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Get Answers from Dr. Oz
We collected health and wellness questions and chose a selection for the doctor to answer.
Please note: If you have an urgent issue — or an emergency — please consult your own doctor.
Q: You recommend in your book that a person try yoga. How do you go about finding a good yoga class? Are there different yoga "styles"?
A: There are many different yoga styles, the range of which is too complicated to review here. The key is to take deep breaths and recognize you only need to push yourself to your comfort level. Being looser does not give you more points. Rather, doing the poses daily is more critical. Yoga is great for Americans because you can meditate to the sensations of your own body and prevent the always-wandering mind from stopping the deep relaxation.
Q: My question deals with body scans. I have been reading a lot about them recently. Some say they are excellent detectors of disease, and others say they are a waste of money. What's your take?
A: Body scans can be valuable in detecting unrecognized disease, but they also open a can of worms when doctors are forced to search for ailments that might not be present. I prefer to use these as a wake-up call if a person does not realize that they are abusing themselves.
Q: What is the best treatment for acne scars? Which treatment is used most often? Which treatment gives the best results?
A: There are several treatments for acne scarring, none of which are completely effective. The gold standard of care for skin "pitting" or multiple small craters in the face and forehead is dermabrasion. This is a technique in which the skin is essentially sanded down under local anesthesia (usually with sedation) using a spinning mechanical brush. This procedure evens out the skin and makes the deep pits less noticeable.
A second option is the laser, which evens the skin out using high-energy light. Chemical peels are typically not effective because they do not penetrate to a depth sufficient to cause a noticeable difference. One prerequisite prior to any of these treatments is control of active acne. Control of the sebaceous secretions onto the skin can be achieved using various topical and/or oral medications, such as Retin-A, Accutane, topical antibiotics, salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide.
Q: I have asthma and my doctor has me on Advair twice a day. My husband and I like to do things the natural way, and I am wondering how I can control my asthma without using drugs.
A: Dr. Oz answers with help from Dr. Paul Simonelli of Columbia Presbyterian's John Edsall/John Wood Asthma Center: Asthma and symptoms of asthma are highly individualized, so there are no pat approaches to treating it. Therapy requires a detailed evaluation, followed by a long period of getting to know each patient's specific asthma patterns. Asthma therapy can be tailored to best suit an individual, and can include various nonmedical approaches. But until this level of understanding can be achieved, therapy should rely on more conventional or proven therapies, such as Advair.
Nonmedical measures, such as learning which environmental factors act as triggers for one's asthma, should always be part of the therapy as well. It also helps to better control one's microenvironment, such as by cleaning often and controlling dust.
I don't have specific knowledge about herbal or non-allopathic medications that may be beneficial in the treatment of asthma. I doubt that many of us do. It would probably be fine to experiment if the asthma is very mild. For more severe asthma, I would hesitate to advocate unconventional or "natural" approaches to therapy, particularly as a first approach.
Q: There are many products for the skin that contain vitamins. One can also ingest vitamin supplements. Which is of greater benefit to the skin: vitamins that are applied directly to the skin via lotions or vitamins taken orally?
A: Skin vitamins are very controversial. Few agents penetrate the stratum corneum layer of the dermis. Virtually none of the "magic creams" can do this, and therefore they cannot deliver many of the potentially important vitamins or any other medications to the deep tissues. There are a few exceptions, but this is generally the rule. New technologies like microneedles may change this dynamic.
Q: How important is posture and how do I improve my posture?
A: Maintaining correct posture is HARD work. Pretend you have a string attached to your head and allow the string to pull your entire spine to the sky. The feeling is energizing initially, but after a while the muscles surrounding your spine will begin to falter. Keep taking slow deep breaths as you practice keeping your shoulders and torso held high. You will feel taller because, in fact, you are!
Q: You have repeatedly said that everyone should drink eight glasses of water a day. Does it have to be all water or can it include milk, tea, sport beverages and coffee?
A: The fluid need not all be water, but few other beverages can compete with the purity and safety of water. Carbonated beverages can theoretically leach calcium from your bones. Caffeinated beverages drug you into a synthetic sense of hyperactivity. But the biggest culprit is sugar, which is endemic in our sports and soft drinks. Even fruit drinks are not as good as the original fruit, which contains fiber.
Q: I am 11 years old and I am extremely interested in science. I understand that a vaccine is a substance of weakened germs. I would like to know why scientists can't just weaken cancer germs or HIV germs and inject them into a person and hallelujah, we're immune.
A: We respond to infections in many subtle ways and the ability of science to emulate these natural pathways is a major frontier of medicine. The dangerous viruses survive because they are able to outsmart our natural defenses. Often a virus hides inside our own cells so our circulating immune cells cannot locate the pathogen. Alternatively, the cell looks so much like our own (as in cancer) that our immune system cannot tell the difference. Nevertheless, immune therapy for ailments like cancer are the most promising approaches to intelligently fight off life-threatening ailments.
Q: Vitamins and supplements are confusing to me. You sometimes recommend as much as 1,000 mg of Vitamin C. I take a daily all-purpose multivitamin. It says a dose of 60 mg is 100 percent of what an adult female should have. This sounds like a big difference. Can I get too much of a good thing?
A: The formal recommendations are required to prevent basic malnutrition ailments. But many believe that higher doses of some micronutrients like Vitamin C can enhance health. The discrepancy explains these confusing recommendations.
