DoctorOz: Summer Health Myths Busted! Sunscreen, Jellyfish & Mosquitoes

Hi everybody, today we are busting the biggest summer health myths. Now first I asked lifeguards from coast to coast the biggest summer myths they hear around the water. I've got a perfect person to talk about it. Please welcome first place winner, first place of the National Lifeguards Surf Race, Tom O'Neill. Straight from the competition. Yeah, right out of the water. How do you actually win? What are you racing? You save people's lives? Well, sort of. We simulate saving people's lives. But the race that I won is called the Men's Open Surf Race. It was the 2014 USLA National Championships which were held in Virginia Beach. And it's just a great venue for lifeguards to showcase our skills and fitness level. They don't care about it. The audience cares about this, by the way. Oh, sorry. Thanks. You can talk about all those skills stuff. Alright, so let's go through this because you guys know a lot about summer myths. The number one myth that everyone is talking about is one you probably hear at the beach or the pool. Which is? Absolutely. So, Dr. Oz, the biggest myth is waiting 30 minutes after you eat to go swimming. That's the number one thing. Parents are yelling at their kids all summer about this. So, who perpetuates this myth? Where does it come from? Moms and grandmoms. They're the ones yelling at this at the kids all summer long. Without stop. So, here's the deal. Waiting 30 minutes after eating is a myth. It's a myth. You can swim afterwards. It's not a big deal to go swimming. Explain, if you don't mind, what you guys learned in lifeguard school about this myth. Sure. So, in lifeguard training, they told us that nothing is going to happen. In my experience, nothing has ever happened from something like this. In all of my colleagues' experiences, nothing has ever happened like this. So, moms, rest assured, it's okay. You might get a leg cramp here and there, but it's not taking you down. Alright, next thing that a lot of swimmers believe has to do with these guys. Look at these folks. Do you recognize these things? Ooh, jellyfish. And here's the thought. Are we better off peeing on a jellyfish? I don't know. Sounds crazy. Denise, please join us. Denise, how are you? Hi, Dr. Oz. Can I be a hug? Yes, you can. I would love to hear your story. You've actually had a little bit of personal experience with this concept. I have. My husband and I were vacationing in Mexico, and unbeknownst to me, I was stung by a jellyfish. And then? And it was so painful, Dr. Oz, right here on my shin. And my husband saw an episode of Friends and indicated that urinating on the sting would obliterate the pain. You all remember that episode of Friends, right? It started a major movement. So he actually peed on your leg. He did. And you let him pee on your leg. And I let him pee on my leg. And it did not work at all. It burned. It even burned even more. It stung. It raised. It was just very, very painful. Have you gotten them back for this at all? I have. You have. Many, many times. So here's the deal. Peeing on a jellyfish, my friends, it's a myth. It's a myth. Now, you actually know a little bit about this. You've been stung. I understand. Yes, absolutely. So would you like to see the jellyfish sting? Do you want to see a sting? I'll hold your broom for you. All right. Thank you. I knew this was going to happen. While competing in Japan on an international trip, I was stung by a jellyfish, and it actually left a burn mark, a scar on my arm. Did you pee on that? No, I didn't. No, I didn't. So what should Denise and all the other... Here, use this on your husband. Yes, absolutely. What should you use instead of pee? So fortunately, the lifeguards there were equipped, as we are here at home. The first thing you want to do is you want to get out of the water. Immediately get out of the water, and you want to wash the affected area off with salt water, warm salt water. That will alleviate the pain and deactivate the stinging cells, rather than using urine or tap water or fresh water. That can reactivate the stinging cells. What do you think people are saying to you right now about that? What was she thinking? I'm getting sweaty talking about it. Right. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you very much. Tom, thank you so much. Thank you. Well, listen, I want you to pay attention to the inside scoop of your favorite summer treat. One thing we hear a lot from ice cream lovers is that they get brain freeze. Well, guess what? Brain freeze is not a myth. It's not your imagination. Even the brains at Harvard Research have found that it's a real thing. What happens is when the nerves of your tongue touch the cold, your blood vessels expand and it triggers a pain message in your brain. I don't know about you, but I thought that was a pretty cool explanation. You didn't get it. Cool. Anyway, next, hold up the summer product that you pay for every year. Let me see it all up there. What do you guys pay for every single year? Yes. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. What's your first name? Christina. Christina, come stand if you don't mind. So, here's the big idea. How long should we keep that sunscreen before we toss it? I tend to toss it every year. Every year? Yes. Is that what you guys sort of do yearly? Yes. Makes sense, right? It's a cream. All right. Everybody, that, my friends, the concept of throwing out sunscreen every year is a myth. Stamp it myth. It's a costly myth. I want to talk you out of it. Have a seat. You're going to enjoy this. You're going to save a lot of money today. Dermatologist Debra Wattenberg is here. So, why is this a myth? This is a myth because sunscreens actually have an expiration date printed on them. And the shelf life of most sunscreens is two to three years. Did you hear that? Two to three years. They make you mad. It could be yours. So, sunscreens are tested for their stability. You want to be sure that you store your sunscreen in a safe environment, not in the back of your car for the whole year. Then it's going to be bad. You want to throw it away. If you leave it next to the heater in your bathroom, it's not going to be great. But if you're storing it in a cool, dark environment through the winter and then it's still there over the summer, you can use it. The bigger issue is, though, you need to use approximately the size of a shot glass in order to cover your body when you are applying an SPF. So, one bottle is around four ounces. Some of them are a little bit bigger, but if it's four ounces, you're only getting approximately four applications worth of sunscreen. And as you can see, that's a lot of sunscreen to apply. So, the bigger issue for people is to remember you need to apply it. You want to apply it onto your skin before you go outdoors, at least 20 minutes before heading outside. And you want to apply it thick so that you get the SPF that's applied or recognized on the bottle. So, if you don't get this much use in the summer, we've got a separate issue for you. Thank you very much for the tip. Correct. All right. I have one more question. Yeah. I hear about this, but people always say, I'll get a pre-tan. Okay. I'll just go out and get a little bit of sun, but I won't burn. And then that smart base tan will protect my skin. So, there is no such thing as a healthy base tan. Can we stamp with a myth? Is that right? Absolutely a myth. Base tan myth. Not a smart way. What does it really do? A base tan gives you a false sense of security. It makes you think that you have a little bit of color and therefore you can go out. You know, maybe it's the equivalent of a sunscreen SPF of a 2 or 3, but that's nothing and it's not healthy for your skin. So, it's giving you a false sense of security. You go outdoors, you burn when you have a base tan. You also are destroying your skin. And if you look at the picture that's on the screen, you can see this woman has a base tan. But the damage that has been done on the right side of that screen shows that she has hyperpigmentation, discoloration, and damage. The damage to those cells is DNA damage and the cells are being destroyed. Increased risk for skin cancer. Increased risk for wrinkling and aging. And everyone's wearing sunscreen so that they look young and they look beautiful. If you do that, you get a base tan, you're going to look terrible. Thank you very much. All right. Let me go to Ivory and her husband, Kerry. They believe the sweeter your blood, the more bugs will bite you. How are you, Ivory? I'm good. I'm fine. Are you wearing ivory? I know. She's wearing ivory, too. Yes, I am. So what gives you this belief that it's a sweetness issue that attracts those mosquitoes to you? Well, I'm always getting bit by mosquitoes like the eyes while my husband, he's never getting bit. He says it's because I'm sweet, which he's a smart man. I really am. He's a very, very smart man. But it's very irritating. They bite me. It's itchy. It's scratchy. And he never gets bit. So I'm going to share something with you. A lot of people think what you're saying is true. But the thought that you're sweeter and therefore the mosquitoes like you is actually a myth. That's not why they're eating at you. There's another reason they are. They actually are attracted to your body odor. Really? Yeah. Think about that. It's our odor they like. Kerry, do you think your wife smells? All the time. No questions asked. Does she smell good or bad? Good. Just making sure. Absolutely. Of course he's going to say that. But it's interesting. That's not the smell I'm talking about. There's actually a smell that we can't appreciate, the mosquito's sense. And when they get that smell, they just go after it. So besides individual odors, there are things, for example, like mint. You have a mint julep, for example, here. This will attract mosquitoes to you. They love perfume. So that might be a difference. Do you wear perfume? No. Yeah. Just asking. So perfume, unfortunately, women think it's bad luck. When you put perfume on and it smells good for everybody else in the place, you're also smelling better for the mosquitoes. And cheese, interestingly. So if you're putting cheese on something else or you're cooking and you get an onion, they're going to like that. OK. So you're probably wondering, what am I going to do about this? Exactly. So here's what you're going to do about it. I have something for you to pack on your next barbecue. It is grapes. Grapes. Oh. But here's why I love grapes so much. It turns out that mosquitoes detest the smell of grapes. Really? They can't stand it. They run away. You could actually put this, like citronella, around the dinner table and it'll help steer those little things away. And you certainly can smear it on you a little bit if you get it wrong. And unfortunately, and here's the only catch, wine doesn't count. Right? You would think wine will get you there, but there's something about the sugar in the wine or something's throwing you off. I don't know what it is, but they don't like that. OK. But grapes themselves, real grapes will work. OK. Awesome. Because I can go outside and keep track of everybody else. You're very suave and debonair. Thank you. Well stated. You can test your summer myth knowledge with my quiz on Dr. Oz.com. We'll be right back. 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.