DoctorOz: Magnesium for Sleep & Muscle Aches, Anthony Anderson on Type 2 Diabetes, DASH Diet & St. Jude Research

Today, it's become the new health trend. Help fight fatigue, help you sleep, and stop constipation. We investigate why are so many people using magnesium, and should you start? And we always think as men, we can handle this ourselves. He's battled diabetes for 16 years. Nobody wants to know the truth about how sick they really are. Why Black-ish star Anthony Anderson wants you to get real about your health. Stuff's not taken seriously. Coming up next. Are you ready to save some lives today? Yeah! I love you, Dr. Oz. Everything from drinks to sprays. And some claim this is the energy boost you need to know about. It's become the new it health trend to help fight fatigue, help you sleep, and stop constipation. It's magnesium, and it's all over the internet ringing up rave reviews. So today we investigate, why are so many people using magnesium, and should you start? Dr. Yael Varnado, also known as Dr. V, is here. She specializes in preventive care. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. I know you love magnesium. Yes. You call it the master mineral. Why? Well, I really think it's really underappreciated in our diets. And when you think about magnesium, it's necessary in every cell, in every body process. And so it really is the master mineral. I really believe in, as you said, prevention and health maintenance. So it's important to get as much as we can from our diets, and magnesium is an essential nutrient. So that means we can't produce it in our bodies. It has to come from outside sources. And 80% of us are low. Yes. Most of us. So pay attention to this. Come on over. Let me show you how magnesium can impact the body in so many different ways. Diets with higher amounts of magnesium are linked to lower risk of diabetes. Studies have also found positive associations between magnesium intake and bone mineral density. You want strong bones, especially as you get a bit older. It also has helped patients with constipation. It loosens things up a little bit. Not a bad problem. And there's even evidence that magnesium is effective in treating migraines. It prevents the arteries from spasming and opening the wrong way. One of the best ways, though, may be this. It seems to be associated with energy. How can magnesium energize the body? Great question. So magnesium is extremely integral to the powerhouse of the cell, kind of like the working station. I kind of equate magnesium to like a chemical battery. So it powers all of our systems and our processes. It gets everything working efficiently. And when it is in combination with sodium and potassium, it really causes homeostasis in our body. So going back to what you just mentioned, we get leveling out and evening out of our systems. We get increased protein synthesis, energy production, and then our body can really efficiently work like it's supposed to, like the machine that it is. So if you don't know all the subtlety and the details, that's okay. Just know that it's incredibly important and we don't get enough of it for a bunch of reasons. Now, we've all heard of magnesium as a supplement for that reason. Doctors are all out there telling you to take it. But there are new ways that people are thinking about imbibing and taking in their magnesium. Absolutely. So now you can actually use it as a powder. You can add it to a drink, maybe like a teaspoon three times a day. You can even buy a spray that you can spray all over your body, even your feet. And you like all these products? Some, you know, it depends. Like, as I said and as I know you believe, it's important to get these things in your body naturally, right, in terms of the foods that you eat. But I think that it's definitely a great idea for us to explore what other options might be out there for people when they want to add magnesium to their diet. So we're going to do that right now. We've got three women interested in magnesium for a social experiment. Thank you all for being here. Now, one woman tried a popular magnesium drink. Another woman tried a very popular magnesium spray. And a third woman tried a recommended amount of magnesium in her food, added it to her diet. All of these women have the kinds of problems that many of us face in America. Hannah's going up first. You tried the drink. I did, yes. So I had a drink about twice a day, in the morning and at night. All right. What kinds of issues were you having that you were hoping to address? Well, I have a pretty stressful life. I'm a full-time student and I work two jobs. And living in the city can just be stressful alone. So I was trying to aid that. So two scoops of magnesium powder and a drink a couple times a day. Any changes? What did you notice? Honestly, Dr. Oz... With my stress levels during the day, I didn't see too much of a change. In regards to going to sleep at night, though, I did find it very calming. I had it almost as a tea at night, and it was a nice way to kind of let my day go, and it helped me sleep. So it wasn't the benefit you wanted, but there was a benefit. Yes. All right, fair enough. Okay, Cicely, you tried to use the spray for a specific issue, and you were instructed to spray yourself one to three times wherever you were having muscle pains and aches. Is that true? How often do you get muscle pains? I go to the gym every day, normally in the evening. You look sort of buff here. A little. You see the biceps there. A little. How modest of her. Yeah. Yes. Good. Thank you so much. Did you notice a change? Did it benefit? Thank you. That's good. Definitely. As she mentioned, I was refreshed. Keep it up. Thank you. I love it. When I woke up in the morning, I slept good, and I was not as stiff. Thank you. I love you. My joints, I spray my elbows, under my arms, and my feet. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. So it worked for sleep and for the aches and pains? Bye. Bye. Bye. Definitely, for both. Bye. That's interesting. You have two sleepers here. Bye. Yeah. Bye. And that's one of the biggest problems folks complain about. Bye. Bye. Again, it makes sense because it relaxes the muscles. Bye. Right, absolutely. Bye. All right, finally, Cher added magnesium into her diet. Bye. Bye. Bye. These were magnesium-rich foods. Gave spinach as an example, or precisely 22 almonds. You just have a handful of almonds or two cups of spinach. That will give you about 300 milligrams a day, which is a good amount of magnesium. So what was your complaint, and did you find this okay for it? Well, I have diabetes in my family, so any way that I can find to stay healthy in a natural way. Appeals to me. So before I I incorporated these foods, I had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. And so, you know, it would take maybe an hour before I could fall asleep totally. Or if I fell asleep immediately, then I'd be up in the wee hours in the morning. So And when you ate the spinach and the almonds, which you did together, I guess. Correct, yeah. Did it help your sleep? It sure did. It made me well-rested, and my concentration, my focus, actually, was better, too. That's it. All three of you. Great job, dude. A thumbs-up for the sleep, then. You guys, for Cher. So, Dr. B, put the results together for us. How do you interpret these? So, I think that this is a good representation of exactly what we would probably find in the public, right? Some people, it works really great for them. Like, Cher had a great result. Some people, it was like, eh, it worked a little bit. So, that's the variance that we'll see. So, I can't say for certain that going out and buying these products is going to revolutionize and change your life. But what we do know for certain is that magnesium is necessary in your diet. We do know that adding it to your diet will give you health benefits. But come over here then. Show me the ways that you like to add it to your diet. That is probably the easiest way. It is. And if you're going to take supplements, you still should have the magnesium in your diet. Absolutely. So at home, as you mentioned, you know, I like to make a magnesium smoothie, I call it. And the kids love it. It's easy to do. So I use two cups of spinach. I actually use 22 almonds. Sorry, I count them out. You count them out? Oh, my goodness. You balance your checking account, too? It's the doctor in me. So 22 raw almonds. I love bananas and strawberries and almond milk. If you don't have almonds, you can use almond milk. And blend it all together. And it's really tasty. The kids love it. It's easy to make. You want to taste this? Give it a taste. What do you think? Cheers. Thumbs up? Thumbs up. We got a thumbs up on taste, too. It's tasty. It's tasty. Ladies, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it very much. I think I'm getting the picture here. It's a pretty cost-effective way to go. Make it part of your food. At least you'll be part of the folks who are enjoying your sleep better. We'll put the recipe online. Be right back. Extreme exhaustion took over her life. I was completely bedridden, and I didn't know how to write my own name. Doctors were telling me, this could be in your head. Could your exhaustion be something more? All new Oz. That's coming up on Monday. This series, Black-ish, has never shied away from pushing the limits, tackling real-life social issues and controversial topics, from police brutality to the election that divided our nation, all with their signature comic spin. And now, they've gone where no family sitcom has gone before, tackling one of the biggest health threats facing our nation, diabetes. Here to give you a first look is the star of the show, who's also been battling this disease in his own life for the past 16 years. Anthony Anderson, come on out. Woo! How are you, Doc? You look wonderful. Thank you. One minute. Breathe! Breathe! It's walking daytime. You've got to get your steps in. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Most people are sweating, fast pulse, and breathless when they have me get here. Yeah, no, no. Okay, I see. You've got to get your workout on and be a guest on Dr. Oz. Okay. It's your cardio workout for the day. It is, it is. Kick back and relax. Black-ish continues to amaze me. Thank you. It's a superb show for a bunch of reasons, but as someone who's fascinated by what's going on in our country, I love... Your ability to tap into what's going on right now. How do you do that? And without fear. It starts with Kenya Barris, who created our show and is my partner in this venture, and our writing staff. Uh, I, Everything starts with them. I get the rating, but the fear part's the issue. We were fearless when Kenya and I sat down and talked about doing something for television five years ago. And we started talking about our families. And that's what our show is about. So why did you call it Black-ish? Why was it important to call it that? How do you do that? You know, it was an honest, it came about it so honestly. Lastly, Kenya and I were sitting down talking about the show and he felt, and talking about our families. And he said, I went, I feel like I went from raising a Black family to a Black-ish family. And that's how the title happened for our show. And it's all about the trappings of our success. You know, both of us are first-generation successful. I'm from Compton. He's from Inglewood. All of our children are in private school. We are the only African Americans living in our respective neighborhoods. And just dealing with those things, the majority of the children that my son and my daughter went to school with in their private school are non-black. And the same with Kenya, and you know, we want our children to assimilate in this homogenized world that we live in as best they can, but yet hold on to their heritage and their culture and who they are, and sometimes it gets lost. So, a lot of the storylines from Black-ish come from Anthony's real life, and the latest is one that tackles something very close to home for you. Yes. I'm just going to bring everyone up to date on this. So, Anthony's character is called Dre Johnson. Yes. And he's diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He's pretty normal, right? There's 1.5 million Americans that get every year get this diagnosis, probably one-third the population. One in three of us are pre-diabetic. But you actually were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 16 years ago. 16 years ago, yes. And I didn't know what was going on at the time. You know, I was working really hard and I found myself taking midday naps and that was out of character for me and being lethargic. And I was like, all right, I need to take a break. I need I need to, you know, shut everything down and just take a break. And one night I drank five gallons of water from 1130 p.m. to 2 a.m. Oh, and that's when I really thought I have a problem. And I knew what the symptoms of diabetes were. And I went to the doctor the next day and was informed that I was, in fact, a type 2 diabetic. Not just that. You had the trifecta. Yes, yes. High cholesterol and what was the other? Diabetes, yeah. And that, yeah, yeah, I hit it. I hit it. When I win, I win big. But, uh... Anderson does not hold back. Yeah, but. You know, we wanted to talk about it on the show because, like you say, it affects so many Americans. And that's why we have a great integration on our show with Novo Nordisk. And I personally have a relationship with them now. It's National Diabetes Month, so we have a program called Get Real About Diabetes. And you can go to our website, GetRealAboutDiabetes.com, and learn how to manage this disease and learn more about it. What was your action step? What did you decide to do? I immediately changed. Thank you very much. I thought I was changing my lifestyle and eating habits. I realized that I didn't do that good of a job because the disease started to progressively get worse because I took it serious, but I didn't take it as seriously as I should. And so I got serious about it. And my wake-up call was, you know, I was the first person diagnosed with diabetes in my family. But my father had then been diagnosed with it, and once he was diagnosed, we realized that he had probably been living undiagnosed with the disease for 20 years. How do you like that? Yeah, and then my mother had become a type 2 diabetic, and, you know, eventually we lost our father due to complications of diabetes. Yeah, and that was really my wake-up call because I didn't want to be that father and that husband. You know, I didn't want to be reduced to a memory And the picture in the frame that people just. I wanted to be there and so that's when I took stock in my life and re-evaluated it and here I am today talking about it, talking about getting real about my diabetes. So, if I can... A lot of folks have the wake-up call and it's like an alarm clock, they panic, they run in circles and they don't actually get done what they need to get done. You lost 50 pounds. Yeah. I can show you guys a picture of Anthony from years ago. Look at this. He looks like he ate him. Yes, he looks exactly, he looks like the old Anthony ate the new Anthony. Yeah, my God. I didn't realize I was fat. I always told people I was, I didn't, until I lost the weight, I always told people I was husky. I was like, no, I'm just husky. And then, no, Doc, I looked at a picture. I was like, no, you a fat ass, Anthony. Do you believe? Yeah, no, man. But how'd you do it? I mean, teach me. How do you lose 50 pounds and keep it off? I went, I did drastic things, man. I became a vegan at one point. Now I'm a pescatarian. I got in the gym. If I had a meeting on the 10th floor, I tried to walk up all 10 flights, you know, and if I didn't walk up all 10 flights, I walked down all 10 flights. I got my exercise in when I could. So I want to take you on a little tour. A what? A little tour. A tour of a diabetic ravaged body? Yes. Exactly what I'm taking a tour of. Hop up. I'm going to show you what you changed. All right. And I'll put a little animation up here while walking across. This is, I can show it to you this way, right? A picture of your heart, and it comes alive. And you watch the diabetes. The organs inside your body, they don't like all that sugar in there. The blood vessels themselves are really a problem. The plaque starts to get larger. The heart starts to have blockages, heart attacks. The kidneys shrivel up, really common. And your brain shrivels, right? That's what happens when your body is starved of what it needs because of sugar. Okay. But I thought, you know, animations are easy to show people. All right. But I brought you... All right, I'm ready for this. A man in a pan. I'm ready to give you a man in a pan. Yep, that's what we call it. This, my friend, is man in the pan. There are the organs. Now... We're going to go through this, but it starts off with this little bit of tissue here called the omentum. Okay, first off, Doc, where did you get this stuff from? I got this out of the autopsy lab. It's where everyone gets their organs from. Where do you shop for your organs? Okay, and what is this? It's called the omentum, and it's designed to protect this. But when we put too much weight on, this gets a lot of fat on it. It gets so thick that it begins to poison the other organs. Okay. So put that down here. When that gets thick, it kills this off. This is the liver. But the real issue for you, if you're looking way in here, this is the pancreas. Yes. Now go ahead and feel that, baby, because that's what was going down with you. When the pancreas can't keep up with the needs of insulin, then you've got diabetes. But the power of what you're showing me, and I'm serious about this, in the African-American community, this stuff is not taken seriously. No, it's not. It's not taken so seriously in the white community. So whitish and blackish, we got problems here. Mm-hmm. Right? Right? And so your ability to do a show talking about this and your personal willingness to speak out on this will change lives. If they can copy what you've done. You know, you mentioned it earlier, but what holds people back? What is it that prevents us from seeing what you're experiencing here? I think the truth about what is really wrong with us, and if we go to the doctor to find out what's wrong with us, we can fix that. Yeah. We take our cars to get our oils checked every 3,000 miles. Why don't we go get this checked every three months? Answer the man's question, right? We ought to be doing that. Yeah. Up next, Anthony Anderson's survival guide to enjoy the holidays without making your blood sugar stick around. Do you feel badly at all? I confronted companies using my name. Duping you into buying bogus health and beauty products. Why people are using my name without my permission. It stops now. See how we shut them down. And how the government is cracking down to keep you safe. Plus, see how a podcast ignited new interest in a cold case. I can tell you things that would make your hair stand on end. All new Oz. That's coming up on Tuesday. Dre, you gotta do this. Okay, babe, yes. I know I have to do this. Okay. And I'm gonna do it by myself. You don't know how to do it. I've gotta learn sometime, right? Yes. I'm gonna learn by myself. Look, look it. Okay. Got it. All right. Gotta put it in the finger. I'm gonna put it on the finger. Right there. Okay. What you doing out here? Giving birth? I wish. This is so much harder. Pops, I don't wanna prick my finger. Good. All right, so good. That was a clip from the hit series Black-ish. I'm back with Anthony Anderson, who doesn't let having type 2 diabetes get in the way of anything, especially a good party. And with the holidays upon us, the struggle is real. So he's going to help me give you a holiday survival guide. It's going to help you keep your blood sugar in check. So here's the deal. Anthony's going to give you some real-life scenarios. I am going to show you how to handle them. You ready? I'm ready. All right, scenario number one. All right, it's the office Christmas party, and you don't feel like making nice with your crabby co-workers. So, you beeline to the dessert table, which is filled with decadent sugar. What would you guys do? You just eat what's there, don't you? I know. Be honest, don't lie. Well, they're not lying. They're telling the truth. So here's the deal. There's so many desserts out there, I don't know why we don't eat dark chocolate more. And you've heard me say it before. It's not a lot of sugar in there. But the thing about dark chocolate, it's not going to blow your mind. If you put dark chocolate on top of strawberries, you get just the right amount of sweet. And there was a study done that revealed that dark chocolate's got these things called flavonols. They're protective compounds. They're in cocoa. They're natural. They're good. You can even have one if you want. Okay, I can have one? Yeah, just one, though. You took two. I just took one. All right. I'll take the other half of yours. This is heaven on a stick. No, no, no. It won't. It won't work. All right. Next. More coffee. What the heck? I'm sorry, Doc. I'll take it back. I'm sorry. Don't do anything. That was fat Anthony. That was fat Anthony. This is thin Anthony. Yeah, this is him. All right, we're in the mall and you smell the wafting coffee. All right, what's going down? Craving it. All right, you're at the mall and everyone stops for a Venti, caramel, whipped cream, ginger snap, reindeer, chestnut, praline, candy cane, sugar coffee. What? What do you do? They have dessert and It's like a big dessert masquerading as coffee. All right, here's how I drink my coffee. First of all, you like sugar in your coffee? I like too much sugar in my coffee. That's why I don't drink it. Yeah, well, if you don't like the taste of coffee, don't put sugar in it to camouflage it, obviously. But if you sort of like the taste of coffee, and I like espressos, but you can put a little cinnamon in there. The thing about cinnamon is it makes your liver more sensitive to the sugar so that your insulin reacts better. And you can put some nutmeg in there. Nutmeg gives you that sort of... Feeling and taste of Christmas time. All right. That's a lot of nutmeg. Anyway. You just get too sick. And this is a little bit of foam. And frothed milk is a little different than when you have all that heavy cream you put in there. Go ahead and put it in there. Tell me when. That's up. No, I'm kidding. All right. So this is an easy way to get that taste of a little dairy if you want it, without the sugar, without the calories, without all the fat. So this, my friend, is as sweet as you. Oh, all right. And it has all the taste of Christmas with it, which is what I like about it. Tastes like coffee with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cream. So funny you would say that. All right, the last scenario, the last scenario. Go ahead. Uh-huh, the last scenario. You're the parent who always just sends in-store-bought baked cookies and tries to pass it off as your family recipe. But your kids are on to you now, so they want to bake. What do you do? How are you, Alana's? They're both named Alana. Alana? Now, you see that man over there? Now, he can't eat all these sweet things. Because you don't want your kids to eat what they want to eat. They want to have a good time. A little sprinkle, a little taste. But you don't get any of this, Anthony. Yeah, you get that. Those are dates. I've been on dates. I've never eaten a date. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. But, you know, dates are so good because they're low glycemic index. That fiber holds the sugar in your bloodstream. Oh, oh, okay. Fibrous. Be careful of the seeds. Now, Ilana, if you're going to make something pretty for Anthony, what would you make for him, Mr. Anderson? I would make a tree. No, girl, you would make a T-bone steak. No. No, you're not getting a T-bone steak. Okay. And other Ilana? Ilana, what would you make? Um, I guess trees, yeah. You like trees? Now, what did you think about that scenario, the way he read it? Do you think his acting was good? You impressed by his acting? Not much. Not much? You can do better. Well, I ain't impressed by your cookies. I don't know what that means. Here. What is this thing here? Is that an elephant or a rabbit? What is that thing? You know, I don't know. That looks like a camel. It's a camel, but it's a confused camel. How about this? What's your favorite one, Anthony, over there? I like this tree Ilana's making here. Would you mind if you move for one second, please? Yeah, this is... Ilana, move the other side of him, please. We have to play here. Okay, we got to play where we're going. All right. Come on, what are we doing? This is not kid play here anymore. All right, okay. You guys are so cute, so beautiful. Listen, is he messing up your deal here? What are you doing? I'm making it snow. No, no, no. You know most people make it rain. I'm going to make it snow. No, no, no. I'm making it snow. No, no, no. Tony's Anthony Anderson. Dr. Oz, Susan Anthony, he's saying, keep saying no. You get the full holiday survival guide for your blood sugar at DrOz.com. Be right back. Anthony Anderson. The Great Diet Showdown continues. Find out what snack my diet testers are going crazy for. Great diet showdown. It's my biggest TV experiment ever. We're putting the 10 most popular diets to the test for one year to find out which one really gets the best results. We've been counting them down. Seven diets remain. Today, we're going to find out what our testers really thought about the diet that health experts swear by. It's called the DASH diet. It stands for Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. DASH. Easy to remember. Sharon and Lauren are here. They've both been on the DASH diet. Sharon, how have your results been so far? I lost seven pounds. Good. You know, before this diet, I was eating red meat maybe two to three times a week, and now I'm down to maybe one, if that. Plus, my refrigerator was stocked with processed goods, and now we've converted almost everything to organic, so it's really been good. Pretty good. And how's it been for you? It's been great for me. I've lost eight pounds. Thank you very much. Good. Thank you. I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. So the DASH diet went right along with... having heart disease and making sure that I continue to keep my hypertension at a low hypertension. Well, that problem you mentioned is when the muscles of the wall get a little too thick and making sure the heart doesn't have to work too hard against high blood pressure is really important. Now, I've got to say, all of the folks who came along on this diet challenge for us were given the options of which diets they wanted to be on. So you guys could have chosen any diet you want. Why did you choose a DASH diet? You know, I came to lose weight. That was really one of the reasons. The thing is, I needed something that I can fit to my everyday life. I'm a full-time working mom. I needed something that I can share with my kids so they can, you know, be on board and support me as well. And for myself, having heart disease, once I heard about the DASH diet and seeing everything that's on there, it fits well, again, like I said, with heart disease. And I'm on a diet for the rest of my life because I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I had open-heart surgery, so... I see the markings. Come on over. I want to show you a typical day of this DASH diet. And doctors have loved this diet for a bunch of reasons. But one of the reasons is it's sort of simple. So this is the diet. It's all like this. It looks just like this. All these things are a typical day. Lauren, why don't you start us off with breakfast and snacks? So for breakfast, I start with coffee. I have to have my coffee. You can still lose weight with the coffee. Yay. Then I would go to a half of a whole wheat English muffin, some cottage cheese, and half of a banana. Okay. Now, the thing about the snacks is, you know, working in the city, running around like crazy, I don't always have time to grab things. So I need things that I can literally go to the deli, go to Whole Foods, which is actually in the corner by my office. So I'd get some baby carrots, some watermelon, which usually I just buy cut up already. It's just so much easier. And some low-fat dairy, a string cheese. So things that I can just, you know, incorporate into my everyday life. And Sharon, how about for your typical lunch and dinner? Well, typical lunch for me, Dr. Oz, is what everybody loves to have but hate to eat, which is salad. So, you know, I would have... I'd have some salad, and I would also have some chicken, some poultry, or shrimp. I love pineapples. Pineapples, I can eat those every day. So that's what I would have for lunch, and I would also have water. I'm huge on water. Water's a big part of my everyday living, which should be for everyone. Yeah, for the DASH diet especially. And then your dinner, I noticed, again, beans for protein. For dinner, I'm huge. I love beans. Any type of beans, I'm ready to eat them. Beans, string beans, shrimp. Thank you. Anything protein. Again, I don't eat red meat. I don't eat pork. So with the DASH diet, this fit in perfectly with how and what I need to eat. And for snack, I love popcorn. So I have me some popcorn. You guys can find it at any supermarket in that green-white bag. It's delicious, drizzled with a little bit of olive oil. And now I'd have this. I'll snack on this more than anything else. From what I understand, popcorn is an empty calorie. It is. Popcorn's a pretty good deal. In fact, all the things here I like. But let me go back and show everybody how your whole team did. So you had four people in the group, right? You can stay right there. So I got both of you up here, and there are the rest of your groups. And I noticed that you all lost, you know, between four and eight pounds. That's the range here, right? And that's been over about almost a year of dieting. So let me give you my thoughts. First of all, heart-healthy programs like the DASH diet, they've been shown to lower your blood pressure, as well as first-line medications. So it's a pretty good deal. They're low in sodium, low in saturated fat. So in theory, this diet should be a home run because it checks all the boxes. But I'm going to point out that no one in the group lost more than 10 pounds. And I think part of the reason for that, and I worked at this because the DASH diet's recommended by a lot of doctors, it's sort of hard to stay excited about it. Am I right? We agree. You agree with this? 100%. Yes, we agree, definitely. Yeah, so it's great on paper, but in real life, it's not as practical because you don't want to have just salad and chicken with, you know, just popcorn. I mean, I like popcorn, but it'd be part of a bigger diet. Right. So sexiness to it. Therefore, I'm going to eliminate the DASH diet from our... Diet Showdown. All right. But, but, you two in particular, as a heart surgeon, I'll speak to this. This diet is really good for folks who have heart issues, and it's just good in general. So I like the plan, especially if you're fighting blood pressure or anything else. So go to DrRodgers.com and check it out. I don't want you feeling dismayed. I think you can do it for the rest of your life. I'm not going to eliminate it because I have heart disease, so this is perfect for me. You stay on this. And I've learned a ton, honestly, through the journey. So if you're happy with it, stay on it. But for the average person watching right now who's already seen that many of these diets can help them lose a lot more than 10 pounds, I think we should focus on those. So we've got six diets, remember? And we come back to surprising snacks that all my diet testers can't stop talking about. Stick with us. Extreme exhaustion took over her life. I was completely bedridden and I didn't know how to write my own name. Experts didn't believe her. Doctors were telling me, you know, this could be, you know, quote, in your head. Could your exhaustion be something more? The fourth question everyone needs to ask themselves. All nuance. That's coming up on Monday. For the great diet showdown. Now, we've been counting down to find out which is best for you. The six remaining diets are the paleo diet, the vegan diet, the protein shake Mediterranean diet, whole real foods diet, and the probiotic diet. Now, although they are different diets, there's one surprising snack that is helping them all lose weight. So, move over, cronut. I know you love them, but you're not getting them anymore. Step aside, cruffin. Looks good, but I've got something better. You can say goodbye to Brookie. I know you all enjoy these. You're mixing up these flavors. But there's a new healthy hybrid in town that is trending with our dieters. It is called... Drachos. Drachos are Dr. Oz's nachos. How are you, Elaine? Hello, and I love the drachos. The drachos. She's got it all. I love it. We're going to go viral with the drachos. You will. She is on the whole real foods diet. And you've lost how many pounds now? 20. 20 pounds. Look at that. So are these drachos working for you? Absolutely, love it. My favorite snack, instead of having nachos, you take your base, you can do peaches, bananas, any fruit base, and you line the plate with it, and then you take some nut butter, my favorite, I think yours is almond butter. Yes, I love it. Ah, yeah. Is it yours? Yes, yes. And it's usually soft anyway to begin with, but if you want to heat it up a little bit and put it in one of those ketchup squeezies, and then you squeeze it all over. I like this, all the vanilla, you do this all? Yes, yes. You have to do it with, you have to, you have to watch me dracho, watch me, watch me dracho. Did you have this energy before you went on the program? No, I have more. I feel so much better. Yeah, yeah. It's dracho. Then you add whatever you want. You can add anything you like. I'm not a fan of raspberries, but I love chocolate. I can figure that out. You can throw in some extra nuts. I love walnuts, pecans, cashews, raw cashews. Yes, oh, that's so good. Not the salted ones. No. You can make a savory version of this as well, but this is the sweet version. And then you pick, and you enjoy. Wait, we have to cheers. To the dracho. To the dracho, my dear. Dracho, my people. Dracho. Dracho with me. Put dracho together. We're going to put a version of drachos on DrOz.com. Share with your friends. Let's make this the new trending hybrid food. We'll be right back. Coming up, she's my favorite guest this time of year, that girl. Marlo Thomas is here with age-busting secrets and what you can do to help kids with cancer this holiday season. Here during the holidays, the biggest names in Hollywood come together to support the work being done at St. Jude Children's Hospital, and it's a magical thing. Take a look. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading how the world treats and defeats childhood cancer. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate to 80% today. We won't stop until no child dies of cancer. Our discoveries are freely shared with doctors everywhere. And no family pays St. Jude for treatments, travel, housing, or food because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Please welcome back to the show cancer crusader Marlo Thomas. Marlo Thomas. Hey everybody. So in our home we have we have a little calendar. Yes. We start off the holiday season with your birthday. It is remarkable. Every year, you look better, you look stronger. Thank you. Thank you. How do you do it? Oh, well, I do it the old-fashioned way. I exercise five days a week. I meditate. I watch what I eat. I drink two glasses of red wine a day. Religiously. I witnessed this, personally. And I live with a man that I really like. That really helps. That helps. How's Phil doing? He's great. He's great. He'll be watching us. I'm sure he will. And giving me notes and giving you notes, too. He's as sharp as ever. It's remarkable. I mean, and I love the fact that after 35 years of marriage, you're still happy. 37. 37? Yes. That's why. Bye. Bye. How do you do that? Bye. What is the secret to folks staying together Bye. and getting closer and closer, which is sometimes hard to do? Well, I call it the three L's, three L's, listening, love, and lust. That's it. Oh, I like that. I like that. It starts off by being so innocent. I know. It's not. So, Danny Thomas. Yes. I found a picture of you with him, by the way. And, you know, all of us grew up idolizing him and idolizing you, in part because of the love that he had for you. But he started St. Jude. Yes. And I know that early on, childhood cancer was not something that people went into. There was no way actually of curing it early on. Right. And when he started St. Jude and pursued his vision, a lot of us thought it was just that. They thought he was crazy. They really did. What's the unique approach that St. Jude takes to cancer now? I think the approach from the beginning, which is so brilliant, is that it's a research institution as well as a treatment center so that we are working on what nobody else knows. We're working on what we don't know. And we're starting from scratch and saying, okay, this is what we're going to work on. Lily is a perfect example of this. She had a medulloblastoma. You probably know this, but I didn't know this. Lily is a young girl who was treated at St. Jude. And she had a brain tumor called medulloblastoma, and nobody knew. That there were four types of this brain tumor. So kids were not getting cured. Some were, some weren't. Why? Why weren't they? So we realized through our genome. Do you know that we now do the genome map of every child who comes to St. Jude? You're kidding me. Every child who comes to St. Jude. All their genes we now know. Absolutely. We know what's wrong and what's right. Yes. Every single kid who comes to St. Jude now gets a genome map. So we looked at that map and we realized that there was a whole other. Brain tumor called medulloblastoma that nobody even knew about, and so we created, just for her, a personalized protocol, and the exciting part is now that protocol is in 20 other sites around the country and Canada, and all that data is being collected at St. Jude, and we'll just be able to cure more and more children. This is, to me, the excitement of St. Jude. This is what keeps me passionate. You know, I love the science, but as a doctor, I love seeing the people. These are not just statistics. These are people. So, y'all are meeting Lily. Y'all interested in meeting Lily? Lily completing her treatment at St. Jude. Come on out, you brave little girl. Lily's being answered by her wonderful father. How beautiful. Thank you very much. I know this is hard for parents as well, and I congratulate you. Unbelievable. So, what was it like getting treated at St. Jude? Were you scared in the beginning? Very. And how do you feel now that you've been treated? Awesome! You're doing ballet again out here. Is that right? Is that right? Yes. Show me a little plie or something. Teach me how to do it the right way. Oh. Very dainty of you. Oh, the arm's out now. I love show-offs. Oh, my gosh. Thanksgiving campaign, 14 years into it. I want folks to understand how they can be part of this because the payoff are the lilies of the world. That's right. And you know, Lily couldn't even walk. She was a ballet dancer, but when she got ill, she couldn't walk. She couldn't even talk. And through music. They brought back all of her senses. And I think that's a fabulous thing that we do at St. Jude. We figure out what will work for each kid, and now she's back to doing her ballet. That's so exciting. It's exciting. It happens because St. Jude, which raises money to pay for the characters. That's right. Kids don't have to pay for this care. Thanksgiving, just to be clear for everybody, is a way for you to get involved. This campaign is 14 years old, and it works. So how do they help, and what does it do? Okay, well, there's several ways you can help, but the number one way is to go, well, first of all, watch Dr. Oz, because he lets us talk about this every year. Thank you. I'm honored. But you can go to any of our wonderful partners, Williams Sonoma and Domino's Pizza and Kmart and Best Buy and Brooks Brothers and Ann Taylor, all these wonderful places, and they're going to ask you to make a donation for the children of St. Jude. And so now you've seen a real live St. Jude child, and you know that it really does work. That's where the money goes. Or you can go to stjude.org and donate there, or you can call 1-800-4-STJUDE, Or you can text to give, and I don't know the numbers. We'll put them all at the bottom. You've done so well, I can never remember that. I want to thank you all for being here. And I want to remind everybody, you can participate in the St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign by donating at more than 70 big retailers this holiday season. Go to DrOz.com for more. We'll be right back. Thank you for coming. A beauty queen vanished. Now, see how a podcast ignited new interest in a cold case and led to arrests. All new Oz. That's coming up on Tuesday. This year, I had the honor of being the Grand Marshal at the 86th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade to benefit Marine Toys for Tots. Now, the parade featured over 5,000 participants. Over a million people came out to help spread the holiday cheer. Take a look. Merry Christmas, everyone, and welcome to the 86th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. Here is America's favorite on-air doctor, the one and only... Dr. Oz! We appreciate you being here and you being our Hollywood Christmas Parade Grand Marshal. We want to present you with a certificate of appreciation for all that you do and for being our Grand Marshal of this parade. Thank you very much. Congratulations. God bless you. I'm being our grand marshal on the 86th anniversary. Well, I'm honored to be the grand marshal. I'm honored that it's the 70th anniversary of the Marines starting this great organization. And I love the fact that all these wonderful folks have served the nation and put their life at risk, but they also make a difference here at home. So God bless you. It's huge. I had an incredible time, and I want to thank the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for having me. Last year's Toys for Tots campaign allowed Marines and volunteers to distribute, listen carefully, 18 million toys to 7 million less fortunate children. And today, our audience, you all... We brought in toys, all of them, to donate to children who are less fortunate. God bless you for doing that. I thank you for it. Listen, if you want to make a difference in a child's life this holiday season, buy an extra toy and drop it off in one of the many Marine Toys for Tots collections. There are sites all over the community. They collect them. You can find drop-offs located at toysfortots.org. You can see this year's Hollywood Christmas Parades, the full two-hour special, December 15th on The CW. Remember, everybody, happy and healthy starts at home.