DoctorOz: Marcia Gay Harden on Her Mother's 8 Years With Alzheimer's | Dr. Oz

What would you do to see your daughter one last time? What would that be worth? My responsibility is this hospital. The answer is no. Actress Marsha Gay Harden in one of the hottest TV medical dramas, Code Black. She's also known for her powerful roles in theater and films like Pollock and Mystic River. Today, Marsha's opening up about how she's taken back to power from one of the most common and feared diseases, Alzheimer's. And she's revealing the scary first moments when her own mother was diagnosed and what she's doing to fight back against this disease. Please welcome Marsha Gay Harden. I'm so happy you are here. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. Come join us. Thank you. Oh my goodness. Good morning. So, in addition to all your wonderful accolades for acting, you have finally accepted a position playing a medical professional, which has always impressed me when actors do that. Well, that you say that is wonderful to me because this is the one place where I would feel like, well, how am I doing? How am I doing? It's a fascinating role and you learn so much and I actually have learned so much respect. And I think in the clip that you saw, one of the things that I've learned is how much they advocate, not just for the patient, but for the patient's family. Yes. But you have to learn a lot of terminology in medical school. Do you have to do the same to play a doctor? You absolutely do. We had to do something called boot camp. Michael Seitzman, our showrunner, wanted us to do boot camp. So we had to, you know, learn how to put on the gloves with a snap because that's a good thing to do when you're an actor. Poong! And then you deliver your great line. We had to learn things like thoracotomy and all these big phrases. The problem with me is I learn them, I learn them for the day, and then I forget them. I mouth the door and I forget them. You know, you have to do central line. You have to learn all of these things. Your job is very, very difficult. That's all I have to say. Now, there's some places that we have to learn medical jargon where it's life-changing, and I want to thank you very much because you've come out to talk about your mom. Her beautiful mother was diagnosed 8 years ago with Alzheimer's, and I wanted to, through your eyes, have America understand what it's like because they know you from your Academy Award-winning performances in Pollock and other roles you played. When did you first notice there was a change in her? It's progressive. That's one of the first things, and the very first things that people will notice is look like just aging, and that's the hard part of it. You forgot where you put your keys. You walk into a room and you're like, What did I come in here for? And the family around you will typically say, because it's what we hope and believe and think, Eh, it's nothing, Ma. We dismiss it, we deny it because to accept it is probably one of people's greatest fears. So what we try to do in my family is sort of repurpose our pain toward change. So what is the most encouraging thing that you've learned as you've taken care of it? What silver lining has there been, even if you're not making lemonade from lemons? You have it on your show, actually, because you've done some really amazing things to bring awareness to this. The most important thing I learned is how the gut and the brain are connected and how it's all connected, and of course it makes sense. The body's connected. One of the things I learned as a doctor is I think of the body now like a car. You move this piece of plumbing over here, you move this over here and you put it over here and the whole thing can work together. Well, our body is like that, so what we put in our gut affects what's going on I love how you just said this. I don't know if you noticed this. She said, What I've learned as a doctor. Ah! Oh! You busted me so badly! It was perfect. No, but it's true. You consciously have to take that role on, right? Like all the roles you do, you have to actually be that person, so it's sort of important for people to appreciate what it's like to be a doctor. By the way, to be a good patient, try to put yourselves in the shoes of your doctor. How do I make it more efficient for them? True. Deal with their issues. One thing I always teach the residents is if you're not good emotionally, you can't help the patients emotionally. That's true. Nobody's happy to see you. They're all pretty much dealing with an issue they don't want to have to deal with. Right. So you've got to be there to continually recharge them. If your battery's gone dead, you can't do that. That is true. And actually, that would be good advice for caregivers. As any caregiver, Alzheimer's caregivers, they have to recharge their own batteries as well. But what I was going to say about sugar, that's the hugest thing, sugar. So now, I've got 13-year-old twins, so to try to cut sugar out of the family diet, I'm a single mom with 13-year-old twins. But now, this is what's so great about the younger generation, they're involved with their own destiny in terms of eating and that's wonderful. How are they processing your mother's Alzheimer? I think they don't know her. And so they process it through their greatest fear, is that I would get it. Well, let's talk about you. Alzheimer's, not to alarm everybody, is one of the most genetically linked ailments. Right. It's still only maybe one-third of the risk, but it's meaningful. So have you had yourself checked up? You don't have to share if you don't desire. But where are you in your own assessment of the risk that you may have for getting Alzheimer's? So I want to test myself. I had written in my book that I was going to test myself and I simply haven't done it yet. But I did do the DNA, the 23andMe. Good. And I signed up for the gene test and that. And I don't have the Alzheimer's gene, but as now we know, that doesn't mean that you won't get Alzheimer's. They are considering it genetic and lifestyle. Yes. So the part I can control is lifestyle. Of course. That's what I'm trying to do. And that's a big wake-up call for a lot of folks. You know, if one-third of it is genetics, you know, you got dealt a bad card. But you win the game by playing the two-thirds risk that's driven by lifestyle. All the things you've mentioned, I want to come back to and touch on because they're so important. Right. They're so fundamental. And I've had the biggest world experts, as you know, on the show talking about this. But when people see someone they know and they adore and they love, and they know you in a very different way, they can appreciate how you process it, they can begin to as well. So when we come back, Marcia's going to share what she's been doing every day to reduce her risk of Alzheimer's and maybe listen to her kids as well. Plus the powerful way she says anyone can connect with a loved one struggling with this disease. Stick around. We are back with Academy Award winning actress Marcia Gay Harden, who's been opening up about how to take back the power of Alzheimer's disease, which ties a strip from so many of us. She's now revealing how she reduces the risk every day in her own life. These are tips you guys can all use as well. These are powerful ways she's been able to connect with her mom, some of these tips. All of which becomes important as we create this quilt that humanity has always represented. So let's start off with some of the things you talked about earlier. Sugar. There's no question, Alzheimer's is probably diabetes of the brain. So the first tip is to cut back on sugar, but it's hard to do that. Right? Because people crave it. It hits their brain like crack cocaine. It's a dopamine hit, isn't it? Right. So what do you do in the Harden household? Well, we like to have occasional treats for the kids. So one of the things I discovered was this paleo chocolate cream walnut graham cracker Look at this, my friend. Look at this. Right there. Decide if you want this in your life. Could this be part of your future? It's so beautiful. And what you're using are dates for the sugar. Then you use coconut oil, which is super good for the brain. Coconut. You pop through that and you get the coconut milk. Coconut oil. You use dates. You crush up the walnuts with dates for the crust. And you use chocolate. You can use stevia. Chocolate with stevia. So there's actually no sugar in it. And then... Then you have this. Okay, I'm going to... Then when you have this when you're done. Look at that. This is... You know, if you speak French, you would have to say, this is dangereuse. Bien sur. Of course. C'est un peu dangereux. Malheureusement. Well, you just stepped in the French by mistake. I'm sorry. It happens all the time. Look how big my bite was. I wasn't even ashamed. I wasn't even ashamed of that. It's a huge bite. I can commend you. Can I eat it? Please, yes. I want to give you like our version of your cake. So dates are fantastic because they've got nutrients in them. And here's my deal with sugar. I'm sorry. You like that? I'm busy. Yes, you're busy. I'm really busy right now. Orgasmic. How do you say that in French? So... You don't. You show it. Okay, and moving on, the Dr. Osho. So, but again, I think sugar in general, when we purify it and refine it and take it away from the nutrients it's naturally associated with... If you eat a date, there's sugar in there, but you're getting all those, the fiber, the nutrients, and with all that, what the heck? And the nuts, good fat, all this is good fat. Oh my goodness. It's really good, right? Oh, that fills your mouth completely. This is so rich. Like literally, you could have one bite of it. We're going to put the recipe up on DrOsh.com. You'll love this. Oh, I love it. It's great. Oh, good, good, good. It's a paleo recipe. Next up, Marcia mentioned earlier that there's a connection between our gut and our brain. Right. Which is profoundly important. Right. And it comes down, of course, to the biome that you were touching on. It turns out there's soluble fiber that really turns on the good bacteria and it snaps the bacteria, the bad guys, back in place when they're not cooperating. So these are examples of all the soluble fiber foods that I think could appeal to the average American. These are called alliums, like leeks and onions and artichokes. They have the allium family. Berries come, asparagus. The beans all work. And the most provocative work I've seen on Alzheimer's that might benefit your mom and are certainly us is the reality that when we have the bacteria in the gut that reduces inflammation in the brain, people seem to perform better. Maybe the disease doesn't disappear, the plaques might still be there, but the cells that work, they work better. Right. So it's high-octane fuel, feed the cells. Now, let me elevate it to a little more spiritual level. This amazed me. And I love your book. It's so, it's emotionally honest, it's intellectually on target, but I didn't realize that she had learned how to arrange flowers. There's a whole way of doing this. You have, and I've got a picture of one of her arrangements. Oh, right. Please explain what this is to America. And how did she even learn this Japanese art? She's an incredible woman. And so one of the things my mother did so beautifully was she was a Japanese flower arranger. It's called Ikebana Flower Arranging. Ikebana. And I think you have, you have a picture of one of my mother's arrangements. This is one that someone here did a beautiful arrangement. It was originally a gift created by the Buddhist monks is how this art form started. And it was a spiritual practice where they would think of nature and they would arrange, like in this case, this one would probably be, I mean, these two are competing a little bit, but the longest one would be heaven and then the next one would be earth and then the lowest one would be man. And so the eye moves in a triangle. So I've sort of taken it up trying to do that. Oh, you have. And I will send my mother pictures of it and she'll look at the pictures and when I do a good job she'll go, oh yes, I love the way the colors go together. And when I don't do a great job she'll go, hmm, interesting. It's interesting, Marsha. That's mothers. Let me ask you probably the most important question I'll ask today. How do you recharge yourself when so much of your soul is pouring into making sure your mom knows who you are, knows who she is, and maybe gets to meet your kids a little bit? Gratitude. I think you have gratitude and then I think you repurpose your pain. And of course you have to fill your life with things that you love. You look around you and you look at the things you love and you have gratitude for them. Marsha E. Harden. God bless you all. God bless you. She's got a fantastic book. It's called The Seasons of My Mother. There's the cover right there. Go pick it up and share it especially if you've got someone in your family who's struggling. God bless you all. Thank you. God bless you all. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss out on new videos to live the good life.