How to stay healthy, happy through the holidays

>>> with thanksgiving. dr. mehmet oz says it quarterback an important time of year to focus on your health.

>> good morning.

>> a lot like using the clocks to change your batteries in your clocks and smoke detectors. families getting together and now it's time to take stock of your health.

>> it will help their health and your health. the holidays fundamentally are about love. what a better way than to getting a little bit of a story.

>> get some information from your loved ones . got your family together. you think memory is something that can be very illuminating in terms of a person's overall health.

>> the memory is something we don't notice when it starts to fail. i'll give you a little quiz. a quiz i want everyone to do at home when they sit down for their thanksgiving meal. stuffing, tree, snow. three words. i'm not going to say it again. can't write them down. in a few minutes when we're done the segment, we'll quiz you. at home everybody does the same thing. five minutes, go back to see if they remember the three words.

>> again. if they don't remember the three words it's not the end of the world but it might send up a red flag .

>> should warn that you there's some kind of memory going on. at the end of the spectrum there ease alzheimer's. don't panic, enjoy the holidays. do one big thing make an important for your loved one if you sense there's a problem.

>> eyesight, something else can you test very easily, very important. do it at the holiday, how do we go about it, and why is it so important?

>> get a quarter inch tonight? pick an average paper, not the headline but the smaller sizes usually about a quarter inch. see that there. ask them from a ten foot distance. measure out ten feet, can they read that to you? if they can read that tow it indicates their eyesight is pretty reasonable. if they can't they are starting to lose their vision or could be things like glaucoma. when they can't see right they get disengaged from society.

>> get the less than desired result, take simple results?

>> an appointment with an ophthalmologist or ontition.

>> get someone to walk up the stairs.

>> my dad's test, use this all the time in my practice. ask people to walk up two flights of stairs. if you can not walk up two flights of stands without getting really winded, that's a big warning sign. another big test, a quarter mile test, big data on it.

>> and if you're exhausted after that it can tell you even that.

>> if you can't watch a quarter mile in five minutes, chance of being dead is 35% chances higher.

>> families being together is an important time to gather family medical history because that information can be incredibly valuable.

>> check each other out, gossip about family members. make sure they are blood relatives and make sure that you're looking for problems that occurred before age 65. those are the two big tests for family history . remember, it's the best way not to assess your genes but how your genes protect you in the environment.

>> ways to survive the holiday season . fight for sleep and stay one-handed.

>> have one hand free to shake hands so get to drink with the other hand or eat with the other but no two-fisted eating or drinking.

>> the quiz?

>> want to pay off the quiz.

>> what are the three words?

>> i remember the three words.

>> what are they?

>> stuffing, tree and snow. i was also about to cheat and scribble them down. i didn't. i'm very proud of myself. what's your name again?

>> dr. mehmet oz . thank you very much. happy holidays .

>> happy holidays .