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July 2, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:41
Frozen Fish Scams & Measles Outbreak: What You Need to Know | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 121 | Full Episode
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Time Text
An Oz Food Investigation.
Frozen fish.
One of our favorite heat and eat foods.
But what's really in those fish sticks?
The price is too cheap versus all the others?
There's probably some filler in it.
Are you being conned in your freezer section?
Plus, breaking news on a dangerous outbreak.
You're spreading billions and billions of droplets, and many people can be exposed to them.
How to protect your family from the measles?
Coming up next.
Oh, oh, oh.
Y'all ready for season 10?
Yeah!
I love you, Dukka.
Thank you.
From this, flipping around to this, and then finally, to this, right?
Frozen fish steaks and breaded fish fillets are hugely popular heat and eat foods for your families, right?
We all eat them, but they've also been called the hot dog of the sea.
Is there an undercurrent of deception?
Today we're investigating to find out if it's cod or a con in the freezer section of your grocery store.
And to help me out, I invited the man known as a supermarket guru who tracks industry food and consumer changes, Phil Lenter.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
So Phil says there's a lot of ways that the history of frozen food, the industry itself, tells us the story of the fish stick.
So how do those histories match up?
It does.
First of all, I love frozen foods.
When you really think about it, they're convenient, they reduce cost, and they give access to us.
So think about the landlock in the middle of the country that didn't have fish.
So by having frozen fish, what we've basically been able to do is give good nutrition throughout the entire country.
And that's so important.
Now, when we look at fish sticks, nobody woke up in the morning and said, hey, I want a fish stick.
You know, whether it was a kid or a mom.
What it really was is the food companies going out there and being able to get all this fish from the ocean, bring it back, and make it into a very convenient, very convenient product because most people are really afraid of fish.
They don't know how to cook it.
And if you look at consumption, fish consumption is only about 14.7 pounds per person per year versus poultry or red meat, 222 pounds of meat.
So that's why we need frozen fish to be able to come into every home.
That's less than 10% of what we eat in chicken and meat.
Do you guys have any idea about that?
How many people are afraid of fish here?
Afraid to cook it.
Cook it.
Yeah, not afraid of attacking.
Yeah, there's some folks.
Do we do it the right way?
If we don't do it enough, it might get sick.
If you do it too much, it tastes like wood.
All right, let's take a look at why fish sticks became so popular.
Because I love when we get to the roots of how this even happened.
Because you're right, no one came up with the idea of a fish stick.
There was a reason for it.
So Americans upped their fish consumption during the war when meat was scarce, right?
You had Koopa honey.
It was hard to get it.
But when sales dropped off, peace of course broke out.
The sales dropped off and beef went back on the table.
You didn't have to do this.
So the fish industry had to up the ante and find better ways to cut costs with freezing and preserving the fish to sell to the masses.
So they got these trawler ships.
They became factories at sea.
They would catch and even process fish before coming on shore.
But people still weren't convinced because early frozen fish didn't do so well.
It had freezer burn, right?
It was sort of bland.
It wasn't winning over the customers.
Economists from Harvard and scientists from MIT, partially funded by our government, set out to find a winning sales idea.
And Phil, that idea was...
We love it.
It's delicious.
All these big heads got together with government funding and figured that out.
Exactly.
So it's really important when we look at fish sticks to really understand how they're made, why they're made, and really the popularity of it and all these marketing dollars that have been put against it to really convince people that they should be eating fish.
It's looking like some of the fish cons that many of you out there have.
Things that people worry about.
Fish con number one is that the fish sticks are not made of real fish.
Not true.
Not true at all.
In fact, look at the ingredients.
That's always the key to this.
So it could be made from tilapia, cod, or pollock, or some combination of it.
What then happens, just as you described on the boat, it is then put and frozen into blocks.
Usually the blocks are about five times this size.
This is fish.
This is fish.
And the reason that they freeze it into blocks, and it's just solid fish.
There's no filling in it.
They're matching this up and put like, make it into a box.
Exactly.
And then it goes through basically saw blades to make it into different shapes, like frozen fish sticks, or it could be like in little cookie cutters.
So you have frozen fish nuts.
It's like a lumber yard.
You're cutting them.
But better.
But again, it's all real fish.
So you don't have to worry about anything like that.
But again, always read the ingredients.
So is there a filler in the fish?
I mean, if I'm literally just taking this and making it into a block and chopping it, is there a filler when I get the box?
In this box today, no.
Going back a few years, sure, there were fillers in it.
But frankly, we as consumers are smarter.
So you see right on the front of a lot of these packages where it says no fillers, because that's the siren to a mom that says, this is what I want.
We want products that have less ingredients, not more ingredients.
If it doesn't say no filler, that probably means there is filler.
Well, turn it around.
There's very few fish sticks out there now that have fillers, but it's possible.
If the price is too cheap, you know, versus all the others, then there's probably some filler in it.
So once they have the right shape, right, whatever shape you desire, then you take it to the factory, you fry them, right?
Bright them and they fry them.
Right.
Okay.
So what kind of oils do they use in order to accomplish that goal?
And I ask it because one of the main reasons I talk about fish is because I want you to get the healthy oils in there.
Exactly.
And you're bringing up the biggest problem because we want omega-3s.
That's the real benefit.
So if they're frying it in certain oils like cottonseed oil or other vegetable oils that are very high in saturated fats, you're defeating the purpose.
So again, look at that nutritional information panel.
On it, it'll say how much saturated fat is in that product.
And if it looks Really high.
Out the door.
Out the door.
Next frozen fish con, and this is an important one: was that these are just junk foods.
They're filled with preservatives because they come in boxes.
You know, it doesn't come looking like a fish.
So, explain what risks may really exist here.
Sure.
Well, the first one is not a risk.
It's called STPP.
And basically, what this is, is a polyphosphate.
It's a sodium bath.
And the reason is, if you look at a piece of white fish like this, it's made up of 80% water.
If you look at salmon, it's 70% water.
So what happens is in the freezing process, if it's not done properly, and again, properly meaning freeze it really quick, really cold temperatures, what happens is it gets a little tough for us.
So that's why they're doing this.
Very few companies are doing this anymore because of the freezing process.
It is totally safe, not a concern at all.
Just saying, the reason they did it was it would hold on the water in the fish the right way.
Exactly.
Not harmful, but we don't really need it anymore.
Correct.
All right.
So that's fine.
How about this stuff that you're doing?
Well, TBHQ, that's a different story.
Now, this is used basically to extend the shelf life of products.
Not only fish, it could be meats and so on.
Now, the FDA says that it can only be 0.02% of the total amount of fat in a product.
There have been some animal studies out there.
We don't think it's dangerous.
We're not sure.
But my suggestion, if you have an ingredient, TBHQ, on a product, whether it's meat or fish, avoid it.
That's stated.
It's a very small amount in each product.
And I think the bigger reason not to eat too many of these is they're fried.
So as much as you eat fried food, you could probably get away with a little bit of this.
Exactly.
All right, so we reached out to the American Frozen Food Institute, and they said that TBHQ isn't commonly used anymore, echoing what you said.
They also said read the label.
Next fish stick con we investigated is the bread to fish ratio.
And who better to help with these things, right, than Renatha?
You don't want a fried carb, you want a healthy fish.
So I had Renatha cut open some popular fish sticks and wanted to see if these breaded products are just bread or just a little crusting of bread with real fish.
What did you find?
So, I mean, as you can see here, it's not all that bad.
We have some good news here, right?
So the major brands, there's pretty decent bread to fish ratio.
And it actually looks like fish up in there, okay?
If you check it out on the side right there, right?
Mostly fish.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a nice, pretty decent bread to fish ratio.
But this one over here, okay, so now this one is called a fish patty.
And when we cut into it, I don't know what's going on in here.
This fish look a little fishy, okay?
This fish look a little fishy, and it's circular like a bun.
So fill.
I mean, can you help me out?
What's going on with this one over here?
Well, it's chopped and formed.
Typically, when you see products like that, it could have a list of 20, 30 ingredients, a lot of chemicals, a lot of preservatives, things that we've never heard of, lots of spices.
So, you know, you're the Dr. Oz's official taste tester.
Take a bite.
I don't want to.
Okay, fine.
I don't blame you.
But it looks more like a hamburger patty.
It is a fish.
Same concept, where you're chopping up fish.
It could be varieties of fish.
Oh, you're brave.
And then it tastes pretty good, actually.
That's what all the spices and the preservatives and the artificial additives, that's what they all do.
They make it taste good.
I want fish.
I know.
I wouldn't pay for the good taste.
I'm paying for the fish.
I want that to taste good.
Correct.
All right, so you want to buy the fillets, not these preformed patties.
Correct.
That's the big message.
We're not going to thank you as always.
You want the other half?
No, you can't.
Silverbucket Guru here says that the frozen food aisle is changing when it comes to fish.
Come over here.
Give everyone a pep talk.
This is a big deal.
These companies realize that you're listening.
They know that you want the right food.
So they're making it for you.
What do we need to know?
Well, first of all, if we look in the past three years of all the innovation that's happened in the frozen food case, it's enormous.
We're seeing products that have three or four ingredients.
They've really shortened that list of chemicals and preservatives, as we talked about a moment ago.
We're seeing lots of innovation.
For example, baked fish that comes with sauces to it.
And also what I love is we're now starting to see companies right on the back and the front of the package list where the fish comes from, what the species is.
I love this.
Sometimes the name of the fisherman, the plant manager, so we can get all the information we want.
What farmers, ranchers, and fishermen all want is to give us transparency.
And now because of technology called blockchain, we're actually able to trace a product, a fish, from the boat to the distributor, to the supermarket, to the manager that puts it out there.
And all that information is wide open for everybody to see.
So great news in the supermarket.
Fish is a lot less fishy.
It is.
Fantastic news.
Okay, you can catch Phil and his new podcast, Farm Food Facts.
It's available on iTunes.
We're going to put a link to it on Dr.Oz.com.
Check it out.
When we come back, salmon lies.
There are salmon lies out there in the grocery store.
And the grocery store didn't want you to know about it.
Stay with us.
He could be the deadliest serial killer in U.S. history, confessing to 90 unsolved murders, sketching his victims.
Every single victim had the same dead-like eyes.
Could these drawings finally identify who they are?
This man said, that looks like my mother.
Plus, how a photographic memory solved this man's murder.
When I get into a crime scene, I get into some sort of a zone.
All nuance.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Thank you.
Is there something fishy with your supermarket salmon?
Some experts are saying that this healthy fish has turned into one of the biggest grocery frauds.
So today, Kerry Heffernan from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Council of Shafts is here to investigate.
No one knows fish like this guy.
So listen, the first issue is that the salmon secret that supermarkets don't want you to know has to do with mislabeling.
And studies are showing that when we buy fresh salmon, we could be getting duped almost half the time.
Is that real?
Yeah, it's amazing.
Oceana, an ocean seafood conservancy group, has found out that as much as 43% of salmon is mislabeled.
And this is something fish-loving people need to know.
Did you imagine that?
I can say 5% mislabel, but 43%.
Let's look at how this is happening because a lot of it has to do with one problem, right?
And this is a big salmon secret.
And that problem is that 69% of mislabeled fish is because it's identified as being wild when it's actually farm salmon.
Now, how can this happen?
Why would people get this wrong?
Well, basically, because they'll get more money for wild salmon.
So one of the things that you want to think about is actually buying at some of the larger grocery stores because they have better labeling practices generally than some of the smaller operations.
Plus, they don't want to have a big penalty if they're caught doing it, whereas the small guys may not have the resources to figure it out even.
That's right, much more at risk.
The other thing you need to think about is that salmon has a season.
Hmm.
Do we have an opportunity?
So shop in the season.
Much like peaches and tomatoes, it's late spring to early fall.
So this is when fish are at their physical peak.
They're in the ocean getting ready to go back to their natal rivers and spawn.
And this is when less fraud tends to occur because there's more wild salmon naturally in the market.
All right, so if I'm buying fish from now, I basically go to salmon anyway, and I want it to be wild, I'll buy it in the summer or maybe give me a separate month or two around the summer.
True.
Now, the thing is, it could be frozen and then resold as, and that's not a bad thing necessarily.
So you can look for flash frozen salmon or individually quick frozen salmon.
Now, these animals are caught at sea, put into a hole that's minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit in less than 15 minutes.
So they actually go through rigor mortis in the defrosting process.
So well handled, these fish can be amazing.
Well, why wouldn't I just buy my salmon frozen then?
In the winter months, why don't I just get it out of the freezer, pay less, and have it go through rigor mortis on my kitchen table?
Absolutely.
No problem with that at all.
I like that.
It would save money too.
Absolutely.
All right, so we reached out to the National Fisheries Institute for a statement.
They agree completely that fish fraud is illegal and ought to be stopped.
And they encourage Crisis Hoobers to ask restaurants and retailers if they source their fish from members of the Better Seafood Board.
The answer has to be yes, guys.
If we don't ask, it's going to get worse and worse.
If half the stuff's not what it's supposed to be, we got to ask.
Okay, next salmon secret is that your supermarket salmon maybe died to be the pink color.
Think about that possibility.
It's shocking to me.
They would actually color your fish.
Well, it's not the worst thing in the world.
So if you look at, this is a wild salmon.
So it gets that color naturally from eating a bait that's high in carotenoids, which could come from algae or small crustaceans.
So what they do is they actually introduce carotenoids into the diet of the farm-raised fish.
And this is not farm-raised, right?
Correct.
Okay.
And this is not a terrible thing.
This is FDA approved, and it's actually basically following a natural pattern.
However, just to show you, if I gave you the fish without the dye, it would look like this.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
Ow.
So how many of you would buy this fish over this fish over this fish?
That's the real question.
Is that the point?
That is exactly the point.
This fish is devoid of cartinoids.
It has none of it in it.
It hasn't been introduced to the diet.
So it looks white.
And it's a little less appealing, and it's going to get less money.
Right, so just looking at it in a bigger, the color and the price is over of a scale here.
So the pinker I make it, the more money I'll get paid.
Exactly.
So how do they, I'm sorry, I missed this.
In the wild, they ate algae.
To make this happen, they give it pieces of shrimp.
Is that what they do?
That's right.
They give it algae and ground-up crustacean shells, which is totally what it would be found in the wild diet.
Oh, so they're not giving it paint or dyes to eat.
No, they're reintroducing many of the things that the fish naturally would get.
Perfect.
I feel much better about this.
By the way, if you're in New York City, his restaurant's called Grand Banks.
It's actually on a boat.
You tackled the pink, but how about the white?
What is that white stuff that oozes out of your salmon as you cook?
Have you ever wondered that?
I actually like the taste of it.
The answer as we go to break.
Up next, a breaking news alert about the measles outbreak.
top health officials are saying about why this contagious disease is making an ugly comeback A breaking news alert.
An infectious disease that has been declared eliminated almost 20 years ago is making an ugly comeback and threatening health emergencies all over the country.
Today, what you need to know about one of the most contagious infectious disease known to man, more contagious than smallpox, influenza, even Ebola.
We investigate the measles outbreak.
What's really behind the resurgence of this deadly disease?
It has plagued humanity for centuries.
A dreaded and highly contagious virus, few can escape.
The measles.
It starts with a fever, cough, and yutty nose.
Then comes a rash consisting of small red spots as the body's temperature climbs dangerously higher and higher.
Complications can be devastating with ear infections, pneumonia and encephalitis, and inflammation of the brain.
Historically, millions of children were infected every year and hundreds died from this highly contagious disease.
But in 1963, all that changed with the advent of the measles vaccine.
By 1980, it was required for all children attending public schools nationwide.
Although some states do allow for exemptions, infection rates plummeted and finally in 2000, measles was considered to be eliminated.
That was 18 years ago.
Today, shockingly, the measles is back.
Outbreaks springing up across the country.
Health officials have likened the resurgence to throwing a match into a can of gasoline.
At highest risk, infants younger than 12 months, pregnant women with no evidence of measles immunity, and those with severely compromised immune systems.
Outrage at the new measles threat is building.
How could this happen?
And how can you protect yourself and your family?
Let me show you why measles is a national concern.
The outbreak across the country started last year with more than 360 cases in 28 states.
I mean find your state, it's all over the country.
And just in the first two months of 2019, more than 100 cases have been reported.
Dr. Nancy Massagnier, the CDC's director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, joins us now.
Dr. Massagnier, why has there been such a huge resurgence of measles after being eliminated in the U.S. nearly two decades ago?
Measles has been eliminated in the United States, but it's continued to circulate globally, which means we have continued to have outbreaks in the U.S. So unvaccinated Americans traveling abroad get exposed to measles and they bring it back home with them, contaminating their families and their communities.
Do you expect this measles outbreak to spread to more states, at least this year?
Measles is really difficult to predict, but it's early in the year and I would expect to see more cases and more states impacted.
Most Americans are vaccinated against measles, which limits the spread of the outbreak, but unvaccinated Americans put themselves and everyone around them at risk.
This includes people who can't be vaccinated, for example, young infants who really count on the cushion of protection provided by their communities.
So if there's no treatment or cure for measles once you've gotten it, then what can people do right now?
What should they know about preventing measles?
There is no treatment or cure for measles.
We also can't predict how serious each case of measles is going to be.
Eating well, getting enough exercise, getting good sleep, those are all parts of a healthy lifestyle.
But the only way to prevent measles is to get vaccinated.
Before you travel abroad, you should make sure that you're protected against measles.
And parents should talk to their doctors to make sure they're protected against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
Dr. Matsonier, thank you for what you're doing at the CDC.
So many of us, including doctors, have never seen or remember what measles looks like.
So let me show you exactly what goes down.
So measles viruses are spread by little droplets from an infected person.
You sneeze it out or you touch something and the symptoms start about 10 days after the infection.
You get cold-like symptoms, a runny nose, you get watery red eyes, high fever.
The classic symptoms that only measles can give you are these little white spots inside of your mouth.
They're not on the cheeks.
They're like little grains of white sand.
About two to four days later, a rash will start behind the ears before it's spreading outwards to the head, the neck, the rest of the body over the next few days.
And these will coalesce.
The spots will initially be small, but they'll join together, get bigger, and then as that happens, you'll get this very typical sign of measles.
Let's explain just how contagious the disease is.
Virus hunter, Dr. Ian Lipkin, is joining us now.
He's an infectious disease expert from MyA University, Columbia.
I've always respected your expertise in these issues.
You break it down, but you are the person our nation turns to when we've got viruses we've got to figure out.
How contagious is measles?
Compare it to Ebola, which we all fear.
Compare it to SARS, which we hear about all the time.
So this is one of the most contagious diseases that we know.
When you talk about Ebola, which is something that everyone is concerned about, one person may infect two people.
SARS, one person may infect four.
So even SARS, which we talk about being pretty infectious, it's one person gets it, four others are at risk, on average.
Yes, that's an average.
So if one person has measles, how many people on average will they pass it on to?
12 to 18.
18.
As many as 18 people.
That's a lot of folks.
Assuming those people are not, of course, vaccinated.
And the reason for that is because it lies dormant in your body for a couple days, or does the virus itself tends to infect more people?
It just infects more people.
When you have this period, even before you get the rash, when you're coughing and so forth, you're spreading billions and billions of droplets, and many people can be exposed to that.
Billions and billions of droplets.
You sound like Carl Sagan.
So how quickly can an infection occur?
And I know the unvaccinated are at greatest risk.
They should be paying attention.
Yes, the unvaccinated are the ones who are at risk.
If you're vaccinated, you have excellent protection.
But how fast do you get infected if you haven't been vaccinated?
If you get infected, you have this period, it's sort of an eclipse phase when the virus is dormant and you don't really see anything very much.
But within four days to two weeks, you begin to see the signs that you showed.
The spots inside the mouth, the swelling of the glands behind the ears, the rash which covers your body, and many people have pneumonia.
So odds are you may not even know who infected you.
That's correct.
Which makes it even scarier for me.
So up next, we investigate just how effective and safe is the vaccine.
Could you get the measles even if you've been vaccinated?
Lots of questions like that, so stick around.
Press a few buttons and pop!
An instant healthy snack.
Or is it?
More additives, more chemicals, more stuff.
Is there a microwave popcorn cover-up?
And the extremely candid Bizzy Phillips gets her very own house call.
I'm going to have my doctor Oz and I'm going to ask you questions all the time.
Plus, it's the dish on Oz.
This week, the Best Beptover Makeover.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
So when I came in contact with the Regals, I started having running nose, a fever, a very severe cough that would not go away.
I woke up at night and I was struggling to breathe.
So I went into a coma for nine months.
Came out of the coma.
They told my parents, look, she is probably not going to be able to move.
She's not going to be able to speak.
I lost hearing.
I lost my vision.
My speech, I had to go through many, many years to take speech therapy.
But here I am, 30 years later, I am here to tell my story, you know, that the measles is deadly.
We're back investigating the recent resurgence of one of the most contagious diseases out there, measles.
Now, that woman we were just hearing from, we don't know this for sure, but you're saying that loss of hearing is a pretty common complication.
It's a very common complication of measles.
So, obviously, if you can't hear, you can't speak, and so it takes a while to do them both together.
So, it's back from the brink of extinction and causing outbreaks all around the country.
Dr. Lipkin is here to answer your urgent questions about measles vaccinations.
I'm going to start with a question I've been getting asked a lot.
If you have been vaccinated already as a child, do you have to get vaccinated again?
Can you still get the measles, despite the fact that you were vaccinated all those years ago?
If you receive both vaccines, the starter and the booster, you have 97% protection.
So it's still possible that you could get measles, but it's very, very unlikely.
Throughout your whole life, even when you're older.
It's lifelong immunity.
All right.
So since the outbreak of the measles, and the vaccines, of course, have been increasing dramatically, 500% in some affected areas.
But there are still some people who have not gotten it.
So let's talk to our audience.
Krista has been vaccinated with the measles vaccine, but you still got a question for us.
Yes, so do I need to get the booster dose again as an adult since I've already had it as a child?
Well, if you've had both doses of the vaccine, then you're as protected as you're going to be.
If you only had one dose, then it's advisable to have a second dose.
But I can see that you're expecting...
And if you're pregnant, you should not have this vaccine.
Okay.
You should wait until after you have the child, and then you should have the vaccine.
What if you're not sure if you've been vaccinated?
Then you get it.
That's correct.
If you can't find any record to indicate that you've been vaccinated twice, you've received the first dose and the booster, then you should take the vaccine.
Okay.
Maria's got a question for us.
If my kid is too young for the second dose, should I be worried?
So they got the first dose already when they were at 15 months old or so, right?
Then now you're between that and school age, which is when you get second dose normally.
What do you do?
You can have the second dose of the vaccine as soon as four weeks after the first dose.
So if this really is a major concern for you, you're going abroad, you're concerned that the child may be exposed, you can get that second dose of vaccine.
Some worry about the safety vaccines.
What are the risks?
There's risk with anything we do, whether you take aspirin or an antibiotic.
But the risk, as you've seen, with measles is so extreme that the risk-benefit ratio makes sense.
We have saved 20 million lives since we've started using the measles vaccine.
Some people are concerned that this vaccine, the MMR vaccine, may cause autism.
We and others have looked into this in detail and we found no evidence that that's the case.
Thank you for answering our questions and for all of you for being earnest about this.
If the measles could come back to the brink of extinction, what other diseases do we need to watch out for?
The virus hunter's health threat forecast is next.
What you need to do to protect yourself.
Stay with us.
Press a few buttons and pop.
An instant healthy snack.
Or is it?
More additives, more chemicals, more stuff.
Is there a microwave popcorn cover-up?
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
We are back investigating highly contagious infectious diseases that are making a troubling comeback.
If cases of measles are spreading, well, then what's next?
The virus hunter, Dr. Ian Lipkin, is back with the health threat forecast that you need to know about right now.
How can you protect yourself against some of the most highly contagious diseases, right, that have caused sickness and they have caused death each year?
The first health threat to watch out for is shingles.
Now, this is an infection that's caused by the same pathogen, same virus that causes chickenpox.
What do we need to know about it?
So if you're infected with chickenpox as a child, the virus lies dormant.
It goes into the nervous system, it lives there, it waits, and at various points it can resurface and cause disease.
A third of people who've had chickenpox will have an episode of what's called shingles at some point during their lifetime.
It's most common.
A third.
A third.
It's most common at the age of 60.
And it can be a severe problem.
So many people with shingles, up to a third, will have this syndrome called post-herpetic neuralgia, which means that they have an enormous amount of pain.
It's typically in a band around their chest or around their abdomen in the same place where they had the original rash.
And this can be prevented largely by taking a vaccine.
So there's a very good, very effective vaccine now that will give you 90% protection against having shingles.
So we strongly recommend this for everybody over the age of 60.
And why is it concerning now?
It's just becoming more aware of it.
And we also, for the very first time, have a way in which we can actually prevent people from having this disease.
Now, there are some people who are more at risk for shingles than others.
People who are immunosuppressed because they have cancer or they have an autoimmune disease.
But in our view, everybody over the age of 60 should have this vaccine.
Yeah, that ugly rash we showed you earlier is not the real issue.
It's the pain.
It's the pain that follows the rash.
Because what it does is it causes damage to the nerves.
It actually tracks along the path of the nerves and makes them hypersensitive.
And the pain is really excruciating for many people.
The next health threat that's been popping up all over the, and it's in the headlines right now, is whooping cough.
There are health officials saying that this infectious disease is re-emerging right this second.
Why do they believe that?
Well, one of the things about whooping cough is that we know that we have a very good vaccine to prevent this disorder, but unlike the measles vaccine that we were talking about earlier, you don't get lifelong immunity.
So you really should have boosters for hooping cough every 10 years.
And if you do that, then you have good protection against hooping cough.
So adults can get whooping cough, as Dr. Lippi was saying.
So listen carefully.
This is what it sounds like.
Like a whooping crane, right?
You cough so much, you're having trouble getting air back into your lungs, which could cause other flu-like symptoms.
Pneumonia is an example of a complication that comes from it as well.
So who's most at risk and what can you do to protect yourself?
People, again, who are immunosuppressed, as I said, because of cancer, autoimmune disease, HIV, AIDS, or a whole series of things that can make you more vulnerable to whooping cough.
Again, the best way to protect yourself is to have this vaccine.
And you should do that on a regular basis because, again, you do not get lifelong protection.
Dr. Lippmann, thank you for all you do.
We'll be right back.
You plan all year for that time away.
But what if your next trip turned deadly?
Tourists are extremely vulnerable.
She was found with her throat slashed.
Vacation Nightmares, plus the dark underground world of child labor, all nuise.
That's coming up on Thursday.
Today I want to focus on one of the most neglected areas of your skin.
I'm talking about your scalp.
Now, while you may not notice some of the symptoms of dandruff, like the itchiness, the flakes, the dryness and redness of the moment, could your future proofing of your scalp actually help you prevent problems before they return?
My next guest, scientist Dr. Londa Wilkerson, says yes.
She's here on behalf of my trusted sponsor partner, Head and Shoulders.
So why do people forget to treat their scalp?
Well, Dr. Oz, as you know, our scalp is a part of our skin.
However, most people don't even think about it unless a problem arises.
For many of us, it's an area covered with a lot of hair.
So we have this out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality when it comes to dealing with it.
But taking care of your scalp is so very important because you want to have that right environment, a healthy environment, in order for the healthiest hair to emerge.
Now, just doing damage control on your scalp and your hair is not the best approach, but future-proofing it, preventing issues from happening down the road actually is.
Look very trustworthy.
Be honest now.
Any problems here?
It looks amazing.
My kids criticize me all the time.
That looks okay?
They're telling the truth.
Okay.
They're telling the truth, thank you.
Back-handed praise.
Let me show you why scientists believe it is so important to future-proof your hair.
So if you haven't paid attention to your scalp, come on over here.
Let's get this together.
That is what it may look like.
You see the flakiness over here.
It gets a little crunchy almost, right?
Flaky and dry.
And it may not look as healthy as it needs to be, which means everything else is going to be a little bit awkward as well, including the itchiness that you may sense.
Exactly.
Dr. Wilkers, show us what happens if you use a scalp moisturizing shampoo, something that actually treats the layers of the scalp correctly.
Sure, you're able to effectively moisturize the scalp, and this eliminates the dryness and itchiness and oiliness, essentially enabling you to grow healthy hair.
Now look at this.
This is the kind of hair you want.
That's what you want.
And you want them coming out of a nice bed, right?
A skin that's healthy and plump and looks like it's happy.
It's happy.
It's happy and it's healthy.
This is not itchy and there's not going to be any flaking landing on your shoulders.
Exactly.
All right, so what do you recommend to help future-proof your hair?
Simple, easy plan that everyone can do.
Simple, easy plan.
I'd recommend the Head and Shoulders Deep Moisture Collection.
Now, many people think Head and Shoulders is only for dandruff, but that is not the case.
Head and Shoulders enables you to have a healthy scalp.
It gives you that healthy environment in order for your hair to grow healthy and emerge from the scalp healthy.
Now, our deep moisture conditioner actually moisturizes the scalp and cares for the scalp 10 layers deep.
And that's with regular use.
We have 10 layers of scalp?
Yes.
Do you guys know that?
10 surface layers.
We focus on the outer one that sheds on us.
Exactly, but we should have a regular scalp care so that we're moisturizing it and care for it just like we would our skincare.
Now our shampoo cares for the scalp and moisturizes the scalp 75% better than a leading moisturizing shampoo.
And that's after 16 weeks of regular use in the study that we conducted.
So a nurse scalp plus gorgeous hair, I mean, who doesn't want that?
Everyone wants that, including my next guest, because Jesse James Decker is here on behalf of Head and Shoulders.
And she's joining us via Zoom from her living room where she has already started the future proof of hair.
Jesse, you look wonderful.
Thank you.
How are y'all doing?
Doing well.
Listen, I'm always curious if you can do it.
I'm sure everyone will be impressed because you've got three kids running around.
I know they're quiet at the moment, but what was your hair like?
What was your hair like before this all started?
You know, I have naturally dry skin.
I always have.
Everyone knows it.
And I too never knew that I needed to take care of my scalp the way that I should have.
But as soon as I started using head and shoulders, my scalp feels so much more moisturized.
And I do feel like, I don't know, I just took care of business.
How long did it take for you to notice a difference?
You know, once I started using head and shoulder shampoo and conditioner, I saw immediately a difference.
And I did realize how important like my scalp health was to have beautiful hair.
And, you know, I'm a performer, so I want to showcase pretty hair.
But, you know, now that my scalp is healthy and moisturized, I just keep using head and shoulders a few times a week just to future-proof my scalp against any damage.
Lizzie, I look at that, their beautiful home behind you, and I know that you don't have a lot of time to yourself.
So I'm assuming this is a plan that every woman could use because you can squeeze it into your busy day.
Oh, yeah, you can give yourself a little massage and take care of your scalp in 15 seconds.
Trust me.
All right.
Well, God bless you.
I look forward to seeing you here in the set of soon.
Take care.
Yes, good to see y'all.
So Dr. Wilkerson, how typical are the results that Jesse James Decker is reporting to us?
Her results are very typical.
Head and shoulders protects both the scalp and the hair even before it emerges from the scalp.
That's why we are the only hair care brand to win a skin award.
In fact, we've won four.
The most recent one is an anti-aging award, and that is because of the feature-proofing that our products do for the scalp.
So where do you find the Head and Shoulders Deep Moisture Line?
You can find it at Walmartandwalmart.com.
Now, here's the thing.
You don't have to look for it if you're our audience because thanks to our partner Head and Shoulders, my entire studio audience is going home with Head and Shoulders Deep Moisture Shampoo and the conditioner.
But there's more!
There's more!
And you're also getting a gift card to Walmart, so enjoy it.
We'll be right back.
I love getting to talk with you on my show every single day.
But when the cameras stop rolling, the conversation is not over.
I still have a lot that I want to talk about.
So download the Dr. Ott's podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, an easy hack that you can do to improve your memory.
New research says your nose, your nose can help you remember.
In fact, breathing through your nose, it won't do it together.
Breath through your nose rather than through your mouth may help you recall things easier.
Scent can actually help trigger the brain into remembering.
For example, you remember the smell of fresh baked cookies?
It takes you back to your childhood, right?
Or smell of a flower or your grandparents' house, right?
It seems to stimulate this deep understanding, this memory.
And here's why researchers say the nose knows.
The nose knows because the part of your brain that's involved in smell, right, the olfactory cortex, olfactory gland, it's directly next to the area of the brain, this area right here, that's responsible for memory.
It's known as a hippocampus, right?
And this is really critical because when the brain has two parts that are next to each other, they're doing things, they sort of reinforce each other.
So we like to test things out on the show.
I conducted a social experiment to determine if using your sense of smell can actually help your memory.
We asked five staff members to try and memorize two different grocery store lists, right?
Your shopping lists.
One before smelling peppermint essential oil and a different list afterwards.
And we found 60% scored better on the test after smelling the essential oil.
We also tried this with a member of our audience today, Avery, who's joining us.
Thanks for being here.
So baseline, before you got the lavender spell, we gave you a shopping list with eight items.
And how'd you do?
I didn't do so hot.
I think initially I was like, okay, I got it.
And then I think I only got like maybe four or five of the items.
Well, these are the checks are the four you actually got.
Oh, okay, four.
Okay.
This list is not important because we're going to test you again.
We just gave you some peppermint oil backstage.
Yes.
Right?
You remember what to do now?
I'm going to give you another list.
I'm going to show it to you.
Remember, right, you saw the second list.
Yeah.
Okay.
Audience, here's the second list.
You can see it, but she can't.
Go ahead.
See how you can do.
Okay.
Okay, so.
Is lavender on your fingers?
We put peppermint on my wrist.
Peppermint, yeah.
Oh, good, because lavender will put you to sleep.
Okay.
Peppermint on your wrist, so smell.
All right.
I think it.
Okay, eggs, kale, walnuts, yogurts.
You tied yourself.
Okay.
Blueberries.
Oh, avocados.
And olive oil.
Oh, it's seven out of eight.
It's okay.
Let's put it up here.
Talk close to those.
Put the shopping list up here.
You see it all.
You got seven out of eight.
That's really good.
Do you think the peppermint helped you?
I think it's actually, it's so weird because I think it's actually kind of really soothing, so it makes me like not so anxious about trying to remember something.
Whether the scent helps your mood or your comfort level or actually your memory, if it's working, it's where it is weird.
Things you actually have at your fingertips that we don't use all the time.
I'm very proud of you for doing it.
And if you've got a great memory then, keep it comfortably close to you.
Remember the nose, those, and try to use your sense of smell next time you need to remember something.
The other change is happening.
Our journey is just beginning.
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