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July 17, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:47
Are Your Eating Habits Normal or Nuts? Dr. Oz Weighs In | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 138 | Full Episode
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Today on Oz.
How normal are your eating habits?
We have habits where we're young.
Most of us outgrow them.
From eating candy like a beaver to the picky eater.
The texture is slimy.
I just can't stand it.
Dr. Oz reveals if your food habits are normal or nuts.
Plus, up all night worrying.
The minute my head hits the pillow, that's when my mind starts to race.
The plan to shut down your worrying so you can get to sleep.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
Today, no lunch buddy or dinner date is safe.
I ask you to turn in your friends and family to settle the question.
Is that food habit normal or nuts?
I brought in a panel of experts to weigh in.
Psychologist Dr. Jen Hartstein is joining us.
Etiquette expert Thomas Farley is also known as Mr. Manners.
We'll find out why in a second.
And nutritionist Heidi Skolnik is back as well.
So let's get into the turn-ins.
First, I want you to meet someone...
Guess what?
Her mom is about to call her out on her food habit.
Take a look.
Check out my daughter's food habit.
My daughter eats her candy like a beaver.
First, she nibbles the chocolate off, then she goes through it layer by layer.
It's ridiculous.
I need to know, is this normal or not?
Come on down!
Come on down.
So let me find out what the story is here.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Are you happy about your mom doing that?
No.
Debra, why'd you turn your daughter in?
Why would a mother do that?
So here's the thing.
When Jennifer gets that Kit Kat out, it's a whole process with her.
So she opens it up very slowly.
It's like a ceremony.
So my other daughter will look and she'll go, Mom, are you kidding me?
Are we going to get through this or not?
So that's why I sent it in.
I want to know the way she eats this.
Is that normal or nuts?
Or nuts?
That's the question.
So, do you eat other foods like that?
Do you eat your broccoli like that?
Yeah, actually, I do.
I will have to cut it up specifically.
Very particular.
I actually brought you one here.
If you don't mind, would you mind demonstrating that?
Sure.
Explain the ritual to me.
Okay.
Maybe you have to break it in half first.
In half, of course.
- Of course, I should have known. - You know, a lot of us have these habits when we're young, but we sort of grow out of them, It didn't happen with you, I guess.
No, it didn't.
And it lasts longer, too, because if I didn't break it, then I would just eat them right away, and it's more calories.
So I timed it out.
Audience, what do you guys think?
Is eating a Kit Kat like a beaver?
Is it normal or nuts?
What do you guys think?
Normal?
They're not sure, Jennifer.
That's why I brought an expert panel in today.
Jen, let's hold up your wand.
What do you think?
It's actually pretty normal.
It's normal.
Mr. Manners?
I'm gonna go with nuts on this one.
So, I'm gonna say normal, but with some exception.
Which is?
Which is that it's wonderful to savor your food.
And in fact, kids do it all the time.
Like if you watch kids eat an ice cream, it's a project.
And they're really sort of, you know, it's a candy bar.
They get the chocolate and they taste that and then there's the nuts and then there's the caramel.
And they're really, we call it mindful eating as an adult to pay attention to what you're eating and savor it.
So that's a wonderful thing.
It's only when it becomes a little bit more extreme and it expands into like every food that it can really become problematic.
And I think I'm sure that...
Before I get to the psychological backup here, just for the manners issues here.
So if you, I don't know, advising someone on proper etiquette, dining etiquette, what would you say about the way that Jennifer's eating?
Sure.
So this is probably a whole lot more common than most of us would think.
Doesn't it mean it's normal?
It's common.
It's more common.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm sure we all know somebody who's a noisy eater and who deconstructs his or her food when they're eating.
The issue, though, is that it's distracting other people who are around.
So I would say, in private, eat any way you like.
But when you're around others, this is really going to get on their nerves.
It's going to ruin their enjoyment of their own food.
All right, Jen, take it away.
So, I mean, I think that there is an element of normal to it.
Heidi spoke to the fact that it does slow us down, it does make you enjoy your food more, and it does actually have some potential benefit because we are more mindful of what we're eating, and therefore you might actually eat less, which could lead to better health benefits at the end of the day.
The time we have to worry about it is when it does get into that spot where you can't eat foods kind of In a way that is acceptable to everybody else, and then it could lead to some disordered eating because maybe we're very specific or very kind of careful in ways that we don't need to be in how we're eating.
So the consensus is you're normal, but mom probably knew that a little bit anyway.
Here, put this back to your seat.
Thank you.
Don't eat it while I'm talking.
All right, next I've got a friend who's getting turned in for what she won't eat.
Take a look.
Dr. Oz, my friend Mary is terrified of tomatoes.
Eating them, touching them.
She hates everything about them.
Take a look.
I'm slipping some tomato into her food without her knowing.
Oh!
Oh my gosh!
I can't eat it!
Can't eat it!
Can't eat it!
I need to know, is this normal or nuts?
Come on down!
Come on down!
I don't know, Mary.
Why do you hate those tomatoes so much?
Oh my gosh, the texture is slimy.
You bite into it, it keeps pulling out of the sandwich.
I just can't stand it.
Actually, I got a high five on this.
This is so well done.
So, how long have you been doing, Mary, a hard time about this?
We have been friends for over 15 years, and I just thought for her 30th birthday, we had to prank her.
Like, we had to get her to eat some tomatoes.
When's your birthday?
It was yesterday.
Oh my goodness, happy birthday!
Thank you!
This is, I think, the perfect birthday present for you.
So what lengths have you gone to to try to get Mary to eat tomatoes?
I just, all the time, tell her that she needs to eat them, that they're good for her, and, I mean, she will avoid eating certain foods just because of the tomatoes.
She's missing out, Dr. Oz.
Again, you know, like Jennifer, our earlier guests eat the Kit Kats.
We have habits when we're young.
Most of us outgrow them.
Mm-hmm.
Never happened, do you?
No.
Was there a sensual moment that you just decided you hated tomatoes?
It's just something about it.
Like, growing up, I would have a separate dish from the rest of the family.
I could not stand it.
All right.
Audis, being this picky, normal or nuts?
They all say normal because I like that, too.
All right, let's take the panel up.
Hold your votes up here.
Jane, you want to start us off?
All right, so believe it or not, this kind of is nuts, but not as bad as it could be.
So we do know that picky eaters happen in childhood, and sometimes that goes into adulthood and actually is being explored as a disorder called selective eating disorder, right?
So it is some disordered eating behavior, but it's not as bad as it could be.
So it's kind of a little bit on the nuttier side, but, you know, not awful.
All right.
Mr. Manners, is it polite not to eat tomatoes?
I'm going to do the impolite thing and say this is nuts also.
The key here is you're entitled to dislike anything that just happens not to match your palate.
But when you're around somebody who really enjoys that food, or especially if you're in somebody's home and they're so proud of the dish they've made for you, if you're whining about how you don't like it, that's not very polite.
She's always very polite about it.
I will say that.
How about the disgust she has for what you're eating?
Yes.
Heidi, what do you think?
So I'm going to say normal.
I was going to say nuts, but because it's kind of restricted to one food and you're polite about it, we all have food preferences.
Often it's a texture thing that kind of drives it.
Again, if it was more extreme where you're like, oh, this is gross and I can't eat it and it interfered with your social life.
Or you went running out of the room because the plate was on the table.
Then we would move it over on that line toward, you know, there are people with anxiety and OCD and other issues that really affect their eating and become prohibitive, and then it's an issue.
But if it's just a food preference and you could get the sandwich without the tomatoes, Okay.
So, unfortunately, the panel consensus generally is that you're a little nuts, but I love those people, and I think your friend does, too.
Thank you, Dr. Oz.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye, Ashley.
Thanks for turning her in.
All right, now, I'm being told to read this.
This is a surprise for me.
The next person being turned in is someone who's not expecting it.
It's a surprise, and my staff is turning me in.
Are you kidding me?
I'm being turned in.
All right, take a look at what they got on me.
These guys.
Never trust them.
You know, Dr. Oz is definitely a food pusher, but he means well.
He just wants to share with everyone.
Taste this.
You do the tasting.
Can I share with you?
Which things you want to try?
You go ahead and take a bite there.
Give it a taste.
He's like, here are some treats from turkey.
Here's some honey from my bee farm.
I'm trying to help.
Here's some gluten-free cookies.
Have them.
And I'm like, no.
Dr. Oz is always offering me berries.
Do I always want them?
Not really.
But do I take them?
All the time.
I want you to taste this because you'll like this, I think.
I want you to taste this.
It's the best.
So bottom line, Dr. Oz loves giving people food.
Food, Dr. Oz.
Dr. Oz, food.
They go hand in hand.
But is he normal or nuts?
I'm as guilty as Char.
I'm a food pusher, I'll admit it.
I grew up in a family where you showed your love for people by giving them food.
Anyone else like me?
Yes.
You guys are always sending me presents to the studio, and I feel guilty, just like a little musk rat, to holding them in there and chewing them up myself.
So I take them around the offices, and I hand them out to all the producers, and many of them very politely accept them.
I don't know if they like them or not.
I always assumed they did until today.
However, however...
Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably should audit myself.
So I've had the tables turned on me.
Guys, please be brutally honest.
I'm going to start with Heidi, because I'm worried about the psychological issues.
Nutritionally, I am handing out only healthy food.
I don't go around with junk.
So Heidi, what do you think?
Normal or nuts?
Yes!
Oh!
And please explain to the production team why it's normal.
Okay, listen here.
The thing is, it is, it's just like old time around the kitchen.
It's like an extension of love.
You're nurturing, you're giving, and you're not very territorial.
You're like willing to share of yourself.
It's when food is sort of that metaphor for love and generosity, and your heart is full of that.
Ha!
Whoa!
All right, Mr. Manners.
Dr. Oz, you're going to get a normal from me on this one as well.
I love this show.
It's clear you're doing this for the right reasons.
And I think the nuts, actually, is that your staff is not coming back to you and saying, I don't want this.
Please, no, thank you.
So...
I think if you were pushing it past that point, then I would say you were nuts.
But in this case, what I'm hearing is that you're offering it graciously because you care about their well-being and you want them to enjoy it as much as you do.
Well, you are very kind.
I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Thank you.
I want some kindness here on the psychology side.
Jen, what do you think?
You are normal.
So here's the reason why, I mean, look, I would like to come back to the show, Dr. Oz.
I'm not going to tell you you're nuts.
I'm going to take a little victory lap.
But here we go, normal, because we have research that shows that, you know, that by sharing food, we know, you said it yourself, it's nurturance, it's the way we've shown love.
And there's research that shows with chimpanzees that it boosts their oxytocin, which we know is like that love drug.
So it really does make you, as Heidi was saying and as you even noticed, that it makes you feel connected to those people.
It makes you feel like you're giving to them.
It feels like you're showing your love in that way.
The thing to be mindful of also, good it's healthy, but if we push food in the wrong way, people then learn that that's the only way to get love.
And we know the risks of that, obesity, you know, emotional eating and all those kinds of things.
So yes, it would be great if people could say no politely and that you would accept that.
Maybe they're a little afraid of that.
So checking in and making sure that they want it first would be great.
Well, you compared me to a chimp.
I'll take it as a plus.
And just so you know about the love stuff, my staff tells me they want to squeeze my head like a zit.
So I think they do it only to a point.
I love this.
It is normal.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
You can watch me explain more bizarre health quirks on the normal or nuts videos at DrRoz.com.
We'll be right back Next are you up all night worrying?
Oh Your mind races out of control, making it impossible to get to sleep.
Break your addiction to negative thoughts and get rid of what stresses you.
The plan to shut down the worrying so you can get to sleep.
Next.
All new Oz.
It's a popular over-the-counter painkiller found in many products.
But is it killing more than the pain?
What is it?
And how you can overdose without ever knowing.
That's coming up on Monday.
Millions of Americans can't sleep.
It's a crisis, and I'm hearing you all say something that's really caught my attention.
Time and again, when we've asked you why you can't fall asleep, you told us it's because you're up all night long worrying.
Your mind is racing.
It's time to address that in a deeper way with a plan to shut down your worrying so you can get to sleep.
You know what?
We can't stop your sleep problems unless we draw a parallel from insomnia to your nighttime worrying.
To help us with that, self-proclaimed spirit junkie Gabriel Bernstein is here.
She's a best-selling author.
She wrote with Deepak Chopra, Oprah, and millions of others to help them find inner peace.
Thanks for being here.
Happy to be back.
So we're making this connection.
And I think most folks at home will identify this, but we're not sleeping in part because we're worrying.
Why is it affecting so many people?
Worries are a prayer for chaos.
We get hooked into these worries.
Studies are showing that we have 60,000 thoughts a day.
And these thoughts that we're repeating over and over again become our worries.
They're obsessive thoughts.
Most of those 60,000 thoughts are the same thought over and over again.
And when we repeat that same thought over and over again, we get into a state of panic.
We have panic attacks.
And that's when we start to obsess over these thoughts, become addicted to these thoughts.
Worst of all, whatever we're projecting on our internal movie screen with these thoughts becomes our reality.
So our worries are actually contributing to a lot of the difficult circumstances in our lives, which makes us worry more.
There's a lot of it.
So you see why I invited Gabby today?
Because she's got her finger on the pulse of what's happening.
I want to have you make a big shift the way you're thinking about your sleep this night.
Because insomnia is not the problem, folks.
It really isn't.
It's the symptom of the problem.
And that's just what Celia is dealing with.
We asked her to give us a glimpse...
Inside her head to see just what she's worrying about.
Take a look.
Every night is a struggle.
I get into bed and I want to rest.
But the minute my head hits the pillow, that's when my mind starts to race.
And all my worries start flooding in.
I start thinking about the morning.
My daughter Bella had a tantrum.
So I think to myself, why is my child acting out?
So I immediately think to myself, am I a good mother?
Am I doing something wrong?
And then I start thinking about the both of them and their welfare and will my children get bullied?
Then I start thinking of their future.
I start worrying about if we'll have enough money to send them to college and thinking that at this age I should have a career.
So to drown out the thoughts, I'll take my book into bed and start reading and hoping that that might make my eyes tired.
If that's not working, I might turn the TV on.
And I try again to lay down.
and quiet my mind and it doesn't happen.
I start to worry about my husband that if he might get hurt on the job or worrying about him smoking and what if he got sick from smoking and then the thoughts turn really bad and I think what if my husband were not here with us anymore?
How would we all cope without him?
Before I know it, morning comes and I'm lucky if I've slept a wink.
I know the lack of sleep can't be good for my body but I really can't seem to relax.
Cecilia is joining us.
Let me just give you a couple numbers here.
I don't think you're dissimilar from a lot of folks watching right now, but there are 365 days in a year.
From what I can tell, you worry for roughly 365 of them.
Yes.
Is that pretty accurate, you think?
Absolutely.
So it messes with your sleep, which I think you deserve more sleep.
Not only is it going to make you a little bit irritable at times, but it's going to impact your health, and I think you're starting to experience that.
Mm-hmm.
So if I can, I'm going to dive into this.
What stimulates the first worries?
What is it that sort of gets you going on that hamster wheel?
I might think about what I didn't get done at work and what's going to be waiting there for me two days later.
I worry about the kids in school and if they're having a good day and if, like, children are mean.
Sometimes Isabella says, oh, this girl was mean to me and she said this, and I try to ease her mind or help her with...
You know, handling that from someone else.
Horse words from a child is rough to take.
Sure is.
And a lot of us experienced it as when we were kids, so we particularly can identify.
So, thinking back, was there a time in your life that sort of started this, where your nighttime worrying got worse?
Where it got worse or where it started?
Do both if you want.
I think where it started was when my parents got divorced.
Because I was kind of older.
I was like 12 or 13. And so I understood that my father's salary wasn't going to be there.
And that now would be a smaller amount coming in for my mother to take care of me and my brother and sister.
And so that all started worrying because I worried about her.
And would she be able to, silly enough, at 12 years old, pay the mortgage?
And what made it worse?
Struggling myself.
We have real struggles as well in our lives.
You probably had some.
Yes.
Absolutely.
What's going on in your life that you wish hadn't happened that is a real fear, a real issue?
I don't know that they're fears.
They're just things that happen in life that you can't control.
They just happen.
My brother became disabled almost 17 years ago.
He's aware mentally.
He's fully disabled physically.
You point out And we all have them.
Real issues.
So Gabby, we can't turn off all the stressors.
That part of what we're talking about, what Celia is saying, I think is on target.
We're going to have money issues, as you mentioned, with your mom being separated.
You're going to have real crises sometimes in our life from a health perspective.
That's why I do this show, because I know how important that is.
But you say we can shut down worrying.
How's that?
Well, first of all, I want to honor what you've been through and all of these experiences.
And everyone that's watching has had many difficult experiences in our lives.
And we can't control them.
Just like you said, we can't control our experiences.
But what we can take ownership of is how we experience our experiences.
And if we can learn to reorganize our beliefs and heal our past fears, we can then show up for these difficult experiences with more grace and more inspiration and more creativity so we can bring that level of joy into our lives and hopefully not only heal ourselves but heal the people that are involved.
And so that's our hope for you today.
You said, I can't get over these fears and these worries.
I'm going to help you today.
Okay, I hope so.
Yes, yes.
That's my intention.
Not just Cecilia, but frankly, no matter what you're worrying about, we've got a plan that will work for you.
So stay with us.
us.
We'll be right back.
How do you naturally get to sleep at night?
I've had sleep issues for years and I always hated taking medication.
Recently I tried meditation and it made a big difference.
Now I do it every single evening before bed.
I feel great.
Tell us on Facebook.com slash Dr. Oz.
Coming up, do you worry about money, family and health?
You just can't turn your brain off and fall asleep.
Fear may be the root of your problem.
Learn to separate what's real from imaginary.
The plan to break the worry cycle that's keeping you up all night.
Next.
Next.
Today we're making a major shift in the way we are solving America's sleep crisis.
Spirit Junkie Gabriel Bernstein is helping all of you to get to the root of your worries and get the sleep that your body needs.
So you argue actually that all worries have the same primary root.
What is it?
The root cause of all worry is fear.
And I love this acronym for fear.
It's false evidence appearing real.
We take these fear-based stories from our past.
We heard Cecilia's story about her mom and the struggles.
And now she's saying to herself, I don't want to have those struggles in my life.
We take those fears from the past.
We bring them to the present and we project them onto the future.
Can you see how you've done that with mom?
Yes.
So this is the cycle that we get into where we repurpose, replay and future trip with these worries that are all stories from our past.
So that's what we got to get to today.
Fear is the root of all worry.
You all hear that?
Fear.
Actually, you've had this in your own life.
In far too many ways.
If you don't mind, I'd love if you could share your experience.
We all have these experiences in our own life.
In my instance, one really deep, deep-rooted fear for me actually happened when I was a young girl.
Sitting around the dinner table with my family, and everyone would pick off my plate, eat off my plate.
And I know this seems like something seemingly not that big a deal, but it was a big deal to me.
I started to have this fear that there wasn't going to be enough food.
And that fear, as a young child, started to spread into my adult life.
And what happened for me was I ended up overeating.
I would eat too fast.
To this day, I still struggle.
I eat really way too fast.
But a lot of the healing began to come when I started to seek proof that that experience from childhood was no longer happening to me.
And so I'd sit down at the table and I would say to myself, no one's eating off your plate right now.
You're safe.
And that would start to help me create new patterns.
So seeking proof that that old fear is no longer present is what can really heal the pattern.
And it's something that we have to work on for a lifetime, but it can really, really heal.
So I want to do a little experiment.
Celia, I went through your life.
We're going to do this with the audience in a second.
But you stay up worrying because of money, right?
Worried about career, health, kids.
You all probably feel that way.
As a matter of fact, to prove that, emphasize that you're not alone, I actually asked you, the guys at home, the viewers, to post on my Facebook page your worries.
6,000, in fact, over 6,000 people sent in their worries, which is, I think, a gargantuan number.
Let me ask the audience now.
How many of you are willing to talk about the fears, the worries that keep you up at night?
First of all, the people who can't sleep, do you generally sort of agree with the concept that it's the worrying that often does it?
Hands up if you are in that category.
That's a lot of folks.
So let me just take some thoughts.
So what are the worries you have that keep you up at night?
I have a fear that I'm not gonna get married.
It's a strong desire, and I just fear I'll be single the rest of my life.
I'm pretty sure someone's gonna be smart enough to marry you.
I'm a teacher, so just making sure we have a lot of pressure with test scores to make sure they're high enough, and so I'm always thinking about my kids.
External work pressures.
Other thoughts?
Go ahead.
My biggest worry is always school.
I'm always up late at night worrying about how well I'm going to do in school.
School's overrated.
Other thoughts?
One or two more?
Go ahead.
I'm worried about paying for college for my kids.
Big concern.
We all have that one.
Go ahead.
I'm worried about living up to the expectations that I give to myself.
Your expectations.
For myself, I'm worried that I won't be as great as I should be.
It's a tough finish line to meet, isn't it?
Because it's always changing in front of you.
There's a reason for this, everybody.
Women in particular, I noticed that men had their hands up too, but women are always getting the pressure to deal with problems.
That's why women have a bigger problem with worrying in general than men do.
So, whether you're a man or a female, we've got a huge list.
Lots of things.
All the ones I heard of, in fact, the yours as well, commonly ones that I hear.
What does everyone do now that they have their list of worries written down?
They take those list of worries and they continue to repeat them, repeat them, repeat them.
And the repetition of that behavior creates our reality.
So in the repetition of that, we become more and more uncomfortable and more fearful.
And once again, we're always taking those worries from the past and repurposing them and replaying them.
And so we've got to get to the root and to the bottom of it to start to heal it.
Come on back.
We have a little story of your life.
A little timeline.
Here it is.
I hope it's accurate.
I believe it is.
Let's take a look.
Gabby, take us through this if you don't mind.
So, Cecilia, in 1988, you talked about your fear with your mom and your parents getting divorced.
And your concern was, I'm not going to have enough.
Mom's going to be on her own financially.
This is so scary for me.
We now know today, you and mom, we've got new proof.
You and mom, look how happy you were as a child with mom.
And the truth is, today, you and mom are good.
You got through it.
You're alright.
So that worry can be abolished right now if you choose for it because that didn't happen and your life with mom was great.
Okay?
See, she says yes with a lot of conviction.
Alright, then in 1994, you were worried that you weren't going to have a great career.
Somebody told you that you were not a great student and you're going to have a difficult career.
Now let me point something out to you.
Today, you have the most important career there is in the world.
You are a teacher.
Let's have a round of applause for her.
Miss Cecilia is a teacher.
That is the most valuable, the most honorable job in the world.
Congratulations.
That fear is crazy.
I hope you can let it go now.
Thank you.
Okay, good.
All right.
And then in 2001, you were worried about money.
Okay, we can date that back to mom.
So we see how that is carrying you all the way to 2001. And you're worrying about giving your kids enough and giving them happiness.
Now I want to see a little picture of your children here is coming up.
Those look like happy kids to me.
Those look like happy kids to me.
And let me remind you of something.
Happy kids come from a happy mom.
So regardless of whatever financial abundance you bring to them, most importantly, the greatest abundance is happiness and joy.
And that will be the greatest gift you can give your children.
And so let's change that story for their sake and their future right now.
And then now, here we are, 2005. 2015. We're not in 2005. 2015 today, your biggest worry is your husband's physical health.
This is something that plagues you.
It comes up for you.
Am I correct?
Yeah.
Well, I really want to bust that myth today.
Look at him!
Oh my goodness!
That looks like a very healthy man to me with two happy children and a lot of abundance.
And so I want to clear that fear right now.
And I want you to set an intention to choose to perceive your husband as healthy and your children as happy and your finances as abundant.
And if you can own that new perception, these worries can be cleared.
And really seeing how all those stories from your past have been playing over and over and over again.
And are you ready to let them go?
I want to try.
That's all we need.
Figure out a way how to.
Those were the magic words.
All right, now that you have identified the roots of your worries, the fact that it's all about fear, it's time to get you back to sleep.
When we come back, I'm going to give you actually a sleep position to stop down worrying in the middle of the night.
And lots more.
more stay with us next do you find yourself awake in the middle of the night worrying about the what ifs and worst case scenarios We have the test everyone can take to release indecision and doubt.
Say goodnight to all that worrying.
The plan to finally get to sleep.
Coming up.
All New Oz, a popular over-the-counter painkiller found in many products.
What is it and how you can overdose without ever knowing?
Plus, a glass of wine to help you unwind is fine, but is it a crutch?
All New Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
We're back talking about the sleep crisis in America.
Millions of you can't fall asleep because you're up all night worrying about the what-ifs and the worst-case scenarios.
So we've got a plan that will shut down the worrying that is keeping you up at night.
The first thing you've got to do is you've got to say goodnight hours before you actually try to fall asleep by doing something called naming your feelings.
Why is it important to do that and why is it important to do it so early?
This is transformational, so listen up to this one.
This is such a powerful tool.
It's really just allowing ourselves to recognize that underneath all the worry and all the fear is an unfelt feeling.
There's a feeling of the little girl with mom, parents getting divorced, and there's an avoidance of not wanting to feel that feeling again.
We worry over feeling the feeling.
Now, the simple tool is if we just allowed ourselves to be present with the experience of that feeling and breathe into the experience of that feeling, that feeling can pass.
In those moments when you recognize, I'm worrying again, there's an unfelt feeling under that worry, breathe into it for 90 seconds.
In simply 90 seconds, it can pass.
As those feelings and worries pass, you'll come to bed at night and you won't be worrying anymore.
You can set yourself free through feeling the feeling.
Okay.
One of the biggest things I hear is when people say that when their head hits the pillow and all of a sudden their biggest decisions come into their mind.
So you've got a test that's going to help us deal with the indecision, to release that indecision in our lives.
That indecision plagues me and this is the tool that I use.
It's very, very fun.
Everybody can get involved.
So we all have a coin and what I want you to do...
Take a second.
If you're at home, please do this.
Yeah, grab a coin.
As soon as the show's over, do it.
Everyone in the audience, you have a coin for you, right?
Buss out your coins, everybody.
And what we're going to do is we're going to take an issue in our life that we may be struggling to decide.
You have indecision, you're up at night worrying about it.
Take that issue.
Heads is yes, go ahead and do it.
Tails is no, I'm not going to move forward.
And so everybody flip your coin and let's see how you react.
Cecilia, you dropped your coin.
That's a very...
I would worry about that for you.
I'm not very athletic.
Did you see what you got?
Heads.
And look at the reaction.
Everyone's kind of freaking out.
Are you freaking out?
Yes, because what happens is that immediate reaction of...
We heard some people go, oh, God.
And then we hear other people go, yeah, that's good.
She got a yes right over there.
She's excited about it.
And so that yes is your yes answer to this woman over here.
Did you get a yes answer?
Yes, I did.
And was it a relief to you?
Yes.
There you go.
There's her answer.
So it's interesting.
You're saying our response to whether it's heads or tails, it tells us whether it's true or not.
Your gut tells the truth, Dr. Oz.
Your gut tells the truth.
So in those moments when you have that, yes, I got the tails, that's your gut reaction.
If it's, oh God, I didn't want it, there's your gut reaction.
All right, finally, come on over here.
Last thing we're going to talk about is really important because it's so simple to do.
And I love these kinds of ideas.
In the middle of the night when you're worrying and you're tossing and turning, and instead of getting out of bed, which so many folks do, Gabby's got a different idea.
You want to change our sleep position.
So go ahead.
Lie over here.
I'm fine.
So you're lying in bed, you're worrying.
Sometimes you even said this.
You said you get up, you watch TV, you'll go do some chores, you'll start to get out of bed.
Okay, this tip, don't get out of bed.
And your husband might think you're crazy, but he's going to want you to go back to sleep.
He does think I'm crazy.
He thinks you're crazy anyway, so it doesn't matter.
So let's get it to a place where you can really turn your worries upside down.
And the way that we're going to do this is actually to literally turn upside down.
So I want you to just flip it upside down, throw your legs up against the headboard.
Come on up.
The feet have to be in the air.
Up in the air.
Up in the air.
And you would have shoes on in bed, so that's okay.
Put your legs up in the air.
Maybe you even get a little bit higher up.
See, she's already taking long, deep breaths.
There she goes.
Long, deep breaths.
This position will just reorganize your energy.
It will calm your nervous system.
It will turn those worries upside down.
And most importantly, you're not getting up out of bed.
And when we get up out of bed, that's when we start to get...
Deeper into the chaos.
So this is just a beautiful way to just turn your worries upside down and then fall asleep naturally.
Your husband's going to think you're crazy, but he's going to be so grateful that you're sleeping.
Okay?
Stay there and relax, Gabby.
Wonderful advice.
You can get this full plan and all the information from our other TruthTube experts at dros.com.
And for more ways to shut down your worrying, check out Gabrielle's new book, Miracles Now.
It's very well done.
We'll be right back.
What's your favorite sleep position?
I sleep on my back, which is super comfortable for me, but almost always leads to me snoring.
It drives my husband crazy.
Sometimes it actually forces him onto the couch.
Whoops!
Share yours on Facebook.com slash Dr. Oz.
Coming up, a dramatic story we're all involved in.
Award-winning documentarian Ken Burns turns the camera on the history of one of our biggest fears.
A new film that gives hope for a revolutionary cure for cancer.
Coming up next...
We are bringing a healthy back this season.
I want you to bring it too.
Grab your prescription pad for fun and sign up for free tickets today.
You can go to DrOdors.com slash tickets and sign up.
Did I get it right?
I just watched an incredible documentary on a disease that we all fear most, I was inspired by how the last two generations of Americans have broken the stronghold of this disease.
What this documentary shows is we have battled and are beating cancer.
I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra 100 million dollars to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer.
A cure.
That's the hopeful note struck time and again in Cancer, the Emperor of All Maladies.
It's the latest documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns and the most comprehensive story on cancer ever told.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by my colleague at Columbia, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, this groundbreaking film follows patients, doctors and researchers as they try to conquer a disease that seems unbearably cruel.
What lengths are we willing to go in an attempt to cure a child?
We are quite willing to push the envelope in terms of toxicity because we know what's at stake is the rest of the child's life.
But with each pioneering procedure and treatment, new discoveries are made and more lives are saved.
Bye!
Look at this, you're welcome!
Now decades after the war on cancer began, are we finally within sight of lasting cures?
There you go.
She's gonna beat this.
She's gonna be 32 years old, and she's gonna be proud to show her port scar and say, look at me.
Ken Burns and Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee are both here.
Ken, you've made documentaries on everything from baseball to the Civil War.
Why is it you wanted to tackle this?
Why did you have to be part of the project?
I had to do it.
I had no choice.
First of all, this is an extraordinary book that it's based on, but my mother died of cancer when I was 11. There wasn't a moment when I was growing up when she wasn't dying.
Look what job I'm in.
I wake the dead.
I make Abraham Lincoln and Jackie Robinson and Louis Armstrong come alive.
I'm really trying to have a conversation with my mom, I guess.
And I think we all owe it to ourselves to investigate this This central disease in our lives which we, more often than not in our history, have swept under the rug and pretended that it didn't exist.
This is something within us.
If I can, turn into this Pulitzer Prize winning author colleague of mine who I'm very proud of.
Dr. Mukherjee, you took a very unusual step.
You didn't talk about cancer like it was a disease.
You didn't write the history of an ailment.
You actually created a biography of a person.
You brought alive cancer.
Why that approach?
You know, cancer, we think of cancer as a modern disease, but it's actually an ancient disease.
You know, the Egyptians had cancer, the Romans had cancer, the Indians had cancer.
And what's interesting, what ties it all together when you look back into the past is that people experience cancer as if they're experiencing another life.
And that's why I thought, you know, I would bring it alive in that same way, the experience of it, both contemporary and ancient, and meld them all together.
It is the emperor of all maladies in that way.
I love the personal stories.
When you see the documentary, you'll see these.
They're told by individuals and families with such grace.
Even in the face of incredible odds, it brings a different type of flavor to the experience.
Take a look.
Dr. Laurie Wilson is a surgical oncologist and specializes in breast cancer.
I think the thing that caught me off guard is that I not only have breast cancer on one breast, I actually have breast cancer in both breasts.
It makes it more difficult to treat, and so the statistics are worse.
Statistics are worse.
When a doctor says that, it's a bad statement.
She decides on a treatment that ultimately saves her life that a generation ago would have killed everybody who was diagnosed with that problem, which is, I think, pretty cool.
Dr. Bacardi, take us back to this.
40 years ago, we're just starting to tackle a problem which we really didn't have a lot of hope on.
How far have we come?
take Lori Wilson's breast cancer.
You know, she has, will be able to hopefully avail of treatments today that we wouldn't have dreamt of even 10 years ago, 20 years ago.
And the statistics show that that's making a difference.
Women are dying less of breast cancer today than they were dying a decade ago, than they were dying 20 years ago.
Every year has brought a new kind of treatment.
There still remain major challenges, you know.
You know, triple negative breast cancer, the word that really is the big fearsome of the variants is still tough disease to treat.
But Laurie Wilson hopefully will beat the odds.
How close are we to eradicating cancer?
We've been waging a war on it.
Every president since I've been alive has used words like that.
We have transformed the landscape of cancer.
We will prevent some, we will treat some, and some will remain challenges for our generation.
You know, there's certain cancers where now you can take a pill every day instead of going through those horrendous chemotherapies that would make you bald and make your mouth have sores.
You can take one pill every day and send that cancer into profound remission.
And yet there are other cancers where really the treatment has not changed for the last 10 years.
So, you know, the challenge of our generation is what to do about that whole spectrum of cancers.
That's the challenge.
I want to share another incredible personal story in the film.
It spotlights where treatment and advancements are going.
Take a look at this young lady's story.
Dr. Carl June has used genetic engineering to give the T cells in the immune system a kind of homing device.
By re-engineering T cells, June is creating a living drug attuned to each patient's cancer.
We found out that she does have a specific mutation.
Very few people with that specific mutation survive.
Four weeks after arriving at Children's Hospital, Emily's cells were ready.
She would be the first child and only the fourth person ever to receive this treatment.
So Emily, to me, is a voice of hope.
A once very little sick girl, two years after this groundbreaking treatment which she took, she's thriving and still in remission.
Things look great.
This is, I think, a testimony to what American medicine has been able to accomplish at its very best.
There are many parts of the documentary that amazed me, but I was most struck by the bravery required.
Both of the patients in the beginning where they knew they had very little chance, and crazily, in an awkward way, the doctors, who were willing to take care of people knowing they probably wouldn't change or save them, but they were willing to keep going at it.
Absolutely.
There's no doubt about it.
It requires ingenuity.
It requires science.
It requires an enormous amount of courage on the part of the patients.
But also, you know, it reminds us what the challenges are.
I mean, this was a girl who was so sick that she barely survived the treatment itself.
So there's a long way to go, but also a testimony of how long, you know, what a far place we've come to.
A subtle element to the story that I didn't appreciate, and you should all understand, is that it was because of you.
That cancer is being beaten.
It's because of you that money was raised early on when people weren't paying attention to these stories.
It's because of you that we destigmatize cancer.
It's because of you that the studies were able to get done.
And it's because of you right now that we have tremendously altered the entire landscape of disease that was truly the emperor of all maladies.
Ken, you've been called, I think appropriately, the greatest documentarian of our day.
What are your hopes for this documentary?
Well, my partner on this film, Berica Goodman and I, want to transform the landscape.
We want people to start asking questions.
You know, we want them to join that resistance movement.
We want that kid to look at that, that little girl, and say, look, I want to be a cancer researcher.
I want to be an oncologist.
I want all of us to feel that we have the agency.
You know, for too long, the cancer discussion left the patient out of the picture.
Sid brought the patient in, and that's the story.
All of us can have agency in this.
All of us can...
Can demand to know more about this disease that we don't want to know about.
We even euphemistically call it the big C. We don't want to talk about it.
Let's talk about it.
And let's share in these stories.
These are our stories.
Let's have a national conversation.
Cancer, the Emperor of All Maladies is a six-hour documentary.
It airs on PBS starting March 30th.
Check it out.
It'll change your life.
Be right back.
All new Oz.
It's a popular over-the-counter painkiller found in many products.
But is it killing more than the pain?
What is it?
And how you can overdose without ever knowing it?
Plus, a glass of wine to help you unwind is fine.
But what happens when it becomes a crutch?
The plan to control drinking before it controls you.
All New Oz.
That's coming up on Monday.
Let's face it, some of us act like complete babies when we go to the doctor.
We hate being prodded and poked, but not everyone is so squeamish.
Check out this video of an absolutely perfect patient.
He doesn't even flinch when the doctor gives him a shot.
Look at him sit very calmly there.
She looks in his ears.
He even lets her listen to his heart very carefully, the pitter-patter, pitter-patter.
She's picking up the little beats there.
Look at his eyes.
Although it's perhaps too easy to be a good patient.
We have such a thoughtful, gentle, and caring doctor pushing you over like that.
Isn't she a doll?
That's fantastic.
Now it's time for in case you missed it.
First, people are always asking me, am I normal?
Or am I nuts?
Well, don't blame me for asking sometimes some weird things happening out there.
Well, for all of those of you out there who eat your food like a beaver, watch this guest on today's show, chewing it down, we asked her and her family whether she was normal or not.
And after they offered their advice, I say you are normal.
And here's why research shows that quirky food habits like eating candy, like a beaver, actually help you savor the food, making it taste better.
So to all of you who are nutty enough, I mean normal enough, like the beavers out there, chomp away, it's good to go.
Okay, finally, be careful of dubious people online that make it seem like I'm endorsing their product, because they don't.
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