Monday, February 6, 2012

Anatomy 101: Dissection of the Dr. Oz Show - Monday February 6, 2012

Hold the presses. Dr. Oz has found the cure for obesity. According to his comments and that of his guest dietitian on the show, through research they made an amazing discovery. According to comments made on the show, ingesting pills containing raspberry ketones help people shed pounds. There is only one problem with their research. It never took place in humans.  The only studies done so far involving ingestion of  raspberry ketones have been done in animals and animal studies are notorious for lack of reliability and extrapolation to humans. Sorry Dr. Oz. but your "magic pill...#1 miracle in a bottle" as you called it is neither a miracle nor a proven weight loss supplement.

Nor for that matter is L-Carnitine, which he claimed helps people lose fat on their arms and chests nor red clover tea which he claimed helps people lose weight off their backsides. Even the white kidney bean extract he cited has limited science supporting its use as a weight loss supplement. I give Dr. Oz a point for his reference to conjugated linolenic acid which actually does has some reliable data supporting its effectiveness for weight loss; but, as to his claims of  conjugated linolenic acid specifically targeting belly fat, not so fast.  

If it wasn't bad enough that he endorsed at least three products on his show that have little to no scientific back-up to support his claims that they aid in weight loss, his bonus tip for the day was to eat cinnamon for weight loss despite the fact that cinnamon also has no scientific validity as a weight loss aid.

Dr. Oz, if you or your representatives perchance have opportunity to read this blog, please let me know if anything I write is not valid. I am always willing to learn of new valid scientific findings.  Otherwise, please stop confusing your audience which expects more of you than these rather absurd assertions made day after day. Please remember your Hippocratic oath which states "first do no harm." 

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