The Doctors Are In: FAQs
Dr. Mike and Dr. Oz have started a health revolution—now "The YOU Docs" are answering your biggest health questions. Become the world expert on your body—live healthier today!

If you see these five ingredients in your food, run - don't walk away !

Learning how to read food labels is like looking at a prescription for your health and your life. Dr. Oz says to look for red-flag ingredients—if they're listed among the top five ingredients overall, steer clear!

Sugar When you eat or drink sugar, Dr. Oz says the sudden energy surge your body experiences is followed by an insulin surge that rapidly drops the blood sugar level—so two hours later, you feel famished and tired. To keep an even keel, Dr. Oz says to replace simple carbohydrates with complex ones so the absorption is more controlled and you experience long-term satiety. "Sugar is supposed to be eaten, of course," says Dr. Oz, "but it should come together with fat or some element like fiber—as you would find in fruit—so you can absorb it a bit more slowly."

High fructose corn syrup Although they taste sweet, Dr. Oz says food products that contain high fructose corn syrup should be avoided. Dr. Oz says the body processes the sugar in high-fructose corn syrup differently than it does old-fashioned cane or beet sugar, which in turn alters your body's natural ability to regulate appetite. "It blocks the ability of a chemical called leptin, which is the way your fat tells your brain it's there," says Dr. Oz. "It's not so much the 150 calories in the soda pop—it's the fact at that same meal you will normally consume an extra hundred calories of food than you would have."

Enriched wheat flour (white flour) Contrary to what its name suggests, Dr. Oz says enriched flour is actually poor in nutrition because most of the grain's nutrients are destroyed in the refining process. "The reason they enrich it is because they already stripped out anything that was worth a darn in it, and they add a little bit back so it doesn't look so bad," says Dr. Oz. Instead, he says to look for whole grains and whole grain flours. "It has its kernels, it has its B vitamins—all the things you want to be in there," says Dr. Oz.

Saturated fat Found mainly in animal products, Dr. Oz says to avoid saturated fats that are solid at room temperature, like lard. "You can actually use this kind of material for furniture polish—lots of fun things—but don't put it in you," he says.

Partially Hydrogenated oil (Trans Fat) To increase their shelf life, Dr. Oz says certain oils are hydrogenated. This process turns the oil into a solid at room temperature, but it also makes the oil unhealthy. "This stuff is great because it doesn't go bad, but it's very bad for you," says Dr. Oz. Avoid food products that contain hydrogenated oil, often labeled as "trans fats."

Q: What should my multivitamin contain?

A: Multivitamins are like fingerprints, dental records, and a rocker's tattoos; no two seem to be alike. So when you shop for a multivitamin, first read the label. The multivitamin should have the usual RDAs of vitamins and minerals. You need to supplement those amounts to reach the optimum level for each vitamin and mineral listed. Just print the list and take it with you when you go to buy your multivitamin.

Q: What supplements do you recommend?

A: Gone are the days when you could chew up a grape Fred Flintstone and be on your way. We know that trying to decipher information on vitamins can be harder than mustering a laugh during a B-level comedy. This chart will help you formulate the best dosages of each.

Vitamins	Recommendations *
A	No more than 2,500 IU
B6	4 mg a day
B12	25 mcg, in a supplement. (B12 in a supplement is absorbed much better than the B12 found in food)
C	400 mg a day three times a day (remember it's water-soluble, so you need several doses over the day). Reduce this to 100 mg a day from supplements if you're taking a statin drug (for example, Zocor, Lipitor, Pravachol, or Crestor)
D	400 IU a day if under age 60; 600 IU a day if 60 or over
E	400 to 800 IU a day (400 to 800 IU of mixed tocopherols is the form I favor). Reduce this to less than 100 IU a day from supplements if you're taking a statin drug
F (folate)	800 mcg a day (folic acid, folate, or folicin, sometimes listed as vitamin B9)
Thiamin	25 mg
Riboflavin	25 mg
Niacin	At least 30 mg a day, preferably more if you're taking a statin drug (check with your doctor)
Biotin	300 mg
Pantothenic acid	30 mg
Minerals
Calcium	600 mg twice a day (1,200 mg total a day for women)
Magnesium	400 mg a day
Selenium	200 mcg a day
Zinc	15 mg
Potassium	Four fruits plus a normal diet should do
Additional vitamin-like substances that might be taken daily
Lycopene	Ten tablespoons of tomato sauce a week (400 mg) should do it
Lutein	A leafy green vegetable a day (40 mg) should do it
Alpha lipoic acid	Not indicated by data yet, but if you want it, 400 mg a day
Acetyl-L-carnitine	Not indicated by data yet, but if you want it, 1,500 mg a day
Coenzyme Q10	Add 200 mg if you're taking a statin drug. Make sure your multivitamin contains less than 2,500 IU (less than 1.6 mg) of vitamin A, because too much vitamin A or beta-carotene ages you.

* IU is the abbreviation for International Units; mcg is the abbreviation for micrograms; mg is the abbreviation for milligrams.

Q: What can I do to feel younger?

A: You mean besides wearing your pants real low and downloading Ludacris to your iPod? We recommend the following steps. Take these actions now, and you'll live younger, healthier and happier.

Hoof it. Start walking regularly, every day. Start small, like 10 minutes a day and build about 20 percent more every week—12 minutes, then 14 minutes—for three weeks, and then 10 percent every week thereafter. Don't over do it, but don't make excuses. If it's raining, go to the mall. If you're too busy at work, go to the bathroom at the far end of the building. Walk, walk, walk. Build up to 30 minutes a day.

Be a dumbbell. Or at least use one. After walking 30 minutes a day for 30 days, keep doing it—but then get instruction about how to do weight training. It'll make your muscles and bones stronger. (Even 103-year-old people can learn to lift soup cans.)

Kick butt. Avoid smoking—and second-hand smoke.

Relax. Learn a stress control technique, like yoga, meditation, or deep breathing. (Ripping through Bob's Big Buffet like a tornado doesn't count as stress relief.)

Add nutrients. Take the right vitamins—especially folate (800 mcg a day), B6 (8 mg a day) and B12 (800 mcg a day), plus an RDA or DV multivitamin a day without iron.

Lower your BP. Talk to your doctor about getting your blood pressure down if it's not about 115/75. Add four fruits and five vegetables a day, and 600 mg of calcium and 200 IU of vitamin D and 200 mg of magnesium twice a day, or blood pressure control pills. Decrease salt intake as much as possible by not eating packaged or prepared foods.

Ask about the almighty pill. Talk to your doc about two baby or half-a-full aspirin a day (162.5mg ) with a glass of water (1/2 glass of warm water before and after). (See more below.)

Eat your plaque out. That is, in the form of:

• 4 fruits/5 vegetable handfulls daily;

• 1 handful of nuts daily—that is 12 walnuts, 24 almonds or 40 peanuts; and

• 14 ounces of fish every week. The mercury- and PCB-free fish are salmon (Atlantic or Alaskan, line-caught), freshwater bass, catfish, flounder/sole, herring, mahi-mahi, tilapia and whitefish.

Get control of your cholesterol. Talk to your doc about starting a statin if you have an elevated LDL (lousy) cholesterol, or if you are over 60. Also consider Coenzyme Q10 (200 mg 3 times a day).

Enjoy your joints. (Not that kind, mon.) For arthritis prevention, make sure you get 600 mg of calcium and 500 mg of vitamin C twice a day, and 400 IU of vitamin D a day plus 400 mg of magnesium.

Exercise your mind. New studies by the NIH found that you can re-grow neurons and increase all neuron function if you push and test your brain to its limits. It's called "pushing the threshold"—and you can do it with things that challenge your brain like bridge, math problems, mah jong, crosswords, or trying to figure out what the heck Bob Dylan is trying to say.

Q: At what age do you recommend one starts daily aspirin therapy?

A: For typical men (*), the benefits of taking 162 mg of aspirin a day exceed the risks at age 35. For typical women, the benefits exceed the risks at age 40.

*By typical men, we don't mean those who grab the remotes, watch Monday Night Football, and flick through the channels while their wives are talking. Typical men or women refer to those with average family medical histories and average risks of heart attacks, strokes, colon cancer, breast and prostate cancer.

Q: When is the best time to take the aspirin dose? Is it okay to take with other vitamins, with food or on an empty stomach?

A: Theoretically, the best time to take aspirin is with your evening meal, because most heart attacks and strokes occur in the early morning. But we have no data that really indicates that the theory works. It's best to take it with a glass of water or with food. Drinking a half glass of warm water before you take it and a half glass after helps relieve potential gastrointestinal side effects sometimes associated with aspirin. Take the half aspirin when you are most likely to remember to take it.

Q: Why can't you take aspirin and ibuprofen in the same 24 hours?

A: The research doesn't show for sure, but when you take these two painkillers together, they cancel out the beneficial anti-aging effects each has separately. We think it has to do with the fact that they act a little like security guards—blocking each other from physically getting to the place where the benefit occurs.

: Why 162 mg of aspirin and not 81 mg of aspirin per day?

A: Like they say in Vegas, it's all about the odds. When you take 162.5 mg or greater of aspirin, you reduce your arterial aging by 36 percent. With 82 mg, the reduction is 13 percent. Since the side effects are just a little greater with 162.5 mg, the risk benefit is much better with 162.5 mg. We'll take those odds every time.

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