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July 24, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:36
Toxic Worrying: How to Stop It Now with Dr. Oz | Dr. Oz | S6 | Ep 147 | Full Episode
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Today on Dr. Oz, she took a year off her marriage to sleep with 12 strangers.
What were you hoping to learn from this experience?
What she discovered about life, love, and relationships.
Plus, do you take worrying to a toxic level?
To the point of making you sick.
How to take control of toxic worrying before it takes control of you.
Coming up next on Dr. Oz.
All right, today's question, what do you worry about?
Natural disasters, career issues, paying bills.
These concerns, money, family, aging, they're a natural part of life.
Frankly, everyone has worries, right?
You got them all here.
Wait, that's not a rare one.
Retirement, finances, kids, these are all common worries.
But what happens when these worries intensify, multiply, and invade your thoughts to the point of making you sick?
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo says this is called toxic worry.
And she's here to help you find out if your worries have become toxic and how to stop them down right now.
So please explain for everybody, what's there between the regular old worrying that we always have in our lives and toxic worry?
So everybody worries, right?
And sometimes worry can actually be motivating.
It motivates you to make positive change.
But it's when worry takes over your life.
It's when you can't stop worrying.
It's when worrying interferes with your life.
You're on that hamster wheel of worry and you can't get off.
That's toxic worry.
And it can literally paralyze you.
Explain, if you can, what particularly concerns you.
So if it paralyzes you, does it have health ramifications?
What else does it do to mess up your life?
Yeah, so we think of worries affecting your psychological health, which it certainly can, but it also has an adverse effect on your physical health.
It can lead to things like heart disease and strokes, chronic headaches, IBS, and even can lead to having you die earlier.
Toxic worry.
Yes, toxic worry.
So the question, of course, is how do you know if you're a toxic worrier?
You guys know?
Yes.
Some say yes, some say no.
I love this.
I love where this is a debate.
Dr. Lombardo says toxic worriers exhibit specific physical symptoms that are associated with their worry.
So we can all figure it out right now for sure.
Let's go through them.
There are five tips.
Number one, you have a stomach ache more than twice a week.
How do you know if that's related to toxic worry?
Yeah, so here's the thing.
If you have a stomach ache for 24 hours and you're vomiting, it's probably a bug, right?
But if you notice that your worry and your stomach aches coincide, that could be toxic worry because worry really affects your digestive tract.
So it can lead to things like constipation and diarrhea and cramping.
Remember, your intestines have probably as many nerves as your brain does.
Absolutely.
So it makes sense that they're connected.
They are in most species.
They should be in us.
All right, second tip.
You gain more than five pounds per month.
That should not shock people, but why is that a sign of toxic worry in particular?
So it's a sign of toxic worry for two reasons, biologically and behaviorally.
Biologically, worry is a stress, and when our body is stressed, we lay down fat cells, especially in the abdomen, right?
And then behaviorally, when people worry, they try to reduce that anxiety, and a lot of times they'll reach for food.
Thirdly, you have trouble sleeping on a regular basis.
Yeah, yeah.
What kind of sleep problems and why is that a sign?
Yeah, so when your head hits the pillow and your mind starts racing with worry, that could be toxic worry if it's happening more than four times a week.
For some people, they can actually fall asleep, but they wake up in the middle of the night with the mind racing with the worry.
That's toxic worry.
I hear that a lot, and we always think we can treat that with pillows, but that's actually a sign.
Who's having sleep problems?
Now, let me show you your hands.
Here, we've got a victim right over here.
Here, what's your name?
Carolyn.
Carolyn, describe your steep problems and what things are you worrying about?
Well, I wake up at least three times a night and it drives my husband crazy because I wake him up worrying about, did I pay the electric bill?
Do I have enough money to pay my daughter's tuition?
Did I feed the dog?
It's just a constant worry.
How many hours do you get in the night, you think?
About five or six.
Then you can't deal with the stress that the toxic worrying is causing.
Thank you very much.
All right, the fourth tip.
Your body...
It's an important one.
Your body is full of tension and you often feel angry.
Yeah, so worry is a fear that a threat is going to happen to you.
And that can make you feel tense physically, your tight muscles.
It can also make you tense when you're interacting with others.
So if you notice that you have trouble being irritable and angry with loved ones that you can't control, it could be toxic worry.
Who's an angry person here?
Who feels this way?
You don't have to have the anger.
There's that sense that you're short a little bit.
Hands up.
Describe your problems.
Take the mic.
I can't reach you.
Why I'm angry?
Speaking, what's your first name?
Victoria.
Describe how this might be a sign of toxic worry in your life.
What are you worrying about, first of all, and then how does it manifest in terms of your temper?
Well, I'm 19. I go to school, and I live by myself, so it's also always a worry at all times.
I'm worried about bills.
I'm worried about schoolwork on top of work and work going to school.
It's just stressful all around for everything.
Yeah.
Do you bark at people sometimes because of that?
Yeah, a lot.
I actually take my temper a lot on people.
Very easily tempered.
Keep the mic, you might need it.
Alright, and the fifth sign is your skin is dry.
It's not surprising, your skin is a reflection of what's going on inside your body.
So if you have a dry skin or broken out skin, pimples, acne, how is that a sign?
Even wrinkles, yeah.
Wrinkles?
Yeah.
So think about it.
Worry is a stress, and stress that adversely affects pretty much every organ system in our body, including our skin.
So it's not just the occasional breakouts, but when you're having consistent skin problems, the dry skin, more wrinkles than you think you should have, the breakouts, it could be a sign of toxic worry.
So the question is, what needs to be done to stop down the toxic worry at a high level?
You need to take back control of your worry.
A lot of people worry because they think it gives them control.
It gives them something to do in situations where they don't have a lot of control, but really worry takes over.
And so you need to take back control of your worry.
And the way that you do that depends on specifically what you're worrying about.
So we found a few victims from the audience who we're going to work with to help them take back control of their toxic worries.
Crystal's joining us.
Thank you.
And Crystal worries about money, I see.
So, what do you fear the most about money?
What does it represent to you?
Yeah, I fear losing my job and not having financial security.
And so you have the worry that we're talking about.
What do you do if you've got fear based on money?
So first of all, really rationalize.
When you're worried about losing your job, for example, use that to motivate you to take the steps that you need.
Maybe it's getting your resume together.
Maybe it's just being the best worker that you can be.
And then determine the difference between possibility and probability.
Just because you could lose your job doesn't necessarily mean you're likely to lose your job.
Right.
So if you have the worst case scenario worked out, does that bring you comfort naturally?
Well, if you have the worst case scenario worked out and you're worrying about it, that doesn't help you.
That's toxic worry.
When you have the worst case scenario and you figure out what could I do to prevent this from happening, or if it does happen, what steps could I take?
That's using your worry in an effective way.
So how would you rationalize your concerns over money or your job in particular?
Preparing if it does happen.
So starting a savings.
That makes sense.
I like the resume idea.
Best professor I ever had in school said, always have your resume ready.
No matter what, because you never know.
And work hard.
Well, working hard never hurts.
Thank you very much.
All right, Tony's joining us.
Tony has issues with...
With her family that she's always worrying about, and I gather like a lot of moms, your mind's spinning about whether they're safe or not.
What's specifically going on?
Yes.
Considering that I'm a new mom, I have a 13-month-year-old daughter.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
I'm constantly worrying if her father and I am being the best parents that we can be to her, if we're feeding her enough nutrition, if we're teaching her everything that she needs to learn.
So, if you have worries based on family, which seems like a pretty good thing to worry about, why doesn't worrying about your loved one make sense?
So, you know, people equate love with worry.
Love is not the same thing as worry.
And we can love our loved ones without worrying about them.
Dr. Lombardo, what can Tony do to take back that toxic worry?
Interrupt the worry.
A lot of times when we have worried thoughts, we feel anxious, the anxiety causes more worried thoughts, and it causes a downward spiral.
Interrupt that worry.
Think of a silly image in your mind.
I've got an example for you if you want.
You want a little help?
Sure.
You can all do this on your own, but here's one I thought for you.
Just do a little exercise for me.
Look at that little picture over there.
I've got a picture of a man in a bunny suit.
You can even have a little jingle with him if you want.
It forces you to laugh off the ridiculousness sometimes of what we worry about.
If you break that cycle that Dr. Lombardo was speaking about, it'll get you out of the crisis.
That's a good tip.
Would you do it?
Yes.
All right.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Tony's here.
So, the what-ifs.
The what-ifs.
So, I'd like to know about what-ifs.
What does that mean?
Is that the what-ifs of what could happen badly in my life?
Actually, Dr. Oz, I worry about if my family or myself were in an earthquake or a plane crash or a car crash.
Those are the things I pretty much worry.
Even a hurricane.
So, those things I worry about.
Those are bad what-ifs.
How can you take back control of your what-if worries?
Yeah, and it's a really common worry.
Postpone your worry.
This may seem strange, but stick with me here.
So you want to actually schedule a worry time.
And any time a worry comes up, just remind yourself, oh, my worry time is from 10 to 10.30.
I'm going to worry then.
What this does is it allows you to still give yourself permission to worry, but you do it in a controlled way.
You do it during your worry time when you postpone that worry.
So if you could schedule your what-if worries, the hurricane fear.
When won't you do it?
Well, I'll make sure to do it before, prior, and be more positive about it.
Before, prior what?
Before you go to bed?
Yeah, I think that would help, yes.
Just don't do it when you shouldn't be doing it.
Right.
When you're supposed to be focusing on something else, whether it's at work or with the kids.
Steve, I brought it up because we talked about it earlier.
That's when a lot of people let those things come up because it's your loneliest time, right?
You're all by yourself.
It's an away game inside our heads, and we're just trying to deal with all these what-if Worries which are insurmountable, seemingly.
So that's not the right time to do it.
Thank you very much.
One more, one more.
Sharonda's joining us.
She says she's worried about worrying.
What does that mean?
I just can't pick one thing.
I worry about finances.
I worry about family.
I worry about my job.
I am always worried.
So what do you do if you're worrying about worrying?
How do you take back back control?
One of the best things to do is to really focus on your breathing and especially the exhale.
When we have deep breaths, inhale and exhale, what happens is it actually reduces the stress hormone in our body.
So what I would like you to do is just put your hand right above your belly.
I'll take your worry away.
Take your worry away.
And you want to inhale to a count of five, and when you inhale, your hand goes out, hold it for five, and then really exhale that worry out to a count of five.
Before you do that, I want to test to see if you're really doing it right.
So, I bought you a little present.
Audience, you all have these as well.
Take out your little exhaling bubble devices.
I knew I could use these.
I've been trying to get these on the show for years.
Listen, we always talk about breathing on this show.
You know how passionate I am about simple things that don't cost you anything that make a difference.
But I want you to focus not on the inhalation, which is where most of us spend our time.
We want to focus on the exhalation because we're going to exhale out, breathe out our worries, both metaphorically but also physically.
Take us through it.
Yeah, so go ahead and...
Get your bubbles ready.
Take an inhale to five.
Count one, two, three, four, five.
Hold for five.
And then exhale as much as you can.
Oh, that one was terrible.
Good job there.
There's a good one.
Blow these at the person next to you.
And really focus on exhaling that worry.
What do you think about blowing out your worries?
Great.
At least you can smile while you're doing it.
All right.
Dr. Lamar, thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
I'm going to do it very well.
Coming up next.
Are you lacking passion in your relationship?
Is your sex life yearning for a new awakening?
How far would you take it?
Meet a woman whose midlife crisis led to self discovery outside her marriage.
Coming up next.
All new on the Emmy-nominated Dr. Oz Show.
The new sleep crisis keeping America up all night.
Your body is exhausted, but your mind is in overdrive.
You're wired and tired.
I'm going to tell you why it happens and how you can finally get the rest you need.
Plus, when her dream of losing weight came true.
It wasn't the fantasy she expected.
The dark side of skinny.
What did you think would happen?
The hard truth she didn't see coming.
That's coming up tomorrow on Dr. Oz.
Take a look at this ad behind me.
A good girl seeks experience.
Then it goes on to say, to help me explore my sexuality.
These are sections of a Craigslist ad posted by reporter Robin Raldi when her husband agreed to an open marriage.
She called it the Wild Oats Project.
And what she discovered surprised her.
It will even surprise you.
Journalist Robin Rinaldi met her husband when she was 26. When they married, they agreed not to have children.
But 17 years into their relationship, Robin changed her mind.
Her husband's subsequent decision to have a vasectomy, combined with the couple's more perfunctory than passionate sex life, put Robin on an unconventional path.
She decided that if she couldn't have children, she would have lovers.
So at age 44, Rinaldi asked her husband for an open marriage.
She then took out an advertisement looking for men aged 35 to 50 to help her explore her sexuality.
In her ad, she laid out the conditions.
Mutual respect, a three date limit and no serious involvement.
Within one day, she had 23 responses.
Over the next 12 months, Rinaldi slept with 12 different people, two of them women.
The Wild Dose Project is her memoir of her year of sexual experimentation.
At the end of which, Rinaldi found her marriage and herself forever changed.
Now this book is understandably very controversial.
It's making headlines like, I betted 12 strangers in a year, or she took a year off her marriage to sleep with strangers.
What could go wrong?
Robin Rinaldi is here.
So, how have you dealt with the response from the book?
Well, I expected it to be edgy and controversial.
I expected kind of sensationalist headlines since there's sex happening in the book.
Surprisingly, most of the most negative reactions have been from men.
But I wrote the book for women, and the women who have written to me have said things like, you've really...
Kind of summed up my own inner turmoil or dilemma of wanting security on the one hand, but passion also on the other.
Or what do I want going forward in my life?
How do I want to negotiate my own marriage?
That kind of thing.
So the women's response for the most part to me has been really fulfilling as a writer.
And the negative stuff I try to let slide.
What were you hoping to learn from this experience?
I really wanted, it was really just looking forward to my deathbed and saying to myself, I was at midlife, which a lot of us get to midlife and look back and look forward.
And I was looking at the end of my life and saying, I'm going to go to my deathbed with...
Zero children, zero grandchildren, and only four lovers to my name.
It just didn't seem like enough life.
I was at a point in my life when I was really wanting to feel more alive as a woman, and it felt like motherhood was one path to that, and sexual awakening was another one.
You used the word midlife.
To me, it sounds like it was a midlife crisis.
It absolutely was.
There are 15 million women, we think, Maybe you're one of them, if you're listening to me right now, who are in a midlife crisis.
I was surprised to learn that more women than men go through midlife crises, which might explain the feedback you're getting.
A lot of times, if you have midlife crisis, you'll go off and buy a car.
You'll change jobs.
Sex is not the first choice for most people.
Or maybe is it?
Why did you choose that?
Well, I think I chose sex because for me it was the road less traveled.
I think at a midlife crisis you say, what's undone in my life?
Sexual, let's say, adventure and variety was definitely the road less traveled for me.
I had been very cautious and monogamous up to that point.
But I also think a lot of midlife crises are not just cars and jobs.
I mean, a lot of people have affairs.
In midlife crises they end up leaving their families even their children you know so that's something I wanted to try to avoid and that's when I felt that was about to happen that's when I went to my husband and said okay let's at least try to put this on the table and make it as fair as possible.
Let's take a break and we can both do it.
You write in the book that you were listening to your body.
What was your body telling you?
I think it was like a rebellion.
I think a lot of women will know what I'm talking about when I say there's a lot of voices going on and a lot of judgment and decision going on all the time.
You know, what's right?
What should I do?
What's the next step?
What will he think?
What will she think?
What do I want?
What am I giving up?
Is it enough?
Is this what it's supposed to look like?
And All of that thinking and all of that talking, my body just finally said, listen, okay, this is not, you're going to die one day, okay?
I'm going to, just listen to your instinct.
I'm going to take you on this journey you need to go on.
I'm going to, you want to feel more alive, I'm going to show you how to feel more alive.
There are costs associated with that.
I mean, your husband and you eventually separated, you divorced.
Yes.
A lot of critics would argue, well, what else would you expect to happen?
They weren't surprised, were you?
No, I wouldn't say we were surprised.
We knew it was risky going in.
We both agreed to it.
And we thought, I won't speak for him, but I thought that it was the lesser of three evils at that marital crisis point.
We could have just divorced immediately, which neither of us were ready to do at that point.
We could have gone the old-fashioned way of adultery and cheating, which I did not want to do.
And this was kind of the third option, and it seemed like at least worth a try.
And the fact that we ended up divorcing, I don't see as a failure.
We were together a long time.
It was a good marriage.
It was turbulent right there at the end.
But now we're both with partners who I think are better suited to us going forward, and I really don't think of our marriage or our separating as a failure.
Let me read a quote, if I can, from your book.
Okay.
You write, the good girl was long dead, but the smart girl was not.
The smart girl was not.
What does a smart girl know that the good girl doesn't?
Well, I put good girl in quotes because it was my idea of good girl was, you know, what's expected of me.
Don't ever misbehave.
Don't ever do anything that will cause disapproval.
And this project, of course, wiped that girl away.
That girl's gone.
Yeah, that girl's gone.
Took her place as kind of a woman who has like this kind of...
Body-centered wisdom.
And the lessons that came out of this, I say that sex was the classroom, but sex was not the lesson.
It's really not about sex.
What came out of this was this wisdom of how I can embody my own security and my own passion inside myself.
And going forward, I don't look for that so much outside of myself in any relationship because I've kind of gathered it onto myself.
Is that resonating with you?
I'm clapping back there.
You know, there's some people going like this and some going like this, but I suspect that's what you would have gotten anyway.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you for writing the book.
Goodbye, experts.
This is Robin's book, The Wild Oats Project, on DrRoz.com.
I'll be right back.
Thank you for having me.
Are you drinking milk just to get calcium and protein in your diet but it's upsetting your stomach?
Find out if these non-dairy substitutes could be the answer you're looking for.
How to pick the healthiest alternatives to suit your taste.
Ranking the best non-dairy milks.
Next.
All new on the Emmy-nominated Dr. Oz Show.
The new sleep crisis keeping America up all night.
I'm going to tell you why it happens and how you can finally get the rest you need.
Plus, the dark side of skinny.
What did you think would happen?
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
This year, more of my viewers are telling me that they're drinking less dairy.
And you're always asking me, what are my favorite?
The alternatives.
So today, I'm ranking the best non-dairy milk.
So Dana's here.
She actually gave up milk, like many of you, because she was having stomach issues.
So what milk alternatives do you try now?
What do you like?
I have tried almond milk and rice milk, coconut milk, and soy.
You've given a lot of them a shot.
It's pretty good.
What's your favorite one?
My favorite one is almond.
It is?
Yes.
What do you like about the almond milk?
I like the way it tastes.
It's very smooth, and I can put it in lots of things, cereal, oatmeal, and other things that cause for milk when I'm cooking.
So taste is important.
I'm going to come back to that theme throughout this.
But there are other reasons that these non-dairy alternatives make sense, and sometimes some are better than others.
So we're going to start off with...
Milk and calcium, because that's why you drink milk.
So if you're going to avoid the milk, then you want to try to get the calcium.
And they're natural calcium presence in a lot of these products, but they're a little different from each other.
So if you had to bet, which of these has the most calcium in it?
Well, I'm going to go with my favorite, Ahmed.
Do you think almond has the most?
Yes.
All right, let's go back.
Here's what we're going to do.
Okay.
Here's the catch.
A lot of times, these are all fortified.
So I'm talking about natural existing calcium in these, okay?
And what we're going to do, and I've seen people pinning about this, they're blogging about this, you're making your own milks, so I want to make sure you understand what naturally could be in there.
So I created a little bit of a cow race.
Do you like horse racing?
Sure.
Have you ever seen cows race?
No.
This is a whole unique experience.
Okay.
All right.
Now you've picked almond as your favorite here.
Yes.
Okay.
Are you ready to rush the race?
Yes.
Ready, set, go!
Let's see who's going to win the race.
Where's the most calcium it is?
Soy!
Oh, wow.
Soy.
I know it's a fashion, just cows are quick.
But soy was the winner.
And interesting, it's not far behind our almond and rice.
You don't lose by a lot, but soy does have the advantage.
But there's one other place that it wins, which is protein.
It's got about 11 grams a cup.
So, that's a lot.
That's probably twice as much as you get for almond milk.
So, enjoy the almond milk, but recognize that if you want to have a lot of protein, you might want to go for some soy.
You want to choose unsweetened if you can, and the organic kind is even better.
Alright?
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And let's rank the non-dairy milks for weight loss.
One of these women, and only one of them, has lost weight drinking one of the non-dairy milks.
Is it almond?
Is it rice?
Is it soy?
Audience, thoughts?
Which is the best for losing weight?
They clearly don't know, but thankfully one of you will reveal yourselves as the winner.
Will the winner of the best milk for weight loss please stand up on the podium?
Oh, it's almond milk.
Oh, bravo.
Very nice to hear.
I'll hold this for you.
You get to celebrate.
Here's the story, everybody.
Almond milk, if you're counting calories, is actually number one.
In fact, it has about a third of the calories, for example, of rice milk.
So the question then becomes, how good is it?
How much weight have you lost taking this?
32 pounds.
Have you really?
You look wonderful, though.
You look all done.
You like the taste?
I love it.
That's the most important thing.
If you like the taste, you'll keep doing it.
Yes.
I'm proud of you.
Thank you.
I'll help you down.
All right, now...
The best milk for people with allergies.
It comes up a lot because one of the reasons, again, you got off the regular milk is because you didn't like the way you felt with it.
So, turns out, are you ready to find out the winner for this?
The best milk for allergies is...
rice milk.
Now, that's surprising to a lot of people.
A rice milk is at least likely to be a problem for all of you with allergies like the soy and the glutens.
And Leah, how are you?
Apparently you're in that category, so describe its taste to me.
This is skim milk, by the way, so I'm going to just pour some plain old rice milk to see that it's a similar consistency.
Do you enjoy the taste?
I do.
It's light and sweet and delicious.
And what do you use it for?
I use it for smoothies in the morning, and then for coffee throughout the day, and I pretty much make everything with it.
I make my soups with it, and I bake with it.
I made these brownies with it, and I've given them to my family, I've given them to my friends.
People can't tell that it wasn't made with cow's milk.
It's much thicker than I would have expected.
These are also gluten-free.
Well, now she's a show-off.
Perfect.
Alright.
If you can make these with rice milk, I'm very proud of you.
Thank you.
Alright.
Now, ultimately, we've got to talk about which ranks highest in taste.
Now, I started off talking about this.
You've got to love the taste.
You won't drink them anyway.
And there's many varieties out there.
So who better to help me rank these milks for taste than picky kids.
And here they are, those picky kids.
One picky eater is here to reveal the results of the entire group.
Dane, please come on out.
There he is.
Don't reveal the results yet.
Come here.
Just stay right there.
How old are you, Dane?
I'm nine.
Have you ever done taste testing professionally before?
No.
It's a good time to start.
All right.
So you have the official ranking in your briefcase of what the five of you decided was the tastiest of the non-dairy milks.
Is that correct?
Yes.
Are you ready to reveal them to the audience?
Yes.
All right.
Can you have a drum roll, please?
Drum roll.
Okay.
Reveal them and see what you got in there.
Here they are.
Which one do they like the most?
It is...
Soy milk.
You like the soy milk the most?
Yep.
What did you like about it?
Well, it just went down smoothly, I guess.
It didn't taste as bad as the others.
The rousing endorsement, Gloria.
Thank you very much.
Well done, Dane.
Thank you for voting.
We'll be right back.
What's your favorite non-dairy milk?
I love coconut milk.
I realized that I was lactose intolerant when I was in college, so I made the switch.
I find it just as tasty and I love the sweetness it adds to my smoothies.
Share yours on Facebook.com slash Dr. Oz.
Coming up, eyes watering, nose running, you're sneezing and you're congesting.
But is it a cold or is it just allergies?
We're clearing up the confusion and the congestion.
The four clues your nose can give you to survive allergy season.
Coming up next.
All new on the Emmy-nominated Dr. Oz Show.
The new sleep crisis keeping America up all night.
Your body is exhausted, but your mind is in overdrive.
You're wired and tired.
I'm going to tell you why it happens and how you can finally get the rest you need.
Plus, when her dream of losing weight came true.
It wasn't the fantasy she expected.
The dark side of skinny.
What did you think would happen?
The hard truth she didn't see coming.
That's coming up tomorrow on Dr. Oz.
It is that time of year, your nose is running, your eyes are watering, and you're sneezing and just congested.
But it can be hard to tell.
Is that a cold or is it allergies?
Today I'm clearing up the confusion, and more importantly, your congestion.
Courtney's here.
She can help us out.
She says she is sick of being sick.
Explain why you are frustrated.
I am constantly sneezing at work.
I'm constantly running for tissues, eyes watering.
I don't know what to do about it.
So I would love any advice that you have for me on how to...
Right.
So the good news is your nose knows.
It really does.
There are four clues your nose alone will give you without going anywhere else in your body that can help us figure out whether it's a cold or an allergy.
So let's start there.
Clue number one.
Are you ready?
Drum roll.
Is irritation.
Okay.
Inside of the nose.
This is what doctors look for.
It's very simple.
One of the first things we learned in medical school is if you look inside the nose, that's why they look up your nose.
Does doctor ever do that to you?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
So what he's looking for is the colors.
So she wants to know, is it healthy?
That's the pink color.
Okay.
Is it sort of this blue, palish color?
Okay.
That's usually allergies.
Oh, okay.
Or this is a cold, really angry red, because the body's fighting a battle with those viruses.
Okay.
It's more tolerant of the allergies.
So you'll see these color differences.
That's the first clue.
Clue number two, drum roll again, is all about the mucus.
Now why is mucus important?
Because it's very different when you have a cold versus an allergy.
So I have two examples here.
Which of these describes what comes out of your nose?
Wow.
I'm going to go with the clear, runny mess over there.
Let's just see.
Imagine if Courtney came up to you and she saw this coming out of her nose.
So, why do I show these two mucuses?
So when you have a thick mucus, really thick, and it's got sort of color to it a little bit, that's more typical for a cold.
It forms the heavier stuff that kids are often wandering around with.
This, like water, still goopy but more like water and flows out more readily, that's more typical of allergies.
So think thin and clear.
So what you're describing to me sounds more like allergies.
Blue number three is all about the sneeze.
Now listen really carefully.
Both allergies and colds can make you sneeze, but they make different sounds.
So, here's sneeze number one.
Or do you sound like this sneezer?
Number two.
Number two?
All the time, yeah.
That's me.
That rapid-fire machine kind of approach.
That's me.
The second one is allergies, because your body continues to be irritated.
You think that's right, right?
Most of you, probably, when you have that sneezing, that's what you're hearing.
So infrequent sneezes that have periods between them, more typically from a cold, your body's trying to get rid of the viruses that are inside of your nose.
But an allergy is always being irritated, because there's always pollen or whatever's irritating you, mold near you, so it's just always trying to get it out so you get that rapid-fire.
Okay.
Clue number four.
Let me walk you back here.
It's all about time.
Okay.
It's our fourth clue.
So I'm going to give you a calendar here.
How long have you been suffering with your...
Oh my gosh.
...runny nose and all that crazy stuff?
I feel like it's weeks, months at a time.
It's all the time.
All the time.
Yeah.
So, if you measure your symptoms in days, right, like in this case five, that's more typical of a cold.
It's pretty short.
It can go from 2 to 10 days, but that's roughly the range.
But if you've got weeks and weeks of stuff going on, that's not a cold.
Colds don't last that long.
Your immune system is strong enough.
So you're going to need a whole calendar to keep track of it.
You got here.
Now, there are other symptoms.
There's scratchy throats.
There's big, black, darky circles under your eyes.
Do those ever afflict you?
Sometimes.
That's sort of the whole symptom complex that we look for as physicians.
So, up till now, what have you been doing for relief?
I try everything and I'm so inconsistent.
It's like allergy meds one day, cold meds another day, teas.
I try it all.
I'm so glad you came to the show today.
You're here with Allergy Survival Strategies on behalf of our trusted sponsorship partner, Walmart, Executive Baylou Mirakur.
Welcome to the show.
So walk us through how Courtney and others can get relief.
What do you prescribe to your patients?
So actually, I go with a simple rule.
Monitor, avoid and treat.
So monitoring, you can monitor the level of pollen and mold.
You can just go to a simple site which is weather.com backslash allergy and you can get an accurate count of the pollen and mold in your local area.
The second aspect is avoid.
We know that the pollen levels are very high on days when it's bright, sunny, just the day you want to be out, you know, it's dry, it's windy, but the recommendation is to avoid the allergens so you have to stay indoors.
And we know that staying indoors is not possible.
It's not conducive.
It's a downer.
It's a downer.
Courtney's not staying indoors.
I can tell you that just from knowing her on the show.
You want to be out?
You want to enjoy?
So I go with the third recommendation is to be prepared.
Prepare to treat your allergies with a product like Flonase Allergy Relief.
Now your company, Dr. Mirko, makes Flonase, and it's available without having a prescription now.
So explain how it works.
That's true.
So you actually apply it directly to the nose, spray it into the nose.
It has an ingredient which is known as fluticazone propionate, and it is the number one prescribed allergy medicine.
There are numerous inflammatory substances which are responsible for the symptoms you experience, and Flonase blocks six of those substances.
It is the only over-the-counter nasal allergy spray medication which is indicated to provide relief for nasal congestion and itchy, watery eyes.
It also provides 24-hour relief from sneezing and running nose.
It is available in two-bottle forms, 60 and 120-meter spray, and it is full-strength prescription.
Even though it's not requiring a prescription anymore?
It is, yes.
So you don't need a prescription for it anymore, and it is a non-drowsy formula.
See if this fits.
It goes to their complexion.
All right, so everyone knows.
It's the beginning tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Eastern Time.
You can go to DrOz.com to be one of the first to receive a coupon for one of the 500 free Flonase Allergy Relief products that are out there for all you.
And audience, I will never forget about you guys.
You're all going home with Flonase Allergy Relief, two compliments of Flonase.
Thanks to our sponsorship partner, Walmart.
We'll be right back.
Coming up, these kids are bringing cool back to science.
Pint-sized powerhouses that can teach us all a thing or two.
Inventive ideas from both celebrities and kids alike.
The winners of the second annual Dr. Oz's Kids Science Fair.
Next.
Whoever said a doctor's visit isn't fun has obviously never been to the Dr. Oz Show.
Is that right?
Make your appointment today.
Go to DrOz.com slash tickets and sign up for free tickets.
Woo!
All new on the Emmy-nominated Dr. Oz Show.
The new sleep crisis keeping America up all night.
I'm going to tell you why it happens and how you can finally get the rest you need.
Plus, the dark side of skinny.
What did you think would happen?
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow. - I admit it, I'm a science geek, and I love science fairs.
I always have.
As a kid, it sparked my passion and creativity.
Besides, I think science is cool.
You guys agree?
Cool to understand the world.
So I decided to host my own science fair, and we've just completed the second Dr. Raj Show science fair, and I asked you to send me your most inventive ideas.
But I also asked some of my funny celebrity friends for theirs.
It's another edition of Celebrity Science Fair.
I like doing science.
When you do science, you know, put a little flair into it.
Gonna go around our bag and freeze it.
Look at that sorbet.
Now it is time to announce the winner of the Dr. Oz Show Nationwide Science Fair.
Take a look at how these kids are bringing cool back to science.
We sent out a call to the nation's kids to bring the cool back to science and submit their own favorite experiments.
We judge submissions on originality, scientific rationale.
It turns into a solid, but once I stop moving, it turns back into a liquid.
And of course, enthusiasm.
There was one, or should I say two, clear winners.
Anthony and Jason.
We're the Science Brothers!
With their amazing homemade hovercraft.
I want me to join the show.
Science Brothers!
I would have been spanked for that.
They are in fact the winners without further delay.
Anthony and Jason, the Science Brothers.
Come on out.
Hey, how are you? - Good. - Oh, you got NASA, oh, I love the outfits.
How old are you guys?
Eight.
Eight?
Six.
Six and eight.
You like playing with your brother's things, Anthony?
Yeah, sometimes.
And Jason, how about you?
Yeah.
That's probably how this all started.
So you made it a hovercraft, Anthony.
Describe how you did it.
So we got a piece of plywood.
We cut it into a circle.
We got mom's shower curtain.
We cut several holes into it.
Mom's shower curtain?
Yeah.
Does mom know that you took a shower?
She does now, obviously, but does she know at the time you took a shower curtain?
Uh-uh.
So keep going.
I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have been in front.
We taped it onto the hovercraft.
We cut a hole into it.
We put...
Okay.
A vacuum tube.
Thank you.
Collaboration, Jason.
Thank you.
We put it into an old supply of air.
We turned it on and voila, you're going to have a craft.
I love it.
Maybe I'll get your mother's equipment.
Mom, come on, if you don't want to be in the audience.
What happened with the shower curtain gate?
Oh yeah, the shower curtain.
Hmm.
I'm still very upset about that, but in the name of science, it's okay as long as they're learning and having fun.
I'm very proud of it.
Thank you, Mom.
Jason, what's your next invention going to be?
A robot that can do my chores and homework.
Robots?
For chores?
I wish I did that.
So what do you guys want to be when you grow up, in all seriousness?
I'm an awesome scientist.
Awesome scientist.
Awesome mathematician.
This is what I love.
I want you guys aspiring to do what you can be in life.
I'm very proud of you.
Congratulations.
A big hand for the Science Brothers.
Nicely done.
Listen, you can find videos from my celebrity science fair and all the other submissions at DrRoz.com.
Keep sending me yours.
We want more winners.
All things Oz are online.
Watch the show clips that you love and exclusive content that you won't find anywhere else.
Hit play at DrOz.com.
All new on the Emmy-nominated Dr. Oz Show.
The new sleep crisis keeping America up all night.
Your body is exhausted, but your mind is in overdrive.
You're wired and tired.
I'm going to tell you why it happens and how you can finally get the rest you need.
Plus, when her dream of losing weight came true.
It wasn't the fantasy she expected.
The dark side of skinny.
What did you think would happen?
The hard truth she didn't see coming.
That's coming up tomorrow on Dr. Oz.
All right, there's the law of gravity, there's the law of attraction, but today I've got a brand new law of science Well, listen carefully, it's the law of urination.
It is real, and here's how researchers at Georgia Tech discovered it.
First, they measured the bladders in animals, big and small, from dogs, and they hold about half a gallon, to cows, to elephants.
Elephants have 42 gallons of urine in their bladders, a lot of urine.
Then, here's the important part, they watched them pee.
I know it looks a little weird.
I get that.
Some scientists are very eccentric.
Imagine telling your mom you did this study.
But what they found is amazing.
No matter the size of their bladder, all the animals, all of them, took about 21 seconds to pee.
That, my friends, is the law of urination.
We learn something new here every single day.
I want to point out, they have not compared men and women, although we believe it's still the same, but you guys should go out there industriously and figure it out.
Now it's time for, in case you missed it, first, we all have worries.
But when those worries intensify, they multiply, and they invade your thoughts, it's called toxic worry.
And it could be affecting your health.
The five biggest signs of toxic worry are, you've got stomach aches more than twice a week, you gain more than five pounds in a month, You're having trouble with your sleep, your body's full of tension, and your skin becomes dry and begin to break out.
If this sounds like you, then it's time to stop down the toxic worry.
You're going to start by interrupting the flow of worry.
That sounds silly, but when you have those cycling worries in your head, try to imagine something silly and vivid, like a man dressed in a silly costume dancing around someone besides me.
This lets you gain control of your thoughts and let go of the worry that's keeping you up at night especially.
Next, millions of you are turning to non-dairy milk, so I gave you my nutritional rankings to help you choose the right one for you.
This milk's a great source of protein.
That's the nutrient that helps us build those strong muscles.
And the non-dairy milk that fares the best when it comes to protein is soy milk.
Soy milk has about 11 grams a cup oftentimes, which is double that of almond milk.
Choose the unsweetened soy milk and make it organic for the best quality protein.
And finally, please be careful of dubious people online to make it seem like I'm endorsing their products because they don't.
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