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Aug. 9, 2024 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:49
Susan Lucci Shares Her Grandson’s Cerebral Palsy Journey | Dr. Oz | S7 | Ep 76 | Full Episode
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Time Text
What did you feel when you first heard the diagnosis?
Susan Lucci and her daughter...
It was a very emotional place to go.
...shared their private family health issue.
He was 19 months old.
I mean, I knew something was wrong.
And the accident that almost ended it all.
I had a hairline crack on my nose, gashes under here.
He said, if I don't get every single piece of glass out, you will lose your eye.
Coming up next.
We'll save lives today.
Oh - You guys ready to get healthy?
It's the start of a new year, which is an ideal time to motivate yourself to make health changes, but it's which is an ideal time to motivate yourself to make health changes, but it's also the time of year when you're a Who here, to be honest everybody, is still paying off their credit card bills?
A lot of folks, we are all there.
It's a good time when we had it, but we got those bills.
So today, what you can do to better yourself without a lot of cash.
That's why we've got some $1 fast fixes that will save you this winter.
Plus, we've got the Dirt Cure.
It doesn't cost much, by the way.
It claims it can transform your kids' health and behavior with just some simple food.
We're going to dig a little deeper to uncover what it's all about.
And finally, daytime's biggest diva, Emmy Award-winning actress, Susan Rucci, is here.
And she's revealing a very personal family health story that I'm very proud to bring to you.
As Erica came, the woman you love to hate on All My Children, Susan Lucci became one of the most famous faces in daytime television.
Now, she's a star on cable in the hit Lifetime series, Devious Maids.
But it's her role of wife, mother, and grandmother that Susan cherishes most.
Although that role has seen its share of challenges.
In 2008, daughter Liza Huber gave birth to Susan's second grandchild, Brendan, born prematurely at just 4 pounds 10 ounces.
At 10 months, Brendan still couldn't sit up.
At 19 months, he couldn't stand.
That's when doctors told Liza that Brendan had cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects muscle movement.
From the moment they got the diagnosis, Liza, Susan, and the whole family have been working together to help Brendan live a full life.
And today, they are proud to report that Brendan, now seven years old, is an active child who likes to play with his friends and siblings, and is also a Cub Scout.
Susan Lucci and Liza Huber, please come on out.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Liza.
So nice to meet you.
You look like sisters.
Oh, thank you so much.
It's unbelievable.
Thank you.
Liza's my tall blonde wish I was.
I'm literally like sisters.
Not doing too shabby yourself.
Let's talk about Brendan.
He looks so wonderful in that video, but what is he like to you?
Describe and meet you.
I'd love to hear your perspectives.
Well, he's just a wonderful boy.
He's so creative and imaginative and adorable, a great sense of humor.
And I always say about Brendan, he's got velvet eyes because when he knows you and he's very responsive, he's very warm.
So his eyes are very velvety.
He also has such an empathy about him, because he had such a hard start to life.
I mean, if somebody trips on the playground, he's the first one to genuinely go over and really say, are you okay, and wants to help them up.
He's such a special boy with a really kind soul.
He has an energy in the little videos we saw.
He does.
You could have kept this private.
Many families would have.
Why did you decide to talk publicly about what Brendan has gone through?
You know, we really thought we have this wonderful platform.
This is really something we want to be able to talk about cerebral palsy and shine a light on the many different faces.
And also, if I'm trying to hide it from him, what does that say to him?
I want him to be proud of himself.
I don't want him to ever feel bad at all.
I want to just shout his accomplishments from the rooftop.
That's such a good insight you have, because so often we...
Are ashamed of things we shouldn't be, or scared of revealing truths that are there, but it sends a message, a very clear message, that we're not happy with how they are, and we have to accept, especially our kids, as they are.
They're gifts to us.
Right, and everyone has something they're dealing with.
Everyone has something.
So let's talk about this condition.
It happens usually either during childbirth or something happened in utero.
It's happening because the brain, while it's developing and connecting to your muscles, isn't able to do it the way most of us were blessed to have it happen.
So it's non-progressive, which just for everyone knows what that means.
It means it's not going to get worse, but it's not going to get better either.
Right.
So, I think we're all tested when we know that.
The severity can vary quite a bit.
What would you like us to know about Brendan's Cerebral Palsy?
So, Brendan has Cerebral Palsy Spastic Diplesia, so it's in his legs.
He is able to walk independently, which I feel very, very grateful for, of course.
He wears leg braces.
You know, he's got challenges.
He has difficulty getting himself dressed.
We're having difficulty learning how to swim, you know, kicking the legs, of course, with the tightness.
But we're going to get there, you know?
We're going to get there.
And he gets there.
Eliza has a wonderful, industrial-sized trampoline in her backyard with the large fence around so nobody can come flying out.
But Brendan has an older brother, a younger sister, another brother, and they all run to the trampoline.
He may not be the first one to get there, but he gets there, he whips those braces off, and he's up onto the trampoline.
And I always tell him, listen...
It may not be pretty, but get it done.
Just do it.
Do it however you can do it.
But push yourself and do it, because you can do it.
And he does.
What did you feel when you first heard the diagnosis, when you first realized that he wasn't going to be exactly like his siblings?
He was just about two years old and it was really a flood of emotion.
It was every emotion you could think of.
It was sadness because I knew he would have to be dealing with cerebral palsy for the rest of his life, but also tremendous gratitude because he would be able to walk and many others could not.
You must have had, I'll speak as a grandparent now, pain that your child was going through.
Pain.
Yeah.
And I just, I wanted to be there in whatever way I could to, if my presence in any way could comfort Liza.
And you were tremendously supportive.
You really broke your back to be there for me.
But all through this, just to bring it right up to date, you were in Dancing with the Stars.
At the beginning, yes.
And for the first six weeks when Brendan was in the neonatal ICU, As born as a premature child, so it started to have been back then, you were being pulled away from the family all the while you were in this competition.
Yes, that's true.
I was working on both coasts at the same time, but we were on the red-eye Tuesday night after the show.
Tony Dovolani, my husband, Helmut Huber and me, and we would get to New York and take a little nap, take a shower, go to the hospital, go dance with Tony, do all my children on Thursday and Friday, and when we would finish shooting, then I would go to the late visit with Liza to the neonatal intensive care unit.
And one thing, Liza's younger brother, Andreas, had been in the same neonatal intensive care unit when he was born for different circumstances, but there for four weeks.
And it was a very emotional place to go, but it had a happy outcome for my son.
And I hoped in some way that Liza would be comforted now to see her brother, a big, strong.
Those doctors, those nurses, they're just so incredible.
And the love and what they do and what they do.
They're the true heroes.
They are.
What kind of care does Brendan get right now?
So Brendan gets physical therapy five days a week because really with cerebral palsy you want to keep that range of motion because once you lose it, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to get it back.
So we have physical therapy five days a week.
We also do occasional Botox treatments, which is kind of counterintuitive.
You know, you inject Botox in your face to freeze wrinkles but yet it, you know, releases the muscles in people with cerebral palsy.
And there also is a surgery that we are investigating, so that's going to be a journey that we're on that I'm going to be writing about on my blog, Healthy Spoonfuls, if you want to follow along.
Yeah, we'll push to it.
What do you want folks to know about cerebral palsy?
Well, I mean, I think most people, just speaking for myself as well, I knew nothing about cerebral palsy.
And working with UCP of New York City, I started to learn that it's a large umbrella with many different stages.
And that you can live this fantastic life because these are modern times.
And they're making strides all the time.
And I love Liza's attitude, how she is with Brandon.
I think this kind of His upbringing, too, encourages him to be the best Brendan he can be, and he's fantastic.
He's a great boy.
You know what I love about your story?
Obviously, the fact that the family came together means a lot, but we're judged by how we take care of the weak among us, and we make them strong so they can become the leaders.
And too often, we think of quick fixes in medicine, give me the quick solution.
Sometimes there aren't quick solutions.
This is an example, but there's incredible meaning and joy that comes from that anyway.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Thank you for sharing.
I know it's a very private story.
I know it can be uncomfortable.
Thank you again.
You're going to stick around.
I am.
When we come back, we've got a very interesting game you will not want to miss and a little history about us that you would never have thought possible.
Next, when we come back, Susan sets the record straight.
Which health issues are real and which are made for TV? She had emergency surgery to save her eyes after going through a windshield.
Medical mysteries of Susan Lucci and Erica Kane.
So, coming up.
Jamie Lynn Sigler's private battle with MS. Why did you decide to keep it a secret for so long?
The painful truth she hid from the world.
An industry professional at the time, he told me, if you can hide it, it will be best.
The experimental treatments she's exploring.
I thought it meant that I was going to end up in a wheelchair.
And her message to millions living with MS. All new Oz.
that's coming up tomorrow.
It's a very special and it's an emotional day for Susan Lucides.
It's not just about her grandson Brendan.
What most of you don't know is this very studio where we're in right now.
This studio where you're all sitting is the exact same studio where Susan taped all my children for many years.
I'm happy to have you here.
Thank you.
Erica Kane for 40 years was in all of our lives and Susan and Erica both had health issues.
The question is, were the ones we're going to talk about today on TV, or were they in real life?
So I'm going to name a health issue, and our audience is going to vote with your paddles.
Show me, let me see your paddles.
Put them up there back and forth, make sure you've got the right ones.
All right?
And you're going to vote with your paddles whether it was Susan Lucci or Erica Cain who had the medical problem.
Then Susan's going to give us the correct answer.
Okay.
Are you ready?
Do I show my paddle?
No, not till the end.
Let them mess up first, then help them.
Okay.
First...
She had a bad case of pneumonia that caused a bit of mayhem.
Who was it?
Was it Susan Lucci or Erica Cain?
I mean, there's just like waves of Erica's up there.
Yes, just a few little Susans.
Should I show?
Please, what's the answer?
Susan!
Susan Lucci!
Yeah, I did.
Well, I was working on All My Children, and I was shooting here, and then when I was going to make my Broadway debut, which was a dream of a lifetime for me, in Any Get Your Gun, right before I was supposed to open, I was at a voice lesson, and I couldn't sing.
And my teacher said, you have got to go to the doctor.
And I found out that night, wound up in the emergency room at Lenox Hill, that I had...
Pneumonia.
And so they had to postpone the opening for five days.
And then I got to make my Broadway with you and Annie Get Your Gun.
I've never shared it before, but I took my kids to see Annie Get Your Gun, and I got the playlist, the music sheets.
I would go home and play on the piano, and they had to sing with me.
And to this day, they are scarred.
They're still angry about the fact that they have to sing along, but it was perfect for girls to sing along with their father.
Perfect.
And beautiful music.
He chose well.
So, question number two.
She had an emergency surgery to save her eye after going through a windshield during a car accident.
Susan Lucci or Erica Kane?
Everyone knows this is Erica.
Everyone knows this is Erica.
I mean, literally.
Is there a single Susan up there anywhere?
There's one.
Was one Susan?
There's one.
Are you pretty confident?
Yes.
This is a very interesting example of human nature.
We have one person out of 200, literally, one out of 200 who thinks it's Susan that I can see, and everyone else says it's Erica, and the correct answer is it Erica or Susan?
The answer is Susan!
You were right, and you're stuck to your gums.
Do you remember the story?
Well, somewhat, and then I watched all my children work.
So what happened?
That's terrible.
Yeah, it was actually before I played Erica.
I was in college, actually, when I went through the windshield.
I was 19, and they thought I would never have an eyebrow again.
Once they saved the eye, they were concerned about my eyebrow.
And I had a hairline crack on my nose and gashes under here.
You look fantastic.
I don't know who did your surgery, but they should be well known.
Thank you.
He was a resident.
As luck would have it, he was a resident in plastic surgery.
And they said, would you like plastic surgery?
And at that time, when I was 19, the only thing we'd ever seen was on TV, a person come out wrapped as a mummy, and they unwrap them.
I mean, plastic surgery was like, what?
You know, no.
But he happened to be a resident in plastic surgery that night.
I'm forever grateful to him because he took such care getting every piece of glass out.
And he said, if I don't get every single sliver, you will lose your eye.
So it was four and a half hours on the table.
Bless him.
Fantastic.
Bless him.
All right.
One final issue.
A big health issue.
She became addicted to painkillers after falling during a photo shoot.
Susan Lucci, Erica Cain.
Everyone votes.
This time it is literally unanimous.
Susan Lucci, what's the answer?
Yeah, this is Erica Cain.
This sure is.
You are so right.
It was actually told in real time.
It was a two-year storyline where Erica started by becoming addicted to those painkillers.
And actually, ABC was fantastic.
They put me in touch with the Betty Ford Center.
I wanted to be sure that I was playing everything correctly so that people out there in the audience who were dealing with such an addiction or had someone in their families Would know that this was being done for real.
So I got to speak to the people at the Betty Ford Center, and they really helped me so much to keep it real.
It's a huge crisis in America.
Top cause of accidental death among people less than 50 is this.
It's addiction.
Really?
I love having you here.
Great to be here.
Thank you so much for visiting us after 40 years.
Yes, thank you.
What an opportunity.
Thank you.
But you can see, Susan, your new season of Devious Maids coming soon on Lifetime.
You know what?
Are you up for this?
If you want to do this, before you go away, if you want to stay, I want to get just one of your beauty tips.
How do you stay so wonderful?
Thank you.
After all these, are you willing to stay?
Sure.
All right, then stay with us.
Thank you.
- Thank you. - We'll be back. - Next, Susan sticks around to share some of her secrets that keep her looking so happy and healthy.
It helps to balance your pH.
It's a brilliant, old and very effective solution.
One dollar fixes anyone can do to stay looking younger and flawless.
Next.
We are back with Aces Beauty, Susan Lucci, who I can never get enough of.
So you've kindly agreed to stay with us a little longer.
We give some of your $1 tips, inexpensive tips, to continue to look beautiful because you look flawless after car accidents and all kinds of other things.
Thank you.
I've learned.
Thank you.
Share some of these secrets of how you do it.
Yeah, I think the number one thing I do, and I've been doing it for a long time, is I drink hot water and lemon.
I do have two cups of coffee in the morning, and then the rest of the day I drink hot water and lemon.
It does a number of things.
It hydrates.
It's the comfort of a warm liquid without the caffeine, without the calories, without the sugar, so you're avoiding that.
And it also helps.
I have read this in a Swedish scientific journal, but it was in English, so I could understand it.
Dr. Lucci, I love this.
Yes.
Pray tell.
It helps to balance your pH.
So it does a lot of things for under a dollar, just a little wedge of lemon and a cup of hot water, and I think it's really good for your skin.
It's a brilliant, old, and very effective solution.
All right, that's one.
That's less than a dollar.
You've got toothpaste here, which I gather is not for brushing your teeth, so they look great, too.
Thank you.
Yeah, you can brush your teeth, of course, and you should, but...
Did you ever notice how you break out just before you're going to have a big event in your life and there are going to be pictures?
Those pictures are going to haunt you for the rest of your life.
Somebody's going to whip out that picture and you have a breakout and you have a breakout like right here.
And your bangs can't hide it.
No hairdo in the world is going to do anything for that.
No, nothing.
It's always the worst spot.
It's the worst spot.
So what I have found is that because I travel a lot for my work, at night, wash your face, put a dab of toothpaste, not the gel kind, but the regular kind of toothpaste, on your blemish in the morning.
It is gone.
It's gone or it's gone enough that you could cover it up with some concealer and you are good to go.
Your pictures are going to look fabulous.
Practical straight-up solutions.
I love this.
All right.
Now, this last one is one that you use, and we actually use it in our household as well.
Again, under a dollar.
It's a little bit of brown sugar.
Mm-hmm.
Which, oh yes, put the gloves on.
Doctor, doctor.
Do I need to put them both on?
So this is a sugar lip exfoliating scrub, which you need to make your lips look beautiful.
The balm doesn't do it for me at all.
But a lot of folks swear by this.
I do, and I understand you as well.
I do.
Sugar with a little bit of honey, and if you don't like the flavor of that by itself, you have to put as much honey as it needs.
So, you know, you have to actually do it by eye to look like that.
And I actually add a little bit of vanilla extract to mine.
I love that you add vanilla.
I haven't tried that.
That sounds amazing.
Very yummy.
You can always eat the leftovers that way.
Yes, because you lick it off your lips.
It tastes really good.
So you use this frequently when you have chopping or drying?
Exactly.
In this time of year, and it gets cold, or even in, you know, changeable weather, your lips...
Yeah, a balm is okay, but after a while, you keep on putting things on top of dry skin cells.
So this is a way to exfoliate.
And that's about the thickness.
You see, it's a little bit thick, but it would flow if you needed to.
Okay.
So then you can take your finger, because it's you.
You'll do the honors.
But I'm going to do this to Dr. Oz.
The purple gloves look great on you, by the way.
They really are just a very...
And that's the addition.
Your lips look good.
I can tell you've been doing this at home.
Wait, I have to get a little bit more feeling in these.
Okay.
So then you're just, little circular motions.
And you are taking off dead skin cells.
And then your lipstick will look beautiful.
Or your lips, in Dr. Oz's case.
Okay.
What do you think?
I'll give you a kiss of my beautiful lips.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
You can head to DrOz.com and check out this recipe, all the other cool little tips that Susan has.
You share them with your friends.
Be right back.
Next, is our obsession with being clean hurting our children's health?
Can over-sanitizing be creating allergies and other issues?
Why this doctor says you should change that today.
A groundbreaking movement that encourages kids to be exposed to dirt.
Next.
Jamie Lynn Ziegler's private battle with MS. Why did you decide to keep it a secret for so long?
The painful truth she hid from the world.
I thought it meant that I was going to end up in a wheelchair.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow. - Today we are talking about health and kids and now there's a new plan that may just help your child's health.
These days we are all concerned with fighting off germs.
We're all focused on that.
We use hand sanitizers after we touch anything.
We disinfect everything our child touches.
We disinfect our children themselves.
We power wash our foods.
But what is this all doing to our kids?
There's a doctor who specializes in kids who says that dirt is what we need for robust, healthy children.
Take a look.
These days, raising kids goes hand in hand with washing hands and fighting germs.
But some say all this sanitizing is actually sabotaging our health, causing a dramatic increase in chronic childhood health complaints and inciting a new medical movement.
Dr. Maya Sheetri Klein, an integrated pediatric neurologist and a mom, believes many modern health problems, from allergies to weight gain, indigestion to behavioral issues, are actually rooted in our aversion to dirt.
And that the quality of that dirt, the dirt our kids play in and our food is grown in, alters the balance of our immune system and gut microbes, which in turn affects our health, for better or worse.
Today, we dig deeper into the Dirt Cure.
Integrative pediatric neurologist, Dr. Maya Sheetri, client, is here.
She says that you can transform your child's health using good, old-fashioned dirt.
What got you so passionate about dirt, especially as a physician?
Well, let me first explain what I mean by dirt.
Dirt is three things.
It's germs and microbes, which challenge our immune systems to become strong and resilient.
It's food that's grown in dirt, that's unprocessed, and that's healthy and rich with nutrients.
And it is getting out into nature and actually playing in mud pies and rolling down hills and jumping in piles of leaves.
There's a lot of data that says being in a lot of sunshine actually improves kids' vision.
And something called forest bathing, which means immersing yourself in the forest improves everything from focus, executive function, sleep, immune function, and boosts anti-cancer proteins.
Just being outside?
Just being outside.
So how is our obsession with clean hurting our health, specifically?
Well, you know, chronic illness is the new normal for children now.
And, I mean, think about it.
I don't know anyone who's around kids is getting, you know, hearing about peanut and nut-free classrooms.
I mean, it's not a myth.
Kids are really more chronically ill, more allergic, and having more autoimmune conditions.
And a lot of data says this is because we're over-sanitizing them.
So we sanitize their bodies using antibiotics and hand sanitizer.
We're sanitizing their homes with bleach, and we're sanitizing their lives by having them sit indoors all day in classrooms doing homework.
So let's go back to this concept of dirt, which I'm fascinated by.
So what is it about eating our carrots with dirt still on them, or at least not power washing them clean, that might help our kids help?
How does it work?
Well, soil is actually filled with a lot of different components.
It has nutrients in it.
The plants grow with dirt.
The plants grow with dirt and actually plants respond to the dirt cure because when you have sanitized soil pesticides and herbicides they're not being exposed to challenges either.
A plant that's getting exposed to some pests, getting exposed to sunlight, the sun-kissed apple actually exists because of UV radiation.
And that actually makes the apple upregulate all these phytonutrients that make blueberries blue, grapes red, apples bright, and it actually ends up making us healthier because all those phytonutrients stimulate our bodies to be healthy.
There are a lot of skeptics, I'm sure, who say we spent a good part of human history trying to get cleaner.
What do you say to them?
Well, I say I'm a doctor.
I do believe in hand washing with a bar of soap, not with chemicals and not with hand sanitizer.
I actually believe also in keeping kids home when they're sick, you know?
I think that's something that we don't do as much as we should.
But on the other hand, with things like the hygiene hypothesis, which means, you know, kids are too clean, That kind of came about because we found out that kids on farms have fewer allergies, asthma, and chronic conditions than kids in urban apartments.
And we thought, oh, they're not being exposed to enough dirt and enough microbes.
But when they went and measured, it turned out that the number of microbes on farms is equal to the number of microbes in an urban apartment.
The difference was the diversity of microbes.
So having biodiverse microbes in our bodies prevents any one microbe from growing out of control and getting us sick with a horrible infection.
So when you ask us, advise us, your patients, to eat from the ground up, what does that mean?
Well, what I explain to patients is that we actually are connected, our inner terrain, our inner body, is connected to our outer terrain, the world around us.
So, soil, and sunshine, and fresh air, and the food that we eat, which has to be also fresh, unprocessed, grown outdoors, and animals raised in sunshine, all of those things are embodied in the food we're eating.
So, here's the deal.
If you'll stay with us.
Up next, we're going to show everybody how the Dirt Cure might turn your kids' health around.
Stay here.
Coming up next, Dr. Maya shares the many benefits of the Dirt Cure and how it can transform your children's health and behavior with simple food.
It's amazing.
Easy ways to incorporate it into their diet and get your whole family healthy.
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 DrRogs.com slash tickets and sign up for free tickets.
We're going back with Dr. Maya Sheetri Klein, the doctor who says we need to expose our children from the ground up.
So what kinds of problems do you think might be helpful if we use this Dirt Cure?
Well, you know, the first thing that we think about is children are resilient.
They're meant to get sick sometimes, and they're also meant to injure themselves sometimes.
The important thing is they bounce back.
But when they're not, when their bodies are not doing the things they're supposed to do, running, sleeping well, thinking well, playing, having fun, growing, all the things that we expect from children, then we know that there can be a problem.
And all these issues, by the way, problems of healing, pooping, things that have become chronic, some of the allergies we talk about, these are all ideas, in theory, that the Dirt Cure could help with.
I believe that no problem in a child is set in stone.
Even mood swings, learning disabilities, and hyperactivity, they can all be helped with the Dirt Cure.
Come on over.
The first step in the Dirt Cure is to discover the Clean 15. Here they are in front of us, foods that we all could eat, but many of us don't.
Why are these Clean 15 so important for the Dirt Cure?
Well, the first reason that we're really talking about the Clean 15 is because of pesticides.
So, the Clean 15 means the conventionally grown foods that are the least exposed to pesticides and that's tested for every year but pesticides actually have a lot of neurologic impact and we know in studies that people who have more exposure to pesticides are more likely to have ADHD but the good news is that when you stop eating conventionally grown food and start eating organic food those metabolites in the urine drop and those symptoms can improve so Clean 15 is when you can't get to the farmer's
market and buy organic things or you're not able to grow your own, you find these foods.
And you'll see a lot of them are things that have peel on the outside that you're not eating.
Mangos and melons and eggplants I do eat to peel, but pineapples I don't.
Avocados.
Yeah, so a lot of these foods are that way, and they're nutritious and wonderful, so you don't have to feel just because you're not eating organic or you're not able to access organic that you can't benefit.
But you don't have to power washers either, if they have a little dirt on them.
If you get a dirt-laden piece of asparagus, you can eat it that way.
Yeah.
I mean, I would say rinse your food because if it's not something...
When I'm in the garden, in my own garden, I grow a lot of my food.
I actually will pull a carrot, rub it on my pants, and eat it.
Or, you know, we pick tomatoes right off the vine and put them right in our mouth.
But if you don't know where it's coming from, it's a good idea to rinse it.
It's just you're not going to power wash it or scrub it.
You want to get a little bit of the trace of soil and microbes that are coming from the earth.
A little film on the surface.
Exactly.
All right.
Second, you want us to introduce spices to our kids.
Why are these so important?
Well, so spices are actually an amazing thing.
A little goes a long way, and they're very impactful in the body.
So, for instance, let's see what we have here.
Black cumin seed, amazing, amazing spice that actually treats everything from seizures to asthma to cancer.
They have benefit in all of those kinds of different conditions, and they're delicious.
Cayenne pepper is useful in pain syndromes.
When you have so much pain in your mouth, you don't want to actually face the other pain.
Kind of true, actually.
That is sort of true.
Now, fresh rosemary.
Okay, you're going to have to smell this.
Yeah, this reminds me of my childhood.
I love this stuff.
Mmm.
I have a fresh rosemary plant in my house, actually, and we just pick right off of it.
The aroma of rosemary, of fresh rosemary, boosts memory.
Just the aroma alone.
It's amazing.
So my kids, we have a little spice station in our house and my kids can use it as they wish and they really enjoy doing that.
There's a lot of folks, moms in particular, who say they have to retrain their kids taste buds which is impossible.
You don't think that's so?
No, in fact, one of the things that I recommend in the Dirt Cure is bitters.
What are bitters?
It could be the peel on fruit or vegetables.
It can be dark chocolate.
It can be all different kinds of foods that we find every day.
And bitters are incredibly beneficial in many ways.
Digestion, increasing motility so that heartburn can improve.
So constipation can be better.
It balances blood sugar.
It boosts detoxification in the liver.
And actually, the most amazing thing is it boosts the immune system, even in the ear, nose, and throat, not just in the gut.
So we have bitter receptors all throughout our nasopharynx area and our lungs.
So it can help asthma.
It can fight the flu and strep throat and all those things we want to fight.
So one of the most...
Obviously, tantalizing bitter taste is chocolate.
This is 70% dark chocolate.
But, you know, I've been trusting your thoughts on this, but I'm going to put you really to the test now.
I brought four world experts here.
They're kids.
And they have been tasting this chocolate brew.
So what do you think so far?
It tastes like fruits all mixed together.
Fruits all mixed together?
What a sophisticated palate you have.
It's good.
You're good.
That probably says it all.
I think what we're talking about today is really good.
These ideas of eating real foods, as you said, that come out of the ground looking the way they look, the ability for us to harvest this, the dirt, and actually make this live for us as it nurtures our diets is important.
Unfortunately, for many people, that means trial and error.
There's no simple solution.
So that's the last part of your dirt cure, trial and error.
How does it work?
So what we know is that, first of all, kids need to taste things 20 to 30 times sometimes to get used to a certain flavor.
A lot of parents give up very quickly and then they're cooking 17 different things for every person in the house.
I don't believe in doing that.
You make one meal for the whole family, the kids get used to it, you keep trying again and again, you send them fruit and vegetables in their lunch even if they don't eat it every time.
Keep trying, keep trying, they will come around.
The date matters more than the times you've tried.
Keep going at it.
Listen, the body is designed to be tested.
We all work out, right?
We're supposed to anyway, to build our muscles, right?
You don't just work out muscles, you work out your immune system.
And this, my friends, right there, is the raw material to make that happen.
Dr. Maya's new book is called The Dirt Cure.
Check it out.
We'll be right back.
Coming up next, want to make life easier this winter, even if you're low on cash?
From dry cracked hands to shoveling snow.
Simple $1 fast fixes that can save you money all season long.
This could save some lives this winter.
Let's just check it out.
Coming up.
Jamie Lynn Sigler's private battle with MS. Why did you decide to keep it a secret for so long?
The painful truth she hid from the world.
I thought it meant that I was going to end up in a wheelchair.
All new Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
I know many of you are still paying off those December credit card bills.
So now, more than ever, we need to learn how to make our dollar stretch.
That's what we're all about.
Take a look.
In a world where the high cost of healthcare can be a heavy burden, a superhero emerges with solutions to save you money.
A dollar may seem like a small amount.
From the creators of the blockbuster hit, One Dollar Fast Fixes for Summer, comes the sequel, your best one dollar fast fixes for winter.
Try it.
It'll work.
Trust me.
You'll never look at four quarters, ten dimes, twenty nickels, or one hundred pennies the same way.
Ever.
That's right.
The dollar bill is worth more than it looks.
And today, I'm going to show you why you got the best $1 fast fixes at your fingertips that are going to save you money this winter.
Now, I asked the audience, all of you at home, to submit your top $1 fast fixes.
And I selected some of my favorites, but I kept them a surprise.
So let's see who's up first with the dollar fast fix.
It is...
Denise!
Come on down, Denise.
Thank you.
We got a fast fix for dry and cracked hands this winter.
How are you?
Nice to meet you.
I love your tip, by the way.
Oh, thank you.
So share with everybody.
Explain what it is.
So what I made is an aloe stress ball, and I mixed two parts cornstarch with one part aloe.
So this is the aloe, right?
It's pretty liquidy like this.
Yeah, just one part aloe.
And it firms up with the starch?
Firms up, yeah.
It makes it into like a clay.
It is a clay.
How long does it take?
It can be a little messy.
You want to have a towel nearby, but basically you just mix it, mix it, mix it.
I'm going to protect myself with the towel.
I've already got this all over me.
Like powdered sugar, right?
And how long until it becomes this more firm ball that you're showing everybody?
It's already getting there.
It's about one more minute, maybe?
Not even?
And then when do you use it?
I use it to massage my hands for like joints or if you have arthritis or even just as a like conditioner for your skin because aloe is really good for your skin.
It kind of relieves stress, right?
If you're a little tired and stressed out, right?
It's fun.
For the post credit card bill stress, this is a great tool.
Totally.
And then you can hand it to your children and they can play with it.
I bet it helps with arthritis and a lot of things, too.
It does, yeah.
All right.
Our next one-hour fast fix for winter was submitted to us via home video by Jennifer, and she has this really cool idea.
You're not going to believe what she uses to combat her winter dandruff.
Hi, Dr. Oz.
To get rid of my winter dandruff, I use mutt wash.
It's so simple.
You wash your hair as usual.
Skip the conditioner.
Instead, you mix mouthwash and baby oil on your scalp.
Like that.
You leave it on for 5-10 minutes and then rinse.
You'll be perfect.
You know, this works if your dandruff is caused by fungus because the alcohol from the mouthwash kills it and then it prevents it from spreading.
So Jennifer submitted her before and after photos to prove to you this works.
Here she is before.
You see, let me circle that area right there where there's a lot of dandruff, and then there she is after.
It works really quickly, and we understand why it would work.
So I love it.
Our next $1 fast fix for winter comes from another member of our audience.
Let's see who it is.
Who's it going to be?
It's...
It's LeVon and Deverette.
Come on down.
There they are.
And they're armed with tools to teach us.
They have the one-dollar fast fix for shoveling snow.
Yes.
And it is cooking oil.
Non-stick.
Non-stick cooking oil.
Non-stick, yes.
It's very important.
All right.
So show us how this works.
Here's your non-stick cooking oil.
Okay.
And you're going to just spray it real good in there.
Get it all in there.
And sometimes I'm out there with him just to make sure that I can put some more if it kind of comes off.
Right.
So I'll tell you.
I want you to demo for us, but I'll tell you the problem I always have.
Yes.
As a heart surgeon, I get most of my patients in the wintertime.
And the classic story is, he was out there shoveling, and then he started feeling chest pain.
Yes.
Because that kind of exertion, and you're doing something that's very functional for your family, so you completely ignore the pain.
Absolutely.
I mean, good friends of mine have had heart problems just because of this.
Yes.
So this could save some lives this winter.
Let's just check it out.
Shovel it up.
Here we are.
Now put your back into it, Debra.
Come on out.
Get in there.
Get in there.
Now dump that out.
All that stuff out.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, it doesn't cake up.
Yeah.
I usually tap it like this once.
You know what?
That's one of the best uses of staunchly cooking spray I've ever seen in my life.
I'm very proud of you for protecting it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Go back.
Finish that up now.
It's stone here last night in the studio.
Thank you very much.
Up next, fast fixes for this season's most annoying problem, the winter cold.
It is my cold cafe exclusively here.
Everything on the menu is under a dollar, and they all work.
Coming in February on The Dr. Oz Show.
Exclusive interviews.
What's next for Charlie Sheen?
Jamie Lynn Siegler speaks out on her secret battle with MS. Yolanda Foster opens up about her invisible disease.
In-depth investigations.
The truth behind America's biggest foods.
And it's see it to believe it month.
Dangerous diet trends.
Coming this February on The Dr. Oz Show.
We're back with the $1 fast fixes for winter news.
It is amazing how much a dollar can stretch, especially when it comes to treating one of this season's most annoying problems, the winter cold.
So we've got members of our audience, they're all currently suffering from a winter cold, and they're dining in our cold cafe.
Everything on the menu will not only relieve their symptoms, but it all costs under a dollar.
I'm gonna start with Angelina.
May I shake your hands or are you so contagious?
You can shake my hands.
So what symptoms are you worried about?
I struggle with congestion.
It gets bad to the point where I can barely breathe and every medicine that I try just makes me so drowsy.
So we have a new position on the Dr. Ash show.
It is the mid-unit pulling double duty.
Come on over.
She's got the first fix.
It's a dollar solution for congestion and it is horseradish.
If you all start moaning and groaning about horseradish, as you probably can guess, it really does clear out those nasal passages.
They will open up in a big way.
In fact, they'll explode open.
Oh!
So the treatment's pretty simple.
Take a little pinch of this.
Okay.
That's it.
Put it in there.
Don't swallow it.
Let it sit there for a little while.
It's going to dissipate the flavor in your mouth.
Do you feel a little burning in there?
That's why you're doing it, not me.
Yum.
Now, once it's completely burned through your mouth, you're going to swallow it because then it'll do the exact same.
It'll carry the mucus away.
Are you okay?
Can you breathe?
Let me see you check your pulse.
Was it okay?
It was okay.
I made it.
I actually checked it before the show.
It wasn't too bad.
But I actually like the fact that it clears the mucus out.
It's all natural.
You can eat the rest of it.
It's fantastic for many reasons.
And I love the fact, again, the sulfur works on the bacteria.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
All right, nice to see you at Cathy up here.
Hello.
How are you, dear?
I'm good, how are you?
So what symptoms bothering you?
I get terrible migraines.
They prevent me from everyday life and my four kids with intense pounding.
Migraines, what have you done for?
What works?
I have tried ibuprofen.
I've tried laying down in a dark room.
I've tried compresses, rubbing my temples.
It seems to be worse when the weather changes in the winter.
It is worse with weather.
And you should do those things you just mentioned because they all generally will make it a little better.
But I got a little extra something for you today.
It is the $1 fix.
It's called the Migraine Milkshake.
And it works great for migraines because it has...
Thank you.
You're doing very well.
You're worried about spilling this, I know.
She spent the whole night worried about spilling the migraine milkshake.
It has riboflavin in it.
And studies have been done on this B vitamin showing that if you have enough of it, it can actually reduce migraine incidences by about 50%.
Strip it down.
See what it might do for you.
Next time you get a cold, you don't want that migraine.
This might help.
That's delicious.
Is it nice?
That's very good.
Nicely done, Gretchen.
Nicely done.
For an additional dollar fix to get you through the winter cold, go to DrRog.com.
And remember, healthy and happy starts at home.
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