Dr. Mehmet Oz has had a rough go lately. After shooting to fame following his appearances as a health expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Oz's own ratings are now slipping, fellow doctors are calling for his resignation and a U.S. Senate panel last year called him out for promoting misleading messages about weight loss products.
Many people are fed up with the miracle cures touted on the Dr. Oz Show, the dubious messages that certain vitamins can ward off disease, the promotion of so-called "immune boosting" diets.
To resuscitate his image, as well as ratings for the Dr. Oz Show, the TV personality spent the summer on a listening tour, speaking with health professionals about their concerns and how to better serve viewers.
So it was refreshing to learn last week that, as part of the promotion for his show's seventh season, Dr. Oz would be offering one-on-one interviews with journalists in Toronto on Monday. This seemed like a signal Dr. Oz got the message from critics about the dangers of promoting questionable, unscientific information and was ready to set a fresh new tone.
But when his representatives learned I hoped to ask Dr. Oz about his new emphasis on science and evidence in the wake of criticism, the scheduled interview was cancelled. The explanation was that he had to take an earlier flight out of town. But more than an hour and a half after the originally scheduled interview time, a representative e-mailed to say Dr. Oz had just left.
In lieu of an interview, Dr. Oz offered to answer some questions via e-mail. I sent five, three of which got responses.
First, I asked for his response to critics, specifically to Canadian researchers who authored a British Medical Journal study last year that found nearly half of the recommendations made on his show are not based in science. Dr. Oz replied in the e-mail: "We stand by the show and the information we offer our viewers." But he said some topics – notably weight loss supplements – are "simply too complicated" to cover. He said "illicit industries" hijack material presented on the show and that he continually reminds viewers to never buy products with his face or name on them, as he doesn't allow companies to use his name or image to promote products.
Presumably (since e-mail interviews don't easily lend themselves to follow-up questions), Dr. Oz was referring to companies that sell vitamins, supplements, remedies or other items endorsed on his show. One of those products, green coffee bean extract, was touted as a miracle weight loss remedy on his show in 2012, despite highly questionable evidence from one small study backing the claim. That study was formally retracted in 2014.
Dr. Oz also said it isn't shocking to hear that half of the recommendations on his show aren't based in science, because 50 per cent of the advice patients receive "is based on the doctor's clinical experience, life experience, and uniqueness of the patient's history and diagnosis."
As for the British Medical Journal study itself, Dr. Oz said it has been "aggressively criticized" and that "many believe the article should be withdrawn." He provided a link to the response page on the BMJ website where, indeed, there are several lengthy criticisms of the original article. There is also a response from the study's author, who highlights the fact that many of the criticisms were written by doctors that had been contacted directly by the Dr. Oz Show for this purpose.
I also asked Dr. Oz about the role doctors can play in reducing the prescription drug crisis in Canada and the U.S. Addiction is a topic Dr. Oz has spoken about often in recent weeks. In his written response, he said that as a doctor who has long prescribed opioid painkillers, he has never been trained on how to spot an addict. He added that doctors make sound judgments, but that "we need to emphasize the holistic context of what that prescription entails. Medicine and the doctors practising it is always evolving and we will continue to better our standards and practices, and in the meantime the patient plays an essential role."
Too bad he never replied to my e-mail inquiring what, exactly, that is supposed to mean.
So has he taken the criticisms of his old approach to heart or is he just paying lip service to appease his critics? His recent shows offer some clues. During a recent segment on cell-phone radiation, Dr. Oz presented a fairly balanced view of the potential risks and benefits. Another episode took aim at an industry-funded orange juice study that got quite a bit of media attention earlier this year. The study concluded orange juice can improve brain function, a claim Dr. Oz disputed on his show.
But then again, Monday's show featured a segment starring self-described psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson who says she can see the future and talk to dead people.
So, you be the judge.
Carly Weeks