Tag Archives: Dr. Oz

national news

Candidate victimized by snickers

By any reasonable measure, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman should be elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania in a few days.

His opponent in the midterm election is a former physician, Mehmet Oz, who boasts not one moment of public policy experience. Furthermore, Oz doesn’t even live in the state he allegedly wants to represent in the Senate.

As I write this brief blog post, Fetterman is running slightly ahead of Oz in the polling. Why is that? Because Oz and his Republican allies — led by Donald J. Trump — have made a stroke that Fetterman suffered a few months ago a campaign issue.

Has Fetterman lost any mental acuity? Is he less smart now than he was before the stroke? No and no. However, he has suffered what he admits to are “auditory” issues. He has trouble stringing sentences together.

I want to mention all this because of the nastiness that permeates the campaign to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. The result of this election well could determine which parties controls the Senate in January; the Senate now is split 50 to 50. It’s a big deal, man!

I would hate for this campaign to turn on one side’s tittering over a serious man’s cognitive ability … which hasn’t diminished because of a stroke.

However, the cheapness of debate is exemplified in this contest and others featuring campaigns that include election denying/MAGA-loving Republicans and their Democratic foes.

That is what is playing out in Pennsylvania. It should not have come to this, with the result of a contest between a tested public policy veteran and a fraudulent carpetbagger now being too close to call.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Dr. Oz for Senate? Ugh!

Mehmet Oz wants to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 2022, which by itself shouldn’t cause any great shakes for little ol’ me out here in North Texas.

Except that it kinda does. I now shall explain.

Oz is a medical doctor. He made a name for himself by becoming a TV personality. His face is everywhere. I cannot testify to the quality of his medical practice; for that matter, I don’t know if he even still has a practice where he examines patients and does doctor-related tasks.

He is running as a Republican. He also is a known skeptic of the COVID-19 virus’s seriousness. He also has been critical of the vaccines that have been released to vaccinate Americans against the virus. That qualifies Oz, in my view, as a certified member of the crackpot cabal of the GOP.

There’s one more thing I want to point out. I believe he borders on medical quackery. Why?

Well, some years ago I heard him shilling for a product that was supposed to cure people of some ailment. Then he dropped the word “miracle” in his description of the product. He said that the results were a “miracle,” meaning that there is no Earthly explanation for why it does what it does.

I am no doctor, but no doctor I ever have heard has used the word “miracle” to describe a scientific procedure. By its very nature, science is predicated on knowledge of cause and effect.

Thus, for a medical doctor to use a term such as “miracle” to describe a medicinal product to my mind smacks of someone who is peddling some version of snake oil.

This clown doesn’t belong in the U.S. Senate.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Is the 'pop doc' a quack?

Dr. Mehmet Oz professes to have miracle cures for all kinds of maladies.

He’s got his followers. His syndicated TV talk show is a huge hit. He’s become something of a pop culture icon, depending on whose opinion you’re seeking.

Oz is just the latest in a long — and growing — line of popular culture experts. Remember the late Joyce Brothers? How about Phil McGraw? They’re two psychologists who’ve become part of the pop culture scene.

Now it’s Dr. Oz.

Of the names I’ve just mentioned, Oz’s credibility has been taken into serious account by the British Medical Journal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/19/half-of-dr-ozs-medical-advice-is-baseless-or-wrong-study-says/

The journal contends that at least half of Oz’s diagnoses and cures are baseless and lack any foundation. According to the Washington Post: “Recommendations made on medical talk shows often lack adequate information on specific benefits or the magnitude of the effects of these benefits,” the (British Medical Journal) article said “… The public should be skeptical about recommendations made on medical talk shows.”

OK, let’s not call Dr. Oz a quack. But his naturopathic approach to curing ailments has been questioned seriously by a leading medical journal.

The journal “selected 40 episodes from last year, identifying 479 separate medical recommendations. After paging through the relevant medical research, they found evidence only supported 46 percent of his recommendations, contradicted 15 percent and wasn’t available for 39 percent.” the Post reported.

Is it fair to ask whether TV talk-show doctors, such as Oz, prey on people’s gullibility? Is it fair also to wonder, as the British Medical Journal has done, whether “marketability” is the driver in promoting these cures, that an ability to sell these notions to the public takes precedence over actual scientific and medical fact?

This isn’t the first time Oz’s claims have been questioned. A Senate panel grilled him thoroughly earlier this year over some of the “miracle” cures he has pushed on his TV show.

I guess it’s the term “miracle” that has some folks — including yours truly — scratching their heads over just what this popular TV star is promoting.

In all my years on this Earth, I’ve never heard a physician who uses that term to describe the effectiveness of a treatment.