How Oprah Destroyed Medicine

There are a few icons of modern history that stimulate instant recognition with just their first names. Say Elvis, Madonna, Cher, Prince (or whatever he is this week), or Beyonce and instantly visions of celebrity and notoriety flood your frontal lobes. No one, however, can hold a pork chop to everyone’s big sister, Oprah. The O has put the pro in promotion and has redefined the cult of personality. To be sure, this is a very smart, savvy businessperson who knows her audience; an audience predominately of women who look to her for advice on everything from books to feminine hygiene products. It is hard to underestimate her influence with TV face time, magazines, webpages, production companies, and who knows what other media outlets at her disposal. One would naively assume that with this influence would come a degree of responsibility to provide information that was truthful, factual, and well researched. Unfortunately this is not the case specifically as it applies to her obsession with health related topics. No one particularly cares if she recommends one shampoo over another, but promoting sham science and bogus medical treatments are a whole other kettle of new age fish.
One merely has to peruse a list of her famously marketed “experts” to quickly surmise that entertainment trumps education. One of the most celebrated experts is the blustering cowboy philosopher Dr.Phil McGraw. Dr.Phil rocketed to fame as the jury selection expert and personal consultant to the O during her spat with the beef bourgeoisie. He describes himself as “ the worst marriage counselor in America” and got out of the practice of psychology because “he got tired of whiney patients.” With his Oprah appearances and such captivating medical terminology as “get real” and “that dog don’t hunt” he now commands a medical empire consisting of books, treatment centers, web sites, and of course his own TV show. While many reputable folks in the counseling business label him more an entertainer than a counselor, at least he does have some background and credentials peripherally related to his professed expertise. Where I find fault is his mutation as an expert into all things health. This is a common practice in the juggernaut that is the self help money making machine; gain notoriety in one area and use that influence to morph into an expert in everything else. For example, on his website Dr.Phil spouts advice from obstetrics to weight control. No where do I see any evidence that he has been in a delivery room other than with his own kids. Granted every celebrity from Suzanne Somers to the O herself has a weight loss book, but does the fact that you did your PhD thesis on "Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Psychological Intervention" qualify you to give advice on losing weight? His over reliance on new age philosophies and soft science also colors his medical advice. Dr.Phil, stick to gotcha pop psychology and we will all be healthier for it.
Depak Chopra is another Oprah visionary who literally owned the New Age medical world in the 1990s. The western trained endocrinologist cornered the market by combining Hindu precepts, ancient Indian Ayurvedic traditions, and western medicine in a conflagration of philosophy stew that promised perfect health if you could only balance your chakras. He is one of the most dangerous purveyors of silly science because of his respectable credentials. He is a medical doctor for goodness sakes, so he has to be right about doshas, past lives, and primary forces. He is absolutely right about one thing, there is a Sanskrit size fortune to be made in the alternative medical world. Now I am a proponent of integrative medicine, but I expect herbs, vitamins, and health practices to have a certain standard of proof and empirical evidence to back it up. Justifying a practice by saying it has been around for 5000 years, as Chopra does, is as fallacious as saying monkey root cures cancer because it was used by Sub Saharan witch doctors for centuries. Don’t just “Chopra me the money”, show me the evidence! The big O touted Chopra as a high priest of alternative medicine in the nineties as he was turning out books with more voracity than Bill Clinton was chasing interns. The insidious nature of his approach, picking bits and pieces of truths and combining them with dubious ideas, is a classic approach of sham artists and signals a screeching alarm on the rube radar.
Suzanne Somers, the bouncing, brainless beauty of Three’s Company fame, was launched as a hormone health expert by the Oprah machine in 2009. She is another example of dangerous, misleading, downright ignorant ravings sanctioned by the diva of afternoon talk fests. If it’s on Oprah...it’s got to be true! Nowhere is this deservedly lampooned more than with Ms. Somers. Completely lacking in credentials and medical education the huckster of hormones reports miraculous transformations with her “scientifically proven” bio-identical regimens. Again, the pattern of combing truths with fabrications muddies the healing waters and creates a worrisome pseudoscientific approach to a very complex subject. There are medical doctors and researchers who have spent a lifetime meticulously sorting out the proper use and abuse of hormones only to be usurped by a buxom blond whose cache of endorsements are in the millions. I don’t have the time or column space to debunking the hapless Somerisms (for another day) but she is the poster child of why Oprah has infected medicine.
The current Oprah fave on the medical front is the affable Dr.Oz. Mehmet Oz is a heart surgeon who actually began as a legitimate TV consultant. Unfortunately he has been transformed into a cheerleader for alternative, often unproven, medical practices. He still gives good advice, especially in the realm of his expertise, but much of his repartee has become infused with new ageisms and pop psychology. As he has gone from occasional guest to having his own show, those around him (probably the O) have explained the reality of TV. It’s entertainment first, and everything else is window dressing. When you have to be concerned about ratings and advertisers you do whatever it takes to keep the masses happy, and that often means giving air time to fractious fads and quick fixes. Of all the Oprah flock, he is the least egregious, yet with an audience of millions, you have to be better than half right...you have to be responsible.
I believe Oprah sincerely believes in some of the medical silliness she promotes so the onus lies in her audience to be critical consumers. Don’t be a gullible gawker, lapping up Dr. Oprah’s pronouncements like a frat boy at a keg party. Be a skeptic. Do your own research. Talk to your doctor. In the end, nobody cares about your health more than you, not even the O.