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July 4, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
42:41
Black-Market Insulin Exposed & Dollar Store Beauty Test | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 111 | Full Episode
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Time Text
As the cost of medicine skyrockets, people are going to dangerous lengths to get their prescriptions.
That's a real issue for me.
We go undercover into the black market of diabetes medication.
I'm on my way to buy a box of insulin pens.
I really have no idea what I'm walking into.
Plus, dollar store beauty finds.
We'll show you what to award.
Those are red flags.
coming up next.
Season 10 starts now.
What if the medication your life depended on tripled in price seemingly overnight?
There's a lot of anger and desperation as the prices of insulin keep being hiked up, forcing frustrated families across the country to make life or death decisions, including buying insulin on the black market.
Today, an undercover investigation into the black market of diabetes medication.
What are you really buying?
Insulin prices are skyrocketing, some increasing by almost 600% over the last decade.
A vial of this essential life-saving diabetes medicine selling for around $35 in 2001 can now run upwards of $250.
As insulin prices surge, so does the black market, with private individuals illegally reselling insulin.
Online, I see why buying this way is attractive.
Price differences are significant.
The average cost for 100 units of one brand is around $305.
But on a classified ad website, someone was offering it for $100.
I wanted to find out who is doing this and why.
So I began making purchasing arrangements.
I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly.
Most of the time, they only want you to sell on the black market.
I don't want to do that.
I want to sell it to somebody that needs it.
Right off the bat, this supplier started telling me why she had insulin to sell.
I got my prescription, but I also sent in to the basis assistance co-host, and they sent it to a free wild.
Oh.
Throughout, the seller kept talking nervously about the black market.
And as my conversation with this seller continued via email, she became suspicious and the deal was called off.
Two other exchanges by email and text did lead to meeting arrangements.
And the next day, I prepared to go undercover to buy insulin.
I'm on my way to buy a box of insulin pens.
They would normally sell for about $400.
I'm expecting to pay about a quarter of that.
Now, I've only been in touch with the seller online, so I really have no idea what I'm walking into.
I don't know anything about this person.
I don't even know if it's a man or a woman, and that's a little scary.
The seller communicated exclusively through email, telling me to send an email about 20 minutes prior to arriving.
I did, and after 10 minutes, another communication.
It will be a black jacket with orange accents.
Then the seller arrived.
Are you looking for Angela?
Hi.
How are you?
As he rummaged around hunting for the insulin, I asked a critical question.
But are they cold?
They do have a short life for us.
You don't have to go in the fridge all the time.
Okay, but I'm a little too...
Do you mind if I just take a look?
Okay, this is a trip to see you.
The aspiration date is on the bottom of us.
The transaction felt matter of fact, as if the seller had done this countless times before.
He headed out with $125 and I had five insulin pens in a sealed box.
So this is the box that we just bought.
I'm getting a chance to take a look at it.
It is still sealed in original packaging.
A couple things that I'm noticing though, this looks to me like there was a prescription label here.
My guess is that we are buying someone else's prescription medicine.
As night fell, we headed to the next meeting place to wait for another black market insulin dealer.
Are you looking for Angela?
Hi.
This next seller was clearly all business.
Is that just one?
Yeah.
Okay, do you mind if I take a look at the inspiration?
It packages perfectly.
So this is one for you?
Yeah.
I wanted to find out where this insulin was coming from.
Are you getting these from like reputable places?
Okay.
I have to worry about that.
So it's coming like from an army or like I fell off a truck?
Like coffee.
Okay.
Okay.
Great.
Thank you.
Have a good one.
As the dealer left, my big question, is this insulin safe to use?
Up next, our investigation continues.
What did we uncover about the insulin being sold on the black market?
Plus, what can you do to save money on your family's insulin costs?
This best-selling author claims her husband was poisoning her.
Why would your husband want to kill you?
I'm worth a lot more dead than I am alive.
How she foiled his plot.
People are getting poisoned all the time.
They don't know it.
Plus, when hangry leads to violence.
We're not condoning bad behavior, but it is a real medical phenomenon.
All nuance.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Insulin prices are skyrocketing, and as the cost of this life-saving diabetes medicine surges, so does the black market, where private individuals illegally resell insulin.
Well, I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly.
In my investigation, I arranged to buy a box of insulin pens That normally sell for about $400, expecting to pay a quarter of that.
I went undercover with hidden cameras, hoping to find out more about how these black market insulin dealers operate.
I've only been in touch with the seller online, so I really have no idea what I'm walking into.
I don't know anything about this person.
I don't even know if it's a man or a woman, and that's a little scary.
Are you looking for Angela?
Hi.
How are you?
The transaction felt matter of fact, as if the seller had done this countless times before.
So this is the box that we just bought.
I'm getting a chance to take a look at it.
It is still sealed in original packaging.
A couple things that I'm noticing, though, this looks to me like there was a prescription label here.
My guess is that we are buying someone else's prescription medicine.
That was our undercover investigation of black market diabetes drugs.
Join me now, Dr. Carol Levy, who is an endocrinologist at the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center.
It also happens to have diabetes herself.
Also, correspondent Marcia Campo, who did that wonderful undercover investigation.
Thank you.
What surprised you the most as you were dealing with those guys about the black market and diabetes meds?
I was really surprised at how easy this was.
It took us just minutes to find multiple sellers, and we were able to set up buying arrangements immediately.
It frankly would have been harder for a miner to buy alcohol than it was for us to buy insulin on the black market.
And just get the pricing right.
These are the actual items you bought.
Yes.
So you got, you know, this one you said was $125.
$125 for the first one.
And you can actually, even, you know, the prescription was ripped off here, but you can see the actual price is here.
It says $391.
$391.
So that's what the pharmacy is supposed to sell it for.
We got it for $125.
That's a significant savings.
And as you did your research under the undercover market, there were some dangerous things you identified.
You highlighted one when you started pushing that guy about how it was stored.
What were the red flags?
Yeah, as you well know, how insulin is stored is a very big deal.
When he showed up, he had this underneath a garden hose in his backpack.
And I asked him about the temperature because there was no cooler, no ice pack inside.
He says, don't worry, it's been in the freezer.
Dr. Oz, it says on the box, do not freeze.
Yeah.
I'm going to show this here.
She says that literally on this box right here, do not freeze.
The instructions for handling.
And this is a life-saving medicine, so it's scary to think that people are relying on sources like this as their supplier.
This isn't magic fluid, guys.
This is insulin.
It's got to be treated the right way.
Dr. Levy, what happens if you freeze this insulin?
Yeah, so it loses its potency and effectively is no longer effective.
So someone might, if they purchase pre-frozen insulin, have insulin that is no longer effective and they've just paid $125 for it.
Explain to everyone what does that mean?
So for someone with diabetes who does not take their insulin appropriately or is not using effective insulin, what can occur are very elevated blood sugars.
For some people with type 2 diabetes, which is the adult type of diabetes, that could be a few weeks and they'd be in real trouble, severely high blood sugars at a point where they'd need to go into emergency room.
For someone who requires insulin to stay alive, that could mean within a week that person could be in the emergency room and possibly die.
So freezing is one way you might end up in this not even realizing that this stuff doesn't work.
What are the other risks you worry about as an endocrinologist if I buy insulin in the black market?
Because I am going to save two-thirds of my money, maybe more.
Right.
So the concerns are several fold.
Number one, you were a very careful consumer when you went in there to purchase this, but people could sell the wrong type of insulin to a patient.
For example, certain brands of insulin come in a regular version, a mixed version, with different diluents and different features of it.
So what does that mean is you might think you're buying a certain insulin, but you're actually buying a different one, which could be very dangerous for you to utilize if you were using the wrong one.
Now you have your insulin pump, I just noticed, as you walked in here.
Yes, that is correct.
Is there anything that would ever get you to buy a black market insulin?
So that's a really interesting question.
The answer is, I have health insurance right now.
So the chances are that I could have a prescription covered by my insurance.
This is a fear that I always have.
What if we lose our insurance?
What if I don't have a way to get insulin?
And of course, if I had to, I would buy insulin on the black market if there was no other way for me to afford it or get it.
But there were grave concerns about that.
So I wanted to have an audience full of people who had bought their insulin on the black market.
I probably could have filled the audience, but you know what?
It's illegal to purchase prescription medications from an unauthorized dealer.
So I couldn't invite you because you would have been breaking the law by admitting that.
However, price gouging is not illegal.
I have learned.
Up next, why is the price of insulin so high?
investigate what's really going on.
Comedian Jay Leo pays us a house call.
They've recently found that laughter is not the best medicine.
In fact, it doesn't work at all.
But get serious about his own health.
High cholesterol just hits you.
You don't know.
As much as Jay can, anyway.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
My son was diagnosed with diabetes three years ago.
Since then, we have lost our homes.
We've had to move out of state.
We've had cars repossessed.
We've had to choose whether we eat or if we buy his life-saving medication.
Because of the high cost of insulin, we're forced to share my insulin prescription to try to keep us both healthy.
Having to choose between keeping your child alive and paying the bills is an absolutely heartbreaking decision.
But it's not like we have a choice because without insulin, my diabetic 12-year-old daughter will most certainly die.
Now the price of insulin is steadily rising, right?
It's increasing.
Price gouging is not illegal, but buying insulin on the black market is.
Keep that in mind.
Now there have been protests over the skyrocketing prices of insulin and Washington is starting to investigate.
Just recently they grilled pharmaceutical companies about the high cost.
And the big question I want to know about insulin is why is a medication that has been around for almost 100 years not gone down in price?
Well you think that would happen after 100 years?
Instead, it seems like the opposite.
The prices actually have gone up.
Mars Gavacampo, who's been investigating this, is back.
The cost of insulin, it seems like it's doubled.
That's the number that I've been seeing, doubled in five years.
What's really behind the rising costs?
Yeah, there are a few things that are going on.
So, first is that there are only three companies in the United States that make insulin and they can set the price, and there are no limits and there's no regulation on what that price is or how high it can go.
The other thing is insurance policies.
We have wildly different insurance policies in this country.
So, if you're someone with diabetes with a very high deductible, you have to pay out of pocket until you reach that deductible.
And even then, the insurance company may only pay a portion of the cost of the drug.
So, the consumer is really bearing a lot of these costs.
Just a couple things here.
First of all, it's a very complicated relationship between the different people in the healthcare field.
Maybe for a reason, because it makes it complicated for us to follow.
But in fact, according to a recent study, insurance copays are higher than the actual cost of the drug 25% of the time.
You need to ask.
You pay the copay, it might actually be being more than what the actual drug would cost on its own.
And the pharmaceutical companies are blaming the insurance companies.
So they're going back and forth.
And that lack of transparency has allowed a lot of behind-the-closed-door deals.
What are these?
These worry me a lot.
Yeah, so there's essentially a negotiation that's going on between the drug manufacturer, the pharmacy benefit manager, and the pharmacies about the price.
But all of that is shrouded in mystery.
The consumer is kept in the dark.
They have no idea why they're being charged, what they're being charged, or how they came up with those prices.
There's a lack of transparency here.
That's why the show is important, because if you understand, you can get upset at the right people.
And once they know you're onto them, people start reacting.
So Dr. Levi, you have type 1 diabetes.
Correct.
You take care of people with diabetes, which makes you especially good at answering this question.
What worries you the most about the rising, the seeming rising cost of insulin?
Yeah, so it becomes the cost, can patients afford to pay for the medication that they need to stay alive.
That's my biggest concern.
The secondary concern I have is that if people can't afford it, they start rationing it.
They say, okay, which is better than not taking it, but if you start to ration it, that means you take half of your appropriate dose of medication.
That leads to longer-term risks, complications of diabetes, eye disease, kidney disease, nerve damage.
You think about every problem that someone could have diabetes related, they're setting themselves up for that.
So it's very scary.
We reached out to the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of America, and they realize that there's a problem.
And they aggressively dispute that the high prices are because of them.
They told us there's a, I'm quoting them, robust competition, so they provide discounts and rebates on insulin, but listen carefully, those rebates are not being passed along to the patients.
They said in part, unfortunately, patients typically do not benefit from the fruits of the competitive marketplace because the price they pay at the pharmacy, set by their insurer, is tied to the undiscounted list price.
They go on to say this is because middlemen are gaining a profit by including these medicines and health plan deductibles that would expose patients to undiscounted prices.
Lots of things going on here, guys.
If they're giving little discounts to make prices affordable for consumers and consumers aren't getting it and someone's pocketing a difference, that's a real issue for me.
And the fact that you don't understand the system is not an accident.
You don't understand for a reason because they don't want you to understand.
Because if you don't understand it, you can't fix it.
So this is a good opportunity for us because it's not just insulin here, it's a lot of the drugs that are potentially saving or changing your lives.
Dr. Levy, when someone is in your office talking to you about this stuff and you know they cannot afford insulin, what do you tell them?
Yeah, so there are some alternatives to offer.
There's one foundation called Insulin for Life, and they do provide for people in need options for insulin that's well prepared, well stored, that people can reach out for.
The other opportunities are alternative or older insulins, ones that are not routinely used nowadays, which one can still purchase in various pharmacies for about $25 a bile.
They're not old.
Yeah.
They're not ancient.
They were invented a while back.
Yeah, they were invented longer ago than the current insulins that are the most in vogue and utilized the most.
So there are alternatives, but those have to be carefully managed under the supervision of a physician because there are dose differences.
If you were to switch and say, okay, I can't afford this, you need someone to guide you how to switch from insulin A to insulin B in a safe fashion.
There are companies, including my trusted sponsorship partners, ShareCare, that have an app which allows you to compare insulin prices in your area's pharmacies.
You may be able to find a better deal.
Educate yourself.
Maura, nice job.
Going undercover.
Dr. Levy.
Listen, if we don't fix the problem of rising insulin costs, we're going to have more dangers of people buying frozen or ineffective insulin.
If you're taking insulin, ask your doc if you can use one of the older, cheaper types.
They can be just as effective without risking your life buying insulin on the black market.
It is not worth it.
We'll be right back.
Up next, we investigate what's really in beauty products you buy at the dollar store.
Is it a true beauty bargain?
Hello, Dr. Oz.
It's Dr. Whitney.
I'm here in New York City.
I'm actually at a dollar store and I'm doing a little investigation.
I'm looking at different beauty products for the skin, the hair, the nails.
I want to see which ones are safe to get and which ones may not be worth the bargain.
We certainly don't want to put our health at risk.
So I'm loading up my basket here and I will let you know what I find.
Today we're investigating dollar store beauty products.
Joe Montologist Whitney Bo is here with what she's uncovered.
I never knew there were so many beauty products in these dollar stores.
How many products can there be for hair and skin in a dollar store?
I found a surprisingly large variety of beauty products at the dollar store.
I found products ranging from eyeshadow to makeup remover.
There was hair dye, shampoo, there was body lotion, shaving cream.
I even found face masks.
So how does a dollar store actually do that?
These products are sort of expensive in general.
How can you get it to a dollar?
Is it really a dollar?
As you might suspect, first of all, some of them are made on the cheap.
You know, some of them are made using maybe not the highest quality ingredients, right?
But there are a few gems if you know what to look for.
And that's an excellent point.
You know, when I was looking around the dollar store, not everything costs a dollar.
You know, some of them range all the way up to $4,599.
But I think in general, the way that these stores are able to keep the prices so low is that they're basically stocking up on brands that don't have that name recognition, right?
So you're not paying for that brand name and you're not paying for the marketing campaign behind that very well-recognized brand name.
But you're also not getting the trust, which is why I'm curious.
Because I thought there are probably some things that are worth getting, some that are not.
So we look at all the dollar store beauty products and Dr. Bo is going to tell us if they're a pick or a pass.
So you can still take advantage of these deals.
My go-to test, Renatha, is here to try out the first item, which is trending all over the internet.
Hello, hello.
These are these beauty blending sponges.
I'll admit this, Ranatha, I don't actually get a lot of hair makeup.
At least in my life, I hadn't until I started the show.
Now 10 years later, I'm getting a little better at it.
But I see some artists using these little bungals.
I thought they were cool little toys initially.
Then they started putting their toys on my face.
So have you used these before?
Well, yeah, I mean, these are all the raids when you want to get that makeup on right.
So these can be pretty pricey in regular stores.
Yeah, they can cost up to $25 at certain beauty stores.
So looking here, we're not telling you, Renata, which one is the $25 one versus which one's the dollar one at the dollar store.
But if you're looking, I mean, quite honestly, it's almost impossible to tell them apart, right?
They both have very similar shapes.
You want to take that one?
You can take that one.
I'll give you that one.
They have very similar shapes.
You know, they're made of very similar.
Feel the material.
Very similar material to give you that flawless finish that you're looking for, right?
So yeah, first you want to get them wet.
So you want to do it with me?
Yeah.
So we'll get them.
You're supposed to wet them first?
You want to wet them first, and then you give it a good squeeze.
So you want to get it damp.
And then what you do is you take, so it's got two different ends, right?
Take the wider or broader end.
You want to dab it in the foundation there.
And then you're going to, instead of using the way that you would use your fingers or a brush, you sort of wipe this, you want to press the makeup into the skin.
So is it okay if I demo and you're going to go, okay, you got to get your hair.
Don't get too high now.
What you want to do is you want to use like a bouncing, a tapping, a dabbing motion to actually press that makeup into the skin.
Punching motion.
I like that idea.
A punching motion.
I didn't say punching.
She's like a sister.
I don't remember that.
Let me get you.
Let me get you on.
You can use that skimbered side.
She did that on purpose.
And what's the pointed part for?
It shouldn't be dangerous.
So yeah, so the pointed part gets into those hard to reach places like the sides of your nose or underneath your eye.
Yeah, you want to get in the corners.
Ah, sharp.
Exactly.
No, it's not.
I'm not hurting you right there.
Yeah.
All right, so both and someone who applied them to yourself, you just compared these two.
Which one do you think is better?
Is there a difference, first of all?
Yeah, the purple and the green one.
But these are the same company, and this is one.
So which is which?
So this is the $25 and that is the dollar.
Oh.
Oh, I like those.
Oh, that's a problem.
So the beauty blending sponge is a pick.
It's a pick.
Absolutely.
Nice job.
That'll save some money.
$25 versus one.
Of course, that's a fine.
Exactly.
Now, next, how about these dollar store face masks?
I've been seeing these things.
They're huge trend as you know.
I was in an airport.
I saw a lady walking around the airport with one.
But they've been in grocery stores, planes.
Actually, these are real pictures posted about.
So, Dave, what do you think about these?
What ingredients do you find?
Well, so in the masks that I found at the dollar store, they actually contained an ingredient that was named allergen of the year in 2004 because it caused so many cases of skin inflammation and irritation.
So the name of the ingredient is Cocometopropylbutaine.
You say that.
Say it three times.
Oh, I got it.
Cocometoprolbutaine.
Oh my gosh, she actually got that.
I'm in my algae.
It's a pasta.
So I have to get it.
That was amazing.
So cocametopropybutaine is a detergent.
So it's what sort of gives like body lotions or body washes or shampoos that sort of foamy, rich, bubbly lather.
And unfortunately, in this mask, Cocometo Propylbutaine was listed as the third ingredient on the ingredient list.
So it's in there in a pretty high concentration.
So for me guys, those are red flags.
Right.
So this is, the dollar store face masks, they're a pass because you got to be sure that what's in there is what you want to have in your face.
No cocomito propylbatain.
Okay.
No.
God, that wouldn't.
Gosh, I wouldn't do it.
I love show-offs.
I just made tests.
I had three years of residency to get that down check.
All that tuition.
I wasted four years of med school for nothing.
Dollar Store Foundation.
Is it a pick or a pass?
Radar, thoughts on this.
Would you try a foundation that you bought at a dollar store?
No.
To think that the dollar store might have something that's good enough to go all over this space, okay?
And not irritate.
A million dollars.
Exactly.
Hello.
So, Dr. Winnie, you examined this.
I did.
I took a look at all of these.
And, you know, as a dermatologist, I'm trained to sort of look at the ingredients, you know, which ones are going to clog pores.
Unfortunately, your instincts were correct, Ranatha.
Even more worrisome than that, is it possible that this bottle is sitting in a hot warehouse somewhere, you know, for days or weeks?
And if so, it can turn this bottle into a petri dish and grow up a whole bunch of germs.
So yeah, I would say that.
First of all, come over here.
I made a little illustration to make sure this really sinks in for everybody.
So I made you all a massive bottle of foundation.
There it is, your foundation, right?
Now, in some cases, you pointed out it could be sitting in a warm warehouse for we don't know how long.
And over time, what happens is the combination of the warmth plus the liquid base of the foundation can provide a perfect breeding ground for bacteria.
And those purpley bacteria grow in there.
You can't tell.
Some of them might irritate you, some you can get away with, but why take a chance at something that's Renato said, if you've got million dollar faces, don't put a cheap foundation on there.
So the Dollar Store Foundation is a pass.
Not a pick, a pass.
Coming up, the Dollar Store beauty bargains that makeup artists and dermatologists like I could most spare by, right?
You love these things.
They can be spilling their secrets.
Stick around.
Thanks for that.
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. Odd podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
We are back investigating dollar store beauty products.
I asked makeup artists and dermatologists to spill their ultimate beauty secrets that you can buy at the dollar store.
Dermatologist Whitney Bow is back along with my go-to tester.
Your first dollar store beauty secret to stock up on is shimmering eyeshadow.
Why do you like the shimmering eyeshadow at dollar stores?
I love shimmering eyeshadow at a dollar store because you can easily transform it into a shimmering body lotion.
So it's great for that girl's night out.
If you just want a little extra sparkle, a little extra glow.
And if you go online or you go to the department store, you know, shimmering body oils, shimmering body lotions, they can range from $20 to $50 for a small tube.
So this is such a great way to save a couple bucks.
So how do we make it?
What do you think?
So easy.
So what you want to do is you want to start with your favorite lotion.
Take a couple pumps, put that into a jar.
You know, I'm using a glass jar here.
And then this is why you don't want to spend a lot of money on the shimmering eyeshadow part.
You're going to take that eyeshadow.
You can either use bronze, you can use like a pearly white, depending on if you're going for sort of like a bronzy glow or a little bit of a highlight or shimmer.
And what you do is you take a fork and make sure you got a piece of paper under your skin.
But you're putting it on your skin.
So wait, wait.
The first step is you're going to collect, you're going to break down some of those particles.
Kind of collect them onto your piece of paper.
And then you use that like a funnel.
And you basically collect it.
And then you get it into your lotion.
Stir that around.
We actually pre-mixed two different ones for you so you can try it out.
And you basically then just apply that to your arms, your legs.
You can put some on your cheekbone as a little highlighter.
Soft collarbone.
When you mix it in the very subtle glow.
It gives you a subtle shimmer.
Now, I wouldn't use Dollar Store eyeshadow on my face every day, right?
But once a month for that special night out, if you want to have that beautiful shimmering body.
I'm shimmering.
Very, I'm shimmering.
They're a shuttle.
What do you think?
Nice one.
This is awesome.
Right?
Isn't this great?
Let me tell you why.
If I want to fake a beach photo shoot, this is what I need right here.
Some body shimmering from the dollar storm.
Instead of spending $50.
Exactly.
It's in.
It's in.
All right.
Next tip comes for the makeup artist who does the gland for Beyonce and the Kardashians.
Take a look.
Hey guys, I'm here to share with you a couple of dollars for beauty products that are a must to stock up on.
The first one is hair conditioner.
Hair conditioner is a great alternative to shaving clean if you're ever in a pinch.
What you want to do is pour out the conditioner, lather on your legs, and shave like normal.
It is a great beauty bargain that will leave your legs feeling soft and smooth.
Okay, next, if you're looking to moisturize and give your lips a little bit of color, get yourself some Dollshoe Chapstick and make an awesome lip tip.
What I personally like to do is get a makeup palette like so, and I've crushed my favorite blush.
And here's a Dollasto Chapstick, which I mixed both of them in the middle.
I plied it with the back of my finger.
And as you can tell, I have a nice flush of color that looks natural, and it's so inexpensive.
The next beauty bargain can give you a five-minute manicure.
Five minutes, they're called nail stickers.
Why do you like these more than those gel manicures?
I see everyone using these days.
I mean, I know why gel manicures are so popular, right?
They give you that durability, that long-lasting wear, and they give you that incredible shine.
But my patients who do gel manicure after gel manicure, you know, eventually your nails are thin and they're weak and they're brittle.
So I say, you gotta take a nail salon holiday.
You gotta take a break.
But most of my patients don't wanna go without some kind of, you know, bling, some kind of polish.
So nail stickers or little decals, so much fun, a great alternative.
Okay.
Are they tattoos?
What are they?
How do they work?
Yeah, so what you do is first you want to take, you want to just take like some scissors and you just cut around the way that, see how these are cut into little, little, you don't have to worry about getting it perfectly around there because you're going to be putting it in water anyway.
They come with this little plastic sort of coating on top, so you want to take that off.
You can use some tweezers if you want to get a little extra fine motor control, Dr. Oz.
And then the sticker here, so if you guys see my little sticker here, what I'm going to do is I'm going to wave this in the water because you want to get it really wet.
So that's the trick.
And all these, these stickers work differently.
Some of them do work more like temporary tattoos.
These, the best way to do these is you get them really, really wet.
And then you want to take your finger, do this with me, Renata.
Let's see if we can do it.
And you want to try to actually press them and glide them off.
So I don't know if you can see that.
Mine came right off.
And then you want to press it onto a clean, dry nail.
So here's where your tweezers might come in if you're not able to get.
And can you guys see that on my nail?
Yes!
So then...
Oh, fabulous.
That's easy.
Very simple.
What do you mean?
Saying cheers with our little nail stickers.
Amazing.
I love it.
I love this because I'm not one to actually wear nail polish.
Yeah.
But to do these stickers every now and then all my fingers without having to, you know, get chipped because of the nail polish.
Exactly.
This is awesome.
I like it.
It's so much fun.
Yeah.
I got to say, I'm going to start wearing these.
I like these.
I'm going to impress my daughters.
Gosh, thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
Yeah.
Yeah!
Yeah, yeah.
Comedian Jay Leno pays us a house call.
Laughter is not the best medicine.
In fact, it doesn't work at all.
But Jay's serious about his own health.
High cholesterol just hits you.
You don't know.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
We're back with three awesome medicine cabinet hacks that you can use right now.
These are tried and tested by one of our favorite bloggers from our bike club.
Please welcome Jay.
Do all your friends here come to you with home remedies?
They do.
I'm like everybody's mama.
Like I was raised by this southern black lady and my grandmother was awesome.
I'm like Nana Remix, okay?
So why do you love witch hazel so much?
I love witch hazel because it's something that everybody has.
It's something everyone knows how to use.
It's super cheap and like why not?
Like we need to use this.
So show me a hack that you've been talking about and I've been hearing about with regard to makeup.
Yeah.
So you know I'm 34 but I need to make sure.
Thank you.
But I have to make sure that I'm able to maintain this face.
So when I'm using this I always use two tablespoons of water, two tablespoons of olive Oil.
I like olive oil better just than any other oil because it's natural.
You can use it on your skin, you can use it in your hair.
It's like, look at this.
You see this glow?
I do like the glow.
Nice, right?
And then the two tablespoons of the witch hazel.
So you're just gonna mix it up.
So you're making a makeup remover for me?
Absolutely.
This is something that you will buy in a store and it's actually gonna be like 30-40 bucks.
These ingredients probably cost you three bucks.
It seems too good to be true, doesn't it?
You save all that kind of money.
Do you mind if I just verify here?
Please.
All right, so I got a little bit here.
Who's interested in trying this out?
Here we go.
Oh, I got some here.
One second.
I got a victim right over here.
Here.
Somebody's brave enough to take their makeup off on National Television here.
Hi, what's your name?
Hi, I'm Bianca.
Are you a believer in this idea you think might work?
Oh, I'm up to giving it a go, so why not?
Where are you from?
I'm with Australia.
You're from Australia?
Yes, I'm from Australia.
All the way just to see you.
The show airs in, it's in 100 countries, but it's in Australia, and I go there all the time.
It's so good to have you here.
Next time come visit.
I will, I will.
Thank you for having me.
We're actually on our honeymoon.
You're on your honeymoon!
That is so cool!
You have very good taste in women.
Congratulations.
Alright, so here, I'm going to get your mind?
Yeah, you go.
So I'm going to, you are brave for allowing this to happen on television.
So I'm just taking your makeup off.
I couldn't even tell you had any on, by the way, you didn't.
Oh, yeah, they come off.
Look, look, you see?
Oh, yeah, there's a bit there.
Actually, come up over here.
Both of you come down.
Now, show your cheek to that camera.
I think it's a very, it's smooth, it's clean.
And look, makeup came off with no problems.
You know, you have big plans for your honeymoon?
Well, we've been to Greece and then obviously to New York, and then we're going to finish up with Disneyland.
Well, New York City, city I love dearly, needs to have you touring around looking your best.
So if it's okay with you, I'll send you down with my glam squad.
You look elegant and attractive as always.
In fact, you can drag down your new bow.
Are you interested in hair and makeup?
I'll give it a go.
Give it a go.
And you know what?
After that, you're dinner on us.
We'll send you to the next restaurant in the area.
Yep.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
You're so much.
So proud of you.
Oh, my goodness.
I love honeymoons.
I don't know about you guys.
Part of the reason I love the covenant of marriage is it's the best thing I ever did in my life, Jay.
Without question, nothing living close.
Yeah?
That's beautiful.
I'm glad to hear that.
I'm sure.
You're going to get you there too.
That's part of the show.
It shows a dating service, by the way.
Oh, I need a man, so let me know.
We can put that on my blog, too.
Find Jay a man.
That's true.
After I watched on Facebook with the witch Hel.
Yeah, one more little hack for us.
Yeah.
Which is to have to do with pimples.
And this is actually putting aspirin on a pimple, which I know works.
Yeah.
Because I've heard about it, but I've not seen it actually done.
So please demo.
Yeah.
So, again, my grandmother, she showed me these things.
When I was young, I had, you know, a couple little blemishes, a little bit.
But I remember I had this one fashion show, and I was so excited to be a part of it.
And she was like, she was like, oh, you were going to dress you up.
You're going to wear heels, you know, da-da-da.
And I'm like, oh my God, Nana, I have a pimple on my face.
What am I going to do?
I can't walk in a fashion show with this, huge thing on my face.
She was like, girl, get some aspirin.
It'll be fine.
I'm like, what am I going to do with some aspirin?
She's like, oh, just crush it up, put it in a little powder.
You can take it like this with your spoon.
Yeah.
So then we're going to put it right between the two spoons and then just crush it up.
And it's like not even that messy.
If I can crush it.
That's what I do.
I think it's right in the spoon, mesh it up like that.
And then what is this here?
Just water?
So yeah, so we'll put just a couple drops of water in it and we want to make it into a nice little paste.
So then we'll mix it up and then literally put it right on your skin.
That's it.
And you just leave it on the spot for at least 10 minutes.
You don't want to put it any longer than that because then it'll dry out and you have a whole other problem.
Did you see this hot?
It's a taste there.
See guys?
You can go carefully.
And the nice thing is it's an anti-inflammatory.
It is.
It's going to reduce the redness around the pimple and make up the pimple.
Yeah.
I like this.
I love it.
Nice job.
Thank you.
One more surprise for everybody.
We have bonus hats at Dr.Oz.com, but before we go to break is one more hack that I really like a lot.
We have been using Band-Aids Wrong our entire lives.
Watch this.
is going to change yours.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This best-selling author claims her husband was poisoning her.
I'm worth a lot more dead than I am alive.
How she foiled his plot.
People are getting poisoned all the time.
They don't know it.
All nuance.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Thank you.
Today, big news, in fact, breaking news about your heart.
Is open heart surgery becoming a thing of the past?
Well, we all know someone's had that kind of invasive surgery with the big cut in their front.
It's made with a device like this that we use as heart surgeons to saw open the ribs and expose the heart.
I grew up doing this.
It's pretty invasive.
But a big new study shows there may be a safer, easier way to treat one of the most common and serious conditions that can affect the valves of the heart.
And guess what?
Two and a half million people in the U.S. have this problem right now.
It's called aortic stenosis.
And here's what it looks like.
There's the heart, right, pounding away, and there's this big tube coming out of it that carries blood to the rest of the bio, the brain, and the other organs.
Inside the heart, the blood goes back and forth across this valve.
But this valve, which is importantly regulating the blood, when you look at it from above, opens up like a Mercedes-Benz sign.
But if it gets stenotic, if it gets scarred in like this and get little pieces of calcium on it, it can't work.
So it makes it harder for the heart to push the blood out to your vital organs.
You get symptoms when this happens because the heart's backing up.
You start to faint because no blood's going to your brain.
You get shortness of breath.
The blood backs up in your lungs.
And when it's severe, it can cause life-threatening issues.
So about two decades ago, two innovative engineers, two cardiologists, had an idea.
What if you could fix this problem with only making a small incision in the groin and replace this valve with a catheter instead of using that saw that I used earlier?
They asked me to help design the device, and now a new clinical trial, all these years later, suggests that this treatment, now it's called TAVR, T-A-V-R, may become the best option for everyone.
And I want to introduce you to my friend, Dr. Marty Leon.
Martin actually, he helped lead the development of the device and the TAVR trial with Michael Mack and some great engineers, both named STEN, by the way, the STENS.
So, show everyone how this works and how much effort it took to make this happen.
So, you basically make a little cut in the groin, and there's the catheter.
The catheter goes up, we snake the catheter across the aorta, then we cross the old valve here, the diseased valve, and then we expand the new valve.
And you can see the new valve has expanded, and now it works like a normal valve.
And looking at it from above, you'll notice I showed earlier how it got scarred in, now it's working normally.
And one big idea here, which actually very young doctors share with us, was you don't have to take the old valve out.
You can just actually push the old valve to the side.
It's like mortar, right?
Actually holds our new valve in place.
So give us the summary of the results.
This was front-page news everywhere around the world.
So this device, this technique, was originally going to be used only for the patients who are very high risk for surgery.
What we did was now the fifth randomized trial, but it's in low surgical risk patients, which is the majority of patients with aortic stenosis.
What we learned was that after a year of following these patients, there's a thousand patients in this clinical trial, you compare surgery versus TAR, we learned that there was about a 50% reduction in death, stroke, and rehospitalization at the end of a year.
If you use the catheter system, the less invasive system, so it's the best of both worlds.
Exactly.
Less invasive seems to work maybe even better.
And listen, we don't have outcome past the year really.
In general, you don't have to wait 15 years to see if these valves will last as long as the old-fashioned ones, but this is really good news for a lot of you.
So come on over here.
Mercy's joining us.
She was part of the clinical trial, and you are brave to have done this.
Let me hand that to you.
That's what your valve looked like.
So what do you think?
It's amazing.
I never saw it.
It's in there.
This is actually, Dr. Leotomi, the exact same one you have in your body.
What was it like being randomized in the trial?
It was wonderful.
I didn't know until three days before that I was going to be chosen or picked.
And so I'm delighted because I had a friend that had coronary disease and she had open-heart surgery and she has not been the same since.
She's had complications.
Mine was a wonderful experience.
Well, as a surgeon, I've always believed part of my job coming over was to put myself out of business.
The status quo wasn't good enough.
You want marshes of the world bragging to their friends about how well they're doing.
So I've got all these young people, doctors, nurses, this is one of my partners, by the way, Isaac George, working together to make these advances a reality.
And my colleagues at the hospital, yes, you should think, because it's the young folks that are changing medicine.
Advances so quick, we barely keep up with it.
Marty and I, with our graying hair and years of work, it only handed the baton off, but it makes a huge difference because the bodies don't change, but technologies do.
So I want to congratulate all of you very much from the bottom of my heart for making this all possible.
And congratulations to you, Marty, for never giving up and being consistent, having a lot of grit.
Congrats to you as well.
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