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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Watching Dr Oz 11/10/11: Health Myths Busted, Miracle Berry Turns Sour to Sweet, Natural Pain Relievers

The Dr. Oz Show
Air date: November 10, 2011
Health Myths Busted

  • Dr. Oz busts 10 widely held health myths
  • The Miracle Berry that turns sour to sweet
  • Pain relievers for common complaints

Could the tips your mom told you be wrong? Dr. Oz puts science against popular health myths that you may have heard from your mother.


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Dr. Oz Health Myths Busted

Dr. Oz Health Myth #1: Spider webs on a cut help healing
PLAUSIBLE! Dr. Oz said there may be something to that and the spider web could be providing some help to body in healing, but, he cautioned, the cigarette the man asking the question was smoking will slow the body in healing.

Dr. Oz Health Myth #2: Peanut Butter is a good contraceptive
FALSE! [Maybe the idea came about because peanut butter just smells bad. I like eating it but the smell is pungent!]

Dr. Oz Health Myth #3: You'll get sick if you go out in the rain while on your period.
FALSE! [Where do these come from?]

Dr. Oz Health Myth #4: Walking on a cold marble floor causes varicose veins.
FALSE! [Well, I think it is completely true that standing or walking long distances on a marble floor, or any hard surface, without comfortable, supportive foot wear will cause varicose veins. The temperature is irrelevant]

Dr. Oz Health Myth #5: If a man loses 35 lbs he adds one inch to his penis.
TRUE! [What? Did a man come up with this?]

Dr. Oz Explodes Common Health Myths

Dr. Oz Health Myth #6: Chicken soup will cure a cold
Moms have been saying this for hundreds of years. Dr. Oz says the chicken soup has to be able to get into the body and effect change. The common cold causes the fire inflammation in the body. Dr. Oz place a flame inside a beaker and set a peeled, hard boiled egg on the mouth to see if the egg could get inside the beaker. Can the egg put out the fire? Yes! The egg blocked all air flow in to or out of the beaker and the vacuum created inside pulled the egg into the beaker landing on the fire putting out the flame.

TRUE! The fire of inflammation caused by a cold can only be put out if the medicines and healthy food can get into the body. The soup turns on the immune system to put out fire. Dr. Oz says to make the soup thin and inhale the steam vapors to effect the nasal passages, a one-two punch with the sinuses and eating the soup.

Dr. Oz Health Myth #7: Going outside with wet hair in the cold will cause a cold
Are you more susceptible to catching a cold if you go out with wet hair? Tracy's mother always told her she would catch a cold if she went out with wet hair and everything her mom told me her has been true. [My mom always told me that too, she even told us to close the windows in the winter if our hair was wet.]

Dr. Oz wants to test if germs on dry hair or germs on wet hair will get into the body faster. Will your immune system absorb the germs differently depending on if the hair is dry or wet?

FALSE! Dry and wet hair both allow germs into the body at the same rate. There is no increase susceptibility to colds if your hair is wet.

Dr. Or did say that you are more susceptible to catching a cold in cold temperature months. Winter air and summer air is different. Winter air is less humid and germs quickly drop on you. Humidity in the air during summer supports the boat load of germs and you are exposed to fewer germs.

Dr. Oz Health Myth #8: Green mucus means you have an infection
Is green mucus a sign of an infection? The nasal passages make mucus in response to an invader entering the passage. White blood cells in the mucus surround and trapp the invaders. Mucus may not travel out of the body as efficiently as it should due to volume so it oxidizes turns green.

TRUE: Green mucus is a sign that the body is making more mucus then normal to stop invaders, the body is fighting an infection.

Dr. Oz Health Myth #9: A dogs mouth is cleaner than a humans
Puppy kisses! Simon the dog and Gina the owner provided a saliva sample to test the myth that a dogs mouth is cleaner than a humans mouth. The samples were sent to a lab and...

FALSE! The dogs mouth is not cleaner than a humans. We think this because the germs in a dog bite are not dangerous to humans. You're more likely to get an infection from a human bite than a bite from a dog bite.

[A friend's son just conducted this experiment for secondary school science fair. He got the same results and second place. Note: the petri dishes used to culture the bacteria were terribly smelly, so I'm told!!]

Dr. Oz Health Myth #10: Cracking your knuckles is bad for you
We are told that cracking knuckles will make them big and cause arthritis.

Cracking the knuckles creates air pockets in the joints and air is a gas. Gas builds up in the knuckles then when we crack the knuckles the gas goes out of the joint and into the surrounding fluid. What happens to that gas?

Nothing! The knuckle is pristine, untouched, undamaged when cracked. The gas is released into the surrounding area without any harm to the joint or the body. The only problem may be that it's an annoying habit and people around you may not like it.

MYTH: cracking your knuckles doesn't cause any harm.

Dr. Oz: Pain in the Derriere? Anal Fissure or Hemorrhoids?

Anal fissures, or a tear on the anal tissue, are felt by 80% of the population. What do you do about them and how can you tell them apart from hemorrhoids.

Both anal fissures and hemorrhoids cause the same symptoms: Itchiness, pain during bowel movement, and a bright spot of blood on toilet paper.

The difference between the two is that pain is experienced all day when the hemorrhoids is the cause.

What causes anal fissures? Normal bowel tissue is like the lips on the mouth. Normally the tissue is flexible and the bowel movement can come out without any damage to the tissues. Constipation and hard poop can tear the tissue. If constipation continues, the tear can enlarge and damage tissue deep into the rectum where an infection can take hold and spread into the intestines and in severe circumstances may require surgery. Think a small hole in a stocking turning into a run all the way up and down the stocking.

Holding in a bowel movement allows water to be removed from the fecal matter creating a hard stool that can create those anal fissures.

Dr. Oz recommends using witch hazel to soothe the area reducing discomfort and the tightening feeling of squeeze out a bowel movement. Epsom salt bathes help to reduce inflammation in the tissues.

For maintenance, Dr. oz also recommends drinking more water and considering a stool softening supplement to reduce the possibility of hard stools. His favorite recommendation for prevention is to eat beans as the fiber in the beans provides bulk to the poop so the body can shape the poop to exit properly.

Dr. Oz The Miracle Berry Turns Sour to Sweet

It really is called The Miracle Berry simply because the Latin name is too hard to remember: Synsepalum dulcificum. This West African berry can miraculously transform sour foods to taste sweet. It became known over 100 years ago but due to shelf-life instability has not become commercially viable.

Adam Leith Gollner, author of The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession, appeared on the show to talk about the benefits of making sour foods taste sweeter.

Mr. Gollner says the fruit is available online, at a plant nursery or in tablet form. Bite down on the small fruit and swish it around the mouth and let it coat the taste buds for 10 or 15 seconds. One berry is good and eating one is as good as eating one hundred. The taste was described as pleasant by nearly all who tried it but one woman said it was terribly bitter. Once you've eaten the berry, the effects last for about an hour. Don't forget to spit out the seed.

The Miracle Berry tricks your taste buds into thinking your getting something sweet and can encourage changes to your behavior by eating more things that may be better for you and lower in sugar.

The taste tester tried a strawberry and it was much sweeter than usual – she typically adds sugar to strawberries. The lemon slice did not produce sour faces but tasted good. The final test was white vinegar. She asked if it will taste like tequila? The white vinegar elicited responses of: not bad and wow and really good.

Dr. Oz said he wants people to use this to help switch your taste from sugar filled foods to ones that are more healthy. Eating lemons can help keep you regular and will help with cravings. Both strawberries and lemons have antioxidants. Vinegar keeps blood sugar levels balanced and can help cut down the number of calories you intake.

Dr. Oz Pain Reliever Smackdown

It's game show time on The Dr. Oz Show!

Dr. Oz Pain Reliever for Back Pain
Back pain, often caused by husbands, can be treated by which of these natural pain relievers?
Witch hazel, Devil's Claw, Dead man's bells?
Answer: Devil's Claw reduces pain and swelling.

Dr. Oz Pain Reliever for Arthritis
Arthritis can be treated with this natural anti inflammation?
Oak Bark, Willow Bark or Cedar Bark?
Answer: Willow Bark [also known as White Willow Bark and contains salicylic acid which is also the active ingredient in aspirin]. Dr. Oz recommends taking 500mg of willow bark up to 2x per day as an alternative to aspirin.

Dr. Oz Pain Reliever for Headaches
Which is a great natural way to get rid of headaches?
Ginkgo, St. John's Wort, or Ginseng?
Answer: Ginkgo
Ginkgo inhibits chemicals in the brain that causes headaches, even migraines. If you have diabetes do not take ginkgo as it could raise insulin levels. [I've heard for years that people who experience migraines should not take ginkgo as it stimulates dilation of the capillaries in the brain potentially causing a migraine. I'll have to look more into this...]

Dr. Oz says to use what you've learned in this show in your life today. 



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