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July 1, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:45
Brittany Maynard's Story: Mother Speaks on Death with Dignity | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 118 | Full Episode
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She took her life and her death into her own hands.
Brittany Menard.
I don't have to die the way that it's been described to me that my brain tumor would take me.
Her story made worldwide headlines.
Her death triggered a heated debate.
Now, for the first time, just four months after her daughter's death, Brittany's mom speaks out.
Why my daughter?
Why our family?
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Today, an emotional conversation.
Just four months ago, 29-year-old Brittany Menard became the public face of the controversial Right to Die movement.
Her story made worldwide headlines.
Her death triggered a contentious debate.
Now, for the first time, Brittany Menard's mother speaks out about her daughter's Right to Die on her own terms.
It's the conversation no one wants to have, the decision no one ever wants to face, let alone in the prime of your life.
Brittany Menard was young, beautiful, and newly married, her whole life still in front of her, when everything changed in an instant.
After getting married is when I first started experiencing the headaches and they were quite severe.
And I didn't understand them because I had never had anything like that before in my life.
Right when I was diagnosed, my husband and I were actively trying for a family, which is heartbreaking for us both.
Diagnosed with one of the most deadly forms of brain cancer, Brittany immediately underwent surgery.
But when the cancer came back just weeks later, Brittany weighed the options her doctors gave her.
Facing what would likely come next, severe pain, debilitating seizures, loss of vision, speech, and memory, Brittany made the decision to take her life and her death into her own hands.
I can't even tell you the amount of relief that it provides me to know that I don't have to die the way that it's been described to me that my brain tumor would take me.
Brittany's husband and family moved with her to Oregon, one of five states that have death with dignity laws.
I know that it's there when I need it.
I plan to be surrounded by my immediate family, which is my husband and my mother and my stepfather and my best friend, who's also a physician.
On November 1st, 2014, less than a year after her diagnosis, Brittany chose to peacefully end her own life.
Today, Brittany's mother is here to share her daughter's passionate message that death, like life, deserves dignity.
Debbie Ziegler, Brittany's mom, is here.
Thanks for being here.
It's only four months.
How are you coping?
Well, I have good days and I have bad days and when I have my bad days I kind of try to cut myself a little bit of slack because as you said it's only been a little while.
But I'm happy to report that I am having some good days and times when I remember really good things and I know when I laugh that Brittany would have been laughing with me.
May I show the audience what you were faced with?
Yes.
This is an image of a stage four glioblastoma.
That was a tumor that Brittany had.
This is her brain.
And it's supposed to look like this dark area here.
And this big white spot.
I draw a little red line around it so you can see it better.
That's the tumor growing in the area of the brain called the eloquent space.
That's where so many important parts of our body and mind are controlled.
Language and memory making decisions.
All those skills come from this part of the brain.
So when the doctors were dealing with these images, they were quoting numbers like three to six months of life.
And there were treatments that could have been offered to Brittany, but they wouldn't have really saved her life.
They would have prolonged her life, which is I know what she was dealing with and what you ultimately came to realize.
It's so hard for a parent to let a child make any decision because you always feel like you know what's best.
It's hard to let go.
What was it like having no control over this decision?
It was terrible.
And there were times when we knew that we needed to get out of this Hopi denial phase that we were in and move into turn and face death.
And instead of run away from death, we needed to start This sounds awful, but embracing it.
And Britney's choices were very much about doing just that.
So faced with this reality that you weren't going to prolong her life, and certainly not her quality, in May, your daughter, the family, husband, Moves out to Oregon.
Oregon's one of the few states in the country with a death with dignity law.
So you have the right to do things in Oregon you can't do in other states.
If I can, let me point this out.
There are five states like that.
There's Washington, there's Montana, there's Vermont, New Mexico, and I guess Oregon where Brittany went.
And these are death with dignity states.
They're up here in green.
But there are legislators now who have introduced death with dignity bills in 12 additional states Including Brittany's home state of California.
It's also in Washington, D.C., so filling up a lot of the country.
And they're also, because of Brittany's story, there are new campaigns that have been spurred on in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
So a lot of the country now is either discussing this or has passed a law to allow this.
So Debbie, as a father, I know how difficult it is to imagine having this conversation.
But when Brittany made her decision...
All of you had to be around her, facing death, but still finding some salvation, some hope in that experience.
How do you keep the spirits up with the family?
Brittany set the tone for that.
Brittany planned joy into every day.
Even when her seizures began to get worse and even when her headaches became more and more debilitating, she wanted to plan activities into every day.
There are very few days that I can remember that she said, I simply can't.
We're going to stay home.
And on those days, her dogs, our garden, watching the rain in Oregon, those things provided us with peace.
And I have to say that I'm grateful for that.
Because if we didn't have Oregon, if we didn't have that peace of mind, if we didn't know that Brittany's plan was in place, and that we were going to be able to do what she wanted to do, which was live life to the fullest, and then...
Say goodbye before the deficits claimed her ability to speak, her vision, her ability to swallow.
All of that was on the line any minute.
Every day she woke up, she could lose those things.
And we took a chance every day.
And she was very good at being in the moment and just loving what we were doing.
I don't know how she did that.
I was working as hard as I could to be in that moment with her, but my mind was running ahead and my sorrow was hard not to show.
Were you ever angry?
Frustrated?
We always, every single person in our family got angry at different times over different things.
And sometimes you're just mad at the universe.
I mean, I've literally just wanted to scream at the universe.
Why my daughter?
Why our family?
My daughter would say, well, Mom, who would you wish this on?
And I couldn't come up with a name.
And she said, so that's the answer.
This is like being struck by lightning.
You don't wish it on someone else.
It just happens, Mom.
And she was so wise as she faced her own death.
She became wise beyond her years.
I've had to deal with death a lot in medicine.
It's part of the equation.
How did you know when it was finally time for Brittany to take that final steps?
Was it her decision?
Were you all observing it?
It was totally Brittany's decision.
I think a lot of patients who go this route need, for their own peace and sort of centering of their soul and who they are, they need to pencil in a date.
Even if they're not going to use that date, they pencil it in so that they don't spend every day obsessing about the date.
So you pencil it in, and then you kind of live some life, and then you think, hmm, should I move that up?
Should I move that out?
For Brittany, it turned out that the date she penciled in really corresponded, and of course her doctors helped her determine when her symptoms would be getting worse, and they were right.
Her headaches were becoming debilitating.
The pain meds were not controlling the pain.
We were using heat under her neck.
She was having trouble sleeping.
She was having trouble walking.
She was falling.
And that was very upsetting to her, to just be walking along and just fall, you know, for no perceived reason.
And I just think she thought, I've got to go while I can, because if I lose my ability to swallow, you have to ingest this yourself.
No one can give it to you.
You must take the medicine yourself.
So she wasn't going to risk losing the ability to swallow, and I think she was fearful those last few days that it could happen any time.
So in the fateful day, the final day, she took a lethal dose of barbiturates, as you mentioned, as pills by mouth.
They were prescribed by her doctor.
Within five minutes she was unconscious, sleeping, and within 30 minutes she'd stopped breathing.
Yes.
So she died peacefully in her sleep.
It was fast.
It was peaceful.
It was fast and...
She had a circle of people around her that she loved.
So the people she was looking out on were all people that she loved and cared about.
And it was, she asked me to read some poetry while she said, Mom, I think your hearing is the last thing to go, and I'm afraid that I'll hear people start to talk about me dying, and you will think I'm gone, and so people will be talking.
And she said, I don't want that, so please keep reading poetry until you're sure I'm gone.
And that was hard.
But I read some beautiful poems.
I read until someone tapped me and said, she's gone.
And then I ran downstairs.
And I ran outside.
And it was raining.
And it started to rain.
And I thought, how appropriate.
The skies are raining.
And my daughter's going.
I'm sorry.
I'm very sorry.
It's appropriate because, guys, you're crying for your daughter.
Yes.
The tears we shed for our kids.
I can't even begin to console you, but I truly, truly adore that you were able to spend those moments with your daughter.
I'm grateful for that.
I truly am.
And that's why I'm willing to work on this with Compassion and Choices.
And I don't want other families to have to do what we had to do, which is leave all your friends, leave all your pets, leave your home, all that extra stress.
Right.
When you least need it.
So that's why I'm going to continue working on this.
And besides, I promised Brittany.
And you can't break a promise to your daughter.
You can't break a promise to your daughter.
Listen, we have the technology to keep people alive.
The decision you made is a decision so many of us are going to have to face in our lifetimes.
When we come back, the question is, should you use the technology?
Where is the right-to-die debate going?
We're going to find out when we come back.
Coming up next, our conversation with Brittany Menard's mother continues.
Why her daughter chose to end her life with dignity and why more people should have this choice.
Should you have the right to decide how to end your life?
Coming up next.
Junk drawers, cluttered closets, messy medicine cabinets.
This mask can cause blood pressure, weight gain, anxiety.
The plan to declutter your house and de-stress your body.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back talking with Brittany Menard's mother, Debbie Ziegler, and I'd like to bring Dr. David Groob into the conversation.
He's the Medical Director for Compassion and Choices.
This is an organization that advocates for aid in dying.
So Dr. Groob, if you can, get everyone clear on the criteria for making a decision like Brittany was making as she faced the end of her life.
So, in Oregon, there are five criteria.
The first and most important, of course, is that there's a terminal diagnosis on the patient.
The patient is not expected to live more than six months or less, and there is no cure.
Second of all, the person must be 18 years old.
Third, a resident of Oregon.
Fourth, they must be able to make a decision on their own.
And fifth, not be coerced into making that decision.
Now, those are the criteria.
There are some other things that interplay into that.
There are two doctors that have to diagnose the patient, meet the patient, And make sure that they fulfill those criteria as a waiting period of two weeks and a written and oral request.
So there's some things that have to be done.
So you want to make sure that there's not a mistake.
I get that.
But the bigger question that comes up is the Hippocratic Oath that you and I and all doctors take.
The promise we all make that we'll never harm you.
So doesn't this go against the Hippocratic Oath?
Well, Dr. Oz, I'd like to tell you a story, and this is a hard story for me to tell, but when I was first in practice, I had a neighbor, a friend of mine, and he got very bad cancer.
I wasn't his doctor.
His cancer doctors were very good, and they did everything they could, but it got to his bones, and he was suffering terribly.
One day his son called me and said there's something wrong with my father.
I went next door to see him and went into his bedroom and he'd taken a shotgun.
And had ended his life.
So I needed to do the things we need to do.
I called the coroner and the funeral home, and then I called my wife and my practice partner, and we spent the rest of that day taking care of all the physical things that have to be taken care of after a horribly traumatic experience.
But what it taught me, you know, at the beginning of my career is, it reminded me is that the thing that we doctors need to do are Alleviate suffering.
We need to alleviate suffering.
That's our most important goal, not some oath we took to Greek gods.
There are many who argue that any type of death with dignity approach is still just glorifying suicide.
How do you respond to them?
Well, suicide is, in medical definitions, taking one's life.
People who have a terminal diagnosis, life has been taken.
There is no option.
Suicide is a permanent answer to a temporary problem.
People who are dying don't have a temporary problem.
What do you think about Brittany's story has struck such a chord with America?
Well, we know that she was a very intelligent person.
She was very able to express herself so completely.
She was young, which is kind of unusual.
Most people who choose this are 70, 80 years old.
She was attractive.
That helps to have people pay attention to you.
And for me, really, it was the charisma.
She is a very charismatic person.
Very beautiful in every picture, every video.
She launched a campaign to make a big deal about this and make sure people knew this was happening and they needed to be able to help.
It's an online campaign to fight for expanding these death with dignity laws nationwide.
Using that picture of the country earlier on, I showed you that it's having an impact.
Debbie, how are you continuing this fight, this passion that she had to make sure others wouldn't have to suffer?
Well, it's easy to sign up to help others not have to suffer what you've suffered.
And so I feel like if we can get terminally ill people as many options to look at, and then they can sit down and discuss it with their family and their loved ones and decide what's right for them.
She said, I'm not telling anybody what they should do.
I'm just saying we should all have the same options, and it's not right.
That we've had to move to a different state in order to exercise this right.
And I'll do anything I can to continue what I feel is her legacy.
She told me that I can't give you a grandbaby, but I can give you my legacy.
And you can work on it, Mom, if you so choose.
And I think she would be proud.
I think she would be proud of me, and I am very proud of her.
May I show a clip?
I thought it was an appropriate way to end this conversation.
This is an online message, one of the last she left, commenting on her decision to take her life.
This is Brittany's own words.
So if November 2nd comes along and I've passed, I hope my family is still proud of me and the choices I made.
Having been an only child for my mother, I want her to Recover from this and not break down, you know, not suffer from any kind of depression.
My husband is such a lovely man.
I want him to.
You know, I understand everyone needs to grieve, but I want him to be happy, so I want him to have a family.
And I know that might sound weird, but there's no part of me that wants him to live out the rest of his life just missing his wife.
So I hope he moves on and becomes a father.
That's how she was.
If I can help you, you let me know.
Thank you for coming here.
Dr. Groob, we'll be right back.
Thank you.
Next.
Are you completely obsessed with your weight?
Are you consumed by that number on your scale?
Stop letting it take control of your life.
Learn how to reach your ideal weight and be comfortable in your own skin.
The plan to stop obsessing over the scale and get to your real goal.
There are some numbers you never want to forget.
How old you were when you had your first kiss, the day your baby was born, your wedding anniversary.
But for so many of you out there, there's another number you can't get off your mind.
Your weight.
Maribel lives and dies by the number on the scale and is driving her crazy.
I absolutely live and die by the scale.
It completely controls my life.
I weigh myself every morning, ever since I can remember.
I wake up.
I make sure to go to the bathroom first before I weigh myself.
Then I take the scale out.
I always make sure it's in the same exact spot, just to make sure that it's accurate.
The number on the scale always dictates the way I feel for the rest of the day.
When I step on the scale and the number is up or it hasn't moved, it just kind of upsets me and then I don't focus as much on my diet.
If I had plans that evening, I would cancel.
When the number is down, I feel excited and elated.
It kind of keeps me motivated.
I exercise.
I eat better for the rest of the day.
Sometimes I feel like I deserve a cheat day, so I won't eat as healthy.
And sometimes one cheat day becomes two and then three.
So then I end up gaining the weight that I just lost and it just becomes a vicious cycle of losing and gaining.
Growing up, I always tied my self-worth to the number on the scale.
In high school, I was about 165 pounds.
Then I went off to college and gained the freshman 30. When I graduated college, I was up to 210. I've tried many different diets.
My weight has always fluctuated.
My mom was always on top of me without my weight.
I think that stemmed from the fact that she was overweight herself and she didn't want me to get to where she was.
I'm currently about 80 pounds overweight.
I hate it.
I look at myself in the mirror and I don't like what I see.
I feel disgusted.
Whenever I eat anything, I'm always thinking about how it's going to affect the scale.
I don't want to be a slave to the scale anymore.
I'm done.
I'm ready.
I need help.
Maribel is joining us.
The scale has been controlling your life for years.
Take me back to when it first started.
I really don't remember a time where it never was an issue.
I've been overweight my whole life.
As a child, I remember feeling very uncomfortable, even in a bathing suit.
I was probably like 10 years old.
The scale probably became a real issue when I started high school.
You know, you're with other girls, you want to look good, you want to go out.
So my whole life, my mom has always been on top of me about my weight too.
So that was always, I think, You know, part of the problem.
You go to family functions and people are always telling you, oh you have such a pretty face, or oh you'd be so pretty if you lost some weight.
So you kind of carry that around with you for a long time.
They don't mean to be biting, but they are.
Yeah, absolutely.
This magic number 130, what would it mean to you?
How would you like to be different if you actually got to it?
Oh, 130. I can't even imagine myself at that number.
I think my whole life would be different.
Just not obsessing over that scale or obsessing over what you're eating or even just being able to go out and look good and feel comfortable without being paranoid if people are watching you or looking at you or go food shopping, you know, and you pick a box of cookies up and you, what is the person at the counter going to think if I buy these cookies, you know?
So just that sort of thing.
It just not be not having that weight on my shoulders all the time of that obsession.
It would just be amazing.
Let's go back to the truth to that short little walk back there.
Is that OK?
Well, let me start here because I want to get back to this idea of numbers.
So you put it out there.
Magic number 130.
We've talked about it here.
You just described so beautifully the idea you can go to a counter and have someone not judge you if you're at that magic number.
That's the number you put there, right?
130.
Yes.
See, for me, if you were going to have a number that was important, it wouldn't be that magic number that came from nowhere.
It would be the 165 pounds you mentioned as the weight you were when you were a teenager, young adult, right?
That should be the weight you were going to aim for.
And I also want to deal with something else you said.
You said you feel like you're being weighed down, a weight on your shoulders, right?
Absolutely.
That's the real weight.
That's the real issue.
It's that emotional weight.
What are you going to do about getting rid of that?
I have to change my lifestyle.
Well, I want to help you get there because it's not easy to do that.
It really isn't.
It's harder to get rid of this weight, the thoughts of your mom, the thoughts of being judged all the time, the thoughts of being commented on at events, even by well-meaning people and taking it in a very negative way.
Getting rid of this emotional weight is more important initially than getting rid of the body weight, and they will go hand in hand.
Okay.
So to make this happen, I asked someone to join us.
He's a very close friend of mine.
I've known him for many, many years and admired him, Ted Spiker.
He's watched.
Now, Ted, you know, I've written a bunch of books called the U-Books.
He's actually the brains behind them all.
He would sit home and actually write all the stuff down.
That's how smart he is.
And I watched him, as good a friend as he is, go through this exact same weight fluctuation.
And he's actually experienced it his whole life.
We're actually from the same hometown, by the way.
So he found a way to free himself.
What do you hear in Maribel's story that takes you back to yours?
What stands out?
Well, I think what I hear is your story is exactly like mine and exactly like so many other women in that we put so much self-worth in that number.
We're happy when it's a good place and it just weighs us down if it's not in a good place.
But the truth is, for us and for so many people, the scale is really a bully.
I mean, the scale is a bully.
It taunts you, it points his finger at you, it laughs at you.
And what we have to get out of, what we have to do is we have to think of the scale As no longer being in our lives.
We have to take the one second of our lives that we step on the scale and stop letting it influence our entire life.
And I think I can help.
I think I can help.
That would be amazing.
I mean, I know that this is something I've struggled with for so long, so just being able to break free of that would be...
So let's start off with that magic number.
Take us back to the monitor if you don't mind.
Show us how this plan starts.
Because if we can all do that, get rid of the bad magic number, we'll be in good shape.
So this is your weight.
And I think this whole issue comes down to taking away the power of the scale.
For so much of my life, I define my life by what I weighed.
I was pretty good in here for a little bit, but then I reached my low point when I reached my high point.
And it hurt.
And it hurt a lot.
But things started going down and started moving down a little bit.
But I stopped obsessing about the numbers.
And that's when things changed.
When I kind of thought about a different way of thinking about my health and my life, I kind of took control of it.
And instead of thinking about the numbers, I started thinking about experiences.
I started remembering my wedding and when my boys were born and thinking about my first race.
And here is when I stood up on a surfboard for the very first time.
It's something I wanted to do my entire life.
And that was it.
Numbers didn't matter.
Numbers didn't matter.
That mattered.
And that's what we're after.
So what was your number again?
The magic number?
165. All right.
So 130 was your magic number.
165 is your playing weight.
I want to forget about those numbers.
Are you willing to do this with us?
Absolutely.
Because Ted's got a plan for us.
When we come back, a realistic plan for anyone who doesn't want to be defined or bullied by the scale.
We'll be right back.
- - Coming up next, Do you have a magic number that you want your ideal weight to be?
Are you letting it dominate your life?
Stop obsessing and find out what's really weighing you down.
The plan to stop letting your scale be the measure of your self-worth.
Coming up next.
Junk drawers, cluttered closets, messy medicine cabinets.
This mask can cause blood pressure, weight gain, anxiety.
The plan to declutter your house and de-stress your body.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
So what's your magic number, the way you've always wanted to reach that keeps you obsessing over the scale?
Well, be prepared to leave it behind, because today Ted Spiker, author of Downsize, is here, and he has the plan to stop obsessing over the scale and get to your real goal.
The real goal is not the number.
What is it?
It's setting a goal.
Weight is one measure of success.
Weight is one piece of the puzzle, but it can't be the whole measure of success.
Okay, so I want you to just do this exercise.
A lot of times we talk about stuff and people just sort of move on.
I want to take a second.
Everyone at home, same thing.
Take one minute now.
What is a real goal?
Not the number.
A real goal that you can sort of hang your hat on and say, if I get to that, I'm proud of myself.
Go ahead.
Well, I actually already signed up for a mud run.
A mud run?
A mud run.
This one's just for women.
So my goal is to be able to jump over, crawl under, swim through, and just really complete that race and know that I did the whole thing.
That's awesome.
First of all, he does those crazy rhymes.
I was going to offer to do it, but I guess it's women only, so I don't want to do it.
He can masquerade.
But if you send me pictures, I will post them because I want to see that.
That's a good goal, though.
You can do that.
It's achievable.
You're not going to get up or down depending on what else happens during a particular day.
That's a long-term goal.
Ted, the second thing you argue, and this is really important for everybody, is don't weigh yourself every day.
It really is a bully, as you say.
There are three specific times to weigh yourself over a few month period.
Go through this.
Weighing yourself is really, there's no finish line.
So what I find really works, especially for those of us who go through kind of the psychological torture of the scale, is you want to weigh yourself first at the beginning of your journey.
The second time that I think is really valuable to weigh yourself is about two weeks in.
And then the third time you weigh is maybe about six months down the line.
You're feeling good.
You feel like you've lost some weight.
Clothes are fitting differently.
You need to buy new clothes.
And you get that revelation with the new number and say, wow, I lost 40 pounds.
That's pretty darn good.
Only do the third weighing so you can brag to people.
Now, the last step is to customize the plant.
And the only way to know if it's working is to once in a while peak at a scale, but only to audit what's going on in you.
So why is this so critical?
To find this new goal?
I think it's really important because I think the way a lot of the diet industry works is like this.
We have a secret.
If you follow the secret, I'm going to tell you how you're going to lose weight and you're going to have success.
And that's okay because there are some really good quality programs out there.
But what happens when we fail?
What happens when we make mistakes?
It's game over.
We don't want to do it anymore.
So one of the things I've really learned is that we have to be mad scientists.
We have our own variables.
We have our genetics.
We have our lifestyle.
We have our life stresses.
We have our preferences and what we like to eat.
And we can kind of customize our plan.
We take away the pressure of the scale.
We take away the pressure of the self-destruction that happens when the numbers fluctuate.
And we regain our health.
Let's put this into work if you don't mind.
I want to actually bring this to life.
I've made a list here of some of the classic things.
Go ahead and stand right there in the middle.
Classic health and fitness suggestions that we might offer, right?
These are all, you know, things we talk about on the show.
Low carb meal.
You can have no carbs past noon.
You can walk 10,000 steps.
All kind of eliminating food after eight, lots of water.
Pick three of these that you like from this overall suggestion box.
And everyone at home can do this as well.
And just put it over there in your customized weight loss pack.
Just pick three because you can't do them all.
That might work into your life.
But you're going to commit to those three things.
Whatever they are, that's going to be your plan.
So what do you think?
Hmm, okay.
I can definitely do this one.
No eating past eight.
A very important one to use.
I like that one a lot.
Okay.
Definitely strength training.
All right.
You're giving yourself, not taking something away from yourself.
And pick one last one.
Whatever this is, it could be anything you want.
This will be a hard one for me, but try this one.
All three of those are very wise.
They're not wiser than the other ones, they're just wise.
So after you commit to those three things and you get a couple weeks of practice in, you're going to hop on the scale, just as a scientist would, and you're going to be curious, I'd be curious, how well is it working?
And if it's not working well, what are you going to do?
You're going to put that back over here and pick other ones to put over there.
Okay.
So you'll find what works for you.
Listen, Ted is yours.
He's going to do the mud run with you if you get him into the race.
Mud run.
He won't even notice.
And he was.
He's going to babysit you through this process.
I want this to work for you, and I want to hear about it, and I want to see those pictures.
All right.
You can get the full plan, all the information from our future back to DrRiles.com, and make sure you check out Ted's book, Downside.
Hilariously funny and very on target.
We'll be right back.
Next.
What do a tape measure, a spice shaker, and an alarm clock all have in common?
Find out how they can help on your quest for lifelong good health.
Important tools you need to guard against heart disease.
The Healthy Heart Kit Everyone Should Have is 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 DrHarris.com/tickets and sign up.
Today, the kit that everyone needs for a healthy heart.
And I've got four women in the audience, and they're going to help reveal each of the items in this kit.
Let's get to the first item.
It's with Shilpa.
Where's Shilpa?
Item number one.
Ready?
Reveal.
Here it is.
Go ahead.
Share the secret.
A tape measure.
Oh, my goodness.
It could be bad news.
I need to know my number.
Come on down.
Let's find this out.
Thank you.
So these are four simple nudges.
This happens to be a pretty important one.
Thank you.
How are you?
So excited.
I'm excited too.
But you may not be excited after you find out what you're going to be doing.
I know.
It's okay.
So here's the thing with tape measures.
I can measure lots of your body.
Okay.
But the reason I care about tape measures is because of what's going on in our bellies.
Yes.
Because not all fat's created equally.
Yes.
Some folks have more problems in the belly area and that happens to cause problems of the heart.
Yes.
So have you ever measured your waist circumference?
Yes.
No, because I'm too afraid to know the number.
Scales are much more intimidating, because only you will know what this means.
Really?
You're not going to reveal the number on TV? Of course I'm going to.
But people won't know if it's good or bad, whereas in a scale, she weighs, what?
Oh my goodness!
Yes.
This is actually a more accurate test for you than a scale.
Plus it works for women and men.
Men are more heavy than women, by the way, which is why they have oftentimes heart problems when they're young.
But it works for kids as well.
Okay.
So is it okay?
Are you brave enough to subject you?
I need to know the number.
Now, the rule of thumb is that your waist measurement has to be less than half your height.
We don't know yet.
How tall are you?
5'3".
5'3".
My wife's 5'3".
So I've memorized that one.
So 5 x 12 inches is 60 inches, right?
12 inches in a foot.
Add 3 more because you're 5'3".
So that's 63 inches.
Divide it in half, 31 1⁄2 inches.
You never know.
I'm going to squeeze really tight.
Now, you can do a Scarlet O'Hare.
You're dressed in red anyway.
Suck it in.
As much as you can.
Suck, suck, suck, suck, suck.
Ooh.
All right.
Well, we're not quite where we want to be.
39 inches?
Squeeze hard.
38 inches?
You can't breathe, can you?
All right.
So, listen.
The nice thing about this number is before this show, you wouldn't have known if 38 was good or bad.
Yes.
But now that you know, you can address it.
And here's the beauty of it.
You control that number.
Yes.
And the reason I want it in your health kit, and this is going to go back with you, is because when it comes to your heart, that number becomes the most crucial one to focus on in regard to dieting and the like.
I don't care if you look like a swimsuit model.
You just want to have a waist size less than half your height.
Gotcha.
Thank you so much, Doctor.
Thank you very much.
Nice to meet you.
Where's Mary?
She has second item.
Mary.
There she is.
Alright, here she goes.
Reveal it to the group.
Item number two in the heart kit is a spice shaker.
Are you a spicy woman?
Yes!
Yes!
I can tell immediately.
Alright, here's the rule of thumb.
Cutting just one half a teaspoon of salt, which is not much, takes a ton of pressure off your heart.
So you can stay there and watch because it's pretty simple.
But this is really critical.
You have to replace salt with something because you're not going to enjoy life if it doesn't have taste.
So I want you to replace your typical salt shaker like that.
With a very elegant spice shaker.
It's an anti-inflammatory spice shaker.
You take my three favorite spices.
You can add your own if you want.
I happen to love turmeric.
Used in many parts of the world.
Has other healing properties as well.
Garlic powder and coriander.
You mix them up in equal amounts and you're going to use it instead of the salt.
Put it on as much as you want because there's no salt in this and you won't pay the penalty with your heart.
Is that fair enough?
Good enough.
Thank you very much.
Alright, Aria is somewhere.
Aria has the third kit item.
The heart kit's ready to be revealed.
A bedtime alarm.
Yes.
It's an interesting thing to put in a heart kit, isn't it?
An alarm?
Yes.
Are you a good sleeper?
No.
You're not.
Come join me.
Let's talk about sleep a little bit.
You know, I focus on sleep for a lot of reasons.
Most people don't pay much credit.
Turns out to be a huge risk factor for your heart.
So, just to do this little exam with me.
Okay.
What time do you typically go to sleep at night?
A little before midnight.
Most of the time after.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I'll call it midnight.
Okay.
What time do you normally get up in the morning?
It's supposed to be 10 minutes to 6, but like 6.30.
Alright, so there's pretty good data now that people who sleep less than 6 hours, which is where you are, actually pay a penalty in their heart.
So I want everyone to do this math with me.
Whatever your wake-up time is, let's just say it's 6 o'clock.
Okay.
You're going to go back, let's say, 7 1⁄2 hours.
Where does that leave you?
It's hard to think on your feet up here, isn't it?
It takes you to 10.30 at night.
Okay.
I want you to set your alarm, not in the morning, because you should be waking up on your own, but if there's a safety valve, what you really want to do is set the alarm for the evening time.
If you go to bed at 10.30 at night, that gets you the seven and a half hours sleep that you need, which is what your heart is craving for.
At the latest, that's what you want to do.
And this is an easy thing for us to put in our heart kit because it works really quickly.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Take that with you.
Thank you.
Let's get to the final item.
The number four thing in the kit who's got it.
Jen has it.
Jen, show it to you.
Reveal your kit.
What's inside of there?
She reveals the fourth item everyone needs for a healthy heart.
It is a supplement with grapeseed extract and vitamin C. Thank you very much.
That's wonderful.
Have a seat.
Let's talk about this a little bit.
So I brought in an expert on this.
He's here on behalf of our trusted sponsorship partner, USANA Health Sciences, Dr. Brian Dixon, Executive Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs.
Now, USANA makes a product called coflavanol C that has both the grapeseed extract and the vitamin C that's in that kit.
Please explain to everybody why is this so important for your heart.
Sure.
I think when we talk about the combination, we need to talk about the ingredients individually.
So you cannot talk about a healthy heart without talking about healthy circulation.
So let's start with vitamin C. Our blood vessels, as you know, expand and contract to meet the nutrient needs of our body.
Well, what's been shown is that expansion and contraction is actually prone to free radical damage and oxidative damage as well.
So if we can take vitamin C and put it in between those nasty free radicals and the walls of our blood vessels, we can preserve that healthy circulation.
So that also brings us to the grape seed that's in the product.
Grape seed contains a product known as flavonoids.
These flavonoids have been shown to be antioxidants, but some new and emerging research has come out that shows these flavonoids are actually acting at the cellular, molecular, and even genetic level to turn on our body's natural defenses Including cardiovascular health defenses.
So this is exactly why we've chosen to put these two ingredients into this unique product that's going to deliver a one-two punch for a healthy heart.
So here's the interesting thing.
You've all heard about the French paradox, right?
This idea that people in France, they tend to eat a lot of foods that are sort of fatty and maybe not are ideal for the heart, but they have a low rate of heart disease.
Now why is that?
Despite having a diet high in saturated fats.
One of the leading thoughts, and Brian's mentioning this, is that maybe it's because they drink red wine.
Are there a lot of red wine drinkers here?
Yeah, good.
Everybody.
You're not drinking now, I hope.
So, red wine has an antioxidant, these flavanols.
That's basically what is going on.
Those grapes are cardioprotective, we believe, for that reason.
So, the flavanol and Usana's product and the vitamin C work together in a similar way that these grapes found in red wine and other sources can potentially be beneficial to us.
So, I've got a deal for everybody.
Beginning tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Eastern time, you can go to dros.com to be one of the first to receive one of 1,000 bottles of Usana's proflavanol C. I know the audience here isn't thrilled because they're not going to be home to bid for this.
However, I'd never forget about you.
So you're all going home with Proflavinol C as well.
Thanks to our sponsorship partner, USANA.
We'll be right back.
Thanks, you guys.
Junk drawers, cluttered closets, messy medicine cabinets, This mask can cause high blood pressure, weight gain, anxiety.
The plan to declutter your house and de-stress your body.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
New experiment.
A brand new experiment has found a cool trick for how you can remember things better.
It's all about closing your eyes.
Here's what happened.
The scientists had people watch a movie and then asked them to recall events from the film.
They found that having the subjects close their eyes actually increased their accuracy when trying to remember details of the movie.
So, we're going to do it right now.
We're going to do a little experiment.
With your eyes open, I want everyone in the audience to think back to the show today and remember how many times you talked about weighing yourself in six months.
Think about it.
Don't yell it out.
Just think about it.
And then I want those of you who are struggling to close your eyes.
Just close your eyes.
Relax.
Don't fall asleep.
Just close your eyes and comment to yourself.
Think to yourself, what was that number?
And see if it sparks any memories.
What was the number?
You remember?
Three times.
Two.
Three.
Open your eyes!
Oh my goodness.
All right.
So the answer is three times, obviously.
But I think this is a pretty good idea.
It's an easy way to boost your memory.
And here's the bonus.
If you're ever caught nodding off at work, now you've got the perfect alibi, right?
I was trying to remember.
Time for it in case you missed it.
First, an emotional conversation with Debbie Ziegler.
She's the mother of 29-year-old Brittany Menard, who became the public face of the controversial Right to Die movement.
It was my honor to talk with Debbie as she gave us invaluable perspective on a situation that has touched so many of you.
And I love that Debbie was able to tackle such a difficult situation and share her experience with us.
To continue the conversation, I want you all to go to DrRoz.com.
We've made a special video about death with dignity.
If there are people in your life that you think are struggling with these issues, you can share it with them.
Then post me your thoughts on Facebook.
Finally, be careful of dubious people online that make it seem like I'm endorsing their products because they don't.
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