Slate Hammers The Great Dr. Oz
Here is a recent article on Slate that absolutely slams Dr. Oz. Basically, it gives examples of how he turns little scientific studies, discoveries or anomalies into massive trends. The problem is that most of these recommendations may be BS. I recommend you read it because it makes some great points. The bottom line is that Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon who caught Oprah’s eye with a new book. That led to a spiral of success and a talk show for middle-aged women. His entire show is geared around making them happy and to do that he has to sell a little of his soul. Such is Hollywood. The problem with that is that he now has too much power. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Why he doesn’t walk and take his integrity with him is beyond me? I am sure he has made enough money.
Oh, and one more thing. He has always seem like a big douche to me. Just had to throw that in.
Dr. Doug,
Totally agree with all the negative comments about the great and powerful Oz. I’d throw in the abominable Dr. Phil, another Oprah promotion, and Andrew Weil as other self-aggrandizing frauds. A friend I met at a skeptics convention who’s an expert in quackery said that Weil was witnessed eating crappy food like the rest of us at a meeting!
I just want to know why after having therapeutic and positive relationships with people for years, they choose to believe Dr. Oz over what I tell them. Amazing.
While I don’t agree with everything Oz says, and I hated the earlier shows where the middle-aged women ran up and fawned all over him, he is doing a lot of good by directing folks away from the narcs, benzos, and corticsteroids that are way over prescribed [and as seen above in the narc case, with no or minimal scientific evidence to prove long-term safety and lot of it to prove long-term toxicity] . Hope he continues to be a breath of fresh air! Go ahead and tell me I’m nuts. That’s what they told me over thirty years ago when I refused to play the narc game and I got the last laugh [actually don’t know whether to laugh or cry] on that one.
Doug, “you have balls as big as church bells.” I would have to have quite an amount of alcohol to just throw in a douchebag comment like that. “Oh, by the way…” I’m still laughing.
It’s a gift.
Pat – my middle-aged (Mercer County Republican Committee Representative) wife LOVES your response!
Dr Oz should be struck by lightning. But don’t dis middle-aged women.
Dr. Oz-hole is a bag of used douche fluid who has used his position to spread errors and misinformation to his profit and patients detriment… he should have his license revoked.
The James Randi Educational Foundation, a great group that promotes critical thinking and exposes scientific fraud and quackery, has been chasing after Mehmet Oz for years. In 2010 and 2011, JREF gave him one of its “Pigasus” awards, “bestowed on the most deserving charlatans, swindlers, psychics, pseudo-scientists, and faith healers—and on their credulous enablers.”
“The Media Pigasus Award goes to Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has done such a disservice to his TV viewers by promoting quack medical practices that he is now the first person to win a Pigasus two years in a row. Dr. Oz is a Harvard-educated cardiac physician who, through his syndicated TV show, has promoted faith healing, ‘energy medicine,’ and other quack theories that have no scientific basis. Oz has appeared on ABC News to give legitimacy to the claims of Brazilian faith healer ‘John of God,’ who uses old carnival tricks to take money from the seriously ill. He’s hosted Ayurvedic guru Yogi Cameron on his show to promote nonsense ‘tongue examination’ as a way of diagnosing health problems. This year, he really went off the deep end. In March 2011, Dr. Oz endorsed ‘psychic’ huckster and past Pigasus winner John Edward, who pretends to talk to dead people. Oz even suggested that bereaved families should visit psychic mediums to receive (faked) messages from their dead relatives as a form of grief counseling.”
Oprah seems to be able to sell anything though, doesn’t she?? For example – a psychologist who lost his license in his state to practice psychology is now practicing nationally on TV – thanks to Oprah. A woman with no formal training in food or food safety or nutrition – is a cook on national TV selling her stuff – thanks to Oprah. A book that was portrayed as a true story – then “outed” as pure fiction – still got sold – thanks to Oprah. On and on….thanks to Oprah. What does she hold over people?
Could never figure out why he wears scrubs on a TV show. So he doesn’t get blood on his clothes if someone messes up a pedicure? Or he just doesn’t want to transfer TV set germs home. Or why any doctor has to wear a white coat on a TV set. Those trapping originally had a medical purpose, not props.
Oz certainly represents my estimation of the intellect of a great many middle-aged women. That demographic’s voting trends confirms the diagnosis.