Dr. Oz Is In
After dispensing health advice on The Oprah Winfrey Show for the past five years, Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. is opening his own practice: The Dr. Oz Show. The talk show, which starts September 14, will cover health and wellness topics and include a segment called “Ask Dr. Oz.” As a warm up, Dr. Oz answered questions from Parent & Child readers.
Between caring for my toddler, working from home, and trying to spend time with my husband, I don’t get enough sleep. What’s the best way to catch up?
Allison M., Poulsbo, WA
Dr. Oz: It’s not always easy, but napping when your child naps is the obvious answer. Find a cool, quiet, dark room. Darkness cues the pineal gland in the brain to secrete melatonin, which you need for deep, restorative sleep. If you’re significantly deprived, try to nap for about 90 minutes—a full sleep cycle. Getting extra rest within the week helps, but you need 7 hours of sleep a night at a minimum.
After I had my son, my sex drive disappeared. Three years later, it still hasn’t returned. How can I get back to normal?
Denise D., Winter Garden, FL
Dr. Oz: Start by communicating with your husband. Sometimes men feel there’s a taboo about going there again after their wife has a child, and sometimes women, if they haven’t lost the baby weight, don’t feel desirable. Either way, you need to build intimacy before you build sexuality. Find ways of showing your love for each other without having to perform, like loving massage. Also, get your thyroid hormones checked. Inadequate thyroid levels can drain your energy for sex. If you don’t feel like it emotionally, try it anyway—having sex begets more desire.
To get a good complexion, which is more important: what you eat or what you put on your skin?
Kim C., Honolulu, HI
Dr. Oz: Other than sunblock, which trumps all, what you eat is more important. Your face is a mirror of your inner health, which includes your nutrition. Biotin, a B vitamin that’s found in green vegetables, legumes, soybeans, and nuts, improves skin elasticity and dry skin. Salmon is wonderful for your skin. The chemical that gives it its pink color improves the skin’s elasticity. The oil in pomegranate seeds helps to prolong the life of the cells that make elastin, also improving skin. If you’re going to use a cream, it needs to have vitamin A (Retin A), C, or E in it. Put sunblock on in the morning and then vitamin cream on your skin before you go to bed.
I feel like I have very little energy. Could vitamin B-12 help?
Connie R., Palm Coast, FL
Dr. Oz: Yes. If your vitamin B-12 level gets too low, you end up with anemia, which will make you feel tired. B-12 is available only from animal sources, so if you’re not eating enough of the right kind of animal protein, you won’t get much naturally. Also, a few minor problems in your stomach could interfere with your ability to absorb it. There are two ways to get B-12: A lozenge that goes under your tongue or a shot. Obviously the lozenge is easier.
My doctor recommended I use an intra-uterine device (IUD) because a hormone-based birth control raises my blood pressure. Is it safe?
Donnah F., Clovis, CA
Dr. Oz: The IUD is a good contraceptive with a bad reputation in some countries. A big misperception is that it prevents the egg from implanting. That’s not true. It actually prevents the sperm from getting to the egg. The Copper T IUD is safe and reversible and offers 10 years worth of protection against pregnancy. It has a 99 percent success rate and has a lower rate of complications than hormonal methods. (But neither it nor the pill protect against STDs.) With an IUD, it’s not uncommon in the first few months to have bleeding and some cramping between your menstrual cycles, but it almost always gets better. The chances of having to take it out are very small.
Melissa W., Florence, KY
Dr. Oz: Don’t worry about the weight, worry about the waist. Fat thighs are not going to cost you any years of life. A fat belly will. You want your waist to be less than half your height. We tell people 30 minutes of walking a day is the best way of losing weight because you’ll do it every day, but at some point if you want to keep losing weight, you have to build muscle, because when you walk you only burn calories while you’re walking. When you lift weights you continue to burn calories after you’re done, as the muscle rejuvenates itself.
