Dr Oz

Doctor Oz was joined by Dean Ornish, author of The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease, to teach us how to reverse heart disease.  Pam, a surgical nurse, lost 80 pounds and decreased her cholesterol dramatically by following the following diet and by running 3 miles a day.  Pam used to be tired all of the time, had chest pains and could not walk up 10 stairs without taking a break.  If you have heart disease, try this one month life saving food plan!  You want 70-75% of your diet to be complex carbs, 15%-20% of your diet to be protein, and only 10% of your diet to be fat… this means no fatty meat proteins!

Heart Disease Reversal Diet in 28 Days:

1.  For breakfast, have oatmeal with dried fruits, cinnamon and skim milk.  Pam also has a glass of vegetable juice.

2.  For a mid-morning snack, try a non fat granola bar, fruit such as a banana and a cup of green tea (notice that there is no fat).

3.  For lunch, you can have a terriyaki vegetable stir fry with brown rice.  Or you can have a whole wheat roll with a salad topped with edamame, beans, and no fat raspberry salad dressing.  Dr. Oz said you can have lots of fruits and vegetables, but no more steak, eggs and butter.  There was another man on Dr. Oz’s show who was on the list for a heart transplant – he could not walk, have sex or even shower without pain – now (over 20 years later), he is much healthier and has a good heart!

4.  For dinner, try tacos with brown rice, beans, mango salsa and low fat or fat free cheese and sour cream.

5.  For your after dinner snack, try hummus which has garlic, hot sauce and lemon juice with some vegetable sticks.  I was surprised that Dr. Oz would encourage an after dinner snack instead of a mid-afternoon snack, since he usually says not to eat at night – but you can always move this snack up to a mid-afternoon snack instead of an after dinner snack.

Doctor Oz did a segment on secret signs your body is telling you, because sometimes your body could be telling you very helpful clues well before you develop a disease.  This Dr. Oz show was a must see (or at least a must read), so send this article to all of your friends and family! Dr. Kimberly Manning from Emory School of Medication also joined Dr. Oz to help us learn about the secret signs our bodies are telling us.

Everyone can tell when they feel tired or are starting to get a cold, but just like our body gives us hints about these topics, our body gives us signs of much more serious diseases too.  Here are 4 secret body signals to keep our eyes on…

1.  Your Height

A study done by the National Academy of Sciences showed that if you are under 5′2″ in height, you have a better chance of living to be 100 years old.  The reason scientists think short people live longer is that they think the gene that determines a person’s height seems to be related to the gene that helps our body to recover from oxidative stress, which damages our cells through radiation every day due to the environment, our activities and our diet.  So what if we aren’t 5′2″ or shorter, how can we prolong our life?

Tips to Prolong Your Life (Especially if You Are Tall):

1.  Prevent Cardiovascular Disease, which is the main cause for death in America, by exercising and eating a healthy diet.

2.  Reduce the calories you eat, because this seems to slow down how quickly our cells die, helping us to live longer lives.  The studies done in this field have shown a decrease of 25% of your calories has helped cells live longer, but that is a very tough number, so lets try to decrease our calories by 10% (like Dr. Oz said).

3.  Eat a colorful diet, because fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants.

4.  Exercise 30 minutes at least 3 times a week (and this is an absolute MINIMUM!)

5.  Sleep at least 7 hours every night so that your cells can repair themselves and produce more growth hormone to improve our bone density and fight off our body fat.

2.  Your Sense of Smell

If you cant detect the scent of cinnamon, lemon, bananas or other household items, a study in the Annals of Neurology found that you are 5 times more likely to get Parkinson’s disease, because the olfactory center in our brains that aid in our ability to smell is one of the first portions of the brain to be effected by Parkinson’s disease.  You can lose your sense of small as young as 7 years old, so if you can pick up on this as early as possible, you can help fight Parkinson’s disease sooner.

Tip to Prevent Parkinson’s Disease:

Eat Omega-3 rich foods, because Omega-3 fatty acids may help you to build a resistance against the toxin that causes Parkinson’s Disease.  For example, eat more Flaxseed Oil, salmon, shrimp, and walnuts.

3.  Your Calf Size

If you have skinny calves, you may have a higher risk of getting a stroke.  If you are a woman with calves under 13 inches in circumference, then a group of French researchers found you have a higher risk of getting a stroke.  If you have skinny calves, you are more likely to get carotid plaques, and when the plaque breaks off it can travel to your brain and cut off your circulation, which causes a stroke.  It is thought that the fat underneath the skin in the back of your calf can pull the fatty acids away from your blood vessels, so that they cannot go up your carotid artery and cause a stroke.

Tip to Prevent a Stroke:

Drink Green Tea!  In Japan, men who drink over 5 cups of Green Tea a day had the lowest chance of getting a stroke.

4.  Your Leg Length

If you are a woman with legs that are 20 – 29 inches long, you may have higher levels of 4 different enzymes that indicate liver disease (according to a group of British scientists).  In addition, having shorter legs may indicate worse nutrition during your childhood, which can effect the role of your liver.

Tips to Prevent Liver Disease:

1.  Limit your alcoholic drinks to only one beer or glass each wine a day.

2.  Increase the amount of cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, that you eat every day, because they are great for your liver!

Another one I heard of, and that Dr. Oz briefly mentioned as a secret sign, is a wrinkle in your earlobe.  I heard that if you have a crease or wrinkle in your ear lobe, then it could be a sign of heart disease.  Have you heard of other secret body signs?  Mention them below in the comment section please!

Doctor Oz, along with Health Corps and Chiquita, have announced a Dr. Oz School Challenge to help overweight teenagers get healthy.  Dr. Oz found Health Corps to help educate students about health and their bodies.  Teen obesity is a national crisis in America.  Did you know that the number of overweight teenagers in America has tripled?  Dr. Oz’s Health Corps program takes college graduates and bring them back to high school to help encourage and teach high school students how to live a healthy lifestyle.  Jake Ross is the Health Corps member at New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, New York.

New Utrecht High School students come from 38 different ethnic groups and 88% of them go to college.  Jake said the trick to getting his high schoolers to be healthy is to make it hands on and to actually get down with the kids and do sit-ups and push-ups.  Dr. Oz and Jake picked the following 6 kids and put them on a special Dr. Oz School Challenge program for 2 months:

Dr. Oz’s School Challenge Teens from New Utrecht High School:

1.  Isaira, 17 Years Old

Isaira is a 17 year old girl who is the head of the cheerleading squad.  Isaira has senioritis, but her main goal is to fit into her prom dress that her mother is making for her.

2.  Christian, 15 Years Old

Christian is a 15 year old teenager from Mexico.

3.  Dariana, 17 Years Old

Dariana is a 17 year old girl who is addicted to fast foods, cakes, candies and junk foods.

4.  Yasmin

Yasmin comes from a large Arabic family and wants to lose weight by graduation.

5.  Anastasia, 17 Years Old

Anastasia is a 17 year old teenager from Trinidad who loves to dance.

6.  Carlos, 15 Years Old

Carlos is a 15 year old guy who plays football and is hoping to play baseball too.

Dr. Oz’s New Utrecht High School Report Card:

1.  Fruits and Vegetables

You should get 5 servings of fruits and veggies each day, but currently the 6 teenagers are getting less than 1 serving per day on average.

2.  Steps & Exercise

You should get 10,000 steps a day, and on average the teens are getting 6,338 steps per day.

3.  Average Waist Size

The group of 6 teens’ waists are 6.5″ too large on average.

4.  Weight

On average, the group of teenagers weigh 33% more than they should.

Dr. Oz’s School Challenge with Health Corps & Chiquita:

1.  Exercise

Each of the 6 students will use a Pedometer to make sure they are getting 10,000 steps a day.  Also, each student will exercise for 30 minutes after school in a group to make it more fun.

2.  Take The Breakfast Oath

Did you know that if you (or your child) skips breakfast, your performance at school will drop by 20%?  20% is a lot!  20% is the difference between getting an A and getting a C in school!  For some health breakfast options, try whole wheat toast and peanut butter or greek yogurt (which is low in sugar and will keep you full) plus fruit.

3.  Replace Cheeseburgers

Instead of eating cheeseburgers, remove the cheese and use a whole wheat bun.  Even better than that, try veggie burgers instead of regular burgers!  Or you can pack your lunch and have a multi-grain wrap plus a lean protein such as tuna, turkey or chicken.

4.  Snack Swap

Replace soda with flavored seltzer water.  Instead of potato chips, try whole grain pretzels.  You should also try healthy fruits and vegetables as snacks, like bananas (lots of potassium), apples (great for fiber) or carrots.  Chiquita now sells apple bites and carrot bites, which are individually wrapped fruit and veggies… how much easier can it get to carry around some healthy snacks!?!  Way to go Chiquita!!!

Doctor Oz discussed Bioterrorism- Anthrax, Botulism & Bubonic Plague, Marie’s Packaged Food Detox 28 Day Plan, Remedies for Constipation- Why Can’t You Poop?, and Kitchen Diva’s Asparagus Lemon Chicken Recipe.  This show originally aired on February 10, 2010… so lets see how we have taken the advice and lessons to heart thus far.  What have you adapted from this show into your lifestyle?  And what are your goals for the future?  Share with everyone in the comment section below… by putting it in writing, you are more likely to stick to it!  Here is my update and future goals:

From Dr. Oz’s Bioterrorism- Anthrax, Botulism & Bubonic Plague episode, I have put together a disaster kit in a large plastic bin that I keep in my basement with 6 gallons of water (you want 1 gallon of water per person per day… and you need a 3 day supply), 3 rolls of toilet paper, 8 cans of food with a can opener, a radio / flashlight in one that gets its energy from a hand pump so I don’t need to worry about the batteries dying.  I still need to put together a lits of emergency contacts in other states… any volunteers who want to be my emergency contacts across the country?

From Dr. Oz’s Marie’s Packaged Food Detox 28 Day Plan, I am happy to say that I have been shopping the perimeters of my grocery store.  In fact, I have been going every weekend to a local farmer’s market and buy whatever fresh fruits and veggies look the best.  I have found that if you ask the merchants at our local farmer’s market to give you whatever is the most “in season”, you will get delicious produce at very reasonable prices.  I have even formed some great relationships with my merchants, and they now tell me great ways to cook some of their more unique and interesting fruits and vegetables.  Give it a try!

From Dr. Oz’s segment on Remedies for Constipation- Why Can’t You Poop?, I have been buying lentils in bulk and frozen raspberries (which are great in my morning smoothies).  I wasn’t irregular before, but now I definitely feel more regular and healthy.  I am still on the lookout for papaya (it is not quite in season and I haven’t found frozen papaya just yet).

From Dr. Oz’s segment on Kitchen Diva’s Asparagus Lemon Chicken Recipe, I am a bit behind.  I have not yet had time to make her recipe, but I did buy Angela Shelf Medearis’ book The Kitchen Diva! The New African-American Kitchen, and LOVE it!  I will make her asparagus lemon chicken recipe this week… in fact, I already have the asparagus in my fridge.

Don’t forget to keep us updated in the comment section!

Doctor Oz had Kathy Freston, author of Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Mind, Body and Spirit, on his show to teach us how to change ourselves from the inside out.  Kathy Freston is changing the way that we eat!  She recommends choosing what we eat with integrity and care.  Our biggest misconception about the power of food is that people think they have to overhaul their entire diet for it to work… this is not true!  You can make small changes and they will build up to make big changes in your health.

Kathy Freston and Dr. Oz love the Mediterranean Diet, which can reduce heart disease by 1/3.  Walnuts have great omega 3’s, chickpeas are a wonderful source of protein, and you really do not need meat for protein.  Kale, which is usually served as decoration underneath steak at a steak house, is a wonderful vegetable packed with lots of vitamins.  Phytonutrients and the chemical balance of natural fruits and vegetables make them much better than taking vitamins.  And of course, in a Mediterranean Diet you would have to include wine and olive oil!

Kathy Freston says that people are only now starting to think about the things they ear.  You should ask yourself what is the process by which this food has come to me?  What are the consequences for my health and sexual function?

Kathy says that we should all do a 21-day cleanse (such as the one in her book that Oprah has tried: Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Mind, Body and Spirit) once or twice a year to detox ourselves, so that your whole system reboots.  Give up sugar, gluten, animal products and alcohol.  You will discover lots of great foods that you don’t usually eat like beans, legumes and faux meat.