DoctorOz: A Heart Experiment That Could Change Your Life

I'm joined by viewers like you that write in that they've had huge breakthroughs in their health. So I've been thinking, how can I motivate more of you to do the same? So we'll try something we have never done before, an experiment that's completely unorthodox and maybe a little shocking for some of you because sometimes it takes something extreme to motivate us. Now over the last seven seasons of this show, we've seen the power of holding an organ, like the human heart, in your hand. And we've asked two of our viewers, women just like you, to spend three days with a human heart. Now they haven't been living as healthily as they would like and they agreed to carry these hearts everywhere, never letting them out of their sight, to find out if this could be the needed wake-up call. Now could our heart experiment be the breakthrough that changes your life? Plus the new breakthrough in statins and the breakthrough diet from this summer is called the alkaline diet. I'm going to weigh in on all that, break it down for you, but before that I want you to meet these brave women who took a human heart home and find out how it changed their lives. I'm Roxanne. I'm 43. Over the past few years, I've had a hard time making healthy choices, fast food over good food. Also I haven't exercised like I should. My blood pressure is elevated. I am a little overweight and my cholesterol is borderline. I have a family history of heart disease. My mom was actually taking medication. I worry about my health because I have a one-and-a-half-year-old son that I need to take care of, so I need to be able to keep up with him and live as long as possible for him. My name is Jody and I'm 46 years old. I feel like I'm juggling it all. I work full-time nights as a nurse and I'm the mother of three children who are very active. I can pick you up in 15 minutes and my health, I'm sure, is paying the price. I have high cholesterol. I have high blood pressure. I'm on medication for. I don't have the willpower to stick to any diet plan. My father had his first heart attack when he was in his 40s and ultimately it was a heart attack that he died from at the age of 71. I don't want to follow in his footsteps. I don't want to be at the age of 40 having a heart attack. I know I need to do something and I just hope that it's not too late for me. Both Roxanne and Jody are finally ready to make a change and lead a healthier lifestyle, so I had them meet with my med team to receive their sacred task. Welcome, ladies. I'm going to play a message for you from Dr. Oz. For the next three days, I'm putting you in charge of a real human heart, a heart that belonged to someone who had heart disease. You will take it with you wherever you go. It is never to leave your side, never out of your hands. Remember, this heart belonged to someone who didn't get the chance to take control of their own health. Look at this person's heart and think about it as you make every decision in your life that could affect your own heart. By taking care of this heart, I hope you start caring for yours. Would you like to see the hearts? Yes. When you're walking and you think it's going to be gross and oh, I don't want to touch it, but then after, it's beautiful. It's awesome. So we're going to let you hold the hearts now. I've never seen a heart before, especially up close. It was kind of emotional. And you just think that was actually beating in somebody's chest at one time. And what made it stop beating? After putting the hearts in safe containers, our two women continued on with their day, hearts in hand. It was just unreal holding that heart in my hand. It was completely unreal. As I'm heading home with this heart, I know that it's going to help me and guide me to make the right choices in my life. In this closet is everything that I want to eat all the time when I'm stressed. And everything in here is a trigger. I can't imagine what it's doing to my heart and to my body. But when I have this heart in my hand, it's making me think twice. Do I really want to eat that stuff? Right now, I just got the heart and I'm about to go running. And the heart already motivated me to do something different. I haven't run in years, so this is going to be the first step. It's so easy for me to grab something quick like pizza or something during the day. But today, I'm going to try to make a healthier option. When I look into my fridge, I see that I need to make better choices. Normally, I don't make time for exercise. But today, because I'm carrying this heart around, it feels good. I normally eat fast food at least three, four times a day. And me making this smoothie is definitely a healthy choice. It is very strange to have a heart in a box, walking around with it. But the only way I'm going to meet that goal is to have that heart nearby. Peek-a-boo, I see you. As I'm headed to work here, I'm thinking, I'm a nurse. I should know better. I need to start thinking about more than just myself. I have my kids and my family, and I need to start thinking about them. It's an experiment, but at the same time, I'm looking at it as, I don't want my heart to have to die from heart disease. I want to live for my son. I don't want to be like my father. I don't want to be having a heart attack in my 40s. And then leaving my family behind. Before we meet the ladies, it's important for me to repeat how sacred these human hearts are to us. These hearts are a teaching tool, and we hope that they will help change lives through this experience. So thank you both for babysitting these hearts. Joy, let me start with you. When you look at this heart, and you were carrying it around, how did it affect you? It affected me in a big way. The first thing that I did is, because that was a diseased heart, I wanted to see what a real heart looked like, you know, what a healthy heart looked like. And I compared the two, and I was hoping and praying that mine looked more like the healthy heart. So it affected me in a big way because I kept thinking, God, I hope mine looks like the healthy heart. And the only way I'm going to make sure it does is to keep making those good choices. There's something about seeing a real organ, not one that's a play one, but one that's actually a human heart that's come out of somebody that sort of grounds you, makes you focus. Roxanne, was there any point in the entire time that you thought, I can't do this, I want to stop this experiment? No, definitely. I didn't because I want to live for my son. So me having this heart pushes me to do better. My son is one, and I'm 43, so I'm a little older. But I want to see my son graduate. I want to be a grandmother, so I know I need to live for my son. So having this heart is just, yeah, it was a great experience for me. What happened when the camera stopped rolling? What happened on the second and third day when you were walking around with the heart? What did people say to you? What was it like? It was a little overwhelming for some people. Like, what is this? Why do you need this? What is this for? I'm like, it's an inspiration. It's a goal. I want to do a goal. It's a goal. So this is my way of starting a goal and just going with it. Troy, let's talk about your father for a second. Obviously, an important motivating factor is your understandable pain of seeing him leave you so early. Yes. You could tell him something right now, after having carried around a heart similar to the one he probably had when he died. Yep. What would you say to him? To take it seriously. It wasn't something to joke around about, and I think he knew that he was having difficulty the night before he died. And I think that he expected to die early, and I think that if he had taken it more seriously, he could have gone on living for a lot more years. There was a woman, Linda, who wrote a letter to me. She had seen a show he had done on the heart, seen an organ like this, and went to her doctor and was told that she was a ticking time bomb. She ended up having her life saved, and she's a stewardess, so whenever she would go on the plane, she would actually tell the passengers that there were some signs that they needed to be aware of about their hearts, the way she had saved her life by being aware of her heart. It's really at its very core why I feel so passionately about what we're doing today. So I'd love to give you the platform now. Both of you felt the awkwardness. You probably had some awkward moments too, walking around with a heart, right? Yes, yes, definitely. People were walking away from you. But you were brave enough, actually, to take this heart and this message very seriously and to treat it with the sacred passion it deserves. What would be your message? What do you want to share with everybody? Find a way to make time for yourself. Find a way to decrease the stress in your life and take time out for yourself because you deserve it, and your family deserves to have you around for a long, long time. So here's my prayer for everybody. You're not all going to go take a heart home. I don't have enough to share with them, although I wish I could. But I want you to find one thing. One thing that's going to motivate you for change. It could be a picture. It could be a memento. And then carry that around with you. And then spread the word. Now, speaking of hearts, how many of you are taking statins? Statin takers? Fair number. A good part of the American population, in fact, 25 million people, are taking statins. Are you guys either on a statin? I probably should be. Well, we're going to find out if you should be in a second because that's part of the message. But the statins have been all over the news recently and the topic of debate because there are a lot more people being put on them. The question is, is that the right thing or not? I'm going to tell you what I think when we come back.