Dr. Oz ROCKS!!!!!

Dr. Mehmet Oz, who as most of you know appears regularly on the Oprah Winfrey Show, was gracious enough to donate his time to the Mooresville Community Clinic last week---he did a talk on health issues as a fundraiser and the Center raised more than $25,000. I purchased one of the $25 tickets, and I can tell you it is the best value for money I have spent this year. His talk was informative, and he is charming and funny ---- and really, really nice looking too (glad to know I'm not just wasting those hormones!) Here are a few highlights from his talk:

• The number one cause of bankruptcies in this country over the last 8 years ----- medical bills! Even more frightening, over 70% of those bankruptcies are from people with health insurance.
• One of his points was that emotions drive 90% of the change in our habits --- he thinks in order to get people to look at their lives and change unhealthy habits, you need to target a patient's emotions-----make them see they are worth the changes they need to make.
• His hospital tried to initiate some sort of a medical study on people who smoke, and they only wanted to use people who smoke but who do not suffer from depression----in the entire NYC area, they could not find one person who smoked but who did not exhibit signs of depression. He went on to say that berating people who smoke by calling them idiots (and a lot of people were looking guilty on that one---including me) is simply counterproductive, they're already beating up on themselves for smoking. I think the same principal could be applied to weight management.
• His guiding principle in what subjects to talk about on Oprah, or on his new show upcoming this Fall ---- make it "News You Can Use". He practices what he preaches, I learned so much listening to him.
• Approximately 10% of the general population get the flu each flu season.
• The BEST way to improve your immune system----EXERCISE!!!!!!
• Resistance training (I use stretch bands) is the best way to ward off osteoporosis.

He talked about the 5 Life Adjustments that everyone needs to take seriously:

• Strive to get your blood pressure down to 115-75 (this is lower than the previously considered normal 120-80)
• No cigarettes or toxins (he didn't specifically say diet soda was a toxin, but I got the idea that he included them in the category)
• Exercise 30 minutes a day
• Eat a healthy diet, one that you can live with, it's a lifestyle change not something to be started and stopped
• Control stress

He stressed that each individual controls more than 70% of how well and how long they live! I think the most important statement he made was when he looked out into the audience and said "Are you willing to admit your life is so out of control that you can't find 20 minutes a day to exercise?" Whoa.

He had everyone stand up about half way through the talk and do some deep breathing. Most people do it wrong, when they breath in they try to suck in their abdomen. He demonstrated with an audience member that the proper way to breathe in deeply is to have the abdomen push out, thereby allowing full use of the diaphram.

This one is really important (and something I need to work harder at): Your height in inches, divided by 2, is where your waist measurement needs to be in order to be your healthiest. He spoke at length about abdominal fat and how it stresses the heart and other vital organs. Do the math!

Another important note: If you are taking more than 6 medications (including over the counter medications) there is a 95% chance that there will be some sort of a drug interaction. Yikes!

He talked about hunger and eating: his most important tip was that if you can, at the half way point in your meal, get up and leave the table for 20 minutes, and it is most likely you will not feel hungry when you sit back down. It takes the brain and stomach that long to communicate with each other about the sense of fullness when eating. He also said that eating a handful of nuts or an apple about 30 minutes before a meal will speed up the process of the brain and the stomach sensing a feeling of fullness.

Like most doctors, Dr. Oz is big on restorative sleep, something that plagues a lot of us. His tips included:

• Dim light in the room (don't watch TV in bed)
• loose clothing
• reduce noise
• cool room

He also said if your neck size is bigger than 17", you more than likely have sleep apnea.

He put up a slide on the PowerPoint presentation about all of the vitamins he takes, I couldn't write that fast but he did mention they were on the Oprah.com website. I will look them up later this afternoon and post it separately with a link to the site. One thing he did mention, and I was surprised at this one, is that everyone over 40 should be taking 2 baby asprin a day, I've been taking one for years now. I will check with my doctor on this, and you should too!

Honestly, I was just star struck and tickled that I got to see the presentation, I learned so much and I plan to go back and reread all of his books (most I have already read, but it's been a while). I enjoyed it both as a blogger on a health issue, and also just as a person who is trying hard to evolve from being part of the problem with our health care system (there's a joke) to being part of the solution.

As I posted before (quite excitedly) Dr. Oz took questions after he spoke, and I got the first question! Of course, I asked him how he felt about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. He said he absolutely supports it, and then went on to explain to the audience how bioidenticals differ from synthetic hormones, about the Women's Health Initiative study in 2002, and why he feels BHRT is safer than synthetic hormones. Since I estimate there were about 350-400 people in the room it was great to have so many more people hear a positive experience about BHRT. A terrific experience, and I'm happy I was able to take so many notes to share this post with you. Have a great day, everyone!