Yeah, because somebody chipped in when we were down and out.
And the kindness that they put in, you know, sowed into our lives is now we're sowing into somebody else's lives and it's just going on and on.
It's like a ripple effect.
That's how we've always been.
That's why we always support each other.
Teresa, how's this changed your family?
Well, as anything, it's a family business, so everybody has to pitch in.
You know, it brings them together.
There's events that we do that my son-in-law is the Santa Claus, you know, my daughter.
Everybody's had a piece of what we've done.
You know, it's not just him and I. It's a family unit.
But thanks for sharing the beautiful tasks, the beautiful work that you're doing with all of us.
Thank you very much.
God bless you all.
God bless you too.
We'll be right back.
It's the worst kept secret in America, but no one expected this.
The truth one in five women is hiding, hooked on antidepressants.
But at what cost to their health?
All new Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
It's interesting how some of life's greatest lessons can be found in children's books.
Chances are you didn't realize this back when you were a kid.
Take this quote from Peter Pan.
I love this book.
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.
So you believe in yourselves.
Next, from Winnie the Pooh, which influenced probably all of us.
How do you spell love?
You don't spell it.
You feel it.
Isn't that great?
And of course, for my favorite book, The Wizard of Oz, there's no place like home.
And sometimes it's only when we get older that we learn to fully appreciate and understand the poignant words from our childhood entertainment, because home means a lot.
And home is where our families are.
It's not a physical place.
Okay, now it's time for in case you missed it.
First, we have Barbara Streisand on the show today, and she's sharing her passion.
Wouldn't he great?
She wanted to fight against heart disease.
She thinks it's emblematic that we have a problem with women and heart disease, of how we don't treat women in general well.
And she's using emotion and passion and her director skills to make stories come alive to teach women to take care of themselves.
And we went over some symptoms of a heart attack in women that can be unique.
So I want you all to be aware of them because they affect women more than men.
If you have nausea, vomiting, if you have diarrhea, Cold chills.
Pain in your jaw or back pain.
You should be thinking in your head, maybe it's a heart problem.
Get yourself checked out.
Then we ask the question, what's your body clock type?
This is a genetic issue.
Some of us wake up at different times.
Some of us are larks.
We get up early.
Some of us are night owls.
For those of you who are night owls, I want you to avoid hitting this baby right here.
This snooze button.
Instead of making your brain go in and out of sleep, which messes up your energy for the day, set your alarm for the latest possible time.
And then when it's time to get up, just do it.
And when you do it, get out of bed and use light as an ally.
Light's a key player regulating the body clock.
So I want you to brush your teeth in a bright light, as bright as you can.
Open your eyes like this.
Open the curtains and the blinds.
Let the light wake you up.
It sets your circadian rhythm, makes the rest of your day more energetic.
And lastly, we went over how to decode your food labels.
One important rule.
I want everyone to know that the words all natural, all natural, don't always mean what they should.
So instead of paying attention to just this label, which is overused and not that accurate and not regulated, I want you to look at the ingredients in your food.
Make sure the first five ingredients in the back package are recognizable.
If they are, then it's probably all natural.
Finally, I'm going to close with a warning.
Please be careful about what you're buying online, especially weight loss pills.
Do these people online make it seem like I'm endorsing their products?
I don't.
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