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Dec. 21, 2023 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:34
Proof of Angels: Can They Heal Us? | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 90 | Full Episode
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Today on Dr. Oz, Proof of Angels.
How do you know if an angel is sending you a message?
A thought popped into my head.
I need to go and see Grandma.
And she passed away.
I consider it an angel sent us there.
How does science explain divine intervention?
Connect with angels that everyone at home can do.
Will it make you a believer?
What do you have to say to skeptics?
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Today, tales of faith, spirit, and divine intervention, all put together in a new book, an iconic brand of inspiration, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Touched by an Angel.
As a doctor, I'm intrigued by all of this.
While angels are universal, they're a part of art and literature, and they've been there for centuries in our consciousness, how does science explain the phenomenon?
Well, we're trying.
It's called neurotheology.
It's a neurological study of both the mind and the spirit.
It's a brand new field in science.
Let me show you how brain specialists try to do this.
Look at brain scans.
On brain scans, this top part is called the frontal lobe.
That's the place that regulates our mood, our emotions.
Now, this is a baseline scan.
So what happens when this scan Is of a believer who's actually connecting to the spiritual world.
Now notice what happens to that frontal part of the brain.
See the red here?
See how bright that is?
That means that part of the brain is really active, doing a lot of things.
It increases the feeling of wellness, of happiness.
But my curiosity is piqued by this.
I want to know what's really being experienced when people have these scans.
I want to hear more from people who say that angels exist.
They believe.
Gabriel Bernstein is here.
She actually wrote the foreword to the Chicken Soup of the Soul book.
We discussed this after us.
So why do you think angels exist?
We all have this connection to a divine energy that is within us, around us, and that energy is supporting us.
And we experience a lot of synchronistic moments throughout our life when we feel like, you know, we're thinking of somebody and that phone rings and that's the person that we were just thinking of.
And that's that guidance that's coming through us.
And the reason that it's there is to serve us and lead us and bring us to a place of faith and hope.
So you've collected some of these stories.
I'm fascinated by many of them.
One that was especially moving to Gabrielle was Natasha's story.
Take a look.
The horse is a dear friend of mine.
We bonded immediately as writers, as young women who came to New York with dreams.
Norris was brought up Southern Baptist.
She believed in an afterlife.
I was agnostic.
I needed proof.
Norris and I loved Gone with the Wind and both were obsessed by it.
I was Miss Scarlet and she was Miss Melanie.
And we decided that whoever was going to go beyond first, pass away, go to the spirit world, if it exists, we would use those as code words with each other to get in touch.
When I met Norris, she was already ill with cancer.
Norris passed away in 2010, after she had just finished her autobiography.
For several years, I was looking for the keyword scarlet, but nothing had happened.
So, three years after she'd passed away, I got a call from a publisher I'd worked for, saying, we have a book that's perfect for you, about a mom whose son had died in the Sandy Hook massacre.
They said, just call up the mom.
Her name's Scarlet.
When I heard her name was Scarlet, I got goosebumps.
She said, I want you to do the book.
And I said, but I can't.
I only called you because your name was Scarlet.
Then I explained the whole story about Norris.
And she said, my mother's sitting right here.
She'd just finished reading Norris's autobiography.
And I didn't know anybody who'd read her autobiography.
And I said, well, Scarlet, looks like I'm going to do your book.
If angels are spirits who love us, living in some sort of spirit world that we can't see, and they are guiding us, then my experience does lead me to believe that angels just might exist.
So, Gabriel, what do you have to say to folks who say that's just a coincidence?
Skeptics.
The skeptics, yes.
So I don't believe in coincidence.
I believe that when we experience synchronicity and signs like Scarlet, that is when we're being touched by an angel.
That's when we are receiving that guidance that is of our highest good.
And the more that we strengthen our faith in that guidance, the more we will receive it.
And when we chalk it up to coincidence, we weaken that connection.
We weaken that faith.
And so it's far more fun to live life with that synchronicity and that flow and that connection.
And it's faithful.
And how can angels actually help us heal?
As a doctor, that's the part of the story that I'm so captivated by.
Yeah, I love this.
Because I believe that our physical conditions really have a root cause spiritual condition.
And through the angel guidance that we receive, we can be led to heal those root cause conditions.
The anger, the resentment, the attack thoughts that we place upon ourselves.
And when we start to heal those conditions through the angel guidance that we receive, we lower our stress levels.
We relax.
And we have the capacity to have our physical being healed.
And you know this.
When we release stress, we heal.
Sometimes there's really miraculous physical healings that occur through angel guidance.
A scan comes back and the tumor is gone.
This does happen.
We've seen countless experiences of this.
But the most important, most beautiful divine thing is that through angel guidance, we come back to a place of peace.
And when we're in that place of peace, that's how we can experience great physical healing.
It's been a crush that many have used for, as I mentioned, centuries at the very beginning of the show.
It's interesting that people begin to tabulate it now, and we're beginning to study it scientifically.
A lot of other folks who also believe in the healing power of angels, like Monica.
This is her story.
My father had been admitted to the hospital.
He was in intensive care for three days.
I still remember the anesthesiologist saying to me, he's a very sick man, and that there was a great possibility he might not recover.
A few days later, a woman in a nurse's uniform came up to me and said, I just was with your dad.
He's doing great.
He's going to be fine.
I was so surprised by that because that was so different than anything any of the other medical professionals were telling me at the time.
And I was so taken aback that I checked her name tag.
Her name was Catherine.
For several days my father was in what I called a holding pattern where he was sort of not living and not dying.
But one day I came in and I was told by the doctors he had turned a corner.
He was off the respirator and within a few days he was improving.
Later, when my father and I spoke about Nurse Catherine, he said, that woman took such good care of me.
She said, don't worry, you're going to be just fine.
When I inquired about her, no one could identify Nurse Catherine as an employee of the hospital.
I really felt that she had to have been an angel sent from heaven to encourage me and to comfort and help my father through the healing process.
Do you think you have to believe in angels in order for them to help you?
We don't necessarily have to believe to receive, but the more that we believe, the more we expand our awareness of the presence of synchronicity and guidance.
So, one of the greatest ways to really open up our receptivity to experience that kind of guidance is through intentions and prayer.
And honestly, it's very simple.
Our willingness is all we need to receive that guidance.
And so through a daily intention of thank you, angels, for showing me where to go and what to do, that in itself can open us up to experiencing new ideas, or in this case, experiencing a nurse that wasn't really there.
Yeah, wasn't really there.
Let's get to one more example of a believer.
Joanna says she got a message from an angel.
Grandma Berta is my husband's grandmother, a very special lady, just a very loving, giving person.
She was in a nursing home, but she wasn't ill.
She was fine.
I had been working a very, very long day, and all I was planning to do was just simply come home.
As I got in the car and began to drive, a thought popped into my head, I need to go and see Grandma.
I thought, that's preposterous.
By the time you get there, it's going to be late.
But when I was going to turn off to come home, it was no longer a need.
It was an imperative.
You must go and see Grandma.
When I got there, she said, well, Lansake, look who's here!
She asked me how my husband was doing, and I said, well, he's just fine.
And when I looked up, there was my husband standing in the doorway.
As he came to give me a hug, he stated he had to see his grandmother.
It was like a need.
And it was time to go.
We told her we loved her and gave her a kiss.
A short time after I arrived back home, the phone rang and it was a nurse.
When they went in to check on her, she was not responsive and she passed away.
It didn't seem to make sense.
She wasn't ill.
She was fine.
I feel that that little bit of time we had with her was giving her love, feeling her love.
And I consider it an angel sent us there, so I'm hoping that angel also ushered her to that final place that we hope is filled with joy.
So Gabriel, how do you know if an angel is sending you a message?
There's a lot of really cool ways that angels will connect to us.
As we heard in the last story, there's that inner knowing.
That sense of, I have to do this, I don't know why.
I'm going to redirect, but I don't know why.
That sense of knowing.
A really neat way that we get guidance from angels is through numbers in sequence.
So if you see 1-1-1, that's a great opportunity to recognize that the angels are with you and you can change whatever it is that you're thinking in that moment and make it more high vibe and ask the angels for help.
Or 444 is the angels are guiding you.
Or 555 is fasten your seatbelt.
Something radical is going to happen.
So there's fun ways they connect.
Very sweet ways.
I'm intrigued by this.
Of course, it's something that's not...
They don't teach us in medical school.
No.
There's actually a way that we could connect with angels that everyone at home and our audience right now can do.
Yeah, and this is a fabulous exercise called free writing, which I often use to deepen my connection.
Okay.
So we all have the chance to do it now.
So, everyone gets the paper out if you can.
Folks at home, just grab a piece of paper.
Do it after the show if you don't have one ready to you.
And what do we do?
So, take an area of your life, whatever it is, where you feel you need some guidance.
And put that question at the top of the page.
I need help with...
Can you answer this question?
And request the guidance that you're receiving.
Then, right below the question, we're going to write, Thank you, angels, for guiding me to the highest good.
And then...
For five to ten minutes, just free write.
Let it out onto the page, whatever it is that you're thinking.
Even if you're writing, I'm hungry, I have groceries, your to-do list, get it on the page.
You want to let your logical mind just take the back seat and allow that intuitive mind to come forward and just open up that right brain's creative capacity.
And that happens through just stream of conscious writing.
And in time, what you'll see, hopefully, is this voice beyond yours, a voice of knowledge, a voice of wisdom, sometimes even a language that isn't your own, will come forward.
And sometimes, for me, I've had this many times, my hand begins to move on its own.
I don't even know what's happening.
My handwriting changes.
A voice that's not mine comes forward.
And divine wisdom can come through.
I love it.
I hope it's legible.
Sometimes it's not.
You have to go back and reread.
I want to hear from all of you who think you've had an experience that you can't explain.
You think maybe you were connected to an angel.
You can log on to Facebook.com slash Dr. Oz to share your stories.
Be right back.
Next.
For years, he's helped his contestants lose thousands of pounds.
Now The Biggest Loser's Bob Harper is here, revealing his best foolproof motivators to keep you focused on weight loss.
Easy ideas to help you curb your cravings from breakfast to dinner.
Next.
Total choice.
Lose weight without thinking about it.
Hundreds of meals to choose from that add up to your perfect calorie day.
Eat your way to weight loss success.
All new odds.
That's coming up tomorrow.
For 16 seasons, you've watched Bob Harper push contestants to their very best on The Biggest Loser, motivating them to shed more than 33,000 pounds.
Take a look.
It's only been 13 weeks and you've come such a long way.
I look in the mirror and I see changes in myself, but I never saw that.
That guy when I looked in the mirror.
If you can feel this paper, this paper is made of seeds, and we're going to plant these photographs.
No way.
Yes.
That was too cool.
So instead of burning our past, we're going to have a whole new beginning.
I love that tip.
Bob Harper is here to give you his best footwork motivators to keep on track.
Come on out, Bob.
Hi, my friend.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Bob's so good.
You know, you motivate folks by encouraging them.
So let's take a problem that we all face.
A devil on our shoulder whispering, hey, Give in.
Give up.
Indulge a little bit.
Just this once.
How do you quiet that voice?
Don't you hate that devil?
I mean, he's just right there just going, come on, all the time.
And I think that what you have to do is make sure that you don't skip any kind of meals.
You don't starve yourself because the more you starve yourself, the more power that devil has.
So eat throughout the course of your day so you're able to make wiser choices.
So Bob has some foolproof motivators that can help all of us stay on track.
The first foolproof motivator starts right here.
It's when you first get out of bed to take a complex carb breakfast with an espresso shot.
You say this is one meal, maybe the most important decision you make all day.
Yeah, I think that breakfast really sets the tone of the day, and I want you to have your complex carbohydrates In the morning because you're going to be able to burn them off throughout the course of the day.
So you take them in the morning, they have a very small impact on you, but throughout the day that carb impact grows and grows and gets bigger and bigger until it obliterates everything else you've done right during the day.
So give me some examples, your favorite carb ideas for the breakfast.
Yeah, well, I think that we have a waffle here.
I use it with Greek yogurt.
I want every single time you eat, you need to make sure that you have your protein, your fat, and your carbs at every single meal.
I'll have a whole egg, mix in a couple of egg whites to get more volume, have that with some oatmeal, berries, and I always go with espresso over coffee.
Why?
Because in these little cups, you can't put a lot of sugar and milk and all those things that I want you to really avoid.
That's a good idea.
And so you have that little espresso.
All right.
So you also recommended to me and some of the members of the audience to have them right there.
We each bring a photo of our splurge meal.
Here is mine.
This is a German chocolate cake.
Actually, Daphne makes me these things.
And you put that frosting on there, and it drips onto the cake and then onto my tongue and onto my throat.
How often do you eat this, though?
No, this is my birthday splurge.
But I don't do it the way you're about to describe.
I actually eat the whole cake and no one can touch it.
And it's better if the whole family makes it.
So let me go to the audience over here.
I want to hear from some audience members who also brought in their photos.
Who wants to go first?
Go first?
Okay, go ahead.
What's that?
I love spaghetti.
I love spaghetti and meatballs.
I love the taste, the texture.
Put a little sweet sauce on there, some garlic in the tomato sauce, some meatballs, sausages, and some cheese on top.
I could eat it for a week.
I could eat it for a week.
I'm getting tempted by this.
It's like food porn.
Coming from a long line of great southern cooks, my mom makes an apple crumb pie, and when she makes that, you bite into those crisp, fresh apples and the sweet, crumbled topping, and then top it with some homemade ice cream by dad, and it's great.
This may be a different kind of segment going on here.
What do you got there?
I have chocolate, and German chocolate cake is one of our birthday traditions, too, and once a year.
That's it.
But chocolate makes everything better.
Let me show you.
Hold yours all up.
Everyone's got their own little splurge.
Bob, what's the purpose of this exercise besides reminding us why we love these things?
Why do we have to frame our splurges?
People love their food, right?
They have all this history.
They have memories.
I want people to know that you can still have these foods.
Make sure that when you have your splurge meals that it is a meal and is not the whole day.
It's very important that you do that.
So walk us through the actual tactic.
Well, there's your whole cake.
There's your whole birthday cake right there.
Yeah, I'm a big believer in drinking plenty of water, staying hydrated.
So it's like, have that before your splurge meal.
So whatever that splurge meal is, that's what you get.
But when you're done with that, it's time for you to go right back into your healthy eating.
So here's a nice salad.
You've got an avocado for good fat.
You've got chicken for your protein.
The carbs here are going to be the squash and the salad.
So you have this ready ahead of time?
You gotta be planning ahead.
It's better to have it already planned out in your refrigerator, ready to go.
It's a big concept.
We've talked about splurge days in order to get your metabolism revved up.
It's a smart thought to maybe have just a splurge item, which is what the whole focus is on anyway.
Then you're on your program the rest of the time.
Okay, what other foolproof motivator?
And this is actually the hardest part for a lot of folks who want to lose weight.
It's the exercise.
And Bob says we have to shuffle our exercise regime.
That's not always easy to do.
Yeah, well, you know, I put together a workout one time on my show, and I used a deck of cards, and I show people that you don't need to have a gym to work out.
You can just get a deck of cards, have each one of the diamond, the clubs, the spades.
You want to be able to put those workouts with the cards, and then you can have a whole workout set up by just, like, pulling out a card and saying, okay, seven of diamonds.
For instance, seven of diamonds is going to be a downward dog.
I did all yoga poses for this workout.
So I do one?
How many do I do?
So what you're going to do, you pull out a seven of diamonds.
The diamond is a downward dog.
So get into a plank position.
Plank position.
So I start in the plank no matter what I'm doing.
Right.
And then go up into a downward dog.
So downward dog, that would be one time.
So he has to do seven of these.
So after he's done with those, look how good he looks.
Four...
Five.
And one more.
Six.
And seven.
Good.
Come on up.
So that's how the workout is set up.
And then you have to go through the whole deck.
So the next one, like a joker.
Oh, jeez, a joker.
A joker would be a minute of jumping jacks.
I'm not going to make you do that.
Please.
I'm not going to make you do that.
But that's what, it's all about, like, revving up your workout.
It's all about trying to do something a little different.
It's about, like, challenging yourself and not having to just, like, rely on going to a gym.
Love having you on, Bob.
Thanks, Doctor.
Bob Harper.
We have this jumpstart workout on DrIs.com.
And check out Bob on The Biggest Loser.
It airs Thursday at 8 o'clock at NBC.
I'll be right back.
Next, could you go all night without phones, tablets, and computers if it promised you more sleep?
Break the cycle of getting to bed late and improve your focus and memory.
The sleep curfew experiment for everyone.
Easy strategies to help make your sleep a priority.
Next. - It's 11:00 PM.
Despite your best efforts, you're just now getting into bed.
And you start to punish yourself, thinking it's going to be another night without enough sleep.
Does that sound like you?
Yes.
So today we're all going to change that.
I'm setting a sleep curfew so you can go to bed sooner.
So let me ask the audience, when was the last time you guys had a curfew?
You look young enough to have a curfew.
I have a curfew now.
You still have a curfew?
Where's mom?
Mom, do you have a curfew?
No.
No curfew?
No.
Not for five years.
Not for how many years?
35 years.
35 years.
Most of us hadn't thought about curfews in a long time.
I get it.
But I promise you, if you break the cycle of getting to bed too late, you're going to see improvements in your focus, your memory, and your intention.
Now, I know what I'm asking to do is hard.
I appreciate that.
So guess what I did?
I tested it on myself.
I put myself on a seat curfew.
Check out what happened.
A part of the challenge is to put away all my electronics after 8 p.m., which it's 8 p.m.
now.
So I've got a little box.
I'm going to put my phone in here.
There's my iPad.
Computer goes in there.
Put this outside the room.
Without all the electronic temptations, I had plenty of time to exfoliate.
Much junk was on my face.
That's pretty dirty.
Do yoga.
You do have to wonder if you have any emails.
Cuddle with the cat.
Read.
It's my first real book in a long time.
Check.
I'm still on top of the phone.
And snack.
I was a little bit reluctant to not check my phone, but this ingredient made it all much easier.
And I still manage to get to sleep by 10.30pm.
It's 10 of 7. That means I slept over 8 hours.
That's pretty cool.
That's a good trade-off.
That is an absolutely true story.
You saw it unembellished.
She actually enjoyed the time a lot.
She said, I spent more time with her and she actually made that sangria with me.
That was my little bribe that I got for doing it.
The kids weren't so amenable to doing the curfew, but we'll give them some time.
I asked Colleen to do the exact same as I was forced to do.
She's a busy mother of four who has trouble getting into bed before midnight.
This is a picture of Colleen's sleep curfew box, much fuller than mine.
What's the hardest piece of technology for you to give up?
For me, the hardest was definitely the Blackberry.
So what did you do after the initial panic at 8 o'clock when you put the stuff away until whatever time you went to bed, 11 o'clock let's say?
Well, first, you know, and I also had my entire family do it.
So my husband and my four kids, we all did it.
We all put it in the box.
And I will say we spent a lot of quality time together as a family.
I did things that I otherwise wouldn't have done.
I walked the dog, which I normally would open the door and let him out.
I walked the dog and my 13-year-old son came with me.
My five-year-old put a show on for us and we actually all paid attention.
So we did a lot of quality.
And how was your sleep that night?
My sleep that night was certainly better, and I think part of that was because my kids were involved.
Listen, this is all sort of intuitive.
You probably would expect this.
If you go out camping in the wild, you probably have the same experience, but we gotta do it in our own world.
So, you wanna get a steep curfew box.
Here's why it works.
Any simple little box will do.
It creates a physical barrier between you And your friends and all the other co-workers, collaborators, people who might want to get in your way of making sleep the appropriate priority.
So I've got an easy little trick.
I was very worried about the phone for me because I didn't realize if I could turn off or set limitations.
This is actually something pretty cool.
You can create a Do Not Disturb.
See, it's actually on the homepage of the iPhones.
There's Do Not Disturb.
You can schedule it.
See here?
Schedule it like that.
And you can interest the allow calls.
See it says allow calls for favorites here.
So you can kick on that.
Your mom.
Your mom.
Nobody.
Everybody, which doesn't count by the way.
So but you got favorites for me would be the operator at the hospital.
Mom would be a good example.
You'd allow it to.
Very straightforward and it works pretty elegantly.
The next component to creating a pretty effective curfew is to create a one, two, three list.
So before the show, I asked you a question.
There's a reason for it.
I wanted to know what your major concerns were.
What I want you to do is to categorize them into those three numbers.
Number one is pretty straight.
I want you all to make a list like this, by the way.
It's simple to do.
Number one are things you absolutely have to do.
They're really important.
Some important bill you've got to pay, for example.
Number two would be nice to get done if you could do it.
And number three is, at some point, when you have time, you'll make it happen.
So come on over here.
This is a list of Colleen's to-dos.
Please confirm they're your list appropriately.
That is my list.
Now, do the exercise if you don't mind.
Put a one, a two, or a three in the box.
There's a chalk right down here.
Okay.
That identifies us.
So, how important is it driving all kids to and from sports practice?
Well, if they don't go to practice, they may not play, and I can't be responsible for that.
All right.
So, I'd say grocery list is two.
My mother-in-law, she knows I love her, but she knows I'm also not capable of sending all the cards all the time.
You're going to see this show, you know.
She knows I love her.
Do the laundry.
I'd say flu shot appointments.
I think those are actually kind of important and I'm behind.
This is the gift that keeps on giving.
Clean the window the dog breathed on.
So I'll get that tomorrow.
Get gas.
We're not going anywhere if that's not done.
I thought I said give gas.
Get gas.
Definitely get gas.
It's bedtime.
It happens sometimes.
And mold.
And it would be good for Patrick to have a good mouthpiece.
So here's the deal.
You've made a list that a lot of us in our minds will start playing with.
The ones that are the most urgent, that one, that one, that one, you have four.
You might have to triage it down a little bit.
But you want to focus in on the ones that really do matter.
Write them down and be done with them.
The twos will graduate tomorrow to become more important.
But at least start to make a list that's small enough that you can actually check them off in your mind mentally and let them go.
The next strategy, come on over here, is to create a bedtime, a sleep curfew.
Now, we joked about it earlier, but most women don't realize that they have about 15 minutes of pretty intense work to do before they go to bed.
Absolutely.
The contact lenses have got to come out, the makeup's got to come off, brushing their teeth, some smart milder chores.
So, I want you to think about that 15 minutes as your golden period.
Your kids have set bedtimes?
They do.
I don't enforce that as much as I should, but they do have set bedtimes about 9, 30, 10 o'clock.
I ask them to go up.
Okay.
So there's four of them.
It's hard to do anything with four kids.
That's correct.
Do you have a bedtime?
A curfew time?
No, because it depends on them.
And if they get to bed earlier, I may get to bed earlier.
Can we all do an exercise together?
We were joking about this earlier with our mom and daughter over there.
Kids aren't the only ones who should have bedtimes.
Bedtimes are for adults also.
So it's all together we're going to say bedtimes aren't just for kids.
Are you ready?
Bedtimes aren't just for kids.
We've got to break that mindset.
We suffer as much as they do when we don't get the sleep that we need.
If we're treasuring their lives and it's important for them, it's important for us.
So you've got the 15-minute roll.
You'll follow through on that.
All you guys can make your 15 minutes come alive for you.
And there's lots more about this, by the way, we're going to pay attention to because it affects your real age, how old your body thinks you are.
For more of those details, you can go to DrRoz.com.
I'll be right back.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Coming up next.
Have you ever had a cough that won't quit?
A persistent cough is more than just an annoyance.
It can ruin your sleep and leave you feeling exhausted.
Find out the most common causes and what you can do to conquer your chronic cough.
Coming up next.
Total choice.
Lose weight without thinking about it.
Hundreds of meals to choose from that add up to your perfect calorie day.
Eat your way to weight loss success.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Have you ever had a cough that wouldn't quit?
It ruins your sleep, it disrupts your conversations, interrupts the TV you're watching.
But today I'm going to show you how to conquer your chronic cough.
So if you've been coughing for more than three weeks, there may be a hidden reason for it.
Megan is an example.
She created a cough count logging when she coughs during the day.
Thank you for doing that for us.
You're welcome.
So this is what you gave us.
This is like, you know, I think an accurate reflection, right?
So not bad in the morning, okay in the afternoon.
You seem like you're a nighttime cougher.
Yes.
How does it affect your sleep?
Well, when I lay down, I can fall asleep pretty quickly.
And then I notice that I'm waking up, coughing, coughing, coughing, coughing, can't sleep.
Then I have to get up, go to work, I'm tired.
And there's not enough makeup in the world to cover these bags in dark circles.
Help me.
I will help you.
So you gave me a very important clue.
I think everyone ought to do this little exercise, figure out when you cough the most.
Because you're a nighttime cougher, I bet you that probably you have an element of a post-nasal drip.
Okay.
Because when you lie down at night, it drips back there, drip, drip, drip, and it starts to irritate your vocal cords and your bronchus, so you get the coughing.
So here's what's happening.
Think of your nose like it's a faucet.
Okay.
So inside that faucet, things happen.
For example, viruses get in there, allergies get in there.
When they go in there, they irritate the faucet.
It responds by dripping a little bit of this really thick mucus that, again, goes down into your windpipe.
Or a little later on, you might have some dust gets in there or some dry air, especially now in the wintertime.
Right.
Again, it makes that mucus drip a little bit more than it would have.
Okay.
So it tickles your throat.
Right.
And by doing that, your body, when it feels that tickling, wants to get rid of that mucus, so it tries to cough it up.
Okay.
So what you're describing and the timing makes me think about this.
So the question is, what are you going to do about it so you don't have to use makeup to cover the bags?
Exactly.
All right.
So I've got something that you're going to love.
It's called a time steamer.
Okay.
Here's the reason you want this.
You want the steam anyway because it loosens up the mucus so it won't hang out there all day long and bother you at night.
Okay.
So you take two tablespoons of thyme.
Mm-hmm.
Pour it in there.
Go ahead and pour the water in there.
And you can pour it in and leave it there for about 10 minutes.
That way it'll seep.
And you want it to steep for enough time that you'll actually get the thyme into the water.
But in the meantime...
Deep inhalation of that.
It's a little bit of a pungent odor, but it actually opens up the airways.
It'll help relax the muscles in your throat a little bit, which is one of the reasons we think it works.
Okay.
And then after you've seeped it for about 10 minutes, strain it and drink it.
All right.
Would you try that tonight to go to sleep?
Sure, absolutely.
I bet you'll enjoy it.
Anything to get that cough going away.
Good luck to you.
Thank you.
Now, I want you to listen carefully to this next cough.
Listen carefully.
All right, now think about this.
It's a dry cough.
You don't hear that wet rattle that sometimes folks get.
When you're talking about dry cough, it's different from the wet cough we just heard about.
Heather's a dry cough.
Is that correct?
It is, Dr. Oz.
Sometimes, it happens a lot of times when I'm eating, but especially when I'm in a restaurant and I start that coughing, and then it can be very embarrassing because people think I'm choking.
Yes.
So, Dr. Oz, please help me stop this cough.
Come over and try to save your life.
Yeah.
So dry crops are often a type of reflux symptom.
So for people who have that problem, I recommend licorice.
Really?
Not the licorice you buy in the store that's black and twizzled.
It's a licorice tablet.
You can take it about a half an hour before a meal.
And the best kind is called DGL licorice.
It is pure form that helps coat the stomach.
So it helps deal with acid issues in general.
We think it might be beneficial as well.
Great!
Give it a try, see if you like the taste.
It actually tastes sort of like a candy, so most people don't mind taking it.
And again, you want to chew one or two tablets about a half hour before your meals.
It's really good.
Tastes good.
Anything that tastes like candy.
That's right, it puts you over the top.
Instead of the candy licorice, you get the real licorice, but it tastes like candy anyway.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Finally, Renee's here.
Now you cannot figure out what is causing your problem.
You think it's a cold maybe?
I don't know if it's a cold or if it's an allergy.
There's no consistency with the cough, you know, so I can't figure it out.
Well, it might be that it's not what it sounds like or what time of day it happens, but how long it happens for.
Okay.
So roughly how long have you had the problem?
Generally, again, the inconsistency of it, but it goes on for about a month.
A month.
All right.
So rule it up for everybody.
It's a two-week rule.
If it's less than two weeks since you've had your cough, it's probably a cold.
Okay.
If it's more than two weeks, most colds don't last that long, it's going to be more like mild asthma or allergies.
Okay.
Before everyone panics, there are things we can do to that sort of put you over the edge and make you more comfortable dealing with these issues.
So I want you to try these from now on.
These are available all over the country now.
Okay.
They're actually buckwheat honey straws.
Give it a taste.
We actually use this in my home.
It soothes your throat, and by soothing your throat, it coats it so that the irritation that's already there left over from a cold or from allergies or from asthma won't bother quite as much.
And the buckwheat honey is a little dark.
This is actually the real color of it.
It looks like that, everybody.
See how dark it is?
Yeah.
But other honeys probably work.
This has just been studied the best.
And I want it to be raw honey, not pasturized.
And I use this for my kids at home.
I've got one.
My youngest one, Oliver, has been confident.
I can give him honey now.
It sort of soothes the whole process.
So at least he can get to sleep and not bother the rest of us.
Yeah, and it tastes pretty good.
Not bad.
Yeah.
Touche.
All right.
Listen, if you're worried about your symptoms in general, you can download the AskMD app on DrRoz.com.
It can help you figure out whether those various health problems you're having are worth worrying about.
All you've got to do is answer a few quick questions.
I'll be right back.
Coming up next.
Is stress causing your body to have pain?
An ancient belief system could be your answer to relieving it.
From headaches to backaches to stomachaches, learn what you can do to restore your chakras and end your stress.
coming up next. - Shock rise.
It's a Sanskrit word that means wheel.
And a billion people across the globe believe your body has seven chakras that hold the key to your health and well-being.
But if your chakras are blocked or they're out of balance, you could be prone to poor health and stress.
Today, what you can do to restore your chakras and end your stress.
Joining me to show you exactly how is Dr. Khouryad Chowdhury.
She's a neurologist.
She's also a believer in the power of chakras.
Now, why is that?
Western-trained doctor, but believing in a tradition that's very Eastern.
Well as a neurologist I already studied the circuitry of the body in terms of the neurons.
But you're more than just nerves and I wanted to understand how does the rest of the body affect the brain?
And the chakra system helps to explain these interconnections.
So if you think about the way that electricity flows in a house and let's pretend that The nervous system is that lamp in your living room, and your digestive system is that blender in your kitchen.
If one of these items malfunctions and causes a shortage in the electrical system in your house, none of them will work.
Well, the chakra system is kind of a similar explanation.
For example, let's say that something was to happen with the solar plexus chakra, and that's represented by this yellow color, and there was an obstruction, and there was less flow.
What would happen is the other chakras would begin to dim.
It makes sense that they're all interconnected.
So I raise a lot of folks who are skeptical, and I get that, but I think this ancient belief system has more in common with modern medicine than many think.
Dr. Chowdhury says that when you are stressed, your body's chakras come out of balance, and they'll present themselves in three very common ways.
So let's get to the first one, which is a stomach ache, which many folks complain about, but they don't quite understand how it fits into the rest of the system.
So if you've got a stomach ache, let's say brought on by stress, what are the solutions?
What chakras blocked?
So the chakra involved is the solar plexus chakra, which is located just above the navel, and it's represented by the color yellow.
And this chakra is all about digestive energy.
And in the chakra system, we actually link digestive energy to the energy of the sun, which is why it's called the solar plexus.
What's the treatment if you understand the chakra system?
So what you want to do is manage the energy.
So it depends on whether you have too much digestive fire, which is the metabolic energy for breaking down your foods, or too little.
If you have too little, a great simple solution is just ginger tea.
And you just make a thermos full of this, sip this throughout the day, and this will help with things like bloating and constipation where there's too little digestive fire because ginger is heating.
However, if you're on the opposite spectrum, suffering from nausea and diarrhea, you want to actually cool down the solar plexus chakra and reduce the heat.
And so then we would use something like coconut water, which is naturally cooling and actually helps to reduce the inflammation in your GI tract.
I love this stuff.
All right, let me test it on the audience.
Let me go back here.
I want to talk to someone who gets headaches related to stress.
Headaches related to stress.
Show of hands.
A couple people.
Here, come on up, man.
What's your first name?
Rhonda.
Rhonda.
So describe what happens to you.
Well, I get intense headaches just from everyday stress.
You know, I'm a mother.
I go to school full time.
I often, with the job, I have several.
I have two.
So I have two.
Plus the kids.
Yes, plus the kids.
Exactly.
When you get the headaches, how long do they last?
At times they last maybe a few hours, but they can actually go into the evening and the next day.
Would you be interested in a solution that addresses the chakras?
I would.
The root cause, so to speak.
I would.
So, Dr. Charity, when the chakra is out of bounds and leaves you with headaches after stress, what specifically is going on?
So this one typically involves the third eye chakra, and it's located right between the brows.
And the color for this is typically indigo.
And what happens here, because this is a dynamic system, so it's not like there's just one teeny tiny problem, but what happens here is the energy is actually flowing up too much.
You're literally in your head too much.
You're thinking about, you know, your kids, your two jobs, going to school.
And so what we have to do is actually pull that energy downward.
So you're all blue now for a reason, not an accident.
So how do you unblock the blueness that's afflicting the audience and causing our headaches?
So a simple way to approach this is just eating more root vegetables.
Add these in on a daily basis, but especially once you're under more stress, start eating more of them.
Alright, the next stressor has to do something that I asked everyone on DrOz.com.
I wanted to know how stress manifests in your body.
And about half of you, 49% said back and shoulder pain.
So why does it that stress affects your back so much?
So, as a neurologist, when we look at the spinal cord, it is the biggest relay center of the entire body.
So you've just got a lot of traffic going up and down that spine.
And even the tiniest little obstruction with that much traffic will cause problems.
So what's the chakra that's blocked?
Well, for lower back pain in particular, it's the root chakra.
And the root chakra is at the base of the spine.
The color is red.
And when I think of back pain, I think of colon problems.
And so what we need to do then is actually help normalize colon health to treat the back pain.
So what do you get for the colon?
A really simple solution is just taking some psyllium fiber.
Because, you know, we know more and more about the importance of gut bacteria and this balance between good and bad bacteria, how it can cause inflammation all over the body.
So just one teaspoon and eight-ounce glasses of warm water, lukewarm water, at bedtime for a month, and you'll start noticing improvement in your back pain.
I love how you married the West and the East.
Very nicely done.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Be right back.
It's the next new way to lose weight fast.
Total Choice.
A brand new program for everyone who wants to lose weight without thinking about it.
Hundreds of mouth-watering meals to choose from.
You can't make a mistake on this plan.
No matter what you pick, it all adds up to a perfect calorie day.
Eat your way to weight loss success.
I haven't eaten the things that were on that menu in years.
All new odds.
That's coming up tomorrow.
If you've got a cat or a dog, you know what this is, right?
This little collar.
It's affectionately known as the cone of shame.
It's designed to prevent your fluffy friend from eating things they are not supposed to.
I had to put this on Rosie for about a year, believe it or not.
Well, there may be a new use for this for you.
So here's the cartoon.
You got a woman who's wearing one of these collars.
She runs into her friend on the street.
She says, it's the latest thing.
It's called the veterinarian diet.
Oh, come on.
Yeah, it's good stuff.
Listen, it's silly to restrict yourself from eating because it actually holds you back from long-term weight loss, so keep this for the pets in your life.
Now it's time for In Case You Missed It.
First, the foolproof motivators to help you tackle weight loss obstacles are all out there, but keeping motivated is an important one.
Exercise, of course, being critical, but nothing kills the fitness regimen like boredom, so to stay motivated, I want you to shuffle your exercise together.
Daily.
Here's how you're going to do it.
You're going to have a deck of cards and assign each card to a specific exercise.
So let's try it.
Let's say you flip over a diamond, right?
That's you're going to do a downward dog.
If you pull a seven of diamonds like I just did, you do seven downward dogs.
Hearts mean bridges or any other exercise you want.
Spades can be, let's say, a warrior one if you're doing yoga.
Clubs can be push-ups.
And the joker is a tough one.
How about a minute of jumping jacks?
Then you shuffle the deck every day.
As you shuffle the deck, you have a different exercise routine.
Next, we restored your chakras to beat stress.
One big way that our body reacts to stress is through headaches.
Now here's the ancient tradition around this reality.
The argument is that stress headaches are caused by energy moving upwards to your head and throw off that third eye chakra and you need that to restore balance in your life.
And if you don't have it balanced, you get headaches.
So to move the energy back down towards the root, towards the base, you have to eat root vegetables.
So, for example, beets and yams and radishes, especially if you feel a headache on the horizon, this should become part of your diet.
Give it a shot.
Next, how do you conquer your chronic stress and your chronic cough together?
Well, the stress I talked about, let's talk about the cough now.
If you've been coughing nonstop at night, you may actually be suffering from post-nasal drip.
You can try a thyme steamer.
Here's how it works.
The steam will help loosen up any mucus that's in your sinuses, in the back of your throat.
And the thyme may help relax the throat muscles that are involved with coughing.
So here's how you do it.
Take two teaspoonfuls of crushed thyme leaves.
You put them in a cup of boiling water.
Then you inhale this steam.
So...
You'll feel it just open up your sinuses, and after about 10 minutes, you strain off the fluid into a little teacup, and you are good to go.
You have a little homemade remedy that works pretty effectively for sinuses.
Finally, let me leave you with a little warning.
Be careful of dubious people online that make it seem like I'm endorsing their products, because I don't.
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