Botox Day Tomorrow, Medical Talk Shows
The Dr. Oz Show and The Doctors dispense medical advice on a daily basis. Does medicine change and progress on a daily basis? Of course not. So if you want to base your medical decisions on something other than the internet and television read on.
Both shows make plenty of recommendations, Dr. Oz averages 12 per episode and The Doctors 11. Researchers from Canada looked at the recommendations and found some interesting results. Of 479 recommendations on The Dr. Oz Show, 32% fell under the heading of “general medical advice”, 25% about diet, and 18% weight loss. The Doctors had 66% general medical advice, 9% diet and 8% weight loss.
(Did You Know? Like medicine in general, cosmetic and plastic surgery progresses slowly to scientifically prove effectiveness, consistent results and safety. Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.)
When support for these recommendations was checked the results were surprising. Only 21% of the recommendations on The Dr. Oz Show were considered “believable” and another 11% somewhat believable. The Doctors were more credible with 32.5% believable and 20% somewhat. Good or so-so evidence contradicted 11% of the claims on Dr. Oz and 13% on The Doctors. Also, when combining the shows 40% of the recommendations mentioned a specific benefit. The size of the benefit was only mentioned 20% of the time and side effects less than 10%. Conflicts of interest were mentioned less than 1% of the time.
From Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
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