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Dec. 20, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:38
How Glenn Close Saved Her Sister's Life | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 88 | Full Episode
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Today on Dr. Oz, award-winning actress Glenn Close on a medical disorder that nearly destroyed her family and how she found the courage to save her sister's life.
Plus, over a million of you are on Total 10. It's not too late to get on board.
See easy 10-minute breakfast ideas to rev up your metabolism first thing in the morning.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
One of my favorite Academy Award winning actress, Glenn Close, is taking on an important new role.
She's breaking down barriers and speaking out off screen about her family's personal story of illness and how she saved her own sister's life.
Glenn Close, one of the finest actresses of her generation.
Her long, varied career defined by the complicated character she's immortalized on both stage and screen.
But behind the bright lights and red carpet, Glenn's life was darker and in some ways just as dramatic as the roles that define her.
Born to a privileged family with a lineage of wealth and instability, Glenn's upbringing was marred by upheaval.
Glenn's mother and surgeon father frequently uprooted Glenn and her three siblings to serve as missionaries in a cult-like religious movement.
Glen's younger sister Jessie seemed to be hit hardest by her family's unconventional lifestyle.
Estranged from her parents, she spiraled through decades of addiction, promiscuity, divorce and destructive behavior that eventually escalated to suicide attempts.
Finally, at the age of 50, Jessie began intensive therapy for bipolar disorder.
And today, the sisters are here to share their story.
Please welcome Glenn Close.
I am so happy you are here.
I'm very honored you took our stage to tell this story.
Now, your sister, for 50 years, was doing things that, at least in retrospect, weren't the things you would have expected of any child of the family.
What was your family thinking when this was all going on?
That's a really interesting thing to talk about because we did not have ever, in generations in our family, we never talked about it.
Never talked about it.
It was something that was hidden, unspeakable.
Mm-hmm.
So we had no vocabulary for it.
And the thing that's hard to come to terms with is that though Jessie had this behavior, we just thought that she was the wild child, that she was irresponsible.
So take me back a few years to Wyoming when your sister approached you about a problem that she was very scared about, the reality that she was going to take her own life.
Yes.
That was the moment that I realized it was an emotional explosion for me because for 20 years I was a visitor.
I would come in and out of her life.
And I didn't know that she had had problems with alcohol or huge problems with drugs.
I did know that she...
You know, she will talk about what she went through.
But at that moment, it was, you help.
You find out where you can help.
And I remember going in and talking to her mom and saying, okay, what's the next step?
Was the family open when it finally became evident what was really happening?
I think, honestly, it took a while, you know?
I mean, we had misunderstandings and perhaps some stigma ourselves.
It's a little frightening because you don't understand the behavior.
But we certainly, that was the beginning of an amazing journey for all of us.
She has recovered remarkably with your help, with family's help, with professional help.
You must be very proud just to see that happen.
I wouldn't be here sitting with you today talking about this if it wasn't for Jessie.
I think what I'm most proud of is that she had the courage to start talking about it.
When we decided to do something to start an organization that would zero in on stigma, I wasn't going to do it without her.
And without hesitation, she said yes, not knowing what that would mean and not knowing how much courage it would take.
The other thing that I'm deeply proud of is that she has owned her illness.
She has not gone off and sat in a corner and thought, my life is over.
She has learned about it.
She has stayed connected to her doctor.
She takes her meds, and she has become a productive, amazing, amazing human being.
She always was an amazing human being.
She is not her illness.
She is my beautiful, beautiful, courageous sister.
And I think Jessie is just remarkable.
You all want to meet Jessie?
I want to meet Jessie.
Glenn's very brave sister Jessie is here.
She's feeling well.
Please come on out.
Thank you.
I got to meet Glenn before, but I never even thought I'd have the honor and opportunity.
This book is called Resilience, Everybody.
It is absolutely superb.
I read this over my Christmas break.
Oh, nice.
So I had plenty of time to digest it.
I want to applaud you for being honest.
Brutally honest.
Glenn wrote the interspersed pieces to sort of connect it all for a lot of folks.
But just hearing you tell your story firsthand, a story that is so difficult for so many of us to process, was very moving for me.
And I'd love to just give you the platform to talk about these things.
I know some of them are uncomfortable for you.
You went through highs, you went through lows.
I don't think most people really know what bipolar means.
Explain what those moments are like.
Bipolar means is the bi means to, polar means.
You experience mania, which makes you very, very high.
Colors are extra bright.
Everything is extra, extra.
You don't need sleep.
And then you will crash into a depression, which is the complete opposite.
In the fetal position a lot.
I drank through both, mania and depression, but I would say that the main reason that I continue to take my medication is to never experience a depression like that again.
Mania can be a little fun.
Yeah, but it's not worth the payoff.
I said going from technicolor to black and white.
The reason I asked you that question to start the discussion is because 50%, and you know this, but for everybody else, 50% of people with bipolar disorder probably attempt suicide.
I say probably because we can't even keep track of this sometimes.
I'd love to understand a bit more what was going through your mind.
What was happening in your life when you approached Glenn for help?
When did you know something was wrong?
Well, I had been sober for four years at that point, and I was still suicidal.
I had developed this voice in my head that I named the creature, and it literally kept saying, kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself, and nothing shut it up.
So I thought I was going to have to obey the voice, but then my children mean everything to me.
Everything.
And I could not do that to them, so I asked Glennie for help.
Was it cathartic to be open about it for Glenn and the rest of the family to really know what was going on, that there was a creature in there telling you to do bad things to yourself?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think it...
They were finally able to see that I really needed help.
I was able to tell them that I needed help.
How come that conversation didn't happen when you were a young woman?
Who knew about bipolar disorder back then?
I mean, I'm 61 years old.
Nobody.
I don't remember hearing anything about it.
I mean, it was called manic depression back then.
I don't remember hearing anything about it.
You know, today we hear about it, but we don't really know what it is.
Yeah.
And what I'm witnessing here is America learning about it firsthand and appreciating how significant and big a problem this really is.
And a lot of folks who have bipolar disorder, in fact, mental illness in general, don't want the medications because they think it'll rob them of the euphoria, of the joy of life that comes during the high points.
But you're living testimony that the treatment works.
Yeah.
Glenn, you played a profoundly important part in a movie that we all knew about.
It's iconically in our culture now, failed attraction.
And the character you played had mental illness.
And you portrayed her.
I think she had mental illness.
I suspect you would think so.
Well, it's funny because I've heard, you know, that that...
I was asked for three years in a row to talk to the American Psychiatric Association because of that character.
I, doing my research, never, even by psychiatrist, did it come up that she might have a mental disorder.
She's portrayed as a villain.
Yes.
Which you did quite admirably.
Do you regret it all?
That you made her sort of almost a caricature of evil with her mental illness?
Well, it's interesting.
It's very, I think, to have somebody with mental illness as the antagonist, to have as the bad person, is very easy.
So I ignorantly was...
Was a almost textbook version of a certain mental disorder that I knew nothing about.
And it's only afterwards that doctors in the field have said we use that to illustrate a certain mental disorder.
And I don't regret it for a minute because it brought up other issues.
It brought up a lot of anger between the sexes.
It brought up, you know, men who have decided not to cheat on their wives for her.
For good reasons.
Which is a whole other thing.
Another good reason not to cheat on your wife.
But, you know, it's interesting to think, I think her behavior was right.
How to explain, and I wanted desperately somehow to show that she was somebody out of control, in great need, and that gouging my leg is exactly my feeble attempt to show that, that she was more self-destructive than destructive, but they...
It's, you know, to make the hit movie, they made her into a psychopath, which basically was a betrayal of who that character was.
I want to bring up another issue.
Part of the reason Jesse and Glenn are here is they want to end the stigma of mental illness, because it doesn't just stop in our generation.
We pass it on.
And your son...
Galen?
Is it Kalen?
Kalen, yeah.
He has schizophrenia.
He does.
He was sent to the hospital when he was 19. He was there for two years in a halfway house kind of situation.
But he is now married.
He's a thriving artist.
He's amazing.
And Glenn, what kind of a world do you want for Kalen?
And there's many, many others out there.
I would like a world where our government realizes the enormity of this problem, knowing that there's one in four who suffer in some way or know somebody, and that includes the White House, the Senate, and the Congress.
I would like a world where each community has a place where people who need help for mental illness, that they have a place to go.
Put numbers on it, 60 million people probably have mental illness of some form.
It's a family secret, as it was for you and so many others.
It's an unspoken reality.
It's also your neighbor, your friend, your daughter.
We've all got to stop thinking about it.
It's something to be ashamed of.
I'm so happy that you asked your sister for help.
Thank you.
And I'm so happy that you provided the help because we never would have been able to have this wonderful conversation.
We never would have been blessed to meet you.
Thank you very much.
This book, again, Resilience, it's honest, it's inspiring, it's fabulous.
It's available right now.
We'll be right back.
Coming up, smoothies have been a hit on the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan.
But some of you want something you can sink your teeth into.
We have easy and delicious 10-minute breakfast ideas to start your day satisfied and motivated.
Coming up next.
All new Oz.
The flu outbreak is spreading fast.
This year's shock may not be enough to protect you.
Dr. Oz has the flu survival kit you need now.
That's coming up tomorrow. - It's not too late to get on board with the Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan.
Smoothies are a breakfast staple on the plan, but I've been getting some feedback that some of you prefer to chew in the morning.
I hear ya.
So today, I've got easy 10-minute breakfast ideas that require a fork.
Joy's gonna start us out.
She went on the plan to lose the baby weight from her three-year-old son, and she has lost 11 pounds.
Congratulations.
Greg wrote that saying that breakfast is the hardest part of the plan.
Why is that?
Oh, I miss having my bagel, having a, you know, sausage, egg, and cheese on a roll, and I just wanted to chew.
I didn't really care for the smoothies.
It's all right.
So he's right there.
I'm going to get to these 10-minute breakfast ideas.
I had Joy and our other guests today try out some of these ideas ahead of time, so I want to hear your feedback.
Come on back.
First idea, crazy as it sounds, was actually just scrambled eggs.
That's why I gave you eggs, because they're so easy to make in the morning.
They're backed by popular demand.
One full egg with two egg whites.
That's again, a full egg with an egg white.
That gives you a lot of volume.
It looks big and it fills you.
And it cooks in under five minutes.
How did the eggs work out in your morning routine?
They were a lifesaver.
It's really what I was looking for.
I was so happy to have this in the morning.
I really needed it.
To break out your fork.
Yes.
So, here's the thing.
I know that eggs by themselves wouldn't do the deal, so I wanted to give everyone unlimited veggies.
They're in the plan anyway, and I wanted you to include them in your breakfast.
Were you able to do that?
Yes.
What did you use?
Oh, I used tons of broccoli.
I used peppers, onions, mushrooms.
Since I could use unlimited, I just piled it on there, and it really filled me, and it kept me all the way through lunch.
So let me give you and everyone at home some other ideas.
You can make huevos rancheros.
You just scramble up eggs with some red peppers and top it with two tablespoons of salsa, all on the plan.
Again, this is a way of just mixing it up and tempting your taste buds.
But this one I really like.
Caprese scramble.
You just scramble the eggs like you normally would, but do it with chopped tomatoes, some garlic, and then put some fresh basil on top.
These give very different savory flavors to eggs.
It helps mix it up so you can get through the two weeks on the program and still enjoy yourself.
Thanks, Joy.
Thank you.
Take care.
Next, the total 10 weight loss plan calls for protein in every meal.
And guess what?
Meat isn't just for dinner.
You're allowed to have meat for breakfast.
If you're missing your sausage and your bacon, you can make your own turkey breakfast sausage in the morning.
It's a combination.
Michelle's joining us.
How are you?
Hi, how are you?
How much weight have you lost?
12 and a half pounds.
On the planet.
So you tested out these ideas that I gave you.
How did they work for you?
They work awesome.
Actually, I love turkey.
I eat a lot of turkey with my meals.
And I need my meat in the morning, so this was perfect.
So here's what we decided to do.
I'm going to make it easy for everybody.
This is what you did at home as well.
You're going to make it ahead of time to store it in the fridge.
You start with a pound of lean ground turkey.
You can add a teaspoonful of each of these breakfast sausage spices.
So you're going to be sage and thyme, fennel seeds, garlic, rosemary.
You can put a little dash of red pepper flakes on there.
You cook it on the stovetop until it's brown.
And then you just store the stuff in the fridge.
That way during the week you heat up three to four ounces of whatever you desire.
It's about half a cup.
Put it in the microwave, heat it up, and you can eat it however you want to eat it.
So what did you eat the sausage with?
I either ate it with egg whites or hardball eggs.
So it would be more filling.
So it would carry me all the way through lunch.
You supercharged the protein.
Yes, I am.
And a lot of energy.
With hypothyroidism, I need it.
I think one of the things that people will enjoy about this program is if they have general aches or ailments of the nature you're discussing, it might be beneficial as well.
Let me give you some more ideas since you're here.
So you can put your sausage on top of a green that you have there on the program.
Spinach is a good example.
I like the poached egg idea.
Any egg, frankly, you can put on there with some asparagus.
You can add it to peppers and some onions with a little scrambled egg next to it.
Again, ways of mixing up your morning breakfast.
Remember, you don't get to have the meat again.
If you haven't, you know, some of your meat in the morning, you don't get it for lunch or dinner.
But you can take the smoothie that would have been for breakfast.
Right.
And then use that for your dessert later in the day.
Absolutely.
Which, again, is a way of just mixing up your day.
So for two weeks, you can stay on the program.
Okay, thank you.
Next, for all the cereal lovers out there, I have a solution.
Judy is here.
She's lost eight pounds on the plan, and she says she desperately misses oatmeal in the morning.
So I gave you an idea.
Here's the idea I gave Judy.
I asked her to make quinoa for breakfast.
It's a radical concept.
How did it work?
Yes, it worked surprisingly well.
I mixed all these ingredients as per your instructions, and it really came together well.
It gave me that cozy, warm feeling that you get, like oatmeal.
So here's why I want quinoa in your program.
It's the perfect mix of protein and fiber.
Right.
Folks, if I can give you raw materials that make sense, you'll make it every day and you'll be healthy.
And, you know, it just happens to be tasty for you because it really does taste good.
So just like the sausage mix that I just talked about, you prep the big batch in the weekend, then use it during the week.
You can have it for breakfast.
For example, you can, if you're quinoa, you get only one serve in a day, it's going to be your only use of it, so make the most out of it.
So if you're, one individual likes warm, you know, porridges, you can make a hot quinoa porridge, start with half a cup of Of the prepared quinoa that you've already made ahead of time, add some of the unsweetened almond milk that's on the program, and all the approved toppings that you want.
Like, for example, cinnamon works really well, frozen berries.
This is how you made it, right?
Yes, actually, I used the frozen berries, popped it in the microwave.
They were just soft enough to work with the warm cereal.
30 seconds in the microwave, not too much.
30 seconds, no.
Not too much.
And it looks like this.
And again, it deals with that desire.
It has something more filling.
Yes.
If you're a cold cereal lover, you can still use that same quinoa.
It's called quinoa crunch cereal.
This time, I want you to do something very clever.
You're going to take the quinoa from the fridge again.
You're going to mix it with some of the milk that you're allowed to have, the almond milk, some of the banana.
You're allowed half a banana.
And then some nuts to make it a bit crunchier.
And you usually get that savoriness that you desire.
It takes you to the right place.
Right.
And you get that crunch from hard cereal, cornflakes, that kind of...
You want a bonus tip?
I've got a little trick if you want.
Always want a bonus.
This is one you're really going to like.
So this is how you're going to make a muffin out of your quinoa that I want everyone to enjoy.
All you need is a muffin tin and these basic elements that are already part of the plan.
So if you're missing the bagels, if you're missing all the consistency of some of the things that you crave the most, you're going to make this savory breakfast muffin.
All you have to do, and I want you to taste one of these while I'm making this if you don't mind.
Okay, not.
Not at all.
I want you to confirm that it's as good as I'm going to say.
You take a cup of cooked quinoa.
Looks like this.
Then you're going to dice some veggies of your choice, any ones that you want.
You're going to take the zucchini, pepper, broccoli, whatever you desire, two full eggs and four egg whites.
Again, that fluffs it up a little bit.
Spices of your choice, you know, some salt and pepper to taste.
Then you spray the muffin tin ahead of time and then you put in the mixture and you let it bake there for 350 degrees for about half an hour.
You store these in the fridge.
That way, you know, pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, whenever you feel like you need to have one, and you have the perfect, plan-approved breakfast.
This is amazing.
It has the texture of a quiche, but it's got a lot of good flavor, and I love the way it pops on my mouth.
This is really good.
Thank you for describing it that way.
My complete Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan is on DrOz.com, along with all these easy 10-minute breakfast ideas.
Tomorrow, my friends, wait until you see the Total 10 snacks I've got for you.
I'll be right back.
Next.
Do you suffer from low energy and struggle to lose weight?
Your doctor has no answers, but you know there's something wrong.
The culprit could be a slow thyroid.
Stop feeling helpless.
Learn to recognize the symptoms.
The 10 day plan to rev up your thyroid.
next.
Today we're tackling the mysterious reason millions of you are suffering from low energy and struggling to lose weight.
The symptoms of a slow thyroid can be tricky to spot.
So I want you to listen to Florissa's story to see if her struggle sounds familiar.
When I look in the mirror and I see the physical changes that have been happening in my body, it makes me feel sad.
My body and my health have been unraveling and I don't know what to do about it.
In the last 12 months, I've gained a good amount of weight.
My clothes have become tighter and I'm not comfortable in my own skin and I just feel like there's nothing I can do.
I feel like the weight is just going to continue to pile on and, you know, I'm embarrassed.
I avoid food shopping, clothing shopping.
I do everything online.
My weight isn't the only thing that has been deteriorating.
My nails have become so brittle that I've actually turned to shellac because I'm afraid for them to be seen in the public.
I've noticed a lot of hair loss.
I've noticed that my hair has been thinning and so I just chopped it all off and I started wearing a wig.
I've started to pencil in my eyebrows to kind of thicken them up.
Things have gotten so bad that I've turned to olive oil to kind of help my eyebrows grow.
I'm 30 and I feel like I'm 60 years old.
The most frustrating thing is just being so tired every day when I wake up and having such low energy.
My job requires me to be on the go all the time and sometimes I can't keep up.
I need at least six energy drinks just to keep my eyes open.
I feel like I'm stuck.
I feel like I'm in quicksand.
I think all of this is happening because I have a slow thyroid but my doctor said that my levels were borderline but not to the point where I needed medication.
I know my body, and I know there has to be a reason why I'm going in slow motion, and I just want to be able to fix it.
So Floris is joining us.
You describe your body like somebody describe a car that they're stuck in.
It's stalling all the time and holding them back.
So what is this stopping you from doing, this feeling?
It's just stopping me from being physical.
It's stopping me from living a fruitful, fulfilling life.
And how are the changes that you're seeing, the things you mentioned, that little tape piece, affecting your self-esteem?
It's making me feel so low because I used to be so beautiful and so thin and now I just feel, I feel so sad and I feel so embarrassed.
First of all, you're still beautiful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I don't want this window dressing to cloud that issue.
That's a fundamental reality.
At least admit that to yourself.
But I get it.
I understand why you want to be proud of how you look.
You want to use it as an asset, as a weapon in life.
Yes, exactly.
So let me, if I can, take you back to the truth tube.
Let's walk through exactly what's happening so everyone's clear on this.
And I want to show you some of your numbers.
So come on back with me.
So you described a lot of symptoms, and I want people to remember these symptoms because they're incredibly important to figure out if you have a slow thyroid.
So you listed, for example, extreme exhaustion.
You listed weight gain, thin hair, dry skin, brittle nails.
Many people complain about some of these issues, but you have a bunch of them.
In fact, you have all these, and so do many other Americans, especially unexplained changes.
Yet, after going to a doctor with these symptoms, you weren't able to get an answer that was satisfying.
What was the most frustrating thing about that?
The most frustrating part about everything was the fact that I knew what was going on with my body.
And I know myself.
And, you know, my doctor just said that, you know, no medication was needed and that she's just going to kind of monitor what's going on.
But I still felt like something was wrong.
There's a reason why millions of people literally are walking around with slow thyroid and a lot of folks can check off these boxes here and maybe they can sort of begin to see themselves in your story and yet they're still sent home by their doctors.
I want to show you everybody at home why we under diagnose this issue.
Your doctor sent you for a test.
It's a blood test called the TSH, or thyroid stimulating hormone.
It's a very simple, easy test that tells us how your thyroid's doing.
So the thyroid stimulating hormone range, the average range for the average American, is between a.45 and a 4.5.
It's a pretty big range, but that's the average.
So your number was actually 1.6.
So that puts you right in the smack middle of that range.
So why is it that I think you've got a slow thyroid?
This is the big breakthrough, and I want this to be clear to you and everybody.
That average range up there is only that.
What shoe size are you?
What shoe size am I? Nine.
The average shoe size in America for women is between a six and a ten.
You're a nine, you're with an average.
But if you put on the shoes of someone who's wearing a seven, would you be comfortable?
Oh no, definitely not.
So you can still be average, but it might still be the wrong number for you.
Yeah.
Does that click?
Yes, that clicks.
I want you to think about that, especially with hormones.
When we try to test hormones, we're guessing where you are related to everybody else, but I got to figure out what it is for you.
And your body is telling you something.
And you're, I think, listening to your body.
Yes, definitely.
And so you're running into an impasse with your doctor.
So I'm proud of you for continuing the search to say something going on here.
So I have a plan for you.
Yes.
A plan that's going to help you and millions of others who have slow thyroid function based on your symptoms, because those are the best clues we have.
So you can go from slow motion, barely making it, to the fast rabbit speed you want.
Yes, sounds good.
How would that make you feel?
That would make me feel great.
Do we get rid of those symptoms?
Yes.
I'm ready.
So when we come back, I've got a 10-day plan to rev up everyone's thyroid.
All right, stay with us. - Next, do you find yourself dragging through life?
Overweight, lethargic.
An underactive thyroid could be the blame.
Reverse the symptoms with foods you should eat and foods to avoid.
The 10-day plan anyone can use to rev up your thyroid.
Next.
All new Oz.
The flu outbreak is spreading fast.
This year's shock may not be enough to protect you.
Dr. Oz has the flu survival kit you need now.
That's coming up tomorrow.
That's coming up tomorrow.
It could be what's opening and keeping a lot of folks overweight and dragging through life instead of just living it.
So, leading naturopathic doctor and best-selling author of The Supercharged Hormone Diet, Dr. Natasha Turner is here with the 10-day plan anyone can use to wrap up their thyroid.
So, Natasha, you say 29 million Americans, we believe, have slow thyroids.
Less than half are diagnosed correctly.
What gives?
I mean, these numbers are astronomical.
And you touched on the normal reference rates for the blood tests.
There's a big difference between normal and optimal.
I think that's so important.
But secondly, and many people, even some healthcare providers, don't realize that the thyroid is very impacted by all the hormones in the body.
There's a delicate interplay.
It's like a puzzle.
You can't just focus on your thyroid.
You have to restore the balance of all your hormones.
For example, if you're not coping with the stresses right in your life, or your hormones are beginning to change, which they do throughout our life, that could tag on to the thyroid issue that you're complaining about and can make sense.
So, how do you know you can benefit from the plan you're about to present all of us?
You know anybody, anybody could benefit from this plan, but if you have symptoms of feeling tired, you're losing hair, you're not losing weight when you're trying to lose weight, if you're gaining weight regardless of your exercise and diet habits, if you're constipated, Also, if you're depressed, all of these are signs and symptoms that your thyroid is not working optimally for you.
Floris is nodding her head like this until you ask about constipation.
I've had hypothyroidism for 20 years, so I know all these symptoms and no one needs to live like this.
No one does.
Let's get to the plan.
Good stuff.
Step one is to eliminate thyroid disruptors for the next 10 days.
So Dr. Turner, walk us through a thyroid disruptor if you can.
So thyroid disruptors are things that block the activity of thyroid hormone in the body.
It's like I love the analogy of being in a car and being trapped in a stalled car.
Certain foods suppress the activity of the thyroid hormone and cause symptoms.
So these are things like goitrogens, so cruciferous vegetables actually like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts.
They contain an ingredient that blocks the activity of the thyroid hormone and can cause enlargement of the thyroid to cause goiter.
So, the trick is that you can eat these foods, but you should steam them.
Always eat them cooked.
You're a big broccoli eater?
Not that I don't want you to eat broccoli.
I love broccoli.
Oh my God, I eat that with everything.
But steam it.
It's important.
Doing something that seems so smart and wise, and it turns out because it was raw, it could actually be holding back your thyroid.
Okay, give us some more goitrogens.
So the next is a common legume, the peanut.
So this nut is inflammatory, it's acidic, and it's also a goitrogen.
So I never recommend peanut or peanut butter in any of my diet plans.
Wow, so I can't have my peanut butter and jelly?
No, go for almond butter.
It's so much better.
Almond butter?
Yeah.
Peanut butter and jelly.
You were just talking about broccoli.
I love peanut butter and jelly.
Everyone loves peanut butter and jelly.
PB&J, that's right.
And then the next group of foods is high mercury fish.
I've actually seen patients reduce the dosage of their thyroid hormone when they rid the body from this heavy metal.
So there are big fish like tuna, swordfish, mahi-mahi.
You really want to avoid these completely.
That was my issue.
I had a lot of mercury, and I think it was affecting my thyroid.
It was a fourth category, which is a bit more controversial, debated, but it's processed soy.
Natasha, you argue this also interferes with thyroid function.
I do, and I talked in the beginning about the impact of other hormones on your thyroid.
And soys contain phytoestrogen, and that may block the activity of your thyroid hormone in the body.
So I recommend that you kind of eliminate these foods as much as possible, or definitely just stick to one serving a day.
That's sort of half the deal.
Those are the things we want to get out of your body.
Let's talk about what we're going to put into your body because the next step is to get four thyroid pick-me-ups in per day.
So if you don't mind, we've got them on the table here.
Walk us through.
Okay, so the first vitamin that I really want you to focus on getting every single day is vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for the activation of thyroid hormone in your body.
So I picked tomato juice and a really good choice is sweet potato.
You and I were looking at that earlier and wanting to eat it.
So have that.
We have iodine.
Very important.
Yes, so iodine is essential for the production of thyroid hormone, T4, thyroxine, by the thyroid gland.
If you don't have enough of this nutrient, you will not produce thyroid hormone.
So I recommend one serving of foods that are rich in iodine every day.
We brought some seafood, spirulina.
You can also do the kelp.
So just sprinkle those on your salads.
I use sea salt all the time.
So you mean I can't have sea salt only?
You can have a little bit of sea salt, but these types of foods are better choices for iodine.
Smart move.
What's tyrosine all about?
So tyrosine is an essential amino acid that is also involved in the production of thyroid hormone in the body.
It combines with the iodine to make the hormone.
And the best options are low-fat proteins.
So I brought cottage cheese, these are egg whites, and turkey.
Turkey's a really great source for tyrosine.
That I like.
You do?
I know.
You're eyeing the cottage cheese, too.
Yeah, I'm eyeing all this stuff.
This is not a painful experience.
This is just about knowing a little bit about how foods affect you.
Selenium is one of my favorite tips because it's so easy to get.
Yes, definitely.
And Brazil nuts are definitely tops.
Can I have one of these?
So pick one or two a day.
That will give you the selenium that helps the thyroid work better in your body.
So this is part of the plan to turn the thyroid on.
But to lose weight, you also have to obviously talk about the calories you're taking in.
You'll be able to burn more of them, but our Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Program is ideally created for someone like you.
You can do it quickly.
And we're talking about a 10-day plan right now for making sure your thyroid functions.
You can also partner it up with something that will actually get you to lose weight.
But while you're on the plan, Dr. Turner has an extra tip.
She wants you to eat a cheat meal.
On day 10. Oh, I love that.
I know.
I love that.
I love that.
Well, why is it?
What's so important about this cheat meal?
You know, this is probably something that sounds quite foreign to you, but look how happy it makes you.
And that's important for two reasons.
It's not only just for the psychological benefits of the cheat meal, but it's essential for your thyroid.
People who consistently eat the same amount of calories all the time or overly restrict their calories, your body adapts by dropping your active thyroid hormone, T3. So you have to add the cheat meal at least every seven to ten days to boost the production of that hormone and keep your thyroid revving.
Now, you've got to earn the cheat meal, which means you'll have to stick to the plan.
Anybody will have to stick to the plan.
But if you, I'll tell you, if you eat the cheat meal and your weight is up two to three days post the cheat meal, you have overdone.
The cheat meal.
However, with that in mind, I happen to have your cheat meal right here.
Oh yes, this is beautiful.
Please describe this to everybody.
This is what I have for lunch, dinner, you name it.
I'm on it.
This could affect your thyroid too.
Cheeseburger, fries, and ice cream.
So, listen, you get this on the 10th day if you do the other things that you want to do for yourself anyway.
What happens after day 10?
What's the next step?
So the most important thing is think of this as a test, okay?
Anybody can use this plan to optimize their thyroid hormone function.
You have to pay attention to how you feel.
We expect you to have an increase in your metabolism, increase in energy, the fog be lifting, but pay attention.
Don't get fixated just on the number.
This is a lifelong program that you can follow and we'll always have to keep adjusting.
That's the most important thing is pay attention to how you feel and what's optimal for you.
Dr. Turner's got a big practice in this area.
She's going to be your coach.
Yes, I'm going to coach you.
I'm so excited to meet you.
You're going to hug her and beat her up a little bit.
All right.
You'll find a full 10-day plan to rub your thyroid on DrRoz.com.
I'll be right back.
Thank you, Nick.
Coming up next, painful and debilitating.
If you've had chicken pox as a child, there's a chance you could get shingles as an adult.
Find out the surprising reasons you could develop shingles and what you need to do to protect yourself.
coming up next.
All right, show her hands.
How many of you have had the chicken pox?
Let me see everybody.
Yep, literally everybody's had the chicken pox.
If you didn't put your hands up, the rare ones out there, you probably just forgot you had them.
Well, if you had them, the only good thing about it was being told you'd never get them again.
But I want you to think again about that statement because about a half of you will fall victim to it all over again, and this time with a painful and possibly debilitating version.
It's called shingles.
Liz is here.
She actually had chicken pox as a child, like the rest of us.
What do you remember about it?
I remember feeling very itchy, and I was told not to scratch the pox marks so that I don't get any scars.
And so just trying to resist itching and...
My sister had chicken pox the same time I had chicken pox.
We were a year apart, so I was trying to scratch her chicken pox.
Which is sort of fun as a bigger brother, because I could tie her down.
Yeah.
Alright, so have you ever heard of shingles?
I have heard of the shingles, yes.
And what do you know about them?
The only thing that I know is that you could get them if you had the chicken pox.
But you've never had shingles?
I have never had the shingles.
Alright, come over here.
I'm going to quiz you.
First of all, have you understand what they are and explain why they happen and why you need to know about them.
Especially if you've had chicken pox.
So, here's two pictures.
One of these pictures is of somebody who has the chicken pox and one of these pictures is of someone who has shingles.
Can you tell the difference?
What do you think?
I cannot tell the difference.
Alright, so just point something out.
You see these little pots here?
Those actually are the pox.
They're blisters and they're full of virus.
This is what chicken pox looks like on the skin.
And again, since most of us were very young when we had it, we forget this, so now you'll know how to diagnose it in kids, although adults can get it as well.
The bigger thing to notice is what that is.
That's shingles.
So notice that you don't have that fluid-filled little blisters, but you've got this sort of change that you'll never forget again if you've had it, because it's very uncomfortable.
So let me explain why this happens.
So it all comes back to this day, when you had the little pox, little blisters on your skin.
And you're a kid, and the virus is all over your body, but the virus, when you beat it back, and ultimately you do, your immune system pushes it back into the base of the nerves in your spine.
And it sits there throughout your life.
So you become a big girl, then an adolescent, then a young woman, then an older woman, and that virus, all of us still have it hidden in the back of our nerves.
Something happens to us, the virus begins to escape along the path of the nerves, which is why you see it the way it's imaged along a very specific band on your skin, because it's tracking a nerve.
It comes out from one spot in your spine, follows that nerve along, and ultimately comes along the skin.
Now, when you look at it in a real picture, let me go from the animation to what it really looks like, you'll notice a couple things.
First of all, it's in that very narrow band, like it would follow a rib along, typically.
Here's the belly button down here, and you'll notice that it doesn't cross the midline either.
That's very important to recognize because in shingles, it won't cross the belly button.
In chicken pox, it's all over your body every which way.
So that's a good little clue for you to understand if you have it yourself or you see it in a friend.
Now, I've got a lot of other things to show everyone about this because it's important to understand what causes them and what you can do about them.
So I want you to pay attention if you can.
Okay.
Thanks, Liz.
Thank you.
Dr. Tracy Zivin-Cutella is here.
She's a specialist in infectious disease and internal medicine.
So what are the surprising reasons why we actually end up getting shingles later in life?
One of the first things is stress.
Stress actually decreases our immune system and reawakens the virus that's living inside of us.
So that virus I just showed everybody lies there asleep until you get total stressed out and you get pushed over the edge.
Why are we seeing so many younger people, people younger than the age of 50 even, getting shingles?
Yeah, we're seeing more younger people who are being treated for rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease or other medications that actually will decrease their immune system.
And in general, we're seeing younger population in higher stress kind of running themselves down.
And once you've had shingles, can you get it again?
You can get it again.
You can get it in a different location.
And that's why we recommend the vaccine to decrease your chance of getting it a second or third time.
So educate everybody.
At what age should we start getting it?
What's it like to get the vaccine?
The vaccine is age 50 and up, recommended.
You can get it almost anywhere.
And the biggest complaint is just a sore arm.
So big box stores have it, lots of places.
It's very convenient to get it right now.
So here's my recommendation.
Age 50 and up, think about getting the vaccine.
It is covered by insurance most of the time.
You can go to pharmacy most of the time to be able to get it, as well as save some steps.
If you want to get a shingles fact sheet, you can go to DrOz.com.
We'll be right back.
The flu outbreak is spreading fast.
This year's shot may not be enough to protect you.
Dr. Oz has the flu survival kit you need now.
That's coming up tomorrow. - Last time for In Case You Missed It, First, we talked about 10-minute breakfast ideas for the big Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan.
For all the cereal lovers out there, you can eat quinoa for breakfast.
The quinoa is new on my Total 10 Rapid Weight Loss Plan this year.
It's packed with fiber and it's a perfect source of all essential amino acids.
Talk about a power protein.
So, if you're an oatmeal eater, then you can have the hot quinoa porridge, or if you like the cereal, you know, kind of cold and crunchy, you can try quinoa crunch cereal.
They're both fantastic.
You can log on to DrOz.com to find these easy 10-minute breakfast recipes, along with my complete total 10 rapid weight loss plan.
Next, we talked about the reality that 29 million Americans have an underactive thyroid, but only about half are properly diagnosed.
So, we gave you a 10-day plan to rev up your thyroid without medications.
An important step to this is to eliminate the thyroid disruptors, foods that seem good for you, but if you've got a thyroid issue, you've got to be careful.
One is uncooked cruciferous vegetables.
Please cook them, the broccolis and the cauliflowers.
Cook them before you eat them if you're worried about your thyroid.
Peanuts and peanut butter, unfortunately, also tend to block the function of the thyroid.
High mercury fish, this is a big issue for me personally, messes with your hormones and all the hormones get involved when your thyroid's out of whack.
And it's been debated, but some experts caution that high doses of processed soy can interfere with thyroid function as well.
Next, we talked about some of the surprising reasons people develop shingles.
Now, I hope you know what they are, but these are painful and possibly debilitating ailments.
Most anyone who's been exposed to chickenpox virus, and by the time, you know, we're adults, all of us have been exposed, are at risk for shingles.
What causes it?
What brings it out?
So stress does it.
It weakens your immune system.
It can reawaken the virus.
Women have a bigger problem than men, and we think it's because of menopause and all the disruption that happens with that.
If you're over age 50, it's an issue, because as you get older, your immune system gets a bit weaker, so the virus can get back up again, and certain medications can affect your immune system as well.
So, how do you prevent it?
Well, if you're over 50, I recommend you get the shingles vaccine.
It's covered by most insurance companies, and you can get the vaccine in any drugstore or big-box pharmacy.
Finally, please be careful of dubious people online to make it seem like I'm endorsing their products, because I don't.
To see a full list of our trusted sponsorship partners, you can go to DrRoz.com.
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