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May 7, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:48
Does Your Cell Phone Case Increase Your Radiation Risk? | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 35 | Full Episode
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Time Text
You spend 195 minutes a day with that phone.
You've heard about an invisible threat radiating from your cell.
Here's the question.
Can our phones cause brain cancer?
We go into a top lab to find out how much radiation you're really exposed to.
And does a case make it worse?
Might be protecting your phone.
The question is, does it protect you?
Today on The Dr. Oz Show.
It increased the radiation exposure 16%.
Coming up next...
We'll save lives today.
You guys ready to get healthy?
Yeah!
So, I always had you guys turn your phones off, right?
You hear this?
Hello?
Hello?
Whose phone's on?
Hello?
So I always tell you to turn your phones off because you want to have it quiet in the studio.
Today is the exception.
Have a seat.
This is important because I'm going to confess, I love my phones as much as you do.
I walk around with them all the time.
My wife leaves me hard time about it.
I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
But today's show has to do with new concerns over the health of this technology.
Here's the question.
Can our phones cause brain cancer?
It was asked in the very early stages of cell phone development.
And the conversation continues today as new headlines emerge about information on the safety of smartphone radiation.
So what's the truth behind these headlines?
How much radiation does your smartphone transmit?
And what can you do about it?
So today on the show, we're going inside a top lab to find out and reveal the truth about our smartphones.
Plus, the truth behind your backache.
We've got the best at-home solutions to end the pain.
I know, I've tried these solutions, they work.
And finally, how some everyday words can trigger our anxiety.
We're going to show you how to reduce the stress when you hear, we need to talk.
So let's start with smartphones.
It's become an everyday essential food, water, air, and you gotta have your phone.
You spend 195 minutes a day on your phone.
That's over three hours on your phone.
Texting, you're shopping, you're talking on it, you're doing everything with that phone.
But does this modern necessity put you at risk for brain cancer?
Recent headlines and new information from Consumer Reports got me questioning what we should all know about smartphones.
Do cell phones cause brain cancer?
The debate is heating up.
Recently, 190 scientists from 39 countries issued a health crisis warning, calling on governments worldwide to lower human exposure to radiation from cell phones.
In March, a German study found that cell phone signals can cause tumors in mice.
But other studies, like one in Denmark, found no cancer risk.
The U.S. government says that cell phones are essentially safe.
But in Berkeley, California, a new law requires stores to put a warning on cell phone packaging that states, If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is on and connected to a wireless network, You may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation.
And, usually hidden deep within the settings, most cell phones have warnings advising you to keep the phone away from your body when carrying or using it.
As the scientist seesaw and the politicians ping pong, consumers are left wondering, just how safe is my cell phone?
And according to a Dr. Oz poll, 70% of you are concerned about cell phone radiation.
When I hear all the conflicted studies, I tend to wonder, are we really being told the truth?
I've heard that it can get to your brain eventually.
We live in a society where everything can give you radiation.
I think my phone is safe.
I use it all the time.
But if it turns out I'm wrong, I'm going to be furious.
So first, let's start with what smartphone radiation actually is and how it may affect your body.
So when you make a phone call, your phone sends a signal out.
It actually receives a signal as well.
These radio frequency waves go from its antenna to the cell phone towers and back again.
Radiation waves, they're not as strong as radios and microwaves that are also sending out messages.
And these kinds of waves are also different from x-rays and nuclear waves.
In fact, the waves from a smartphone can't break up your DNA. They can only heat up water.
That's important because water is what the human body is made out of.
All of our human tissues and cells have water, and that's actually what's concerning a lot of doctors.
So here's the question.
How much of these waves are you getting from your phone?
I sent Dr. Butch Rosser, one of my core team experts, to investigate.
Before every cell phone is sold, it has to be tested and meet stringent government standards for radiation exposure.
One of the few labs that does the testing, RF Exposure, is based in San Diego.
I was offered a rare opportunity to go behind closed doors to see just how it's done.
Hi, I'm Dr. Butch Rosser.
The lab is run by Jay Moulton.
What we have here is we got a robotic arm that we use that moves around this probe, and the probe is what actually does all the measurements.
And the probe will come around and go into a tub that is...
Oh, this is a tub?
This is a tub, and it's in the form of the human head.
And that way you can do the left and the right side.
And it measures the RF exposure or radiation exposure with this precise robotic arm of yours, right?
Correct.
I gotta get involved.
I'm getting out of this code.
You gotta let me just work with you today.
I'm your lab assistant today, okay?
Okay.
Now, what we want you to do is to test two of the more popular phones.
We're gonna go full contact to the ear.
We're gonna move it away about an inch.
And then we're gonna have it in the speaker or earpiece position like this.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
To do the test, we will attach the phones to this model of the human head at the spot where the ear would be located.
This model is the standard size mandated by the government for testing cell phones.
But as it turns out, only 3% of the population actually has a head this size.
That head is closer to my size head, or maybe a little bit bigger.
What about women and children?
Is this Are the tests going to be applicable to the safety of women and children?
It hasn't been proven one way or another yet, but there has been talk and they've been looking at it.
To start the testing, we fill the mold with a substance designed to simulate human tissue.
So it represents the electrical properties of the human head so that we see how much of that energy will penetrate in through that tissue.
Next, the mechanical probe is inserted into the fluid.
Finally, Jay simulates making a phone call with the phone placed against the head, while the mechanical probe moves through the mixture to measure the radiation emitted by the phone.
The radiation levels show up on a computer monitor.
Well, the yellow shows where the hottest point is on the phone.
Hottest here means the highest level of radiation being transmitted to the head.
I can't wait to see if there's a difference as you move the phone away from your head.
What our test confirmed, there is a difference, a big one.
If you look at the numbers there, the one inch, you're dropping 70 to 80 percent.
And then when you get further out, even at the three inch, it drops even further than that.
Translated, that means if your phone is against your head, you're exposed to your phone's maximum amount of radiation, 100%.
But moving your phone just one inch away from your head, you're exposed to only 15%.
Three inches away, and you're exposed to just 5%, almost no radiation.
In the end, the phones we tested both came in under federal guidelines.
They're both well below the FCC limit, but there's a lot of other variables that goes into how much radiation you're going to have.
So, keeping it just barely off your ear seems to make a difference.
Dr. Ross is joining us.
So, what are other variables besides distance from your head that make a difference with this radiation?
Well, first of all, your reception, okay?
If you have fewer bars and you've got poor reception, that means your phone is actually working harder and there's more radiation exposure.
Even the service you have might make a difference between you and the person next to you.
Oh, absolutely.
This is a very, very brief rough summary of the papers I looked at for this show.
Just this show.
Look how much stuff there is.
What is the problem?
Why so many mixed messages?
How can it be so difficult to figure out if a smartphone's radiation is a problem or not?
Well, these tumors are very slow growing.
That's number one.
So it may take years and years to find out the true answer from that aspect.
The other thing is the technology.
It's always changing.
In fact, part of the reason it's so hard, the fact that this technology is changing is not just a little bit.
It's a big difference.
So come over here.
I'm going to show you something.
I got a little...
This is my phone, actually.
Oh, the other one looks familiar, too.
All right, yeah.
You remember this?
We call it the hernia maker because it was so heavy.
Alright.
So, let's go back to this issue of the antenna.
You touched on it very briefly.
This antenna was huge, but where's the antenna on our regular smartphones?
Well, in fact, the antenna in this position was not a good thing, and it took us a while to know that.
And in your new phones, you actually have it down here low, away from The critical anatomical areas.
And that is probably one of the biggest advances that we've had, really.
So some countries have banned advertising of smartphones to kids.
Oh, yeah.
And I'd love you to just explain how radiation affects kids' brains differently as you started to in that little piece.
Well, the big thing is that their heads are not only smaller in size, but the bone is thinner, and the depth of penetration in a small head goes a lot farther.
The adult head is not nearly as much.
So all adults are thick-headed, is what you're saying?
Yes, relatively sane, and mine's thicker than most, right?
So we reached out to the cell phone industry about the radiation.
Here's what they said.
The FCC has determined that all wireless phones legally sold in the United States are safe.
So if you're still concerned, despite those assurances about your smartphones, there are smarter ways to limit your exposure without giving it up.
One of those ways, as you know, is the kind of case that you have.
It turns out that it matters.
So we're testing some of the most common cases for radiation risks.
The results are next. - Next, they may protect your phone, but are they keeping you safe from radiation?
Cell phone covers claim to reduce exposure, but is that always the case?
We're calling them out.
Which are safe, and which ones need to be tossed?
Coming up.
You're in scrubs!
I'm in scrubs!
Michael Strahan's changing the game.
It's all about changing your mind.
And wakes up a winner.
Oh, who was?
That's coming up tomorrow.
We've been talking about what you need to know about smartphone radiation risks.
And I'm revealing smarter ways to reduce your exposure because how you use your phone can make a big difference.
So I want you all to hold your phones up for one second.
Before I get to how I use them, let's talk about that case.
Who's got a really safe case?
Oh, you do.
I have like double the protection.
That's going to really protect the phone.
I hope so.
I hope it protects me.
All right.
Now, that's the question we're asking today.
And it might be protecting your phone, but we're not sure about you.
So Dr. Roster went out there and he wanted to find out, does this case you have keep you safer from radiation?
Take a look.
A recent report suggests that some cell phone cases may actually intensify radiation.
How?
A bad design can partially block a phone's antenna.
That changes the way the device transmits signals.
The end result?
More radiation aimed straight at the user's head.
So to illustrate this principle, we decided to test radiation levels coming from phones we covered with a variety of popular cell phone cases made from a variety of materials.
Metal, soft flexible plastic, a radiation reducing mixture of plastic and metal, And the one I personally own, hard plastic.
First up for testing, a metal case.
The metal case is something that a lot of people don't realize, but the FCC requires you to test metal cases, and most manufacturers are not doing any testing on their metal cases.
Next, a flexible plastic case.
Then, the case that even claims to reduce radiation exposure on its packaging.
And finally, my case, made from hard plastic.
Today we're revealing which cases could prevent and which cases might promote exposure to cell phone radiation.
Dr. Rosser is back with the results of the testing.
So we want to reiterate, this is a very small sample.
It's not some big study.
We wish there was a bigger study done, but this is a little bit of a head start for some of us.
So Dr. Rosser, you're back with the results.
Which phones had the least amount of radiation coming out of them?
I tell you, you know, I really learned something on this test.
First of all, the metal case Actually can decrease the radiation exposure by 20%.
Decreases it?
Decreases it by 20%.
My only caveat to that is your reception may be a little bad on that too.
And then I said, really?
Well, let me go to some of the covers that are designed to decrease radiation exposure.
All right.
And then I kind of moved on to the one that is designed to actually decrease radiation exposure there.
And so this one, it did its job.
It decreased or blocked the radiation by 11%.
And then I went on to my old reliable, the hard plastic.
You could hit someone with this thing.
Really, you could get a lump on your head for that one.
This is pretty hard.
But guess what?
It actually decreased the radiation exposure by about 6%, which is respectable.
But let me tell you.
The thing that made me step back and really take a deep breath...
This is the kind I have.
You have that kind?
Yeah, the plastic kind.
But we're worried about you on that one because guess what, my friend?
This one, the flexible soft plastic, it increased the radiation exposure by 16%.
It increased it.
Yes.
I'm going to say this slowly so you get it since you're in shock.
One, six percent.
Sixteen percent.
How many of you guys have a cover like this?
Look at your jaws dropped open.
This poor lady in the third row.
I tell you, this was illuminated because, you know, we think about the phones.
The big issue has been about the phones, but the covers do matter, too.
Isn't that surprising?
I mean, it was surprising.
Gosh.
So, to conduct a small sample, obviously, I don't want you all going out and tossing out your covers, but the takeaway is that the case makes a bigger difference than I thought, anyway, in the radiation that you're being exposed to.
It can go up and go down, it's not always predictable.
Go up and go down, and like you said, there's no requirement for the cases, and this was a relatively small sample, but still.
Be aware.
Don't assume it's automatically protecting you.
All right.
Other thing I'm noticing a lot of women especially doing, guys do it as well, is they put these darn things on their skin.
So they put them in their pockets.
You know, they put them in their bras.
You know, we actually found these pictures.
These are legitimate pictures of people walking around the office.
Seriously?
Yeah.
There's a phone stuffer here.
Where's Dillis?
Dillis, come over here, Dillis.
Get in between us.
Dillis, is that you?
Hi.
Yeah, that's me.
If you don't mind, show me, here, it's clean.
Show me how you put that in there.
Now, wait up now.
Why are you doing that?
Well, I'm always on the go, and it's easy, accessible.
Out, in, in, out, like, you know.
So, the rule of thumb here is to keep the phone an inch away from the body.
Right.
And you've been hearing our discussion about this.
I have.
So, what do you think about that?
Very scary for me.
We did a show last year talking about a woman who thought she might have gotten a breast tumor from her phone.
We don't know if it's true.
I say to myself, why would I take a chance?
I mean, the phones, if you look at their safety place in the phones, the way they give all the information, they actually tell you not to put it on your skin.
So if I give you that case, you think you might keep that away from that purple blouse you got on?
It does match, though.
It matches perfectly.
I might want to showcase the case, so yeah, I think I might just not use it against my skin.
She's gonna rock the case, though.
She's gonna rock that case.
Now, at nighttime, when you go to bed, where do you put your phone?
It's right next to me.
It's, hey, what's up?
How you doing?
Fall back to sleep.
That's what I do.
So here's the thing.
You don't want to have that thing pumping out radiation all night long while you're dreaming beautifully about stuff.
Why take a chance?
How about you?
Sometimes.
You're actually going to admit to that, huh?
I like that.
That's a good reason.
That's a good reason.
You get away from her.
I'm sorry.
All right, y'all.
Up next.
Find out what this word, salukla, means.
You ever heard that word, salukla?
You've got to find out what it means, plus funny health words in different languages, and we have some very important surprise guests.
Stay here.
Next is the crew from The Chew.
My daughter Daphne and Clinton Kelly get lost in translation.
I don't know.
It looks like spritz of diarrhea.
Hysterical health words from around the globe.
It's all Chinese to me.
Can you guess what they really mean?
Coming up.
"Dunyaca sağlıklı" nasıl deniliyor?
Did y'all get that?
Well, it's subtitled for you at home.
It's how you say healthy around the world.
It's in Turkish.
So today's conversation is about how to go around the world to reveal the funniest health words.
Here's a Spanish one.
Now take a listen.
Ready?
Embarazada.
Embarazada.
Latinos can't speak about this.
Now it might sound like embarrassed, but I actually have someone coming on to visit us to demonstrate what it really means.
Come on out, guys.
Hey!
Hi!
Sethi and Clinton from The Chew.
Can we play?
Now, this would have been a problem.
Are you embarazado?
Only after a big meal.
All right.
So you guys are next door doing what?
We're doing a little promo shoot for The Chew.
You should have seen them there.
They had the best food at the shoot.
I was so jealous of them.
We always do.
That's true.
So embarazado.
I look like this all the time.
Embarazado is this.
It means pregnant.
And that's why if Clinton were to use it, it wouldn't work.
So we got a little game we're gonna do together.
That was a little demonstration.
I'm gonna play a word so it's pronounced perfectly for you guys.
I'll show you what part of the world it's from.
And then when we're done, all you gotta do is guess what it means?
Audience, you guys are so darn smart.
Do not give them any help.
Is that a deal?
Do we need money?
Yes, you will.
I'll pay you.
Come over here.
Face the map.
Okay.
I normally play music, but I don't have any.
All right?
So we're going to start in China.
What bodily function does this word describe?
You know what?
Forget about that.
We'll go to Germany.
That's just the same.
You know what?
Forget Chinese.
We'll come back.
It's all Chinese to me.
What does that describe?
Can you use it in a sentence?
You know German?
No.
He would be the ringer there.
Show up exactly.
He'd know everything.
I was going to say diarrhea.
Diarrhea?
I don't know.
It looks like spritzer diarrhea.
I don't know.
I'm going to look like diarrhea it is.
Well, if you went to a doctor's office and they offered you a spritzer, you should be careful because it means they're about to give you a needle.
It's a little prick, a little injection.
A little spritza in your arm.
That was a warm-up round.
Give me another chance.
I have no idea.
China, Sweden.
Just give me something up there, guys.
This next one is from a country.
If I see the map, I'll tell you where it's from.
We're going to Sweden.
Play it again one more time.
It's a kisa.
What's a kisa?
I'll give you a punch in the Kisa.
You think that's right, Kisa?
That's Italian.
That's Italian, I'm sorry.
Good accent, though.
I'll let you guess this one down.
Okay, I'll give you a clue.
It has nothing to do with your lips.
There's no lips involved in Kisa.
It's, in fact, the other end of the body.
Kisa.
Oh, is it an enema?
Ooh.
It's something I tell people about all the time.
I want them to look at the color of it.
Hoop?
Hoop.
Close.
Number one.
P! A P! Nice to meet you.
All right, thanks for P. All right, P. You all know, right?
You want your pee to be clear.
That's how you know you're hydrated well enough.
Your kissa should be clear.
I don't know how to say clear in Swedish, but someone will help you.
All right, I'm going to give you one last word from Italy.
I want you to take us back to Mario, because I'm curious if he even knows this word.
All righty?
It's skamorza.
Skamorza.
What is scamorza?
We need a hint.
A hint?
Well, it's actually a trick question.
It's not a bodily function.
It's a kind of food.
Scamorza?
Yes, a kind of cheese, actually.
Really?
The favorite kind of cheese from Italy is...
Mozzarella.
It's smoked cow milk mozzarella.
Now, Mario would never have gotten that.
You go him, you go...
He might have.
You tell me you're going to give him a spritza and a scamorza at the same time.
You guys are the best for visiting.
Good luck.
Thank you very much.
Good to see you.
Thank you, my friends.
On the show, every day on ABC. And by the way, Dafti, how do you say thank you in Turkish?
I'm going to put a mini dictionary of all these health translations at dros.com.
Up next, how to conquer your back pain.
We're going to tackle both the physical and the emotional stress in a whole new way.
How's your back?
I can use a massage.
All right.
Maybe we'll do Dafti in the interim.
All right.
We'll be right back.
Next, do you suffer from constant back pain, never knowing when it will flare up next?
I've tried just about everything.
Nothing has worked.
Six quick tests to help you identify the problem.
The plan to stop back pain from dictating your life.
Coming up.
You're in scrubs!
I'm in scrubs!
Michael Strahan's changing the game.
It's all about changing your mindset.
And wakes up a winner.
Oh, who was?
That's coming up tomorrow.
We all suffer back pain from time to time.
A pulled muscle exercising or a night of sleeping a little bit funny.
But it goes away in a couple of days, usually.
But when you live with constant back pain, you're living your life at 50%.
It's hard to live in the moment when you're constantly distracted by pain.
And that's exactly what's happening to Stephanie.
I wake up every day with back pain when I have six children and a husband that I need to take care of.
The last thing I want to deal with is back pain.
I have trouble throughout the day.
I can't sit for a long period of time.
I can't stand for a long period of time.
Picking up my toddler is like Russian roulette daily.
There really is no rhyme or reason why it does flare up.
I wake up in the pain and I go to bed in pain.
Once I take the children to school, I come home and I'm on the couch on a heating pad.
To try to relax is virtually impossible.
I ball up my sweatshirt or I have an oblong pillow.
If I'm driving in the car, I have a certain pillow that I put behind my back.
To live with constant pain affects every area of your life.
I actually am not working right now because of my back pain, and you can become depressed, you don't get to do the things you used to do, ride your bike, go outside, go for walks, play ball, push my toddler on the swings.
As active as I used to be, it's very hard now because I'm so limited to what I can do, so it really impacts every single person in the family.
I have tried, I think, everything possible.
Acupuncture, massages, medication, pain management.
Nothing has worked and I don't want to have back surgery.
I would love to have the old Stephanie back and be rid of this back pain.
So Stephanie is here and she describes how unpredictable her life has become, never known when she's going to have a flare-up.
It makes it emotional and it makes it physical, the pain that you're suffering.
So how would your life be different if you didn't have the back pain?
I could be the old Stephanie.
I could have fun, I could go traveling, play with my toddlers, play with my children, sports.
So, the interesting thing about back pain is that it's ubiquitous, we all have it, and yet it's so hard to find answers.
It is.
It's like I'm helpless because I've tried just about everything and nothing has worked.
Well, I've got an answer for you today.
I brought my personal physical therapist in.
Come on over, I want you to meet her.
Peggy Brill, who's superb at this, and world famous at it as well.
I let everyone know that Peggy was kind enough to meet with you a little bit before the show, and she put you through a little workout.
It's not a workout, it's six tests basically.
I want you all to do these six quick tests at home.
It's simple, easy, and there's no excuse for not doing it.
We're gonna walk you through these six tests, and then I'm gonna have Peggy also explain how she diagnoses people when it's not right.
Based on these tests, We'll have treatments, specific treatments that will help you.
Okay, walk us through them.
All right, so Stephanie, first thing I want you to do is, and everybody at home can do this as well, is I want you to put your hands on your thighs and I want to see what you can do bending over.
Just slide your hands along your thighs and touch your toes if you can.
Good, dropping your chin down and then come back up.
Okay?
And when Stephanie did that, we saw that you were somewhat limited.
You have long hamstrings, but you can't reverse that motion in your spine.
So you're limited in what's called flexion.
Then the other test you're going to do is put your feet shoulder-width apart.
You're going to put your hands on your buttocks, and you're just going to bend backwards.
And you're going to keep your head straight ahead, Dr. Oz, so you don't get dizzy.
And then you're going to come back.
And fall over and get hurt.
All right?
And you have pretty good motion there.
Then the other thing I'm going to have you do is you're going to walk on your heels.
And you should be able to walk on your tippy toes.
Now, if you can't do this at home, this is something immediately that you've really got to go to your doctor, your neurologist, or your orthopedist and see what's going on.
Because that's something, signs of something that has to be addressed.
But you were fine with that.
Then the other test I'm going to look at is stability.
I'm going to have you stand on your right leg and see how level your pelvis is.
If you can just hold that and how steady you feel for about six seconds.
Then we're going to switch to the left side.
And see if you're stable on that side.
I found the weakness over there, Peggy.
And then you're going to go back to that right leg and you're going to do what's called a mini one leg squat.
So I just want you to first stand on that leg, as I'm doing this in heels, and then you're going to just bend and straighten and see how much you're struggling to keep your trunk upright.
So there's two things, mobility and stability.
If you have either of those or both of those a problem, you're going to have back pain.
Come on over, let's go to the Truth Tube, because I've got your results here.
And we took pictures of you as you were doing these with Peggy before the show.
So Peggy, if you don't mind, walk us through exactly what you found.
Here's the first image.
Yes, when we saw her stand on one leg and do the squat, she had a lot of trouble keeping her trunk upright, which tells me there's weakness going on in the lower extremity, and that that's affected from the back.
This is a question for you.
There's a treatment for this.
It's very straightforward, but you've got to do it, religiously.
Are you willing to let your back pain be thinking of the past to make sure that it's not interfering with the life of those wonderful six kids?
I would love to.
All right, here's the deal.
When we come back, the backbusters you can do at home to heal your chronic back pain.
Stay with us.
We're going to like the treatments.
Next, is constant back pain taking a physical and emotional toll on you?
Don't let it keep you from living your life to the fullest.
We have an effective two-step plan anyone can do right now to help you be back pay-free.
Coming up.
Chronic back pain can take a physical and emotional toll that keeps you from living your life to the fullest.
But take a look at these women.
Phoebe is a mother of two young kids.
Her constant back pain made it harder to care for her kids.
But just four months after having her baby, she is now back pain free.
Or take Jennifer.
Jennifer's a nurse.
She's helping care of lots of folks, but she suffers back pain herself, and now she's back pain-free.
Now both these women fixed their back pain using an at-home plan by world-renowned physical therapist, Peggy Brill, who's with us today.
So why is your plan working when so many people have chronic issues, like Stephanie?
Well, I mean, the truth is you've got to make it easy and effective and not take a lot of time.
Because as a mother, I have two kids.
You don't have a lot of time to exercise.
You have six kids.
It's going to target exactly where your weakness is and where your tightness is.
Walk us through the hot spots where these pains often come from.
Well, it comes from what I like to call the core, gut, butt, and back.
Gut, butt, and back.
Gut, butt, and back.
Rhymes and alliterates.
It's good.
All right.
So it's a little bit of a practice we're going to do right now, but you'll be doing it every day after this.
Okay.
Come on over.
We'll use you as an example, Stephanie, but we're going to put a lot of these bits of information on the web so folks can find out their back pain and match it up to the treatment.
So I'll put it here.
Back, butt, and gut.
How should we do back?
You've got to lie down on your back.
Here, your head up here.
Stephanie.
Now, so Stephanie had limitation.
You had limitation bending over.
So what I want to do is restore that flexibility into flexion in your back.
So you're going to start off with pulling one knee in towards your chest.
And you're just going to grab that knee and stretch it as much as you can.
You don't have to create pain.
Just hold that.
You're going to hold it just three to six seconds.
What about the women at home who are rolling their eyes saying, stretching is not going to help my back?
I've tried that.
Yeah.
Well, they might need to do a different stretch.
If they're limited going backwards, they've got to try that stretch.
But for Stephanie, this is what she needs.
People who have back, who can't go back, they have to stretch in the opposite direction, get on their belly and press up this way.
Now bring this down.
Or at work, go like this.
Or stand up and do that standing extension.
Everyone in America walking around like this.
Then the back's out.
That's a whole different problem.
Exactly.
Alright, butt, come on over.
Roll over.
And then you're going to roll over onto your belly, and this is where you start to strengthen the gut and the back.
So, Stephanie, you're going to put one hand underneath your forehead, and the other arm you're going to reach way out in front of you.
You're going to lengthen that, and you're going to take the opposite leg here and lift that straight up in the air and lift this arm up.
This is called cross extension, and you're going to activate those muscles.
You don't have to lift that leg so high.
Because you want to keep this stable, but activate here and here.
This is going to start to strengthen your back and add stability to your pelvis.
That's why it's called the butt exercise, I guess.
Right.
And then you hold that six seconds, bring that hand in, and you're going to switch to the other side.
Okay.
It's harder when you do that exact.
All right, final roll.
Come over to the gut side.
You're going to roll it onto your back.
And these are great, because you can do these on your bed.
Before you get out of bed in the morning, you can just do these.
Before you get up and start your crazy busy day, okay?
So this is going to be the belly blaster.
You're going to bring this opposite knee up towards your chest, and you're going to take this opposite hand, and you're going to push against that knee, pulling that rib cage down and into the back.
And this is a great way to activate those four abdominals without, like, straining your neck and flexing through your back.
Because people do push-ups and sit-ups and all these exercises.
I'm not a big advocate of sit-ups.
I think there's a lot of pressure for the back, the neck, and the pelvic floor.
I have a lot of pain in my neck.
Yeah, well this won't hurt your neck.
And you'll strengthen your stomach without compromising your neck.
Then you're gonna hold the other leg.
Six seconds.
Holding that leg up.
And hold your toes towards your nose.
And you press against that.
And you can maximize that by the more you pull that leg in, the more you push away.
And you don't think it's hard, but that's six seconds.
Now roll your way over here to the truth tube.
Come over here.
Come over here.
So those are the exercises.
But the second part of this exercise today is revolutionary.
And I have been doing this wrong my entire life.
I have no idea why I didn't hear this earlier.
I always thought that when I was sore, after a couple of days, I would put heat on that area.
A lot of you in that category with me, right?
So if your back's sore and it's been chronically sore for a week or two, you start putting warm heating pads behind you and, you know, take baths and the like.
You're arguing, no, not at all.
We have to think cold.
Now, I'm much more an advocate of ice, 90% of the time.
A lot of times I'll combine it.
I'll say, if you get chilled, put the heat on your neck, put the ice on your back.
This will help with the spasm like the heat does, but it's also an anti-inflammatory and an analgesic.
I hope this is helpful for you.
I used to have chronic back pain.
Peggy really helped me.
And I bet she'll help you too.
Thank you.
That's what we're going to do.
All the backbusters out there with Peggy Brill are going to be on DrRoz.com.
Plus all the information from our TrueTube experts.
And if you check it out and get some benefit, let me know about it so we can spread the word.
Up next, there's talking to certain people make you anxious.
Just hearing from them.
Maybe your boss.
Maybe your mother-in-law.
I'm in that category.
Anxiety busters to using conversations.
That's next. - We all know that bras and washing machines don't mix.
So a lot of people are using something a little bit different, which is a salad spinner.
See how dirty this is.
Alright, so the number is 20. That's not good.
Oh, it's dirty.
So in order to make this work, we do two cups of water, two teaspoons of baby shampoo.
First you have to wash it in the soap.
Then you do it in clean water.
And then you have to do it with no water at all so it can dry.
But the big question is, is it actually clean?
Is it clean?
We're about to find out.
Let's see.
Alright.
Let's see what we get.
A two!
Awesome!
It is a six!
Next, get off the worry train.
Tips to get you through your everyday stressful moments.
This November, we're taking your health to the next level.
I don't think anything's possible.
It's a month of Game Changers.
Take your health to the next level.
Watch the Dr. Oz Show. - So anxiety has a funny way of twisting reality.
Some of us, when we're really stressed out, actually hear things through an anxiety filter.
Remember that word, anxiety filter.
We actually do this.
That's when you turn a completely benign, simple comment into a worst-case scenario.
So today, I'm revealing the anxiety busters for everyday situations to help keep you calm, cool, and collected.
So first, I want you to picture this scenario.
Everyone do this with me.
The boss calls you and they say, can I see you in my office?
Can I see you in my office?
So, most people think this.
No problem, B, right there.
I hope I get that promotion.
Cheerful, fun.
But if you have anxiety, you may think this.
Oh no, it's happening.
I'm getting fired and she's about to ruin my life forever.
Yes.
How many people are in the ruin my life forever category?
Yes, there, come on up here.
Since it was your thought bubble we were taking.
This is Brittany.
Now, I gotta say, Brittany, I'm sort of surprised.
What happens in your mind that takes what could be a very neutral statement, like, meet me in my office, and makes this the worst news of the year?
I mean, my job's so important to me, I tend to overthink a lot.
So when I get one of those emails, it's like, hi, Brittany, hope your night's going well.
But first thing in the morning, can you step by my office?
I think about that whole night, like, everything I've done wrong for the last, like, year and a half.
And it's not even the whole firing aspect, I think.
It's more about how much stuff I have in my office.
Like, Dr. Oz, you have to see my shoe sash.
Like, it would take hours just moving that out of the office.
Your shoes?
Yeah, so that gives me, like, I'm getting anxiety just thinking about it.
Okay, come over here.
I brought psychologist Jen Hartstein to join us.
She's from our core group of experts.
She's going to break this down for us.
Jen, how do people develop a pattern of hearing filtering through this anxiety filter?
Well, there's a couple things we have to keep in mind.
The first is some of us are just born this way.
It's our nature to be more anxious, right?
We have neurotransmitters in our brain that influence our emotions, and we, some people, just skew to the anxiety side.
The second part of that is, though, the nurture side of things.
Maybe you've been in situations where it just naturally raises your anxiety, Work situations, other stressful situations, your home life might have been anxious.
So the nature-nurture dyad really creates a sense of anxiety for us that forces us to see things kind of a little bit skewed towards the anxiety side.
So whatever the cause may be, what's an anxiety buster for the next time we get called by a boss, someone we report to?
A very, very common situation.
So, the first thing we really want to try and do is slow down and do a reality check.
And one of the ways to do that is to think of these four words and say them out loud.
All that's happening is, my boss wants to have a meeting with me.
All that's happening is, my boss maybe wants to let me know that he thinks I'm doing a great job.
So, four words.
That's what I'm hearing, four words.
Four words.
Can we do this?
So, I'm going to be your boss.
Okay.
Can I see you in my office later today?
All that is happening is you just want to see me.
Or move the shoes out of your office.
Yeah, move my shoes.
I noticed a mess in there.
Thank you very, very much.
All right.
Brittany, I hope you're cured.
So let's turn to the next scenario.
Your significant other calls you and says, we need to talk.
Now, most people think this.
Okay, no problem.
Let's talk later.
He probably wants to ask me what I want for my birthday.
Yeah, of course.
What do you want for your birthday?
Of course that's what they're asking about.
But, but, if you have that anxiety filter, you think this.
I knew it.
He's breaking up with me.
He doesn't love me anymore.
Kamika, come on down.
That's so well done with the head nodding and everything.
Nobody likes uncomfortable conversations.
I know that's the case.
Come here.
Come on over here.
Hi.
So listen, it's very possible that we need to talk could be bad news, but you take it to a whole different level.
So why the negative response?
That's normal.
Who says we need to talk and not fill in the filler?
Like, I get anxious.
I feel like I lose control.
So you have the power.
You take the power from me, and now you're in control, and you're going to break up with me, and my world's going to end.
And until we talk, that's all I'm thinking about.
Isn't that normal, though?
I love the way brains work.
It's so fun.
So Jill, what is it with this?
What's an anxiety buster for a conversation with a loved one, a significant other, that you're not sure about?
One of the things that I love to recommend is the walk and talk, right?
So what we want to do is we have that face-to-face conversation.
It can be really hard because you feel cornered.
You feel a little bit trapped.
It feels very confrontational.
But maybe you need to say, okay, we're going to talk.
Let's take it outside and let's go for a walk.
Let's do it right now, actually.
So let's try it.
Just start walking this way, but gently.
Just pretend you're walking.
So we're going to pretend that we're going to walk down this lovely.
We're going to go outside.
You've got to walk.
We're walking, right?
You're pretending to walk.
We're going to pretend.
So we're walking, and here's the thing.
I can talk to you, and it's easy.
I don't have to dance and walk.
I think you have a straight face when it's walking behind us.
I know, I know.
But, you know, we're playing along, Dr. Oz.
So the thing about it is, as we walk, I can kind of take in what you're saying.
I can process it a little bit more easily.
I can kind of get into my own space and then respond.
It gives us that little bit of space that we might need to really kind of slow ourselves down so we can respond more easily, and it decreases the anger.
It helps with men a lot.
Coffee may go out.
But it helps with men because it distracts us.
It's very hard for some men, most men, to look in the eyes of the people they care about and then at the same time connect emotionally.
But if you're busy doing something, you can get comfortable enough in that that you can actually pay attention and connect.
And I think getting outdoors and taking a walk, if you're not in the car, doing something not physical, simulates the hormones in ways that are very beneficial to you.
And that, I think, especially for stress, is helpful for both sides.
Thank you very much, Dr. Harsin.
And as always, up next, I'm solving your most common health problems with emojis.
I'm so dramatic.
The search is on.
We're looking for a nurse to join our core team of experts to provide wisdom, expert commentary, and advice.
If you'd like to nominate yourself or a nurse who's made a difference in your life, go to drhaz.com and click on hashtag nurse search.
These days, words are virtually unnecessary when you can get your messages across completely with emojis.
After all, a picture is worth a thousand words and so many of us rely on these little guys to communicate anyway.
So I wanted to give it a try.
So tomorrow you'll be talking about your most common health problems solved using emojis.
Now Karen's coming from the audience and she's got an important health question.
How are you?
Hi.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.
So what's bothering you?
Dr. Oz, I'm not really regular, if you know what I mean.
How can I alleviate constipation?
Not regular?
Not regular.
Alright, come on, maybe I'll help you.
So if you're constipated, so I've got to get an emoji for constipation here.
How's that one?
That's a good one, right?
Oh, that's painful.
You're constipated, right?
So what you're not going to do is pizza and fries, but what you're going to do, put a little green check mark there, is all the good things.
You want the whole grain foods, you want pastas that are whole grain as well, all these things.
In fact, you want fruits and vegetables, some fruit and vegetable emojis there, so peaches and apples and bananas.
If you do all that together, it'll get you back on track and you'll be so happy.
I need a happy version of that emoji.
That one's kind of painful.
But this could work.
Oh, there it is.
There it is.
That works.
A happy poop.
A happy poop.
That is the happiest poop I've ever seen.
I didn't know there was an emoji for poop.
Did you know that?
No, I didn't.
Actually, oh, I did.
Now I remember seeing it.
You've used that?
My kids have sent it to me.
To you?
And what do they mean when they say that?
I think they're just kind of amused.
They send it to me to be funny.
Maybe they went to the bathroom.
Maybe.
It's always good for you, so I appreciate it.
Thank you, Karen.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
All right.
We'll get to one more.
I'm going to pull a tweet down.
All right, here's one.
This is a tweet from Lori.
She says, Dr. Oz, I sprained my ankle.
How can I get it to heal faster?
So, Lori, I'm going to respond to yours right now and get the emojis up.
All right, here's what you're going to do.
When you sprain your ankle, you don't put any weight on it.
So, there's a sprained ankle.
There's a little star sign with the sneakers.
So, the solution is no more walking on it.
Ice it, right?
Elevate it and take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen.
Isn't that good?
That works pretty well.
Connect all the pieces.
So Lori, tweet me and let me know how your ankle feels after trying out my emoji prescription.
Remember everybody, healthy and happy starts at home.
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