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Jan. 2, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:38
Dr. Oz Goes Undercover: Retailer's Secrets Exposed | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 104 | Full Episode
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Today, Oz goes undercover, exposing retailers' dirty secrets.
Some of the biggest stores reselling used underwear.
How it can make you sick and how to stay safe.
Plus, battling chronic pain?
This show may change your life.
Oz's three-step plan to end your agony.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
So, four years ago, Today Show investigative correspondent Jeff Rossin turned the lingerie industry upside down when he revealed some of the nation's biggest stores were reselling used underwear.
Think about that.
Now, Jeff went back to those same stores to see if they changed their ways.
And what he found will shock you.
Here's a version Jeff prepared for us from his Today Show report.
We're back!
Our Rawson Reports team shopping for underwear at some of the country's biggest brand name stores.
And what our hidden cameras find this time is enough to gross you out.
In 2010, our NBC News investigation uncovered a dirty little secret about new underwear.
Major retail chains taking back used underwear and putting them back on the shelves as new.
At the time when we caught them, the stores told us they'd re-educate their staffs.
So today, four years later, we're buying underwear and swimsuits at those same chains.
Thank you so much.
And putting them to the test again.
Did they learn their lesson?
We're doing the exact same thing as last time.
We're ripping off all the tags and I'm using this marker to put two little black dots Right on the label.
That way we know it's ours.
Right away, good news.
We return our used underwear to one of the nation's largest chains and they end up in a clear plastic bag with other used items.
There you go.
Thank you.
At a major upscale department store, the clerk takes the underwear to a back room never to be seen again.
Two other big chains come out clean too.
But things are about to get gross all over again.
At one well-known lingerie chain, we return two pairs of underwear.
Thank you.
The sales clerk quickly tosses them behind her, and it doesn't take long to find them right back on the table for sale as new.
Remember, we know it's our underwear from those two little black dots on the tag.
Now, on to another national outlet, and things get even worse.
We buy a set of underwear and the swimsuit.
Don't forget, all the tags are off.
We even remove the protective liner from the bathing suit so it looks used.
When we return them, the saleswoman wastes no time putting on new tags.
We watch our bikini and underwear, cart it out and put right back on the racks, as if they were brand new.
But the saleswoman assures our producer that never happens.
"Like use use, no we can go with that." "Okay." "Like we can tell that it's used." "So if it looks like it's been used, you won't sell it, right?" "Think again." But what we found at one of the nation's big box stores could be the most blatant.
Here's our producer returning the underwear.
And watch this.
The sales clerk staples new tags on right in front of us.
She tosses the used underwear into a cart full of returns.
The associate going through them seems to realize they've been used.
But the very next day, guess where we find our underwear?
Right back on the rack for sale.
We buy them again so you don't.
In a statement to NBC News, the big box acknowledging our results are absolutely unacceptable.
The well-known lingerie chain telling us what we found on our hidden camera is a clear violation of our policy.
And our third national outlet says they're disappointed their procedures weren't followed.
And all three companies, again, promising to re-educate their staffs.
But we've heard that before.
Jack Frost is here.
Now, you originally investigated this four years ago.
Are you surprised that this late after that original event, we're spying the exact same thing?
Yeah, we embarrassed these stories on national television, on NBC's Today Show four years ago, and we did this series called We're Back, because I wanted to see.
Everyone accuses us always of just kind of dropping the ball and wiping our hands of it to see if we actually made a difference here.
And by the way, some of the stories we checked, Did stop doing it.
But I was shocked that we were able to find these stores still doing the same exact thing.
Four years ago, these stores told us we're going to re-educate our staff, but clearly that hasn't happened here.
Who polices this kind of stuff?
Who looks to see if the lingerie has been recycled?
Nobody, is what we found in our investigation.
I mean, you'd think that the staff would just know well enough not to do this.
From the gross factor alone, that you don't take underwear back.
First of all, who returns underwear?
But if they do, you never know.
You could be buying it, and there is really no policing.
They're depending on the staff, which is the last line of defense, who clearly didn't come through in these cases.
So I want to get some of the audience's reactions.
I must say, I was watching you throughout this process, and there are some people who are just sort of surprising.
Let me start with you.
Your mouth must be dry because your jaw was open the whole time.
What's your name?
My name is Lorraine.
So what did you think about this investigation?
I am appalled, and my mouth is dry, because I couldn't believe that 3 for 30 meant dirty at my favorite intimate apparel provider.
So I'm actually appalled that this actually has been featured before, and like you said, they actually haven't done anything to change the way that they're organizing their business.
So it's disappointing as a consumer.
Thank you very much.
Let me go to you, actually.
This brings into question the issue of trust.
How does it change the interaction you might have looking at lingerie going forward?
I'll be looking for that black marker.
Looking for that black marker?
Yes, sir.
The two dots?
Those two dots, definitely.
It's something that I will be, you know, totally careful now when purchasing lingerie.
And I know where not to go now.
Alright, so when we talk about this whole process, we realize it's not just one store.
We're seeing it systematically.
So Jeff, is there any way for any of these wonderful people who are appropriately aghast in the situation to know if the suit that they're buying, bathing suit, lingerie, apparel, whatever, has actually been worn before?
Two different answers.
For the underwear, there really is no way to tell, because as you saw, they re-tag it just like they would tag something that's brand new, and they often do a pretty good job of it, so you can't tell.
With bathing suits, this is a great tip.
Check to make sure that protective liner on the bikini bottom is still there.
If it's been ripped off, that's a no-no.
Don't only not buy it, but bring it to the store manager and say, what's going on here?
This is used.
Concern I have in particular about these types of apparel is that fecal matter gets down there.
Other things get down there as well.
There's a picture, by the way, of what E. coli might look like.
This can cause urinary tract infections, worse.
I mean, you don't want to share that bodily fluid that may have been deposited there by somebody else.
So why take the chance?
So is it just underwear and bathing suits?
What are the types of apparel you're concerned about?
Those are the extreme examples, of course, the sort of biggest ooh factor because of the graphic you just showed.
But really, it's anything that comes in contact with your skin.
It's a t-shirt.
It's a hat.
What if the person before you had lice?
You know, it's jeans.
It's socks.
It's really anything.
The key is you want to wash this stuff.
Anything you buy, underwear, bathing suits, anything before you wear it.
You do a lot of these types of undercover work.
And I'm just curious, how do stores react when they see you coming down the road, Adam?
Well, that's the beauty of it.
They don't see us coming.
We use hidden cameras, which eliminates the entire he said, she said thing, right?
I mean, I'm sure all of you would act differently if a camera was in your face and you knew we were coming.
Versus if you were just going along your regular routine, and that's why we use it in cameras.
The document was really going on out there.
Then we go to the stores afterwards, and we say, we have you lock, stock, and barrel.
We have this on tape.
There's no he said, she said.
There's no the store telling us we're wrong.
We have it.
And in this case, all of the stores admitted their wrongdoing.
So a lot of members of the audience are voicing concern.
I'd love to give some action steps.
So come on over.
We've got some tips that maybe you can take advantage of.
And give us the bottom line.
There's really no way to tell if something has been used in return.
So what should we do?
This is the very, very easy solution if you're paranoid.
Like that woman said, she's going to keep buying online from now on.
You can still go to the store, but buy prepackaged underwear.
That way you know it's sealed.
It was made like this in the factory.
There's no staff member to mishandle this or make a mistake and accidentally take it back.
So the prepackaged stuff is everywhere, men and women.
And what if you buy it and it's open?
Sometimes it's less expensive that way.
Well, where are you shopping?
Mine might happen to come prepackaged, but I buy only white.
I mean, for example, I've heard that washing it in hot water makes a difference.
Yeah, you should always wash.
That is true.
You should immediately wash the stuff.
I would say even wash it to be extra careful, even when you open it out of a package, but at least you have that added layer of protection.
Always wash it.
Yeah, I wash it for comfort reasons.
I don't like the cardboardy feeling against my skin, but now I have an additional even better reason to do it.
Jeff, I love your work.
Thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Thanks.
Next, do you suffer from constant pain?
Has it affected your life, your job, and your emotional well-being?
You don't have to live that way.
Learn how to manage your pain and lead an active life again.
The three-step plan to end chronic pain.
Next.
Defy your age without surgery.
I wake up every day feeling like I'm 20. Dr. Oz reveals viewers' secrets.
In the Philippines, they don't have cellulite.
To make you look and feel 10 years younger.
That's coming up tomorrow on Dr. Oz.
If you're one of the 100 million people who have been in constant pain for six months or longer, today's show might change your life.
Nadia, Ceci, and Casey are all joining me.
They all suffer from chronic pain.
So Nadia, what's hurting you?
Well, for about 10 years I've experienced severe pain throughout my entire body, more concentrated in my knees, my hips, and my neck.
And Ceci, how long have you been suffering from chronic pain?
Going back about 8 years, but most recently about 10 months, it's been flaring up.
Or comes and goes?
Yeah.
Been controlled for a while.
And Casey, a lot of times physical pain and emotional pain, they merge.
They become one and the same.
How has your pain changed your life?
I've had to stop working because of it.
I have a son.
I used to coach his t-ball team.
I'm no longer able to do that.
I've had to lose some friends and not be able to go out on a social aspect of it.
So it really does affect all aspects of your life.
Thank you all for being here.
I'm going to come back and ask you questions, but this show is about hope because we've got new ideas, big ideas that I think will help you a lot.
Here's the deal.
The medical community now has a new understanding of chronic pain, and today I've got the three-step plan to end it.
Dr. Natalie Azar is joining us.
She's a clinical professor from NYU who specializes in pain disorders.
So I mentioned a number of 100 million people.
It's probably even more than that.
Why is it we have so many people with chronic pain in America, like these wonderful women who are joining us?
Well, I wish there was one easy explanation for that.
Unfortunately, there probably isn't.
But what I always like to explain to my patients, it really helps people to understand that there's more than one kind of pain.
So pain, it doesn't come all in one shape and size, for example.
People can have acute pain from a fracture.
They can have arthritis pain, for example, a swollen joint.
They can have diabetic nerve pain.
But what separates this idea of chronic pain is that if you work it up, if you do lab tests, you do x-rays, MRIs, it's normal.
So people often get told, my God, this is in your head, and in a sense it kind of is.
It's kind of like a phantom pain, but really the idea here is that it's really a problem with the way the brain is perceiving and processing pain signals.
That's what distinguishes chronic pain from these other acute pain syndromes.
So someone comes to see you, and as you mentioned, you've done all the testing, they don't see anything obvious there.
What's the first conversation you have to have with them?
What typically occurs?
What are they fearful of?
Well, most of my patients will ask me, am I going to end up in a wheelchair?
That's one of the first questions that people ask.
I mean, as I'm a rheumatologist, so I see a lot of patients with chronic, more progressive arthritic conditions.
And I always remind my patients that these chronic pain syndromes tend to not result in a significant amount of dysfunction.
So, Dr. Azar has a three-step plan to end chronic pain that she says works for her patients.
First, she says, pain meds that really work are essential.
Now, that seems sort of obvious.
Traditionally, we have always used opioids, yet you argue that might be the worst thing to give people chronic pain.
I mean, one thing is really important, I think, to point out that there has been this movement, which is called the right to pain treatment, and it's really important for people to understand that people who have chronic cancers or acute pain There's a place for opioid treatment in this country for sure, but what we're talking about is chronic non-malignant pain.
So that's chronic arthritic pain, fibromyalgia, that kind of stuff.
We have not been able to demonstrate that using opioids long-term in those patients is either safe or effective.
What we have been able to show is that it can be very harmful with either substance abuse and overdoses, accidental deaths.
So we really actually like to stay away from opioids.
They can make chronic pain syndromes worse in the end.
If I can, I'm going to ask you about narcotic usage, which is the opioid we usually use.
Nadia, Ceci, Casey, thoughts.
Do you use opioids?
Do you prescribe narcotics?
Yeah, I have.
All three of you?
We have been, yes.
And Nadia, how did it make you feel when you were given narcotics?
Nauseous, dizzy, groggy, but because of my condition, I really don't receive much of the pain relief from it.
So you take the opioid, you actually feel groggy, but you don't get the benefit you were promised.
Yeah, yeah.
So, Dr. Azor, why do we throw these opioids out so frequently?
Why are we always prescribing these pills?
I mean, I think that there's, it's not one explanation.
I think there's a patient reason, meaning that the patient is coming to you, and they're in pain, and they want quick pain relief, and they're not thinking about the long-term Functional consequences of that.
They're not thinking about dependence.
They just want pain relief.
So it's patient driven.
It's partially also physician driven because as a doctor treating pain patients and the people come to you, they're not getting better.
It's kind of like the antibiotic of pain medicine.
It's so easy to fill a pain prescription and have the patient leave the office than actually deal and establish a multidisciplinary team of doctors and therapists to treat the whole patient.
It's just easier to write a script.
So if you're worried about opioids, what medications do work?
So I like to use medications that actually raise levels of something called norepinephrine in the brain.
There are a bunch of neurotransmitters, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine.
Norepinephrine is thought to be the one that's largely responsible for causing these pain syndromes and exacerbating pain signaling.
The other one I like to use is something called pregabalin or Lyrica, which works directly on the nerves as they're sending the pain messages up to the brain and they can stop that.
To be clear, we have new generation medications that folks should be asking the doctor about right now.
So if you've got chronic pain in America, you will go talk to your physician about new generation medications that might be of great help and aren't as addictive as some of the pills we've historically have given out.
Let's talk about sleep a little bit because it's important to chronic pain.
If you don't mind, please explain why your practice is so critical.
Okay, so the first, when we start taking a history and a patient says, I have pain, one of the first questions I ask is, do you feel tired?
100% of the time, it's yes.
And then the next question is, when you wake up in the morning, do you feel well rested?
And that's a very, very key symptom.
It's that thing that we call non-restorative sleep.
And here's the issue.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Is it poor sleep that's exacerbating your pain, or Is pain actually keeping you up at night?
We don't really know the answer to that.
There are some pain specialists who believe that chronic pain is primarily a sleep problem, actually.
But what we do know is that they go together.
We all know this, too.
When you have a good night's sleep, everything kind of feels better the next day.
So really, treating pain without addressing an underlying sleep problem It's really doing a patient a disservice.
It really needs to be looked at separately in addition to the whole pain picture.
I love the connection you're making.
If I can't go back to our experts because they actually have it.
How do you guys sleep?
Not well.
Not very well.
Ceci, when you wake up, or Casey, when you wake up in the morning, what do you feel like?
So the same amount of pain from the night before, you still feel run down, like you just haven't been able to kind of recharge your system to get the adequate sleep and rest that your body needs in general.
So I actually had you guys fill out this, you know, this little form, but also I got an app for you to help evaluate your sleep.
And Casey, this is yours.
So it's interesting you say that.
So here's one in the morning and four in the morning.
And the yellow is you're up, by the way.
So you're not sleeping for that long.
You know, like two and a half hours of sleep.
But more importantly, even when you're asleep, you're supposed to be in this blue area here, right?
You're not supposed to be playing around in light sleep, which is the green.
I'm just seeing little slivers of blue here and here.
So you're not getting the quality sleep.
And you're certainly not getting the cycling that we're supposed to have to truly restore you.
And without feeling rested like that, this connection, Dr. Azar is pointing out, is remarkable.
So if someone like Casey came to you, and you're telling me that this is true of many pain medicine patients, and they had this kind of a pattern, or you at least suspected it, what would you have them do?
I, almost 100% of the time when I see these patients, I recommend a sleep study.
Because just simply saying to somebody, well, you need to get better sleep, great.
Easier said than done for the vast majority of people.
What does a sleep study give me?
It's an overnight, first of all, and they're studying the brainwaves throughout the entire night, and they're showing exactly What kind of poor quality the patient's sleep actually is.
They can address and rule out other issues like sleep apnea.
Maybe that's making the patient tired.
So you really want to establish a diagnosis.
And the sleep specialists, they also review things with you.
You're not supposed to drink caffeine two hours before.
You know, they go through what we call sleep hygiene.
And just to make sure, to guarantee that your patients are getting the best quality sleep that they can.
So the advice you give them is sleep hygiene.
Once you get the results back, and you put on medications, what else do you get them sleeping?
It's not easy to deliver that diagnosis.
It's not that easy, but you know what's really interesting about it is that that same, that idea of things firing when they shouldn't be, there's really very distinct abnormal waves in the sleep study.
They're called alpha intrusions.
And just by the name itself, it implies that your brain is not quiet.
As you mentioned, we need that deep sleep.
That's where you consolidate memories.
That's where you grow.
That's really such an important part of your sleep.
That's absent in these patients.
So a medicine that I mentioned earlier called Neurontin or Gabapentin, low dose at night, actually traditionally was an anticonvulsant, can slow that down and calm that down, and I'm telling you, my patients feel so much better rested in the morning, and when it helps their pain additionally, then it's like, I've done it all.
I've got it all.
Let's finish it up with something that a lot of people haven't thought about.
Step three is establishing a mind-body connection that's solid.
We know a lot of people with chronic pain have issues that start in their brain, go to their body, and vice versa.
It becomes this big cycle.
How does establishing the mind-body connection help?
Well, the thing is, what we think we probably all understand is that if you're feeling anxious, And you're in pain.
Then the pain is going to make you depressed.
And then once you're depressed, patients tend to what we call somaticize more, which means that they're just even more aware of every bodily sensation.
So while the mind-body connection can be very negative for you, we also want to try to flip it and say, maybe we can do something, meditation, yoga, tai chi, those kinds of things that can actually help you connect more and relax you more And deal with each of these issues sort of separately and then bring it all together.
Maybe if I can help the audience understand this.
There are journal articles with diagrams that look sort of like what I'm showing you right now.
That demonstrates a cycle.
It starts off with chronic pain at the top there and it goes through insomnia and then stressors and then because you're stressed out you get depressed and you have more pain you sense it more anyway and then you get more insomnia and this whole cycle, this vicious cycle of influence and exacerbation makes life worse for everybody.
So, Dr. Azar, in your clinical experience, if you can relieve the anxiety, the depression, the inability to respond to stress, how does it affect pain?
It's almost, well, to your question, some of the earliest studies that were done on this kind of stuff, how Cymbalta worked, for example, People would be depressed.
They would take Cymbalta, which is actually an antidepressant also.
Their depression would stay the same, but their pain would get better.
So what that tells me is that depression and pain go together, but there are also different mechanisms of action, which says that if you're treating somebody for pain, but you're ignoring their depression, It's not going to work.
So to your point, if you're having depression and anxiety, those need to be addressed.
Whether it's with your pain person or you get referred to a therapist, you deal with the depression, you deal with the anxiety, and you deal with the pain.
Like I mentioned, Cymbalta I happen to love because it does all of those things.
It's not a one-size-fits-all for every single patient, but you have to address each of those things.
Otherwise, the patient will just be incompletely treated.
I hope we're giving you some hope.
That's what the purpose of this program was.
In addition, with the hope, you'll be able to get some ideas to start training your pain differently.
It's not what we thought it was when you first developed it.
We learned a lot, and I appreciate all the advice Dr. Azar shared with us.
You can find the full plan to end chronic pain at dros.com.
We'll be right back.
Next, think you can't make a fantastic dessert without real sugar?
Dr. Oz puts viewers to the test, taking their most popular recipes and switching out the sugar.
Learn how to make your favorite tasty treats with natural sweet substitutes.
Coming up next.
Today I have an epic sugary challenge with some baking pros.
And with the help of a bunch of people in my audience, I'm going to help satisfy your sweet tooth with my favorite sugar substitutes.
Now my bake-off challenge rules are super simple.
You take your most popular recipe, switch out the white sugar for one of our sugar substitutes.
I've asked three OzDation viewers sitting right here to judge these sweet treats with this one catch.
They can't see us.
They'll be talking because they can't hear us.
So if they talk spontaneously, don't worry about it because they can't tell at all.
All right.
And they're trying all the desserts, but they don't know that we have substituted the sugar in them.
Good.
Let's see.
They can keep talking, but they may interrupt this period.
We'll come back to them.
The first sugar substitute is date sugar.
And Michelle actually is our chef expert on this.
She uses date sugar in our cinnamon buns.
How easy was it to do?
So we use date sugar in cinnamon buns.
The flavor is quite nice.
The solubility is a problem.
It doesn't melt.
So you don't get a nice glaze on the bottom like you would typically get with a cinnamon bun.
My bakery only does gluten-free, and these are gluten and dairy-free.
So the filling was quite easy to spread, just like a regular sugar filling.
But the bottom, I have to say I was a little disappointed with the way it turned out.
And how much of the date sugar do you have to use vis-a-vis sugar, regular sugar?
So it's about three-quarters of the amount of date sugar to the same amount of white sugar.
So a cup of white sugar, three-quarters of a cup of date sugar.
The reason I like date sugar, I've got to say, I sort of enjoy the taste, by the way.
The flavor's very nice.
But it's made from dehydrated dates, right?
Dried out dates, so it's rich in antioxidants and potassium as though you're eating a date, which I sort of like.
That's right.
But we'll see what the experts over there think about this.
Okay.
See them over there enjoying themselves like the free blind mice.
Okay.
The next sugar substitute is coconut palm sugar.
Patricia is here.
What did you make with your coconut palm sugar?
Okay, I made some ginger molasses cookies using palm sugar.
At the beginning, I was a little bit skeptical because I've never used those before.
But you know what?
Would you try my cookie?
Yeah.
Do you mind?
Where are you from?
I'm from Brazil.
Do they dress like this all the time, Brazil?
Just a little fashion statement?
Actually, my outfit's totally different, yes.
I would wear some coconuts, yeah.
It's a different kind of show.
All right.
So how did the coconut palm sugar change the recipe?
Well, you know what?
To my surprise, it didn't change at all, this recipe.
I used one-to-one, and it came exactly the same as white sugar.
This is unbelievable.
Thank you.
I think you're right.
This does sort of dry it out a tiny bit, but this is actually what I would normally expect it to taste like.
Yes, and if you try right in the middle where it's like more even soft.
Oh, the soft part.
Please, yeah.
This is the part they eat in Brazil first.
The other thing, by the way, is the sugar in the coconut palm sugar, you don't get the rapid upswing and then the crash that happens, and you get energy release that's sort of slow throughout the day.
Yeah.
Oh, your rice is crispy.
And the outside is chewy on the inside.
Okay.
Patricia, thank you.
No problem.
The next sugar substitute is liquid stevia.
Tina's here.
She used liquid stevia in her coconut almond brownies.
So how easy was it to bake with?
Very easy.
Really easy.
But the best part about this I think you're going to love is that the substitution is two teaspoons.
Of stevia replaces this whole cup of sugar?
Yes.
Yes.
You're kidding me.
Unbelievable.
And what I found was we cut it even back by a half.
So I actually did one teaspoon.
Are you satisfied with the taste?
Yes.
At first, it was very strong aftertaste.
It left a little bitter flavor.
But the chocolate and we added a little bit of espresso and it changed it and made it perfect.
And less stevia than it actually calls for.
First of all, it's a very smart change because stevia is so much sweeter than sugar as you demonstrated here.
But it tastes just perfect.
I don't have an aftertaste, but it still tastes really sweet.
And again, you won't get the sugary spike because there's no sugar in the brownie.
It's perfect.
That's why, by the way, stevia is on my total 10 plan, rapid weight loss plan.
Oh, it is?
Because it's a nice little cheat that you can get without hurting yourself.
No side effects.
So add it to a little something.
A little bit.
Less is more in this scenario.
Yes, yes.
Alright, the moment we've all been waiting for.
We've tried it all out.
We have our ladies over here.
I'm going to see what they honestly think.
They've eaten most of their sweets.
You can get your hats off, glasses off, headphones off.
Thank you very much.
You missed a great segment.
Alright, so I'm not going to bias you at all, but I just want to hear from you honestly.
What do you think about...
We have a lot of music in there, my goodness.
Very loud.
So, what do you think about what you just had?
I like it.
I loved it.
Which was your favorite?
The cookie.
The cookie?
This was my favorite.
The brownie?
Yes, very good.
I love the brownie.
Yeah, very good.
And it satisfied your sweet tooth?
Definitely.
Should we have added more sugar, less sugar?
I thought it was perfect.
I like it just the way it is.
Would you be surprised to know there was no sugar in them at all?
I'd be very surprised.
No sugar.
Wow.
I would love that.
Really?
No white sugar anyway.
We put substitutes in place of them, right?
Okay.
Some of them were made from date sugar.
We had some from coconut palm sugar.
And then there was stevia in the last one.
The brownie has stevia, which you like so much.
Brownie was out of this world.
Wasn't it good?
Out of this world.
They're actually very good.
All of them.
I can't believe it.
Well, you're surprised, I gather, from your responses.
Yeah.
Thank you for trusting us.
We've done many bad things to you, but we didn't.
And you were very good to tell us.
We appreciate it.
There's all these features up to the rest of these.
You can find DrIs.com.
Check them out.
I'll be right back.
Woo!
Next, how well do you remember things?
Host of Brain Games, Jason Silva, brings his bag of tricks to strengthen your brain and memory.
Fun and simple brain tests to sharpen your ability to think and retain.
How to improve your memory and impress your friends.
Next.
Defy your age without surgery.
I wake up every day feeling like I'm 20. Dr. Oz reveals viewers' secrets.
In the Philippines, they don't have cellulite.
To make you look and feel 10 years younger.
That's coming up tomorrow on Dr. Oz.
Today, I'm going to mess with your mind, but all for a good cause.
I'm going to help you improve your memory, and along the way, maybe impress your friends.
I'm going to get a little bit of help from the master of mental and memory mischief, Jason Silva.
He's the host of the hit show, Brain Games.
He's an Emmy-nominated television host with a one-track mind.
Left brain, right brain, bring them together.
Testing the limits of your mind.
Jason Silva, a self-proclaimed knowledge junkie, began his career creating web content focusing on the brain.
Now, he's the host of the hit National Geographic show, Brain Games.
Which has been called a workout for your mind.
The show uses games, experiments, and illusions to sharpen your body's most important muscle, enhancing your brain's memory, attention, and ability to process information.
Are you ready to play some Brain Games?
Jason Silva is here.
So how do these tricks work to strengthen your brain, your memory?
Yeah, well, basically, we designed the experiments to highlight the misperceptions in how you perceive reality, essentially.
And that makes you curious to learn.
So by playing the games, you kind of strengthen your brain.
And you also learn about the limitations of your brain, which should give you a kind of, I don't know, a sense of humility in the face of your everyday perceptions.
It's a really fun show.
People love it.
Humility is the right word.
All right, so Jason's got the tricks to sharpen your memory and impress your friends.
I'm interested in both, by the way.
Good.
We have viewers joining us who want to play some brain games.
This is full contact brain games.
Yes.
We can tackle, charge, whatever.
Anything you want.
The audience can help us out.
Let's get to it.
The first of these tests is called the What's That Phrase test.
That's right.
What's That Phrase?
All right.
So I'm going to go over here, guys.
You're going to stare at the screen.
I'm joining you guys.
Lasharn, I'm playing with you.
You're going to play along as well, yeah?
All right, so what I need you guys to do is to just read this strange phrase verbatim.
Even if it makes no sense, just read it out loud.
The sky's the limit.
The sky's the limit.
Who got that?
Michelle got that?
Michelle got that?
You must have known.
Come on.
Okay, so that was kind of amazing.
The sky's the limit.
The sky's the limit.
See, we scrambled that phrase.
And when you read it phonetically, your left brain is reading it.
It makes absolutely no sense.
But eventually, your right brain kind of kicks in.
You remember maybe a phrase that sounds like it.
In this case, you use your memory.
And you figured it out really, really, really fast.
That's actually kind of amazing.
So I'm going to go to Michelle's team now.
Oh, yeah.
Switch over.
I'm just...
One more chance.
We got another one.
Let's do another one, okay?
All right.
Michelle, you're disqualified.
Michelle's disqualified.
Ace, Ditch, and Dime.
Oh, Rashad!
There's my teammate, Rashad.
She knows how to play this game.
Actually, you guys are pretty sharp.
It might be because you guys are primed, but most people, it takes them a long time to kind of pick up on that, which is kind of amazing.
So, Ace, Ditch, and Dime, obviously, you'll sort of...
Becomes a stitch in time.
All right.
So you say it a bunch of times, eventually it triggers a memory of a popular phrase, and then you get it.
So this is an example of the kind of games we use.
Let me ask a question, everybody.
How many of you, let me see a show of hands, how many of you meet someone at a party in the audience, not the brilliant people down here, but meet someone at a party and you cannot remember their name a second later?
Yeah, I'm the worst at that.
It happens to me, it happens to all of us.
So this next memory test is going to make you look like a memory pro.
We actually got a little clip that Jay should share with us.
Check it out.
Okay, pay attention.
Listen up and try to remember these four names.
Helen.
Anya.
Janette.
Heather.
Got em?
Can you remember them for the next few seconds?
We're gonna make it a little bit harder by confusing your brain with some additional random names.
Jennifer.
Amy.
Renee.
Megan.
Donna.
Lynn.
Okay, now recall the names of the four women you just met.
How did you do?
Chances are good you've forgotten at least two.
Now let's give you another task.
This time you're going to have to remember another four names, but this time we're going to give you a jingle that may be familiar to help you out.
Have you heard this one before?
You may recognize it as the jingle from Nationwide Insurance.
Companies create catchy jingles because they stick in your brain, and you can benefit by using those tunes as memory aids.
Now hear how we use that melody to help remember these next four names.
Rachel.
Devin.
Laura.
Anne.
Rachel, Devon, Laura, Anne.
It helps a lot.
It helps a lot.
Music has actually been scientifically proven as a tool to boost memory.
So as Jason's brain games have proved, the next time you're at a party, associate the music you're hearing with the people you're meeting and you won't forget.
It's a classic great idea.
That's why companies create these jingles all the time.
It's a way to get you to remember them.
It's kind of amazing.
They exploit your brain.
We've got another game for us.
It's a little more challenging.
He's going to test how well you remember elements of a scene.
Another big problem that I personally have.
So, go on.
Take it away.
Show us the scene.
So, what I need you to do is, again, do your best to try to learn what's on the screen.
Like, take a picture with your brain of what you're seeing, all right?
Kind of memorize where everything's laid out and what everything looks like, okay?
So, now we're going to take this away.
Oh, it's fast.
And now we're going to bring it back.
We're going to bring it back.
All right?
Just take a look at it.
Just take a look at it.
Okay, and we're going to take it away again.
And so the question is, what changed?
The banana.
And the happy face.
Yeah.
What happy face?
Yeah, what happy face?
The lower left-hand side.
Yes.
Are you serious?
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
You all saw a happy face?
It was on the line.
Who saw a happy face, honestly?
All the women.
None of the men.
That's pretty good.
Is that a single man with his hands?
Any man with his hands?
One guy in the back.
You're making that up.
All right, so let's bring it back.
So yeah, there is a happy face over here that we also changed.
How do you see that?
Of course, the takeaway here is that your brain, again, it's trying to save energy.
It's trying to be efficient.
The elephant in the room is that this is what changed.
This is the main thing.
Most people would have missed the additional detail over here because it would have required you to look more closely at the screen.
So this is an example.
So how can you...
Train yourself to be able to not just focus on what's most important, but things in the periphery as well.
Well, this is when you shouldn't snap to conclusions right off the bat.
This is when you sort of need to study the details.
You know, there's all kinds of riddles that we do that do the same thing, because the brain has a desire to fill in the blanks, to very quickly make sort of inferences about what has changed without looking at the sort of details.
And that's a huge thing.
So practice mindfulness, practice focusing, don't multitask because it doesn't exist.
The poet Jason Silva did a lot of other things as well.
You can catch Jason Silva on Brain Games Mondays at 9pm on Natural Geographic.
You can also sharpen your memory with Jason's Brain Games on DrOz.com.
Thanks for giving them to us.
We'll be right back.
Coming up next, celebrity fitness gurus share their secrets about their midday meals.
Find out what they're eating to keep them full and fueled between workouts.
What the fittest people on the planet pack for lunch is coming up next.
We are bringing a healthy back this season and want you to bring it too.
Grab your prescription pad for fun and sign up for free tickets today.
You can go to DrOz.com/tickets and sign up.
These fitness gurus have been part of weight loss plans to help you lose the weight you've always wanted to.
They are the best of the best.
So, I know what you're asking.
What do they pack for lunch?
Well, you're probably not asking that, but I'm asking that.
Take a look at trainer Dovet Quince from The Biggest Loser.
One of my favorite dishes to eat for lunch is warm salmon, cold quinoa.
With my quinoa, I like to put in cranberries, some scallions for flavor.
I like that warm meets cold texture.
It's an amazing dish.
It's a dish that everyone should have for lunch.
I recommend it.
You gotta love the whole bag as much as I love quinoa.
It's actually the only carb on my total 10 rapid weight loss plan because it's a perfect mix of protein and carbs.
Okay, I wanted to know what keeps Tony Horton Fit and Slim.
He's the creator of P90X. Check out what Tony eats for lunch.
As a Californian, I gotta go with a burrito.
It's an all-time perfect way to just eat with one hand.
Maybe something whole grain, wheat, high fiber, and then inside, black beans, brown rice, salsa, peppers, onions, avocado, chicken.
That's all you need.
It's super fast, super easy, it's super yummy, and it's also super healthy.
There you go.
Tony Horton on the go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Enjoy.
Next up is Ruth Zuckerman, founder of Flywheel Indoor Cycling Studio.
She's been spinning her cycling for a lot of time, and you've created a huge craze with this little invention of yours.
I have, thank you.
How often are you cycling?
Every day?
Eight hours a week.
Eight hours a week?
Yes.
You don't get sore?
No.
I've been doing this for 20 years.
It's the greatest workout.
It's efficient, and you can grow old with it because it's safe.
So what do you eat in order to nourish yourself to be able to cycle for eight hours a week?
Well, it took me a while to figure out what would work and what would not make me bloated.
I came up with a salad with grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, and cucumber.
And what I did was, if I'm on the go, I just make it into a wrap.
So I wrap it all into a lettuce leaf.
And I find that the avocado, as we know, the healthy fat, makes it delicious.
You don't need a dressing, which is sometimes caloric.
And it's tasty, and most importantly, it has staying power.
So I can eat it for lunch, and then if I'm teaching two or three hours later, I'm still sated and I still can have energy for my class.
I love that you've got, not just the healthy fats you mentioned, but a lot of protein, because folks who eat a lot of protein lose a lot of weight.
That's how these folks stay thin, not just the exercise that you're doing, which is why in our Total 10 plan, it's a rapid weight loss plan, we always had protein throughout the day, no matter what.
12 ounces a day was what we recommended.
You're probably getting at least that much with this plan.
Absolutely, yes.
Thanks for being with us, and thank you for your great invention.
Next is celebrity fitness expert Tracy Anderson.
She's responsible for keeping Glenna Paltrow, Madonna, and Jennifer Lopez fit.
Tracy's gonna take us into her kitchen and show us what she is packing for lunch.
Hello Dr. Oz!
It's your buddy Tracy Anderson.
I have a really packed day today.
This is my lunch.
Gluten-free brown rice bread toasted.
Slap on Just Mayo, which is soy-free, dairy-free, lactose-free, gluten-free, egg-free.
Grow some dulce flakes on.
Grass-fed organic roast beef.
Avocado.
That's my lunch!
So eating in the middle of your day re-energizes your body and it can raise your blood sugar levels to help boost your focus and your concentration.
If you eat the right stuff, it'll come right back down and stabilize you.
Listen, no matter how well you eat, sometimes your immune system gets the best of you.
So let me ask you a question.
How many of you are doing this right now?
Well, how about this?
Or this?
Right now, many of you are suffering from the cold and flu.
That could have come from our audience today.
So I've got a natural remedy to help you.
It's called Black Elderberry.
It looks like this.
It comes as a syrup.
Its strongest and purest form is in that syrup form.
It's got anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties.
And there's new research that shows it might help beat off the flu.
It may also help with cold symptoms as well.
And I personally think it tastes good.
But I know some of you are dubious about my taste buds.
So I've asked my whole audience to try some.
So go ahead.
Let me see what you guys are up to.
Give it a taste.
Taste, taste, taste, taste, taste.
And I want some honest thoughts.
Goods, bads.
We have delicious up here.
Very good.
It was very good.
See?
See?
Yes.
Yeah, really good.
Now, does anyone think it's a little too strong?
No.
Good.
Once in a while, I get those complaints from audience members.
And if it's a little too strong for you, all you do is mix it with some hot water and some lemon.
And now once you get two teaspoonfuls, three times a day.
And here's the deal.
You can find it in a pharmacy or health food store.
It's about $12.
Not that much.
I'll be right back.
All new Oz.
Defy your age without surgery.
I wake up every day feeling like I'm 20. Dr. Oz reveals viewer secrets from around the world.
In the Philippines, they don't have cellulite.
To make you look and feel 10 years younger.
I really needed this.
Plus, Dr. Oz puts the newest fad detox to the test.
Will charcoal help end bloat?
What do you guys think?
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
I want to show you a pair of incredible before and after photos that really got my attention.
And I'll tell you why it got my attention.
Because this is not a typical weight loss transformation.
It's a weight gain transformation.
On the left is George Pryor before he actually went into this program.
He was fit, happy, and healthy.
And on the right, there he is.
This is George just 30 days later.
And here's a shocker.
He didn't change a thing in his diet, didn't exercise differently, except he did one little difference.
He added one specific drink.
Soda.
George drank 10 cans of soda a day for the month.
Think about that.
10 cans a day for a month to see what happened.
And you just saw the result.
It's a lot of sugar, but here's what's sort of surprising to me.
It's what too many Americans consume every day in all sorts of foods.
Not only did George gain 23 pounds, it's almost a pound a day, his blood pressure soared from 129 over 77 to 145 over 96. That needs medical treatment, believe it or not, just in a month.
So George, I applaud you for raising the awareness, but I want you to kick that soda habit.
Alright, I want you to also send us, if you don't mind, another study before and after so we know that you're actually doing okay.
And I appreciate you doing the experiment.
Now it's time for In Case You Missed It.
First we had NBC News investigative reporter Jeff Rosson on board.
He went undercover to see what's happening to your underwear.
And what he found?
Well, it's shocking.
Many stores are selling dirty, used underwear that's exposing you to foreign fecal material.
Someone else's fecal matter for that point.
That can potentially lead to infections, things like urinary tract infections and worse.
So you have to protect yourself.
I want you to wash your underwear in hot water before wearing it or buy underwear that's already pre-packaged like this, that's not sold individually.
Next, for all you OzNation folks out there who don't want to have your diet sabotaged because of a sugar craving, I've got a great tip for you that you can pass on to your friends.
I want you to try sugar substitutes like liquid stevia that I have here.
It's sweeter than sugar.
It doesn't give you as high of a sugar spike for that reason.
Just put a little bit in there.
Less is more when it comes to stevia.
It's also on my total 10 rapid weight loss plan for a good reason.
It actually does help regulate your blood sugar.
Finally, be careful of what dubious people online are doing.
They make it seem like endorsing their products, and I don't.
To see a full list of our trusted sponsorship partners, you can go to DrOz.com.
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