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April 26, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
41:00
Unveiling America's Heroin Epidemic: Causes & the Impact | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 25 | Full Episode
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Today, it's the photo that sparked a huge debate.
The cold heart truth is that heroin kills.
The question is, how do we stop it?
You feel so alone when you go through it.
The nation's drug czar weighs in on the crisis and the device that may save a life.
Plus, smart drugs.
They promise to make you smarter, more motivated, and less forgetful.
Do they work?
We test them out coming up next. - I'm starting today's show with a photo that shocked many of you and sparked a huge conversation about our nation's crisis with heroin.
Eva Holland's longtime partner and father of their two young children died two weeks ago from a heroin overdose.
She posted this picture.
With their children by his open casket to highlight that heroin addiction can happen to anyone.
This photo is eerie, and I think that's why it's gone viral.
Eva's here today to share her emotional story about why she felt so compelled to show it.
Also on the show today, the nation's drug czar is here to weigh in on what he is doing to solve the heroin crisis.
Ben, you could save a life, literally save a life, with a new easy-to-use device the size of a credit card.
And another kind of drug that's going mainstream, smart drugs.
Can they really improve memory, focus, and attention better than coffee and without a prescription?
Our social experiment coming up.
But first, we're going to meet the woman who wanted to share this picture with the world, Eva Holland.
Thank you for being here, Eva.
Thank you.
It's been about two weeks since you lost your husband.
How are you and the kids doing?
They're holding up much stronger than I am.
They haven't really skipped a beat.
I think they might be too young to fully grasp the fact that their dad is gone.
I'm really struggling with it, but putting this out here and having the support is helping me a lot.
I know this is difficult and it takes a lot to talk about this.
Very much.
I saw that picture.
And I struggle with it a lot.
Why did you decide to post it in the first place, especially with the kids?
The reason I took it in the first place was because it was our last family photo.
We were never going to get to see them again.
And I never had any intention on posting it when I first took it.
That's why my kids were in it.
But once I looked at it, it was just heartbreaking.
And like I said in my post, it's just the harsh reality of addiction.
And if you don't get help and you don't choose recovery every single day, that's your only way out of here.
You mentioned your post.
I was very touched by it.
I think so many were.
Would you be okay reading it?
Yeah.
Take your time.
No parent should ever have to bury their child, and no child as young as ours should have to bury their parent.
This was preventable.
It didn't have to happen.
But hiding the facts is only going to keep this epidemic going.
The cold-heart truth is that heroin kills.
You were with Mike for 11 years, is that right?
Yes.
How did he become a heroin addict?
Yeah, like you said, I've been with him since high school.
He was a great guy.
When I got pregnant with our first child, he got a really good job and people in his workplace were doing pain pills and he got caught up with them.
He was on them for a long time and they just, they become really expensive.
Sometimes you can't find them.
And he found the wrong crowd of people that introduced him to heroin.
And he did wind up going to get help at the end of last year because he couldn't handle it anymore.
He did go to a rehab.
He got out right before Christmas and he was doing so good.
He became the man that we all knew again.
He was Smiling again.
He was happy again.
And then, earlier this year, he got a toothache and decided he was going to be able to take a pain pill for it.
A toothache?
Yeah, a toothache.
And decided to take the pain pill for it.
And when you're an addict, you It all becomes about the experience of it and he just needed that high again.
It triggered it and it brought his addiction back in full swing and he needed it every day and we started losing him little by little again and then he turned back to heroin.
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I know there are people all over this country right now watching you who are living the same thing.
And there are many more who aren't even aware it's happening to them.
Exactly.
Which is why your message is so important.
Will you stay here with me?
I want to bring another couple.
Yes.
Who have a similar unfortunate experience.
So your frustration, and I get it completely, is shared by a growing number of American families.
These drug overdoses are fueled more recently by heroin, which is, by the way, quadrupled in the U.S. This is a story of what's happening in your hometown.
Washington County, Pennsylvania is in the throes of a heroin epidemic, with over 50 fatal overdoses this year alone.
A grim reality that's spreading to towns across the country.
People still cling to the mentality, not my child, not my town, and they are absolutely wrong.
The statistics are alarming.
Between 2009 and 2014, heroin use jumped by nearly 75%.
Between 2002 and 2013, heroin-related deaths have quadrupled, and today addicts are younger and more affluent than ever before.
People need to wake up.
They need to realize That the McMansions aren't protecting them.
Drugs are all over and it's happening in your own backyard.
It happened in my backyard.
Heroin addiction in America is a medical crisis, moving out of the shadows as more and more states declare the epidemic a state of emergency.
Now parents are moving past the shame, guilt and taboo to speak out about the deaths of their own children from heroin.
It killed him instantly.
He was clean for three months and They found him with a needle in his hand.
My son is a beautiful, kind, loving person.
I never want this to happen to somebody else, and that's why I'm speaking up, because the pain is unbearable.
My son Justin was an amazing kid, captain of the football team, well-liked, good student.
We found out that Justin was using heroin six months before he passed away.
Bergen County in New Jersey, which is where I live, is another epicenter in the epidemic.
With 42 heroin deaths in 2014, Linda Latterman's 19-year-old son Danny was one of them.
We were 100% blindsided.
We can't wrap our heads around what would make our son cross the line.
Her son's death inspired Linda to take action, making headlines when she used social media to write an open letter of warning to other parents.
Parents, please reinforce unconditional love to your kids.
Let them know that no matter what they have done or are doing, you will be there for them.
You can save your kid's life.
We wish we had the chance to at least try.
Wake up.
It can happen to you.
This is 18-year-old Allison Shoemake.
Her obituary reads, Allison was a funny, smart, gregarious, tenacious, and strong-willed teenager with gusto.
Her favorite color was sparkle, which matched her personality.
The obituary also says Allison died of a heroin overdose.
Dorothy and Fred Shoemake are Allison's parents, and they're joining me today.
This only happened a few weeks ago.
24 days.
24 days?
Yeah.
Are you keeping it together?
A lot of disbelief.
I can't believe it's possible that she's gone.
And then I keep trying to say, what if I'd done this?
What if I tried that?
She's so beautiful in that photo.
It's so difficult for families to talk openly about this.
Why did you decide to go public with what happened?
We were seeing in the newspaper where people died and it was from heroin and they didn't say anything and I thought at least if we say something maybe somebody else will hear it.
Maybe somebody else's child would live.
I know it's hard.
This is one of the bravest things I've seen.
So many folks in the audience today lost relatives to this.
It's why I feel so passionately about it.
I know it's painful.
I can stop if you need.
No.
Evie, you okay?
Let me bring Fred in.
Fred, your dad.
Yes.
What many of you don't know is Fred is also a former police detective.
A police detective.
So if anyone's going to know there's a problem with drugs in the house, it's going to be someone like you.
Yes.
Did you have any idea, any signs that Allison was using heroin?
Well, no, because she was not strung out.
Well, I'm informed that there's no indication that she wasn't snorting heroin.
She only had one needle mark.
One needle mark?
Yes.
So what happened?
That was the fatal needle mark.
Dorothy, all of us as parents think we're doing the right thing.
This could never happen to our child.
It does.
Not just us.
Lots of children.
And grown-ups, too, even.
But they're somebody's child.
It's not those other people.
It's not somebody else's problem.
It's us.
We need to stop it.
That's exactly what we need to do.
So right now, there are half a million people, 500,000 people, addicted to heroin.
Right now.
So what's being done about it?
We're going to meet the man in charge of controlling the heroin crisis when we come back.
Next, meet a man who's proof that you can turn your life around after addiction.
He's our nation's drug czar.
See how he's using his own past experience with addiction to erase the heroin epidemic.
Coming up next.
TLC star Whitney Thor fights back for big girls.
I think that people are really threatened when they see a happy fat person.
Plus, how to survive life's now what moments.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Addiction is so important in our nation that we actually have a drug czar.
His name is Michael Botticelli.
And if one person out there knows how addiction can devastate a family, it's him.
Life could have gone either way for Michael Botticelli.
He started drinking regularly as a junior in high school, binge drinking in college, and by his 20s, he was a full-blown alcoholic in denial.
I knew I had a problem with alcohol, but I remember distinctly thinking to myself, if I say I'm an alcoholic, that there's no going back.
Then, in May of 1988, while driving drunk on the Massachusetts Turnpike, Botticelli crashed and woke up to find himself handcuffed to a hospital bed.
In court, the judge offered him a choice, jail or treatment.
This was the place where I went to one of my first 12-step meetings.
I first I first had the courage to raise my hand and say that I was an alcoholic, and I think that's where my recovery really started.
On the road to recovery, Michael Botticelli found his calling, helping others affected by substance abuse.
Now, 27 years after that fateful crash, he's still sober and made his calling his career as our nation's drug czar.
Please welcome the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli.
You're so open about that.
And it means so much to have someone like you at the helm.
We've got a crisis on our hands.
We have a special audience today, and these are very brave parents, if you don't mind.
These are pictures of their children that they were willing to bring today to show all the lost children, all the lost family members.
What do you say to them?
Yeah, I'll say a couple things.
First and foremost, I can't tell you how saddened I am by the loss of all the children that we have in the United States.
We're losing 120 people every day to a drug-related overdose.
Let's get down to the actual tactics.
There was a dramatic increase in heroin use, a quadrupling, four times the number of heroin deaths.
How did your office get your arms around this crisis?
So, you know, while we have an increase in heroin, this is really a prescription drug problem.
The fourfold increase in overdose deaths correlate to the dramatic overprescribing of prescription pain medication that we have in the United States.
So we know that we need to first educate physicians on safe and effective opioid prescribing.
I hope I'm not presumptuous, but I would assume that probably in graduate school, you got little education on substance use and you got little education on pain prescribing.
Zero.
And I consider myself well-trained.
Zero.
So you heard from some of your guests that they started misusing prescription pain medication.
And we know what's driving heroin increase in the United States.
Four-fifths of newer heroin users started misusing pain medication.
People often keep them in their medicine cabinet, save them for a rainy day, and we know that's where they're getting diverted.
There's a lot of shame, there's a lot of social stigma around having a problem Being addicted to something.
How do we get past that?
How do we get folks to seek treatment when they should?
So, first and foremost, we have to do what we're doing today and what these parents are doing.
We have to talk about it openly, honestly, and candidly.
You know, September is Recovery Month.
And the White House just last week hosted young people in recovery because in the midst of this epidemic, we want to make sure that particularly our young people see the hope on the other side of addiction.
So stigma plays a huge role no matter where I go across the country.
I hear about the role that stigma plays in keeping people asking for help.
You know what really stunned me is I had the honor of being at a press conference.
This past week.
And there were six folks representing the U.S. government.
Five of them were in recovery.
I was surprised because I actually didn't think that would be the dynamic.
We have moved, and I applaud you for this, we have moved from a war on drugs to a war for recovery.
You're actually not the drug czar, you're the recovery czar.
Let me bring in some folks.
One in three families affected by addiction.
One in three families affected by addiction.
Ninety percent of people Just don't get help, which has been startling.
So I want you to meet Jim Hood.
Jim Hood's son, Austin, struggled for years with addiction before dying from an accidental heroin overdose one day before his 21st birthday.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you.
You've actually talked openly about the obstacles that your family faced trying to get Austin help.
Right, Dr. Oz.
I think other than living with the day-to-day fear of the disease is the lack of a road map really struck me.
You honestly don't know where to turn when a loved one, we didn't know where to turn when a loved one was suffering from addiction.
People have said it is a do-it-yourself disease and that's a tragedy.
So here's the deal.
Just because you struggle with addiction doesn't mean your life is over.
I want to make this really clear because what I'm learning through all this is you can make it back and recovery does last.
There are over 20 million Americans in recovery.
That's a huge army.
Greg Williams is one of them.
He's been successfully in recovery for 14 years.
You don't hide at all the fact that you've had a challenge like the drugs are, recoveries are.
What is it that empowers you to speak openly about this?
Well, I didn't always talk about my recovery.
My first five years of my recovery, until I was 21, I hid it from the world.
Until I met people like Michael and others who were telling their stories.
And so learning from them really empowered me to tell my own story.
So the two of you teamed up and you co-founded a national organization that's called Facing Addiction.
Give folks, Jim, a quick summary of what your goal is.
We have to educate America as to the magnitude of this problem.
And then we have to give them hope.
We have to give them tools.
We have to give them solutions.
We have to give them a clear road map.
It isn't that complicated.
It just hasn't been done yet.
So, I want to brag on you guys for a second.
To bring awareness to addiction, the Unite to Face Addiction rally, which you guys have helped put together, will take place on Sunday, October the 4th, in Washington, D.C. It's going to be on the Mall there.
It's going to be a big deal.
Directed by the Charlie will be there, and so rely.
So, Director, You've been through this for many years now, and you've been on a path to recovery for all these years.
Give us some hope for the many folks out there who just don't think their future is going to be bright.
You know, I and millions of other people in recovery, you know, talk about the time when we knew that we had a problem.
And one of the things that...
What is really challenging is you don't see a life on the other side.
But, you know, my story is not unique.
There are 20 million people in recovery who have these incredibly healthy, vibrant lives.
We have highly effective treatment, highly effective recovery support services.
We want everybody to have access to care.
I want for everybody else what I got, and that's care and treatment and recovery.
Bless you for what you're doing.
Thank you for paying attention.
And for all the guests that courageously shared their stories today, thank you.
In cities and towns around the country, the heroin epidemic has gotten so bad that many are taking matters into their own hands.
When we come back, we're going to show you how to fight this health crisis, how you yourselves can do it and save lives.
Next, it's taking lives at an alarming rate.
So what are we doing to stop the epidemic?
And the big question, should heroin be legalized?
See what one city is doing with a single device to save countless lives.
Coming up next.
We have always thought about the war on drugs as a criminal problem.
But should we look at it instead as a medical problem?
Jack Cole is a former New Jersey police detective.
He spent 14 years undercover in narcotics.
For years, he arrested heroin users.
He put them in jail.
But did you actually do good for them, you think?
I don't think it did very much good at all.
It seems to me it's the wrong way to go about things.
When you have somebody that has an addiction problem and your solution is to punish them and remove all hope they have for the future by arrest and imprisonment, make it so they can't get a job, you know, and then we sit back and we scratch our heads and say, I don't know why they didn't give up drugs.
If we spend the money we're spending on the war on drugs, To create programs that give people hope for the future, everything will change.
You're flipping the whole argument that so many of us grew up thinking was the right way to go on his head, and you're coming from law enforcement.
I believe it.
Thank you for doing that.
So listen, no matter what opinion you may have, This is now a treatment for heroin users that I think actually works for certain because this drug is taking lives at an alarming rate and we want to learn these treatments.
So I recently visited a city that's been hard hit.
One in ten in Baltimore is struggling with addiction.
For everyone in this city, it's over 600,000 people.
Now naloxone has been the standard treatment for first responders and ER doctors because it counters the effect of opioids.
Let me show you why it works and why it's so important to understand this.
Alright, so let's say You're taking heroin, for whatever reason.
It goes right up to the brain, which is how it gives you that sense of relaxation.
When you take too much of it, what it does is begin to take up these little receptors, like a key into a keyhole, and these little green balls of the heroin, and they touch those receptors.
When you take too much of it, they take up all those receptors.
It knocks out your respiratory system and your nervous system.
You literally pass out and you don't breathe.
Now, when maloxone is injected into the muscle, into the veins, it can be sprayed into your nose, it can be put in a lot of places.
But when it gets into your body, it knocks these opioid receptors free.
So it gets rid of those green balls, the heroin, and replaces them with this very safe alternative.
And that allows the person to breathe again.
It takes them out of their coma.
Now the FDA has approved the first device for opioid overdose that you can use at home.
It's called Ebzeo, and it's similar to an EpiPen.
I'm going to show you how it works.
I want you to pay attention, because this is the kind of item that I think everyone ought to have available, because you can save a life, and it'll probably be someone that you know.
So first off, you take it out of its container, like that, and it starts talking to you.
And it starts talking to you and telling you exactly what to do.
Then, there's a little red ball here.
Pull the red cap off.
- To inject, place black end against outer thigh.
Then press firmly and hold in place for five seconds.
Now, I have to take my pants off to inject it, right?
Wrong.
It goes... - Five, four, three, two, one.
Injection complete.
- It goes right through your clothes.
You don't have to do anything special.
And it turns off when you put it back in his case.
Now, it's not a substitute for medical attention, but it quickly delivers a life-saving antidote.
I want to invite Dr. Eric Edwards.
He's the chief medical officer for the company who makes this device.
I want him to join us.
Thank you.
Because he has an unprecedented, unprecedented announcement.
Well, Dr. Kaleo came up with a charitable donation program called Kaleo Cares to make sure that this product was available to those who are on the front lines, who are able to render aid, family members, caregivers, etc.
And we've decided to donate 50,000 Evzio auto injectors.
50,000 of these!
We're doing so in the hardest hit communities in our nation.
We're collaborating with the Department of Health and Human Services to help us figure out which communities need this the most, as well as with Facing Addiction and the Unite to Face Addiction rally.
So it's our hope to play a small role in reversing the rising tides of hospitalizations and deaths that are plaguing this country.
50,000 lives is not a small role.
Thank you very, very much.
It's our pleasure.
Thanks to you guys.
Addictions, addictions, they're the only disease out there where your brain does not want you to get better.
Think about that.
Break a leg, you want to get better.
With addiction, it's the opposite sometimes.
And most of us don't have high hopes for a user's recovery because we only know them in crisis.
You saw people today who are suffering in pain because they've lost loved ones and others who are in recovery.
And we're learning that recovery works.
It really does.
So I want you to let your family and your friends know.
We'll be right back.
Coming up later, they claim to hack your brain, making you smarter and less forgetful.
He doesn't want to improve their memory.
These smart pills are becoming the new It's Drugs.
But do they really work?
And are they safe?
Coming up.
TLC star Whitney Thor fights back for big girls.
I think that people are really threatened when they see a happy, fat person.
Plus, how to survive life's now what moments.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Today's conversation is all about the forbidden fruit.
Grapes that, believe it or not, taste like cotton candy.
Look at this cotton candy.
Oh, it's fantastic, isn't it?
Well-rolled, I should say.
So, audience, we can turn this off.
How many of you...
I'm being attacked by cotton candy.
How many of you would love to eat a fruit that tastes just like cotton candy rather than...
Rather than eat the real thing.
It's time for the grape debate.
Literally, the grape debate.
Because I'm draped in cotton candy here.
So over here we have green seedless grapes.
The standard grapes you get in the store these days.
And on this side, something called the new cotton candy grape.
Let me just compare them.
Green seedless grapes, 13 grams of sugar, 58 calories.
And these really sweet cotton candy grapes are 14 grams of sugar, 50 calories.
I'm not seeing a big difference here.
What do you guys think?
If I share them with you, what if I can get a little taste comparison?
We can make a decision if that one gram of sugar is worth it.
So this, who wants some cotton candy?
This is what the grapes look like.
They actually look pretty normal.
I suspect you'll be impressed by them.
So take one and pass it along.
And I'm going to see what you guys want.
You can take two if you like them a lot.
So what do you think?
Delicious.
Really, really good.
Look at their eyes.
Look how happy they are.
They're amazing.
I've had them before.
You think it's worth the one gram of extra sugar to give these cotton candy grapes a shot?
Definitely.
Yes.
So juicy.
Like a little dessert in your mouth.
A little dessert.
Oh, my goodness.
She's a food critic.
Thank you very much.
All right.
So if you're looking to satisfy your sweet tooth, I say go for it.
You can pick them up at your local grocery store.
They're just $4.99 a pound, about the same price as regular grapes.
I like the idea that they're actually fruits that taste so sweet.
So when we come back, we're going to talk about nootropics.
They claim to make you smarter, but do they?
Our social experiment when we return.
What a fire promised you.
Next, they're all the rage.
Smart drugs.
But can these enhancers really boost your brain?
Do things faster, quicker, remember better, we get things done more efficiently.
And later, the powerful movement taking place to end the silence of addiction.
Coming up.
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 dros.com/tickets and sign up.
Imagine a pill that could make you smarter, more motivated, less forgetful.
Turns out that pill supposedly already exists.
They're called smart drugs, also known as nootropics.
They are big in the business world and on college campuses all across the country.
And now the rest of us are starting to take notice.
I definitely think it could be a good thing.
Who doesn't want to improve their memory and brain functions?
Smart drugs are exploding all over the web with lots of promises.
But can you take them seriously?
This brand pledges powerful focus and motivation.
This one says it improves concentration fast.
And almost all have a money-back guarantee.
But can you really trust them?
Online marketers are targeting you.
So what do you really need to know about so-called smart drugs?
Today we're talking about drugs, the good and the bad.
This pill, that's what it looks like, claims to hack your brain to make you smarter.
Advocates say these smart drugs improve memory, clarity, focus, attention.
They're better than coffee, they say, and there's no prescription with them.
So it sounds pretty appealing.
Let me ask the audience, you guys are so good about these things.
Who's taking these nootropics?
Who's tried one?
Let me start with you.
How are you?
When do you take them?
I take them before I sit down to work.
I work for myself so it's hard for me to focus usually, but when I take them I can write for hours.
Do you sense any difference?
I see a difference.
It's subtle.
It's not like Adderall where it's like this huge difference, but it just keeps me focused.
Why do you take Adderall?
I don't take Adderall.
I used to in college.
You used to, okay.
But I see a big difference between the two.
Who else, Megan?
Any side effects that you've noticed?
No, I just get really focused without the crash of things like coffee, so I love it.
Yeah, perfect.
Sounds sort of appealing, doesn't it?
Well, let me do a little experiment with you guys.
Let me show you how these smart drugs claim to work.
Who's good at puzzles?
You're good at puzzles?
You know what?
Let me use both of you.
You start first.
Come on up here.
Since you're both good at this.
Actually, you know what?
Step one second, just for the demonstration purpose, sit down.
What's your first name?
Leticia.
Leticia.
Yes.
Okay.
Leticia, there's the puzzle right there.
It's a 12-piece puzzle.
Should be pretty straightforward, I hope.
Ready?
Go!
Put it together.
Now, the reason I'm asking you to put the puzzle together is to do this, you have to simulate the whole brain.
You gotta get your visual perception right, see things right, you gotta be coordinated to put them in the right spot.
Your memory's important, so you know what you did before, what didn't work, what can do better.
Critical thinking, so you're actually able to match things up.
Now, this is the thing.
Puzzles aren't as easy as they seem sometimes.
She's got it there.
Now you broke the back of it.
Don't you like that part of the puzzle when the last little pieces fit together?
Alright, you got it.
Just to be complete.
Give her a hand.
Leticia, I want you to take that puzzle that you made, and I want you to break it apart.
Break it back apart, because we're going to do something different.
So you did it by yourself.
The argument for why these smart drugs work, these nootropics, is that maybe it's like having more people help you do things.
Turning on brain cells, otherwise we'd be sort of sleepy.
Two more people, come on up here.
What's your name now?
G. Murray.
G. Murray.
You think you can do better?
I can help her.
You can help her.
One more person.
One more person.
Come on down.
Who's up?
Come on down.
All right.
Now here we have it again.
I'm going to put the club in.
Fix this up a little bit.
It's not so easy.
All right.
Now you ready?
All three working together.
Go.
Take the top.
Take the top.
And with three people working together, they can focus on different things.
Oh my goodness.
That was fast.
You got it.
Now, again, it's a metaphor.
It's not a one-on-one, but is it easier, I guess, doing it with three people than one?
Definitely.
Yeah, definitely.
So that's the promise.
That's the thought.
It's the extra brain power that a smart pill might be able to give us to be able to multitask and do things faster, quicker, because we remember better, we can focus better, we can get things done more efficiently.
That's the claim.
That's the claim.
All right, grab a seat, because I'm going to turn to an expert now.
Joining me is neuropsychologist Dr. Sabine Hafez.
She's been studying cognitive functioning for over 10 years.
So, increased memory.
I heard it from members of the audience.
Focus.
Able to get through difficult times.
Why would I worry?
It seems to work.
Soft claims, but pretty bold promises.
What does the sign say?
At first glance, science says, yes, that they do work.
That these smart pills make you more attentive, more focused, more clear, even help with memory.
But that's at first glance.
Research is funny.
You know, research can make you think that something really works, but a magazine says, well, 50% of our consumers love this shampoo.
What they may not tell you is that they tried it on two women in their office, and so technically, if one liked it, that's still 50%.
So you have to be very careful in how you interpret research.
So go over what's actually in these smart pills.
So there's L-theanine and caffeine.
So we already know that coffee makes us alert.
So research shows that in combination in high dosages, they do promote attention, very specifically visual attention, kind of what you were just doing, this visual-spatial attention, yeah.
And it's also Bacobamoneri?
Bacobamoneri increases, well, it says, research says that it increases memory.
But when you look at the research, it actually decreases forgetfulness instead of increasing memory, which is an important distinction to make.
It is.
They also have creatine.
Creatine has been shown to increase some cognitive functioning.
But when you look at the research, it's done more on, let's say, sleep-deprived or the elderly.
So it doesn't necessarily translate to people like you and me.
People who are already hopefully functioning at a normal level.
And finally, ashwagandha, which I know is a very popular herb in other parts of the world.
Yeah, so ashwagandha actually has some good science behind it.
It was shown in a study in 2012 in a large sample size.
It showed that it reduced blood cortisol serum levels, which in turn reduces your response to stress and anxiety.
So the less anxious you are, the less stressed you are, the more you're able to focus.
So I was curious to see if these smart drugs worked, if they actually worked.
So I enlisted one of my core experts to take them for three weeks.
Did they work?
You guys curious?
You've heard testimonials.
We're going to find out when we come back.
Later, see how you can be involved in the rally to end addiction.
TLC star Whitney Thor fights back for big girls.
I think that people are really threatened when they see a happy, fat person.
Plus, how to survive life's now what moments.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Today we're talking about drugs, the good and the bad ones.
Nootropics, their so-called smart pills, are becoming the new it drug for anyone looking for mental clarity, focus, attention, and better memory.
But do they work?
Life Coach and one of my core team members, Tia Brown, took one brand of smart pills for three weeks, and this is what happened.
As a life coach, I'm a strong believer that we can all do little things to improve ourselves, even work on our memory.
So I went online and ordered one of the top-selling smart drugs, Alphabrain.
Now at $30 a bottle, this better work.
The drugs arrived a week later, but before taking them, I met with neuropsychologist Dr. Sanim Hafiz.
Hi!
Hi, I'm Tia!
So she could perform some baseline cognitive tests and see how smart I was before taking the smart drugs.
Are we ready?
First, a quiz to test my non-verbal problem solving.
So you need to pick which one of these best fits into this box.
This involved analyzing pictures and patterns.
I had to figure out which images went where.
I'll go with C. The next quiz tested my executive functioning.
This is timed.
I'm going to give you a pencil.
I had to connect numbers and letters in ascending order, all while being timed.
And finally, a quiz to test my memory.
It involved tapping blocks.
Tap the yellow row first before moving on to the red row.
And I'm not done yet.
And trust me, it was a lot more complicated than it looks.
You did very wrong on the block typing test.
After all the tests, I popped my first pill.
This better help.
And to document any mental improvement during my time on smart drugs, I agreed to keep a video diary.
It's day two.
This is my The fourth pill I'm about to take?
It's day four.
Eh.
It's week two and I'm seeing a little bit of improvement.
I plan to keep on taking them.
But of course, any real cognitive improvement can only be measured by cognitive tests.
So I'm back to Dr. Haviz's office for my second round.
Hey, I remember her name, so that's a great sign.
Let's see what happens.
An hour later, Dr. Haviz had performed the test and calculated my results.
So, did smart drugs make me any sharper, quicker, smarter?
Today we're sharing my results.
I'm anxious to see the results.
Thea Brown is here.
So why did you agree to take part in this little experiment we had?
Who doesn't want to be amazing, right?
Everybody would love to be their best self.
As a life coach, I'm a huge advocate of self-improvement, so anything you can do to make yourself better, you should try.
All right.
Let's get the results.
You excited about this?
Yes, I am.
The results of the SmartPills experiment.
The moment of truth is here.
Neuropsychologist Dr. Cassidy Mahfiz is back.
Thank you for joining us.
All right.
So based on all that cognitive function, all those things, are you ready to hear this stuff?
Based on all the testing you did, What do you think?
What difference did these pills make with Tia?
Let's go to the screen.
First, nonverbal.
What are nonverbal?
Those are the ones where she was moving the blocks around?
Yeah, it's a little bit of everything.
So nonverbal looks at your visual spatial skills, your visual spatial memory, let's say how you do a puzzle, how you look at a map, how you look at a graph or a chart.
And so we tested Tia in different areas of nonverbal functioning, fluid reasoning, problem solving.
So she's smart.
She did pretty well.
She's smart.
She's smart.
So this is the baseline, about 100. And then she took the smart pills.
And then let's look at the post-test scores.
Oh!
Is that a big difference or a small difference?
So the naked eye can look like, well, 100 to 104. Well, that must mean that they work.
But four points is really not that big of a difference.
It's negligible, really.
It could be from practice effect.
It could be a fluke.
So you're smart to begin with, you're still smart, but not a heck of a lot smarter.
Okay, okay.
And then, I know you did a whole bunch of tests you did.
Yes.
Processing speed.
Processing speed, which is really fluency, your reaction time, how fast you can do something.
So let's look at Tia's baseline functioning.
45 seconds.
45 seconds.
So I put my hands like this.
She's fast.
She is fast, right.
And after taking the pill?
And then post-test.
She got slower?
Yes.
She slowed down?
Yes, we did not expect to see this.
Are we taking sedatives or anything else, or just the smart pills?
They had a better life through drugs.
Alright, so, the summary is, did they make Tia smarter?
No.
No?
It doesn't look like it did.
You know what I think?
These smart pills are like coffee on caffeine.
They make you more alert, more awake, but not necessarily smarter.
So we reached out to Onnit.
They're the maker of the SmartPills Alpha Brain that Tia was taking.
And the CEO of the company, Aubrey Marcus, is actually here.
And by the way, thank you for coming.
I appreciate it.
You're welcome.
Yeah, my pleasure.
So what's your initial reaction to these results?
Well, we conducted two double-blind clinical trials on AlphaBrain where they put people like Tia, healthy adults, 80 of them, through a bunch of tests just like the ones that she was doing.
And what we found was specifically it improved verbal memory, some different processing speed tests where they actually hook people up to an EEG, and some things like executive function.
For some reason, it doesn't fit with a person's neurochemistry.
We offer probably the easiest money-back guarantee in the world.
Thank you again for coming at least to talk about your perspective on us.
So let me talk to Dr. Hefis for a second here.
So if someone's watching right now and they think they have a deficit, they're not quite where they think they should be, well, would it make sense for them?
It may work for them because most of the studies actually show that they worked on low baseline people.
Now, Tia, her baseline wasn't low.
Her baseline was pretty okay to begin with.
So that's not necessarily all of us.
So let me give you my thoughts on this.
If you're taking a smart pill and you don't have a deficiency, it's sort of like putting anti-aging cream on a baby's chubby cheeks.
You won't get the kind of benefit you're hoping for.
I am curious about folks who aren't functioning at full speed, though.
Thank you for taking time to do this testing and for doing the experiment itself.
Yeah, I appreciate it very much.
All right, we'll be right back.
How would you deal with just five ingredients for dinner?
So you're frightened or do you feel good about this?
The choose Michael Simon gets busy.
And when your morals are put to the test and you think no one's watching, how would you deal if you saw a mom scold her kid?
You're embarrassing me.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Thursday.
Tomorrow you'll be talking about the Unite the Face Addiction Rally.
The powerful new national alliance that was formed to help the more than 22 million currently addicted and stand up for the 23 million more who are in recovery.
So take a look.
Washington, D.C. I'll be marching in the movement to solve one of the most pressing health issues of our time.
That's what it's called.
Let's make some history.
You can be part of it too.
The recovery community has collectively written a song.
I've added it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.
You can go there now and share the song to end the silence.
Together, and only together, can we face addiction.
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