80% of Doctors’ Recommendations on Health Are Unsubstantiated
When doctors at Doctors recommend a particular treatment or diet or supplement, you will realize that there is probably some truth in their recommendation, right? But a review of their advice, along with that of Dr. Oz Shaw, shows that most of them are probably not worth listening to.
A group of medical students led by Dr. Ranit Mishori of Georgetown University checked all recommendations on both shows over the course of one month. They found that 80 percent of doctors’ recommendations and 78 percent of Dr. Oz’s recommendations were not backed up by “evidence-based medical advice, community guidelines, or official statements.”
The team also looked for studies to support each recommendation and found that a third of the recommendations found no support at all in the literature. The other big chunk also lacked solid evidence, just studies in mice or cell cultures that the doctors and authors of the show wildly extrapolated.
Also worrisome: Both shows usually did not discuss the cost of the treatments or the products they discussed, and rarely mentioned any risks or harmful side effects. Focusing on the benefits of something can help sell it, but even TV doctors need to take care of and communicate the risks and benefits. The American Medical Association writes in its ethical guidelines for physicians in the media : “Information in the public domain can be sensational, distorted, or manifestly falsified, which can have potentially serious consequences if the advantages and disadvantages of medical advice are not properly communicated. “
Every time I watch these shows, there is a strange tension: something between “No one should take medical advice from daytime television” and “But they are real doctors, and they would not openly lie , would they? ” At least we now have some numbers to help us understand what’s going on. More details on the link below:
Pulling Back the Curtain of The Doctors and The Dr. Oz Show: What Our Analysis Shows | Health News Review