attention, millions of us take omega-3, fish oil, hoping it will protect against heart disease and mood and everything else. and, dr. siegel there is a new study that suggests maybe not for everybody? >> well, jamie, first of all, i want to start off by saying fish oil has proven benefits. we have been studying omega-3 fatty acids for a long time and know they help us with depression and know there is evidence they help with the heart an in fact there was a dramatic study in 1989, where people after they had a heart attack took a diet high in fish and literally had a 30% chance, less of dying over the next two years, very dramatic stuff. but, the question everyone out there has is, okay, i eat a lot of fish, two portion, the way you docs recommend but what about the fish oil supplements? and the problem there is, there is no proof that the fish oil su supplements, as opposed to gets it in your fish is the way to go and $1.1 billion last year were

spent in the u.s. on fish oil supplements alone. >> jamie: what! >> $1.1 billion. >> jamie: it is the first time we are hearing it isn't everything it is cracked up to be, because the fda doesn't regulate it. >> let me tell you why: the study is impressive and done, 16,000 people and looked at 20 other studies and it is convincing, that fish oil does not cut down the -- supplements don't cut down on your risk of heart stack, stroke or death and i don't throw this out but the question is, here's what they don't answer, are people in the study low in fish oil to begin with, high in fish oil, eating a lot of fish? you can't answer that he question. so i would say, since i actually use fish oil in people with high cholesterol, i use it as a supplement for certain reasons, for cholesterol specifically. i'm not opposed to fish oil supplements but i want there to be a reason. i don't want everyone on it and i want to know why you are on it and what is your reason. i have reasons. >> jamie: and your recommendation. >> i think it is a great study, jamie and it is in jama and

looking at 70,000 patients and you don't want to dismiss this and i'm glad, once in a while we test the supplements, because, as you said, they are not being regulated. having said that, i think, you cannot throw every recommendation we have given in the last two decades, fish oil as of today, still helps with heart, memory and everything else and let me put sense to this. omega-3 fatty acid is called essential fatty acid. why? because we don't make them and we absolutely need them. how do you get them, mostly from salmon and tuna and sardines and everything else an twice a week, having salmon should give you enough omega-3 and as a doctor i will tell you, there are two reasons why you take supplements, one is, if you are not getting enough. so, just because someone tells you you have to have supplements, you should not take it on a regular basis and the other thing is, supplements are sort of drugs and medications, because there are no prescriptions it doesn't mean that it will -- it will affect

your entire system and you have to be careful. the big message out there is, what type of omega-3 fatty acids we have, that is the big question and there are three types, dha, remember, dha and the other is epa, and those are the good ones. so if you want to get omega-3 fasas if -- fatty acids, get dha, which are long-chain fatty acids and what it want you to be concerned about, it can interfere with aspirin and we've talked about this and can cause bleeding and too much can cause bleeding, and it can increase your ldl or bad cholesterol. now, i want also people to know there are prescription medications, for treatment specifically for triglycerides, and, lobaza is a prescription marc and medical doctors write to treat triglycerides and another one is coming up, which is exciting called vestepa. >> eric: if you are taking them, should you keep on taking them and in general recommend people

do that? >> it is point for doctors to be involved, if your doctors thinks so -- and the dha an epa, that is what is in fish and know the good stuff is in the fatty fish we are talking about and the salmon and mackerel and the sardines, you get the good stuff there. >> jamie: always better in food. >> if possible. >> eric: especially it is grilled. and, people diagnosed with thyroid disease, they say 27 million americans have thyroid disease, and, 13 million are undiagnosed. dr. samadi, how do you find out whether you have thyroid disease or not? >> well, you may have some subtle symptoms. you may have a cough that doesn't go away or may be hoarse or have pain around your next and you go to the doctor and this examine you and find out there are nodules, half a million thyroid nodules are being diagnosed in america and what happens? they end up with the needle,

fine-needle aspiration and they get cells and if it happens to be cancer you go straight to the surgeon and they take the thyroid out and if negative they send you home and say come back next year for ultrasound, but 30% of those needle aspirations are either inconclusive or indeterminant and that is what we're talking about today. what happens to those patients? today they'd send them for surgery and the point is we are doing too many surgeries for thyroid nodules, and a lot of those surgeries are unnecessary, because there is no cancer there. now, the italian researchers, which is a -- the bulk of the story, we're talking about, came with the genetic markers, do you remember, yesterday we talked about genetic markers for autism? and this is the future of medicine. now, they have a panel of genes, things such as braf, or kit, what they are saying is, let's say your gene, kit is low and bras is normal, that patient most likely has cancer and one person should go for surgery and another person will go home and

we're cutting down on the number of surgeries and pick the ones with cancer. >> eric: what is thyroid disease and what does it do to you and how dangerous is it? >> it is based on something called the butterfly gland of the neck, the thyroid gland and makes thyroid hormone which is a metabolic hormone and gives you your energy and revs you up, if you don't have enough of it it slows you down. over 50 million americans, eric, have thyroid disease. the vast majority of low thyroid and are not making enough, you might be constipated, depressed, no energy, an intolerance to cold, losing your hair, like me, classic symptoms of low thyroid. 80% are women. 80% are women. women especially have to be on the lockout for this. there is a genetic pre-disposition and it tends to run in families and if you have a low thyroid, you can get thyroid replacement hormones. if you have a high thyroid, which is about 20, 30%, a little more problematic, in that case

you can have anxiety and a rapid heart rate and feel excess warmth and sweating. you go to your physician and they give you a medication, to slow your thyroid and it may even -- >> eric: and they check it when they go in for a check-up. >> i absolutely believe that. i check it on every patient who walks in the doctor. >> jamie: ask your doctor, you guys are big on the question for your physician. the fda warns certainly topical pain relievers are giving their patients serious skin burns. what products you need to watch out for, that is straight ahead on "sunday house call." ♪ [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing

the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. ♪ >> jamie: if you are one of the millions of americans who take ambien for a good night's sleep, some doctors are raising awareness about its side effect. just last week, news

correspondent tom brokaw made headlines when he was hospitalized for reportedly feeling lightheaded on set after taking ambien. dr. siegel, all of the fuss about the pills and people that rely on it and don't get sleep otherwise. what should they do? >> the story with tom brokaw put attention on this and i'm glad. the point -- and we made it in the previous segment. do you need these pills? what about your sleep hygiene? what else mighty be doing wrong? are you sleeping in a dark room, having caffeine, wine, alcohol before you go to sleep? what disciplines are you using to get yourself to sleep, on a regular basis? these drugs are supposed to be used on a short-term basis, but, a lot of people end up duusing them chronically, ambien, sunesta and a lot of studies show they don't extend sleep a half-hour longer than you thought and it takes about the same amount of time to fall asleep, whether you took these pills or not. now, they work for some people, jamie, they work for some people... but we are talking 60

million prescriptions written for these last year and they are sedative hypnotics and you can walk in your sleep... >> reporter: you can drive the car. >> and someone was cooking and don't know how they got to the stove. this is exactly why... >> jamie: why is that allowed and why is a drug on this market that could allow you to literally -- what if you smoke in your sleep and you light the house on fire? it seems dangerous. does it happen with the other sleeping medications, too. >> it happens with that group, yes. but i'm not saying -- i'm not saying the drugs shouldn't be on the market, i'm saying press are overprescribing them and it is something you have to watch carefully, and it should be for short-term use. >> jamie: what do you recommend to patients that say, dr. samadi, i'm exhausted and i can't get a good night's sleep. >> i had a lot of patients ask me, can i have a prescription for ambien and it is not an attack on ambien but i always hesitate taking the prescription pad and i'll talk to them to try to discourage them.

if you understand, how it works, and the fact that it works on the receptors in the brain, and slows down your entire central nervous system you wouldn't be really touching it as much, unless your doctor or you feel it is absolutely necessary. look, these medications can cause confusion and if you are going to take them, take them early on, so the effect of it wears off by the time -- >> jamie: how many hours is that? they say if you get however many hours sleep you wake up feeling completely refreshed. >> it stays in your system, 3-4 hours and if you take it at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, hopefully by the next day you should be fine but there's a lot of things to do before you take the medications, such as melatonin, which is, you know, something that comes from serotonin is the natural hormone you can take to sleep better. try it first and a lot of magnesium-ish diets, cashews, nuts are helping you with your sleep, and, so, i would try those. you know, we have talked about

tryptophan. turkey. you know? seafood, those have high tryptophan that helps with your sleep and i'd try those before you go to ambien. >> melatonin, if you are in a dark room and put a blindfold over your face you increase your own melatonin levels. without take it. >> a lot of things marc mentioned is critical. what we do is people go to the gym half-hour before going to sleep and have facebook and twitter on their lap before the and the lights are on, fixing a lot of these issues should give you some help with your sleep. >> eric: all right, doctors, hold on a second. breaking news, a "fox news alert," to tell you about... libya's president, reportedly now saying about 50 people so far have been arrested in connection with last week's assault on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. u.s. ambassador chris stevens as you know was among the four americans killed in the attack

and questions about whether it was spontaneous, because of the anti-muslim video or planned and he says, the suspects are actually from outside of his country and we'll stay on the star and bring you the latest developments through the next hour.

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>> eric: back with the doctors now, a major push this month to bring more attention to prostate cancer an psa testing. millions of americans are affected by the disease. dr. siegel spoke to the director of cancer therapy and research, at the center in san antonio, who says, quote: our most recent study suggests it may be possible that, through more frequent psa testing, we are seeing an improvement in the survival of men, who are found to have advanced prostate cancer. this could be occurring through early initiation of treatments that can slow down the rate of cancer growth. dr. samadi, that seems pretty good news, if we are having more psa testing? >> this has been a big controversy and a lot of debates because the government came back and said the psa doesn't really help and if you are a healthy man, psa should not be done -- screening should not be done and they did the same thing with mammograms and you saw what happened with the women organizations that came against

it and what we know is and i'm glad ian thompson made the comment about this, we know as urologists, psa reduced the rate of death over the last two decades and without alternative screening tests, and psa is the only test we have for prostate cancer putting our head in the sand and saying no screening is absolutely irresponsible and the other thing is, prostate cancer is known that's see yas the sil there are no symptoms and my recommendation to a lot of people is, get tested. that information is important and, it may give you the diagnosis of prostate cancer, but, just because you are being diagnosed, it doesn't mean you have to be overtreated and that is when you sit with your experts, with prostate cancer and decide if it is a slow-growing disease or an aggressive one, because it comes in different types of shapes and forms and what we have done for the month of september as a way to give back to the community, which i do every year, is anyone who is diagnosed with prostate cancer, send the information and

free of charge i'll study it and i will give them my own personal opinion about what to do. our way of giving back to the community and i know marc is involved in a lot of psa screening in his own practice. >> eric: marc, you should have the psa screening. >> jamie: what age. >> i feel strongly about this and september is prostate cancer awareness month and i'm doing a report and went to dr. samadi's o.r. and i have never seen a surgeon better than him. he uses the robot arms like avatar, like his own ended arms an operates fast, clean, such an incredible experience, even the producers were able to watch it, eric and not have to go. but, there is literally no blood loss. and the key is diagnosing it early. because, as dr. thompson said, 90% of the prostate cancer will -- you will diagnose it in advanced stages if you don't have the psa. what does that tell you? you need the psa which tells you something may be wrong with the prostate and you need digital

rectal exam and i do both, every year and, if i see a problem or observe a trend where the psa is rising, i send the patient to dr. smood samadi or a urologist the key is diagnosing early and what you do once you diagnose it is the next question, once you have it, you may decide to take it out. >> jamie: what age for a first psa, baseline. >> high risk, baseline, start at 40, and african-americans have high risk and every year you get the test and what is important, is psa, jamie stands for prostate-specific antigen, not prostate-cancer specific and many things such as enlarged prostate or in inflammation can increase your psa and there is no need to panic. you need the test and sit with your doctor and discuss it and it is good to get a second and third opinion. >> jamie: doctors, thank you. the month to be talking about it. all right, how about this: it ain't pretty when you get food poisoning, we'll tell you

about that. how to prevent it if eating at a restaurant. our doctors will be back in a moment with the answer. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way, right? lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. why they have a raise your rate cd.

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>> i assure you, this will never happen if you come to my house for dinner. but if you go to a restaurant, sometimes you can get food

poisoning. and you can be really, really sick. here's advice on how to prevent it. i wanted to make sure you didn't say "don't go to jamie's house." >> 76 million people in the united states get food poisoning. you know why? restaurants mainly. watch out for beef and poultry, that's number 1. leafy vegetable, then eggs and then tuna. you want to make sure -- do the smell test. how does it smell? if it's suppose the to be hot, is it warm or is it really hot? restaurants are supposed to freeze stuff and keep things really cold and when they cook, it it's supposed to be really hot. and cross contamination. i have had a lot of cases where people said, i have a po nut allergy, but i wasn't eating peanuts and how did i get an allergic reaction? restaurants have to make sure to keep their ingredients separate. same thing on the barbecue. we have said it before.

once you cook it, put it in another area than the raw food. keep the ib greed -- ingredients separate. >> i don't know about the smell test. but all the recommendations that marc just gave is what you can do as a consumer. but i think the restaurants have a responsibility to keep it clean. this cross concontamination is one thing. hygiene and hand washing is extremely important. 10% of the people who work in a restaurant come in with flu symptoms or sick and they pass it on to the consumer. you want to keep the garbage very clean in your kitchen. that's the big message. one thick, if you -- one trick, jinker tea is my favorite, it soothes and calms down your stomach. try this. >> if you see them making your food with their hand it's. >> walk out. >> don't eat the sandwich. >> you don't need to smell it. just walk out.