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Dec. 15, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:38
3 Health Concerns Dr. Joel Fuhrman is Worried About | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 81 | Full Episode
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Today on Oz, the flu outbreak is spreading fast and hitting states hard.
Experts say it's an epidemic.
This year's shot may not be enough to protect you.
Dr. Oz has the flu survival kit you need now.
Plus, total 10 snack ideas.
See the right foods to eat while you're sitting on the sofa and still lose weight.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Thank you very much.
We've got a fantastic show today, but before we get to it, a lot of you are concerned about the flu.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control is calling it an epidemic.
The outbreak has spread to 46 states already, with many deaths on record.
And health experts predict it will get worse before it gets better.
You've probably heard the flu shot is not working as well as we had hoped, but it's still protecting you against one of the more common strains, and it's not too late to get it.
If you do get the flu, here's what I want you to do.
At the first sign of symptoms, and if your temperature's over 100, you can talk to a doctor.
They might give you an antiviral like Tamiflu.
It's not an antibiotic.
This is especially important if you're at high risk for having problems with the flu.
Okay, today's show, one of my friends, one of my respected colleagues, a fellow who you know and trust, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, is here.
And he is revealing the three biggest health concerns on his mind right now.
And every single one of them affects you and your family.
So let's go back to that flu for a second.
If you get it, Dr. Fuhrman does not want you to take antibiotics.
So why is this?
Why are we over-prescribing antibiotics?
And why, especially now, do you feel so passionate about this topic?
It's true.
You know, 70% of antibiotic use are for viral infections, which they have no effect, and they're one of the most toxic drugs.
We don't want to take them.
We don't need to take them.
There's 140,000 adverse drug reactions, people going to emergency rooms each year, and they can kill the good bacteria in the body that makes you more predisposed to more serious infections in your future.
So you really want to avoid them if possible, only use them when necessary for bacterial infections.
That's a massive question, if you don't mind, to the audience.
Shall we give you a show of hands?
How many of you Had the flu or cold and received a prescription for antibiotics.
Show of hands.
Oh my goodness.
That's a lot of people.
Who actually went to the doctor and asked for antibiotics?
You asked for antibiotics?
Yes, I did.
And what did they say?
He gave it to me.
He gave it to you?
Yes, he did.
And why did you ask for antibiotics?
Because I was feeling miserable and I'm very busy and I don't have time to wait.
Alright, Dr. Furman remembered that for a second.
She was busy, she felt miserable, did not have time to wait.
You also asked for antibiotics?
Actually, the doctor said no.
He said no?
No.
Alright, so we have two different opinions.
Your doctor gave it to you.
Your doctor said no.
How many of you got a prescription, thank you, for antibiotics and then pushed back saying, are you sure I really need to take that?
Is there another way of going it?
You did.
Tell me your story if you don't mind.
It seems like I always have a problem with my throat.
The first symptoms of a cold is always my throat.
And they always give me antibiotics.
But I'll be like, I don't want to take it all the time, because after a couple of days, it goes away.
If I have a common cold in my throat, they give me antibiotics.
When I really need it, it's not going to work.
Right.
That's a good point you just made.
Very, very good point.
When you pushed back, was your doctor okay with it?
Yeah.
Dr. Furman, you just heard a bunch of very typical comments.
I hear this, by the way, walking down the street.
People asking for antibiotics.
People pushing back against antibiotics.
And the argument made by one of our audience members is that she's busy.
She doesn't have time to fool around with this.
Why is she wrong?
Wow, it's alarming to a degree.
I mean, people should be aware there's an association between antibiotic use and cancer.
We're talking here about drugs that have serious, dangerous effects.
This can kill you.
It can have you have a pneumonia that they can't treat in your future.
And they don't work.
The idea that they're going to make you get better faster and you don't have time to waste, they're not going to help you because they don't work for viruses.
And the studies show that they're not effective.
So why put yourself at risk for no reason?
I want to beat down these concerts because it does make sense.
We're desperate.
We're busy.
And I wish it worked.
If only it worked, we give it to everybody.
And I got to say, we ought to know better.
We doctors ought to know better.
And yet, we get squeezed into this a lot.
Yeah, you know, that's why the patient has to have that attitude.
You just said they have to say to the doctor, you know, do I absolutely have to take this?
Are you sure I have a bacterial infection?
Is this necessary to take it or do you think it's safe to watch and hold off?
Because we have to try to reduce the risk of needless medications that can cause serious side effects.
So I'm proud of you for pushing back.
Because I think you make life a lot easier for yourselves.
So Dr. Furman, I agree on this.
You only take an antibiotic if you have bacterial infections.
For example, strep throat is a bacterial infection.
And often you have to have a test to confirm that it's strep throat before you get treated for it.
Dr. Furman is also concerned about a hot diet trend that we talk a lot about on this show.
Things like the paleo diet, the Ducan diet, Atkins.
These are all high protein diets.
So why are you so worried about this?
That's right.
We're talking about high animal protein in particular, you know, meat, chicken, eggs, dairy, fish.
We're talking about diets that are made up of a lot of these products.
And now we're seeing studies that are coming out, studies that have followed these people following higher protein diets for 15 years, 20 years, 25 years, and showing dramatic increase risk of cancer, dramatic increase risk of heart attack from people on these diets long term.
For example, a recent study followed 6,000 people for 17 years and found a 400% increase risk of cancer Over that 17-year period.
And this was a 55 to 65-year-old age range followed for 17 years.
And they found a 75% increased risk of death over that period for people on a higher protein diet.
And the high protein diet they considered in that study were people eating about 30% of calories from animal products, which is about what the amount of animal products most Americans are eating now, the ones who are not even on those diets.
And they compared it to people eating a diet with 10% of animal product or less, finding those dramatic differences.
So you're convinced, from what you've looked at, that people who have a lot of protein in their diet get more cancer.
I get it.
Most of the objections I always thought were against the fat content in protein.
So some meats have more fat than others.
Is that the problem?
Yes, see, we're seeing that.
We used to think it was the fat.
And we used to tell people, you know, cut out the fat, get the skin off the chicken, eat the egg whites.
But now we know it's not the fat that's producing these high rates of cancer.
It's actually the animal protein itself, as compared to plant protein, like beans and nuts and green vegetables.
So if I can't put some numbers on this, we did a little survey, the medical unit did.
We looked at the amount of protein...
That's when people consume in high protein diets.
61% of your calories when you're on those diets come from animal products.
The rest come from plant products like vegetables and nuts and seeds.
So if I understand this correctly, you're saying we should eat more carbs and less protein.
But that goes in the face of all the evidence we have about weight loss.
That's exactly what I am saying.
Let me make this clear.
That's right, that we're talking about the higher rate of cancer from the amount of animal products Americans are already eating, the 30% range.
Go to the 60% range, like it's in these popular diets like paleo, and you could be spiking up cancer to very irresponsible levels.
And we're not talking about...
See, I'm telling people, stop worrying about fat, carbohydrate, and protein.
Don't worry about that.
Worry about eating more plant produce.
Eat less animal products because animal products are high in fat.
But some plant foods are high in fat and protein too, like nuts and seeds, like green vegetables, beans are high in protein.
Plant protein doesn't have that negative effect, positive effects.
It's the animal protein.
So think more about reducing animal products in general.
Keep it under the 10% figure.
Take the extra calories now you have to eat and eat more produce, not more processed food, not more junk food.
Because that's what people did.
They cut back on animal fats and they eat more sugar and white flour and you didn't see better effects.
You saw worse effects.
And they said, well, saturated fat's not bad.
That's not it at all.
It's that we have to eat more, the healthiest type of carbohydrate foods.
So on this show, I recommend lean proteins.
It's a key part of the total 10 rapid weight loss plan that's been so popular.
I do it personally.
That's what I eat normally.
Especially out, I'd rather have that than the boiled potatoes that would be the side dish otherwise.
So am I wrong to recommend poultry and fish?
I grant you that red meat should be eaten more sparingly.
Am I right or wrong?
You're right and wrong.
Because red meat...
I went to med school with this guy.
Now you know what I'm dealing with.
Yeah, because red meat, our producer, is the worst.
Red meat and dairy are worse than chicken and fish.
But we still should keep that chicken and fish percent to under 10% if we're looking down the road, not just for weight loss, but if we're looking 10 years, 15, 25 years down the road, you want to have low rates of cancer in your future, you have to cut back on the total consumption of animal foods, even the ones that aren't as bad.
All right.
Thank you, Furman.
The next worry is something else we talk about on this show all the time.
Oil.
Oil.
And I suspect there's some oils that you're in particular worried about.
Is that sure or are you worried about all oils?
I'm worried about all oils.
In other words, we're talking here about sesame oil, walnut oil, even olive oil, coconut oil, all the popular oils.
You're kidding me.
We have to talk about this and be concerned about it.
So these are oils that are widely touted as being healthy.
I talk about them as well because I do think they're healthy.
So why are you concerned about them?
Well, don't forget, every oil is 120 calories per tablespoon, right?
And Americans are consuming between 500, around 500 calories from oil a day.
That's a huge amount of oil.
500 from oils?
Sure.
That's correct.
It's a huge contributor to the obesity problem in America.
And how are you going to burn off that extra 600 calories a day of oil you just took in?
You're going to be sitting on your can half the day, unless you're a physical laborer or working behind a plow eight hours a day.
But the point is that these oils are absorbed very, very rapidly.
And when they're absorbed so rapidly, I say from the lips to the hips in five minutes.
They're brought into the body, they're stuck right on your body.
And now it interferes with fat burn.
You can't burn fat off your body because the high, the rushing into the body of all these high-calibrate fat calories puts fat on the fat, you know, builds fat, and doesn't let your body take it off.
So it interferes with fat loss.
So, because it's processed, even though it comes from good sources like olives, for example, you're still against us having oil in a pure form.
That's right.
It's like comparing beet sugar to the whole beet.
When you eat walnuts, sesame seeds, olives, the whole food, a completely different biochemical effect occurs.
In other words, now you have the fats being absorbed very slowly over a three to four hour period.
Now it actually accelerates fat burning of the body.
And you know what?
When you eat nuts and seeds, part of those fat calories pass through into the toilet, don't get absorbed.
So you have a slowly absorbable fat, it promotes fat storage, and they're more satiating.
Because the oils rush into the body real quickly, you want more oil, you want more food a couple hours later.
When you eat nuts and seeds and they take three to five hours to digest, now you're not hungry and you're not going to take as many calories.
So I want you all to be thoughtful about healthy oils, as Joel has pointed out.
For example, if you're having a salad with olive oil and vinegar, which is a pretty good choice, I think, it should be primarily vinegar, not the olive oil.
Avoid the heavy pour that I know so many of you guys crave.
To find out what Dr. Fuhrman doesn't worry about, check out his book, The Eat to Live Cookbook, which is fabulous.
We'll be right back.
Next, think you can't snack while you're dieting?
Think again.
The Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan says you can.
Delicious recipes to tackle your every craving.
Easy go-to snacks that will satisfy any taste bud and still help you lose weight.
Next.
All new odds.
You've made the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan a hit.
Nearly one and a half million of you have checked it out.
Now, see the maintenance plan that helps you keep the weight off.
That's coming up tomorrow.
I just released my total 10 rapid weight loss plan to help you lose 10 pounds fast.
But no diet will ever be successful without giving you something to snack on.
So today, it's the best snack ideas that not only follow my plan, they're gonna keep your taste buds satisfied.
Jeannie is here to try them out.
So why are you so motivated to lose weight this year?
I am motivated to go on a diet now because I'm always sluggish.
I'm not even 40 yet, and I don't want to do anything.
I don't want to go out.
I don't want to put on a girdle.
I don't want to do nothing.
How much of a problem are snacks in this whole process?
Snacks take over my life at the end of the day.
I try to eat healthy for the most part.
I'm not going to pretend, but snacks take over at the end of the day.
All right, let's do this together and do it slowly, but I want this to be clear for you, because snacks are where we're going to win and lose this battle.
Come on, the first thing I want to do is show you all the easy, go-to snacks that are on the approved Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Program.
It's very straightforward.
You can feel free to snack on any of these that you want.
And I'm going to go through them real quickly.
You get two of these snacks every single day.
Oh, two is great.
Two is good, okay?
See, obviously, things like hummus, which everyone loves, you can mix up with some veggies.
Then you can have a handful of nuts.
Any tree nuts are okay.
Now they have nut butters.
So things like cashew or almond butter would be fantastic.
Mix them again with some piece of, you know, a vegetable that you like.
All the vegetables are allowed on the plan.
Pickles, they're here.
These you can get two servings of a day.
Pickles, as many as you want.
I have a question.
Yes.
I like bread and butter pickles.
Does that count?
Bread and butter, bread and butter and pickles.
What are they?
Right.
It's in a jar, saturated with a bunch of whatever it is, but it tastes really good, but it's a pickle.
So, no, I'm okay.
Any pickles?
Oh, the bread's in the pickle juice?
No, it's bread and butter.
That's the taste of it.
But is it pickles?
Yes.
I want to see these things.
I've never seen them before.
If they're pickled, if they've got acidic acid, if they're acidic like these in vinegar, they're good.
Oh, great.
And you know why they're good?
Because the body loves the vinegar.
It helps the body metabolize sugar more effectively.
Really?
Yeah, it's like a little crutch to go on to.
That's why I want you to actually have these kinds of products.
If you can get pickled products, they're good for you.
Can I taste this?
Please take a look.
Taste whatever you desire.
And then there's vegetable broth, and I don't want you to forget this.
The vegetable broth is the foundation of the program.
You can have it throughout the day whenever you want.
The recipe is on dros.com, or you can just go out and buy low-salt organic vegetable broth.
Oh.
Can I have, like, low sodium?
It has to be low sodium.
Lower sodium.
No, no sodium.
It's just lower sodium.
But you know what?
The vegetable broth already tastes like it's got some texture to it.
It's got some richness to it.
Great.
Can I cook with it?
Yeah, here.
Okay.
Don't spill it.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
That's what it tastes like.
Oh, that's really good.
That's really, really good.
People, that's one of the favorite parts of the program.
This makes me happy.
I got all this for you, and I love it, but I know people get bored because snacks are actually your go-to comfort food oftentimes.
So, come on over.
Remember, you got the unlimited foods, all the foods you want in my plans.
They're all on that list in front of you.
Veggies, in particular, completely unlimited.
So, I'm going to use those vegetables and create snacks from them.
They're going to satisfy your every craving.
Okay.
I've got a couple examples here.
I'm interested in your earnest feedback.
You're obviously a discriminating and artisan when it comes to snacks.
Yes.
So the medical team and I created this list, and I asked Uli, who is our chef on the show.
She makes all the food you see on this program.
She's fabulous to help create these snacks.
She's so talented.
She feeds me every day with these kinds of things.
Oh, that's great.
So you get two of these snacks every day.
Remember what I said?
Two snacks.
Two snacks every day.
Two.
Now listen, if you have dozens of snacks every day, everybody, and then you don't lose weight, don't call me.
It's two snacks a day.
There's a reason for that because these aren't going to be dietetic foods.
They're going to taste so rich and savory.
You're going to want to have more of them.
So first, let's talk about sweet stuff.
What are your sweet go-to cravings?
My sweet go-to craving is snick-a-doodle cookies.
Snick-a-doodles, oatmeal raisin.
Yeah, snick-a-doodles.
I like snick-a-doodles.
I like those.
I go shopping with you sometime.
I don't know where you find these things.
You don't know anything about them?
Oh, they are great.
They are fabulous.
Snick-a-doodles?
Yes, they got cinnamon and sugar and dough.
I'll trade you.
You show me a snick-a-doodle.
I'm going to show you my little chip.
These are cauliflower kettle corn.
Really?
Who likes kettle corn here?
This is my vegetable version of them.
Please go ahead and try one of these so you can think about it.
And we're going to make these things together.
They're very straightforward.
You take cauliflower florets, break them up like this.
This is great!
Isn't it good?
Can I have some more?
This is coconut oil.
Mix that in there.
Go ahead and add the cinnamon and the salt in there.
You bake these for 400, at 400 degrees for about 30, 35 minutes.
Shake it once like this.
Go ahead, put it on the pan.
I'll show you how to do it.
Uli taught me how to do this.
You're going to love this.
Just mix.
Stir, not shaking.
You can do both.
Toss it over.
That's what you need to do.
And it's so fast, so elegant.
And then once it's cooking, just sort of bag it like that a couple times.
Mix it up, and then it'll cook up.
And it'll give you that crunchiness, because it's got the cauliflower, but the sweetness with the cinnamon will get you just to that point you want to be at.
The cinnamon does it for me.
Isn't it nice?
Yes, it's very nice.
We ought to use cinnamon more and sugar less.
I say I would drink cinnamon if I could.
I would just drink it in some water.
I would.
In a mixed drink.
All right, come over here.
Next, we're going to tackle those crunchy sensations we always have.
Anything fancy that you like to eat when you want salt and crunchy?
Salt and vinegar potato chips.
My absolute...
Please tell me you've heard of this, Doctor.
No, those I've heard of.
My wife loves those.
Great, yes.
That's not the kind of vinegar I was referring to earlier, by the way.
It's a whole different kind of potato chip.
It don't count?
No, it doesn't count.
So this is why I'm gonna give you my veggie chips.
It's gonna help you lose 10 pounds fast.
Veggie chips.
You just switch away from those potato chips, whatever kind they may be, into my veggie chips.
You'll be there.
All you need, please taste these.
Let me tell you what you think.
Super simple.
You take the veggies, cut them up.
Either it's, you know, whatever vegetable you're going to use.
You put a little bit of olive oil cooking oil on.
Just spray it on there.
And a little bit of pepper and some salt.
And you'll have both of these in no time at all.
You know, you cook them for, you know, 10 minutes, maybe 12 minutes max.
You know, about 400 degrees.
Put them on a rack if you're going to make the zucchini over here.
Because you need to let the oil come out.
You need to squash them.
I think for the potato chips, it's a crunch for me.
And because that kale has the crunch, I can do all of it at one time.
It's fabulous.
You take the kale.
Yes.
I got a happy customer.
Yes.
I love it.
It's a revival.
And the last snack is actually my personal favorite, but I want to get your honest opinion about this.
This is for your spicy cravings.
So you must have a spicy snack also.
You have perfect ones for everything else.
So my spicy is the chips and salsa and any kind of Mexican food, any kind, with a lot of spice, any kind.
Yes, that's my spicy.
Joyce, all right.
Very happy.
Please taste these.
These are my crunchy fire lentils.
Think about that.
To make them, again, it's my favorite plant-based protein anyway, our lentils, because they're high in fiber.
Isn't that good?
It just lights up in your mouth.
Little olive oil.
Let's take them together.
Put them in here.
Here's the olive oil, okay?
Little salt and pepper.
Give me a pinch of those.
Now here's the good stuff.
You need a little bit of pure chili powder, a little bit of garlic powder.
Not too much.
It won't make your breastbone too much.
And then some of those red pepper flakes.
Mix it up nice and good.
And then put it on the tray here.
Again, it's a simple tray with a little bit of wax paper on it.
And then let it go.
Bake them for 15 minutes, not longer.
And then when you're done, you're going to spread it out a little bit.
When you're done cooking them, right, you're going to put them in an airtight container because they'll otherwise get moist on you.
So you want to keep them nice and dry and crunchy, and they'll taste like this.
Do me a favor.
You grab this.
Walk over to the audience and tempt them.
See what they think.
And I want honest thoughts here as the audience tastes these things.
She's going to share them with you, which is unheard of.
Big time snackers never share.
No, I don't.
I don't like to share.
Let me get two snacks a day, everybody, right?
Two snacks a day.
And if you're not on the plan yet, I want you to get on the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan.
You can get all the details along with these snack recipes on DrRoz.com.
I'll be right back.
Who in your life has a weight loss success story?
My mother.
She told us last year that she wanted to lose 50 pounds.
One year later, she's down 75 pounds and just ran her first 5K. She inspires me.
Share your story on Dr. Oz's Facebook page.
Next.
First born, last born, or somewhere in between.
Your family birth order can affect your personality, but can it predict your health as well?
Learn to recognize your traits and unlock the health issues you may be at risk for.
- Only child, first born, last born, or somewhere in between.
Where do you fit into the birth order of your family?
Well, there's new research that shows that your birth order doesn't just affect your personality.
It may actually affect and predict your future health.
Here to explain how is clinical psychologist Dr. Jen Hartstein.
So explain to everybody, how does birth order influence our health?
Well, you know, it's one piece of this larger puzzle, right?
That we look at it and it helps us identify where our stress levels might fall, how we might deal with our stress, whether or not we're going to have heart issues or diabetes or all these kinds of things.
Where we fall in our families can really influence those things in our lives.
Yeah, and our coping tactics.
Absolutely.
Let's get to the first way that birth orders can affect your health.
And everyone can see where you fit in by looking at these tools that you'll know what to look out for.
So, here's an example.
What do these two folks have in common?
Oprah Winfrey?
And Prince William.
What do they have in common?
Thoughts?
Oh, very smart.
Just like me, they are firstborns.
Now let me explain.
Some of the traits of firstborns, personality traits, are they're serious, they're conscientious, and they're goal-oriented.
Who here is the firstborn in the audience?
We have a lot of firstborns.
Why don't you go first?
How well do you relate to these personality traits?
I'm very goal-oriented.
I'm high-achieving.
I always want to be doing something and aspiring to be better.
And my sister, she can kind of tell you how neurotic I am.
It's true.
Yeah, I'll come back to you when we come to the middle trial.
Thank you very much.
All right, so Jen, what are the health issues here?
It seems like they're pretty accurate from a personality perspective.
Right.
So we know that the personality pieces are there.
And historically, we've thought that blood pressure was impacted by these personality traits, that we'd have a higher risk of blood pressure issues.
We're finding that that's not so true.
We're not really sure why not.
But one of the things that I would think is that maybe because you're more conscientious, the second there's a health issue, you're going to go get it taken care of, and you're going to stay ahead of it instead of falling behind it.
What we are finding is that there is really a problem with risk for diabetes.
There seems to be a lack of sensitivity to insulin, so you really have to be mindful of how you're eating, your exercise, and how you're taking care of those kinds of things to keep that risk lower.
These are all the first-borns out there, myself included.
Okay, diabetes.
Now move to this quiz here.
We have Whoopi Goldberg.
We have Billy Crystal.
What do they have in common?
Well, they're not so sure, but people think they are the middle.
They're not.
They are both the youngest child.
The youngest.
Now the youngest children, for all of you out there, you know this is true.
You're very charming.
You're affectionate.
Of course.
But you're also attention-loving.
In fact, attention-craving.
You're actually the youngest person in your family.
I am the youngest person in my family.
Those traits do, you know, they do describe me very well.
And yet, because I have an older brother, I am technically what they would call a functional firstborn.
So what that means is gender does play a role here.
We have to keep in mind that if the oldest is male and the second is female, you almost have two firstborns.
So I carry a lot of first-born traits and I carry those second-born traits, so they both work in my favor.
And what are the health concerns if you're the youngest?
So, you know, there is a benefit to being the youngest, one of many, but one of the things to think about is your older sibling brings home lots of colds and flu and all that stuff from school, so we have a lower risk of asthma and allergies, which is great growing up.
But we are the risk takers and we are the attention seekers.
So we have a greater risk for things like addiction, for putting ourselves in dangerous positions, for really being not mindful of our surroundings and potentially getting in trouble.
So we have to be really careful.
All right.
I've got another quiz here.
Princess Diana and Bill Gates.
Now what do you think?
Where are they born?
Maybe one knows this.
They're the middle child.
These are adaptive people.
They're competitive people.
They're social people.
How many middle children in the audience can relate to these?
You remember the Masha, Masha, Masha?
Remember our Brady Bunch fans?
My sister's like that.
It's exactly like that.
So when it comes to health, what do these folks have in common in middle children?
Well, you know, going to the Brady Bunch idea, we have to think about the fact that where do they fit?
So there's a lot of confusion about who they are, where they fit.
They're not the oldest.
They're not the youngest.
How do they stand out?
So they are at greater risk for depression than a lot of other first or last borns, right?
So middle children are at greater risk for depression, maybe some anxiety.
Gender also plays a role here where it's worse if it's a sister followed by a sister versus if it's a sister followed by a brother.
So we have to keep in mind the gender impact there.
I would think sisters would help each other.
You would think so, but, you know, sometimes there's, you know, there's a little tension going on in there.
A lot of competition.
I witnessed that with three daughters.
Exactly.
All right, what about these folks?
Tiger Woods, Betty White.
Yep, you got them all.
This is the only child category.
Now, only children are independent, they're creative, they're confident.
Actually, a lot of similarities it seems between only children and the oldest child.
Absolutely, because if we think about it, right, the only and the oldest are equivalent in a lot of ways.
There just isn't a sibling.
There's good and bad in that.
The sibling relationship is so important because it teaches very early How to engage socially, how to interact socially.
So we don't know, with the lack of a sibling, how that impacts their interactions in the world.
The great health risk for the only child we find is obesity.
And the theory behind that is they learn how to nurture themselves with food.
Either their parents nurture them with food or they learn how to nurture themselves emotionally using food.
And we know, and I certainly know this as a psychologist, learning that early is really hard to change over time.
So we want to give them kind of self-regulating techniques that don't involve that.
Jenna, I love your insights.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks so much.
Be right back.
Coming up next, do you find yourself more and more forgetful?
Like where you put your keys or a friend's name?
Good news, there may be something you can do about it.
Learn the easy secrets to boost your brain and improve your memory.
Coming up next.
All new eyes.
You've made the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan a hit.
Nearly one and a half million of you have checked it out.
Now, see the maintenance plan that helps you keep the weight off.
That's coming up tomorrow.
They're the unnerving little moments that really make you wonder.
You forgot where you put your keys, a good friend's name, or that very important appointment.
Is it a momentary lapse, or is your memory finally, finally starting to go?
What if I told you you could actually grow your brain?
I'm saying literally grow your brain, make it larger, and stop forgetting all those things.
It's not about a diet, and it costs nothing.
All you need to do is sit still.
I'll explain in a moment, but let me talk to Melanie first.
So you, like many of us, say you've been struggling with your memory.
What's going on?
It's probably been over the past five years.
I have to write post-it notes for everything, for the most basic task.
I take my niece to school every morning.
Every morning we do the same thing.
I drive past the street that her school is on.
I have to put a post-it note on my visor, make a right, go to her school, drop her off, and then I go to work every single morning.
So my friends make fun of me.
Are they making fun of you yet?
She does.
She does.
Every morning, she does.
She's like, Mel Mel.
Stop.
Make a right.
Every day, it's the same routine.
Let me show you what's going on.
I could show you a real brain.
Come back over here.
You'll see it better.
But I actually want to show you a picture of a brain, because you'll see it better in this.
Okay.
Normally, the brain has all this good white stuff.
The skull is the outside here.
See the big circle?
There's a skull.
The white stuff are all the neurons of the brain.
And the memory center is right in the side here.
There are two parts to it.
See the little red area here?
Okay.
Called the hippocampus.
It's like a little horse riding in there, like a seahorse.
That's why it's called hippocampus.
When your memory's intact, it's nice and full and robust like that, and all that white's intact.
Now, watch this carefully.
This is the brain of someone who's healthy, and here's the brain of someone who's got a lot of memory loss.
You notice the skull's the same size, but there's a lot less of the white stuff in there.
And look at the red circled area there versus here.
Can you all see this?
See how small that is right there?
See how big this is here?
Nice and plump like a big grape.
This is like a raisin over here.
You don't want that.
But that means that the brain is beginning to shrink.
Now what I'm talking about today, and it's not a new technique, it's a very old ancient concept.
People have been practicing these techniques for a long time.
But only now is it being studied to help improve our memory.
Take a look.
This Indian monk says he knows the secret to boost your memory.
He's capable of memorizing up to 500 items at a stretch.
Then, recall every one of them in order.
Here in the West, we now recognize meditation as a highly effective tool to reduce stress.
But new research proves this time-honored technique can also strengthen the parts of your brain responsible for learning and memory.
Today, find out how meditation can build your brain power and make you a master of memory worthy of a monk.
Kari Mascheras here is one of the nation's leading experts in mindful meditation.
I'm going to explain what that is in a minute.
But first, give us the big idea.
Why is meditation a potential solution for Melanie and me, people who have memories that are sort of starting to fade?
Well, in mindfulness meditation, what we're doing is training ourselves to be really present for our experiences as they're happening.
And when we can be engaged in this way, there's a much better chance that experiences will go from short-term memory to long-term memory.
How much time do you have to dedicate to meditation and get the benefit?
It really doesn't take more than a few minutes each day.
Okay, you've got three exercises, three secrets to boosting, not only getting your little cage over there, I'll get mine.
We're going to start off by breathing by the numbers.
What does that mean?
Yes.
So this is a particular breathing pattern that we will do that really requires you to concentrate and to also engage your working memory.
Okay.
So we'll sit down on our cushions.
Well, you're all sitting in the audience, thank goodness.
Okay.
Okay.
And what we're doing here is not just focusing on the breath, but we're also, after each breath is complete, counting by threes.
Okay?
So to really understand this, let's all do this together.
And we'll take one inhale and an exhale.
And we count three.
Three.
And another inhale.
And exhale.
And we count six.
Six.
And another inhale.
Exhale, and we count 9. Now, we're going to stop at 9 here, but when you do this on your own, see if you can get all the way up to 21. Once you get really good at this, you can try going backwards from 21 back to 3. Okay, now how do you clear your mind from thinking about the things that you're supposed to be doing?
Right, so this is the thing.
We're really not even needing to clear our minds.
Trying to clear the mind or stop our thinking is like trying to tell the ocean to stop waving.
It's in the nature of the mind to think.
So each time we see that the mind is wandering or getting caught up in thought, we gently escort it back to the breath.
Okay, I could do that.
Next speaker is all about remembering the word HEAL. Yes.
So HEAL is an acronym.
H stands for have an experience.
That's straightforward.
E is enrich the experience.
So all of you right now are having the experience of being here and being together.
So there may be a sense of joy or a sense of gratitude that you can really tune into, that you can experience in the body and in the mind.
So we're enriching the experience in that way by focusing on it.
A stands for absorb.
So this is where we really let the experience sink in and let the brain absorb the experience so that it moves to long-term memory.
It's kind of like a sponge soaking up water.
And L stands for link.
So this is where we can link the positive experience to perhaps something that is negative.
And the final secret to boost our memory has to do with meditation in order to flex the cortex.
Yes.
How do you actually flex your brain, your cortex?
So the goal of this practice is to really train yourself to pay attention.
And it can be done for 10 minutes right before you go to bed, okay?
While you're lying down, that is completely fine.
And it's a body scan.
So what we're doing is scanning through the body, paying attention to the sensations in different parts of the body.
So maybe we can do this together as well.
And just sitting here, we can tune into the sensations in our feet, and moving up through the calves and the shins, into the knees and the thighs, up to the hips, and the belly, the chest, the arms, and the head.
And here we move through it pretty quickly, but you can expand that over a 10-minute period.
And this does two things with memory.
One, it's training you to be more attentive to your experience.
But two, it can induce a very relaxed state in your mind and your body, and that will transition into a night of good sleep.
And we know that sleep is very important for storing memories.
Melanie, which of these tips would you be willing to use first?
I'm taking them all into consideration because I'm all over the place all the time, and technology has a lot to do with it, too.
So the first part of putting the technology away and then being able to just relax my mind is probably going to take me a long time.
I'll do whichever one I remember.
Corey, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Be right back.
Next, a cherished father-daughter ritual.
Inspiring notes written on napkins left in her daily lunchbox.
How his life-changing health diagnosis transformed tradition into a father's priceless legacy.
What all families can learn from their story.
Next.
We are bringing a healthy back this season.
I 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.
Did I get it right?
- It was a cherished father-daughter ritual.
Every day since elementary school, Garth Callahan put inspirational messages written on napkins into his daughter's lunchbox.
Then, three years ago, Garth was given a life-changing diagnosis of cancer.
And their simple lunchtime tradition quickly transformed into a father's priceless legacy.
Do you want another fruit or some peanut butter to go with the apple?
What about a treat in my lunch that you always say is in there?
A treat, huh?
Well, I'm sure we can find something.
I wanted to do something special that Emma would think, oh, Dad did this just for me.
And sometimes I wrote a note on her napkin.
But back when she was in kindergarten, it was just something extra.
There wasn't a purpose to it.
I remember the moment that napkin notes turned.
I realized that Emma was actively looking for them every day.
She was in third or fourth grade about then.
And that's when I said to myself, if I'm going to write something, let it have a purpose.
I was diagnosed with kidney cancer for the first time in November of 2011. Emma was in sixth grade.
She had just turned 12. I had surgery literally days before Christmas.
Emma went back to school.
And I was still feeling pretty bad from the surgery, but of course I wrote a note on our very first day back at school and continued to do so.
A month or two after that, I recognized that Emma had been saving the notes and that each note could be the last.
When in doubt, be yourself.
The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Look to yourself.
You know the right path always.
It's your choice to make the correct decision.
My dad is trying to get me to be a better person and he's helping me along the way and so I see that and I'm inspired by that.
Hey Em, we need to get going.
Okay, I'm coming.
So do you have anything going on after school today?
I had this unspoken promise to Emma that I would always make her lunch and then I would always write a note.
Well last fall I was diagnosed with cancer and it was my third diagnosis.
She was graduating about five years from that same time and my five-year survival rate technically is about eight percent.
Alright Emma, I love you.
Be yourself.
Be yourself.
Have a good day.
I will.
I love you too.
What kicked in my brain, Garth, you need to write more notes.
You need to make sure that she has enough notes to last through high school graduation.
I counted out how many days there were until graduation, and I started to write notes.
And I made it to 826. That was how many school days Emma had left until she would graduate from high school.
As I was writing those notes, it was cathartic.
This is one way I can control my disease.
This is one way that I can make sure that if I'm not around, maybe my daughter will be able to see me through these notes.
It's the part of him that I'll always have.
Even though I don't know how long I have, none of us do.
It's the relationships you have and the friendships that you have and how you continue to build and strengthen them that matter.
Life is about taking your daughter to school or going to her softball game or something as simple as making your daughter's lunch and writing a note.
I can only hope that I will be able to see her write napkin notes to her kids.
Please welcome Garth and Emma Callahan.
Thank you for being here.
I've got to say, you are inspiring.
What's your hope to share with your daughter?
What's the message you want to give to her?
At the end of the day, she needs to be herself.
I was not a very confident teenager.
I didn't really feel comfortable in my skin.
And I grew up in a very different time in a small town.
I would very much like her to be able to wake up every morning and feel comfortable with who she is.
Emma, what's your favorite note you've gotten from your father?
My favorite note basically is talking about how one time when I was younger, I was on a playset and my friend Colin looked up and said, I'll save you.
And I said, no, I'll save myself.
And at the bottom of the note, it says, be that girl.
And I really like that note because that's who I want to be.
Be that girl.
I'm hearing rumors that you're actually writing back to your father now.
Yes.
What's one that you particularly like?
One that I wrote to him a while ago was, Dear Dad, if all of my friends jumped off a bridge, it would be because I told them to.
I'm a leader, not a follower.
I love that.
Now, your wife Lisa is here.
What's it like seeing this wonderful bond your husband and your daughter have?
It's great.
Because of him, she's going to be a more confident, strong young woman.
It's very tender.
So this story has really caught fire.
You may not know, Garth has a wonderful book out.
You also have a big movie studio that's signed up the rights to make a movie about your life.
Yet you seem to have a deeper purpose.
What's the hope that all this will be able to engender?
What's the big message?
As we grow as human beings and as people, when we get to the end of our lives, The car that we drive or our bank account, the house that we have, none of that matters.
It's the relationships that you have and the friendships that you've built, and you should not wait until your doctor gives you a dire diagnosis to write a note to somebody.
You started well ahead of time, and you're catching up real quickly.
I'm very proud of both of you.
Thanks for being here.
Check out Gar Callahan's book, Napkin Notes.
I'll be right back.
Thank you for some of these.
All new Oz.
It's taken over the internet.
Nearly 1.5 million of you have racked up 12 million page views of the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan.
Now, see the maintenance plan to take everything you've achieved and turn it into a lifestyle.
Plus, detecting the four cancer symptoms women are likely to ignore.
How to spot the warning signs.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Now it's time for, in case you missed it, First, Neuser shows that your birth order doesn't just affect your personality.
It can actually predict your future health.
Listen, I'm the firstborn of my family.
I've got two younger sisters, Saval and Nazem.
They were very difficult for me growing up, but thankfully I was first.
Firstborns, like me, tend to be serious, conscientious, goal-oriented.
That sounds about right for me.
But the worrying part about being a firstborn is that this new study has shown that oldest children are less sensitive to insulin.
That puts them at risk for diabetes.
Now, I haven't had that problem, that fate yet, but it's something I've got to be watching out for, as all the firstborns do.
We've got all the birth order tips and things to worry for on DrRoz.com.
Now finally, I get thousands of emails every day.
And recently I received one that I just felt I had to share with you.
I think it completely captures the essence of this show.
It is called Staying Healthy and it was written by you.
This is Gerald Nixon.
This is a complete surprise.
Oh, I know it's a surprise.
Yes.
May I read the poem?
You certainly may.
I have it here.
You have a copy.
I brought a copy, too.
I can read yours.
Oh, I have yours.
I can read yours.
All right, so it says, this is called Staying Healthy.
It says, if you want to be healthy and would like to lose weight, I know a great way, and that's to quicken your gait.
A long brisk walk and an apple or two will do the job faster and be better for you.
Now, you can ask Dr. Oz, and I'm sure he'll agree.
And remember, this information is totally free.
Well, thank you very much.
Very much.
Now, your grand guards over here say that you're always torturing them about the information I give on the show.
Well, yes, I keep...
We watched you from day one, I think.
My wife, I've been married...
We've been married 61 years.
Good for you.
We have three wonderful daughters.
And I'm always there, and I'm telling them.
Now, Dr. Ross says you should do this, and Dr. Ross says you should do that.
They don't always listen to me.
You know how daughters are.
I know how daughters are, believe me.
But they've been wonderful.
And they've been great.
Well, I appreciate that, and I adore the poem you sent.
Thank you very much.
Keep sending them in.
I love them.
I appreciate all the gifts.
I'll see you next time.
Thank you.
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