Dr Oz...Come On People, Please Wake Up!!!

Your post made me realize something. I really don't know the people on these boards. I'm only assuming they are people similar to myself. I searched online "Dr Oz review of RNY gastric surgery" and found much to read including many people who liked it, those that thought it was OK but wished he covered more about it, and a few who hated it. I wonder if these boards assist some in creating attitudes of superiority that no one in today's media could possible do justice the right way to RNY. Should we listen only to these boards? Is there anyone out there in the media land of TV who can put a show on about RNY that most here would like? I doubt it.

I put blame elsewhere about Dr Oz's show. Being a teacher now (taught since 1990 part-time but now full time), I notice that as a society our attention spans are so incredibly short (for many reasons but especially being "electronically wired") that TV shows rarely can go into a topic but for a few seconds or minutes and then must jump to the next topic. It's go, go, go but not because we are fast learners but because we, I'm speaking in general, are too easily distracted and bored. I believe the producers of nearly all TV shows have modified the formats into this fast paced, glossed over, presentations. It's too bad but I believe it is market driven.

In my community college level classes, whether young or old, most students are distracted as they enter the room and remain distracted. I've been researching and have been trained in techniques to help pull students' minds into the present moment and help them to learn and to focus. As one faculty member put it so well - we are an ADD society now.

Is the solution to stop watching a show that aggravates you? Or, should I stop watching, reading, writing, or whatever about things that aggravate me? Your post got me thinking. 

I hate Dr. Oz!  He promotes a new diet every other day, and if any of them worked nobody would need surgery.  Moreover, he isn't the least bit concerned that the diet he touts on Monday completely contradicts a diet plan that he touted the previous week.  One week, the problem is carbs, the next week it is fat, the following week it is combinations of food that is the problem.  It's insane.

He's clearly a legitimate doctor, but I don't understand how he does not see -- and that the people who watch do not see -- that what he does is the television equivalent of a tabloid newspaper. 

Lora

i like the drs. they are in it for the health of people not the money.

What in the world does making money have to do with anything. I hope to make as much money as I can and I bet you do too. Why is it wrong for a Dr. to make a lot of money and Ok for a baseball player or movie star to make 20 million a year? Just not relevant unless you are completely envious.

Anyway what diets? He talks about all kinds but I am still waiting for a recommendation. Just because he talks about one or the other does not mean he is indorsing one. I watch shows about cars and home improvements, the people there tell about what each car is like or products used do in construction, that does not mean the people are indorsing the product just because they try to teach you something about it. What schemes specifically has he indorsed? I have watched the show for a year or so and I don't know of a scheme. 

You may go into a drug store and see a product with his picture on it or even the grocery store and see one. Or go online and see an add that says indorsed and recommended by Dr. OZ. He does not indorse any product and has said so, many many many times on the air and if you see an add like that, it is false and he wants to know about it. He flatly said I DO NOT INDORSE PRODUCTS. You may also notice that most products when they are shown on the show are generic and do not have a brand labile on them. That is done just to make sure you don't think he is indorsing a particular product. 

I have seen two shows on gastric bypass surgery. One he had 2 surgeons on the show telling everyone what was done, and Dr. OZ did a graphic showing how the bypass was accomplished. There were two patients who had the surgery on the show and they told about their experience and what they thought about it. He said just for the benefits of the possibility of elimination of diabetes, the operation may be well worth it. The other shows I saw were celebrates talking in general terms about the surgery. He did not go into a lot of detail then about it, but it was a good testimonial about how successful the surgery could be. Certainly not negative in any way. So I wonder how that sucked????? 

Like others have said, no matter what, you can get some education by watching the show. If something comes up and you don't agree with it, fine do your own research and find out about what was offered. In many cases like my rant here it is just an opinion. We all have brains and I know for one that I paid a lot of money to go to graduate school and I guarantee you that many of my profs were full of BS and just plain wrong, but they offered me an opportunity to use my own brain to find out my truth. 

I for one find watching Dr. OZ much more beneficial than HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER or TWO AND A HALF MEN. But then that is just me, I don't really care for mental masturbation like that. 

While he may not ENDORSE any individual products, I have never watched him regularly, yet I have seen several shows where he was clearly encouraging people to try a particular diet program (most of which have no specific name for someone to use in advertising... Just a "here, follow this eating plan (or buy this book) and you WILL lose weight"), so to say that he doesn't ENCOURAGE people to try these various diets because he doesn't do product endorsements is apples and oranges. What does him covering up brand/company names on vitamins, etc. have to do with the way he encourages people to try these diets? When he has people in the audience who have tried all of these different diets, he briefly talks to three supporters for every one person who didn't lose weight.

A prime example is when he covered the HCG diet. He had one doctor who was not a supporter of the diet and cited the extremely low number of calories as dangerous,but he gave the doctor who was prescribing the HCG shots (not pills) three times as much time. When he talked to the women in the audience who had tried it, he talked to half a dozen who raved about how much they lost and how the hormones magically kept them from being hungry with so little nutrition, and the woman who started to tell him about the negative experience she had got cut off very quickly (in much the same manner as the woman who was on the one RNY show I saw who started to talk about regaining her weight and he abruptly cut her off). On that show, he actually encouraged people who were diabetic but not obese to consider talking to their doctors about having RNY done to "cure" their diabetes. He supports these diets by focusing almost exclusively on the people with positive experiences and ignoring (or cutting off) the people with negative experiences.

By doing this, he is giving the impression that he IS endorsing them,even if he says he does not endorse individual products. Did you see the article on how the sales (and PRICES!) of raspberry ketones spiked after he did a show on it. Both volume and price went up by several hundred percent in the few weeks following his show, despite the fat that there is absolutely no medical evidence that raspberry ketones contributes to increased metabolism or weight loss in ANY way! YOU might be able to do your own research to see what Dr Oz is NOT telling you, but MANY people cannot or will not. They just blindly follow Dr Oz.

Lora

Thank you for your follow up reply. Reading accusations that he is a fraud and misleading people was a shock but looking closer at what was written, I noticed many responses were more tabloid and sensational than Dr Oz's show (in my opinion). There are changes in TV shows to meet VIEWER demands and that is short and fast paced segments. I don't believe that the last person he would talk to that is the "bad" example of the surgery (or whatever it was) was being cut off because he has an inner desire to not allow them to speak but a PRODUCER who is rushing the end of the segment before transition to commercial or next topic. If the Dr Oz gripers can think of a media show that could possibly pull off a 20-30 minute segment that is comprehensive, then why not start a thread and get people to write to such shows and ask the producers to create it? My thinking is that it is unlikely that the motivation is there for that and there are too few shows that would do a "big" show. Sixty minutes already did one last March and most of the focus was on the 85-95% success rate of curing diabetes. They didn't cover much long term effects, maintaining, complications, and so forth but did bring up obesity and cancer risk. I jus****ched it again and it was worth it.

http://cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57404033-10391709/new-stu dy-weight-loss-surgery-may-cure-diabetes/

I understand your point about the short segments and producers rushing him to wrap up. Cutting off people with negative things to say happens WAY too often for that just to be a coincidence, though, and he often continues the segment after he cut the person off (rather than needing to go to commercial). If he truly wanted to be balanced about it, he could talk to 2 people with positive stories, then one or two with negative stories, and then go BACK to more positive stories if he has time. He doesn't do that, though (at least not that I have ever seen).

Lora