This is important, Dr. Oz — Francis Aguisanda

Happy Saturday! As a scientist, I'm trained to have a healthy balance of skepticism and open-mindedness. It seems like my skepticism proved to be correct about a certain television physician, who I've considered a bizarre mouthpiece for pseudoscience for some time now. When I would first catch Dr. Oz on TV, I was optimistic. An educated, eloquent physician discussing important health topics to millions of Americans - what could go wrong? This seemed like the perfect medium to communicate real information on real health issues.

Unfortunately, I was mistaken. From promoting "faith healing" as a means for curing miracle ailments to peddling strange energy practices such as Reiki, Dr. Oz has a track record of spreading misinformation. My feelings were confirmed by a paper published in the British Medical Journal (which, you know, has actual scientific information) that determined that almost half (46%) of the claims on Dr. Oz's show over the course of 40 episodes were shown to be either refuted by modern medical science or completely baseless.

This is a huge shame - I would like to think that Dr. Oz is a good person and genuinely cares for his viewers. I always assume the best in people, I suppose. All I'm asking is that the team behind the Dr. Oz Show fully examine the scientific claims they are making or disclose that many of the supplements on their show have not been proven to have any health efficacy.

Full disclosure: if you believe in things like psychic communication and dream interpretation, more power to you! This is a free country, and you should be able to believe in what you want to believe in. But when you begin claiming that these things have clear medical benefits when they have been proven to be useless, that's when things can get dangerous. The power to influence medical decisions is immense and, in my opinion, should only be used when the science is sound.

So the lesson for today is to always critically examine all claims. Just because someone has a fancy background and speaks well doesn't mean what they're saying is the truth!

Case and point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI