Monday, January 10, 2011

Controversial Monday: Dr. Oz

Is it just me or is anyone else getting sick to death of hearing this: "But Dr. Oz says..."? Since when did Dr. Oz become THE authority on health? Oh yeah, because Oprah endorsed him. Yes, he is a medical doctor with a PhD but he is also a television personality which makes his advice highly suspect to me. First of all, he has to watch what he says because of sponsors. In order for his television show to keep running he needs both to keep his viewers AND his sponsors happy which, in his case, means endorsing their products. Anyone seen a product with the "Endorsed by Dr. Oz" label lately? Hmmmmm?

Another thing that bothers me about Dr. Oz is what he does to get ratings. I haven't seen his show for quite a while but it seems like more often than not he is fear mongering over such silly things as dinner mints. Just Google "Dr. Oz and fear mongering" and you get tons of hits about people ranting over how he makes rare incidences into "epidemics." Yet another reason I don't like him is his overuse of that word. This is, of course, only my personal view point so if you like his show, good for you.

Personally I like to gather my health and nutrition information from a variety of sources. If those sources agree, back their statements up with well-performed scientific studies and make sense then I embrace them. That, however, takes a lot of time. Why go to all that work when you could just watch Dr. Oz?

3 comments:

  1. He's pro-circumcision. So right there, I have to mark him as highly questionable as a medical authority figure. I may not have done a ton of research on other areas that he talks about, but I HAVE researched that one, and he's dead wrong!!!

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  2. I only say him a handful of times... I don't really care for it at all. I just don't like the idea of a guy just handing out diagnoses and advice like friggin' peanuts to people with out really getting to know them personally. A tv personality can't be a personal doctor. it just doesn't work... you are very right. he has a lot more then likely has a lot on his mind besides what is best for his "patients" (aka audience). That to me is dangerous!

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  3. I watched that show "The Doctors" for a few weeks, but was consistently disappointed in it. I never watched Oz but seen him a couple of times on Oprah. I've actually never heard anyone say "But Dr. Oz says..." lol, he must have quite the following where you live. I agree with you, I like to go to multiple sources for information and embrace what really makes sense.

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