I work late and tend toward staying up late on nights I don’t work and my TV only gets a couple channels so there’s not a lot of other options of things to watch late at night (the local station reruns his shows after Kimmel). I think I hate it, sometimes I will switch to an infomercial or just go to bed rather than watch the guy.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, should I hate him or the show? He seems like an okay guy but I get the feeling the show is just trying to shock or scare people. Sometimes he picks conditions to showcase that are rare so it’s not likely he’s going to help someone with that condition but they are shocking so it’s fair game. When he does talk about common conditions his information seems all too brief, incomplete and a chance for product placement. Example, a segment on dry winter skin included plugging a name brand moisturizer we had just seen a commercial for prior to the segment because Surprise! they’re a sponsor.
An example of too brief info was a recent segment about using a neti pot to help allergy symptoms, he only said use warm salty water, no mention of how much salt or adding bicarbonate. It seemed more important to gross out the soap star guest by having her pour the neti through his nose while the audience laughed and applauded. He didn’t really discuss the proper procedure or other things the neti is helpful for, such as sinus problems.
He loves making people put on gloves and handle diseased body parts, which again is shock value because it’s not necessary, pictures of a cirrhotic liver might be more impressive than an old dried out preserved specimen. These specimens really aren’t going to mean anything to non-medical people.
Women seem to get all silly and act like he’s a rock star or something and I just don’t see it I understand he’s been touched by Oprah so that may be part of the appeal. So am I wrong, is he just a good guy trying to help people or is he just sensationalizing things to make a buck?
Dr. Oz is actually pretty knowledgeable; I’ve read his articles in various magazines, some serious, some fluff rags, including O mag (owned by Oprah), and he goes into good detail at the layman’s level, but without dumbing down. I bought his book “You on A Diet” and credit its info for helping me lose 80 some lbs. I’ve gotten some good nutritional info from him, but as to be expected for a TV talk show, I think there is a lot of pressure to make it ‘watchable’ (thus dumbed down). Hence the TV/movie stars and various famous guests: this is needed to rake in viewership and ratings. Plus, I think the show is produced by Oprah, or at least her Harpo company, so you have that factor. :dubious:
Yes, I meant to add that I think he does some good. He’s had many people on that he has helped lose weight. I also have You On A Diet but promptly lost the book after a couple chapters so I can’t comment on it. But the dumbing down/sensationalizing stuff really bugs me, maybe because I expect better of him.
And then there’s the stuff like his wife writing a book on marriage and him promoting it on his show and going around to other talk shows with her. I’m not sure what her qualifications are other than being married to him for 20-some years but if it could stand on it’s own merits shouldn’t she be able to promote it without him tagging along?
I believe I read that his wife is also into various types of woo, including acupuncture, which has no demonstrated scientific efficacy for healing any medical condition.
Surprising a guy as well educated as he would include such treatments alongside the usually pretty good advice he dispenses.
His dedicated Oprah segments were much better, he was very good at condensing health science into tight useful segments.
His show, however, is awful and I’ve stopped watching after a half-dozen or so. I blame the producers (though I don’t know how much direct control they have). It is all about playing gross-out with housewives, and contains almost zero substantive information.
The neti pot description earlier was spot on. I also remember one segment about “ewww…gross!” bowel movements. He had women come up on stage and pour simulated poop into simulated toilets to ooh and ahh over. Not once did he talk about what health risks you should look for, what medications affect your stool, what diseases, etc.
And this may be the Oprah demographic effect, but it seems a bit condescending toward women in general, with an implicit assumption that the typical american is a bashful, squeamish, uneducated housewife. I may be reading too much into it though.
I Tivo his show every day, and let it play while I’m doing something else. Sometimes I sit and watch a segment that interests me.
There’s no doubt the man is knowledgeable in many areas of medicine. But don’t forget, this is daytime tv with a demographic of stay-at-home moms, so tends to be somewhat condescending and sensationalized.
And I agree, he was much better on Oprah, where he could devote an entire show to one subject. Now, he doesn’t have time for anything in-depth, especially when he’s taking questions from the audience. Many times he doesn’t have time to actually answer the question.
And one thing I hate, that isn’t his own fault: They have that big screen in the back of the stage, where they show graphics, which are sometimes rather technical. So do they zoom in on it, so we can actually see the graphics? No, they give us a view of the entire stage, so we can watch the backs of Oz and his person from the audience, watching the screen.
And there’s something I’d love to see, just once: He picks someone from the audience and gives her a big hug and kiss . . . then she slaps his face.
For what it’s worth, we had to have a lecture on Acupuncture and other types of remedies in medical school, and though I was a pretty big anti-home remedy sort of person before that lecture, it softened me slightly.
Basically the point of the lecture was “do no harm”, and for the most part as long as you (as the physician) warn the patient about the scientific merits or lack of, of a treatment, and emphasize still continuing with their medical treatments, then for the most part, you should just leave those things be.
If anything, it’ll at least offer a slight placebo effect, and if it helps the patient while the patient still continues his medical treatment, then there is no harm, and you’ve fulfilled your role as the patient’s advocate. Now whether or not, you believe a physician’s role is to try to concern themselves with what products a patient chooses to spend their money on is another matter (ie: trying to take the stance that these various treatments are wrong simply because they’re taking the patient’s money away).
So I can better understand now the whole “letting the woo slide” issue in medicine. As long as he doesn’t preach woo over medicine, and he points out that there may or may not be any scientific recorded benefits to it, it’s pretty much kosher to let the patient to compliment their treatment with alternative therapeutic options. The main concerns are when they start taking medications or herbal supplements that may cause health problems or interact with their actual treatment that it becomes a health concern. But in general, crystal healing, homeopathic medicine, and acupuncture if they’re used while still following all the patient’s regular medical advice- there’s not as much of a harm there.
The problem is when you start having the people quit their statins and diuretics and believe that homeopathy is the ONLY thing they need to fix what ails them. That’s the sort of areas that we’re encouraged to step in and advise against.
Otherwise, if it doesn’t harm the patient, just let it be.