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Science-Based Medicine: Dr. Steven Novella to appear on the Dr. Oz Show

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droz Welcome, Dr. Oz viewers! Science-Based Medicine (SBM) founder and exective editor Dr. Steven Novella was invited to be on The Doctor Oz Show. Later today, the episode in which he will appear will air in most of your local markets, and we wanted to make sure that any Dr. Oz viewer who sees the segment and as a result is intrigued (or even angered) enough to wonder what it is that we are all about will have a convenient "primer," so to speak, on the problem with Dr. Oz from a science-based perspective.

First of all, who is Dr. Steven P. Novella, the man who had the chutzpah to go into the proverbial lions' den of Oz? An Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Yale School of Medicine and founder and president of the New England Skeptical Society, in his spare time Dr. Novella is also the host of the popular science and skepticism podcast, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, as well as a blogger at his own personal blog, NeuroLogica Blog, and other related blogs, including The Rogues' Gallery and SkepticBlog. A fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and Chairman of the Board for the Institute for Science in Medicine, Steve was most recently named a Senior Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) and director of its new Science-Based Medicine Project. As a result of this most recent appointment, SBM will be collaborating more closely with the JREF on projects related to science in medicine.

As you can see, Dr. Novella's activism on behalf of skepticism and science-based medicine is extensive and varied. That's why we can think of no better person to have appeared with Dr. Oz to try to explain what it is we at SBM find objectionable about how he covers many medical topics on his show.

We at SBM reject the whole concept of "alternative health" in the title of Dr. Oz's segment featuring Dr. Novella because "alternative medicine" represents a false dichotomy. Indeed, I frequently repeat an old joke that asks: What do you call alternative medicine that has been scientifically proven to work? The answer: Medicine.

That's because alternative medicine by definition is medicine that either hasn't been scientifically proven to work or has been scientifically proven not to work, while "integrative medicine" is nothing more than "integrating" unproven "alternative" medicine with medicine scientifically proven to work. Which brings us to Dr. Oz.

I can't speak for the rest of the bloggers at SBM, but up until about a year ago, I really didn't have that much of a problem with Dr. Oz. I really didn't. Admittedly, he did annoy me a bit with his tendency towards credulity towards certain forms of dubious medicine, such as reiki (which, when you come right down to it, is faith healing based on Eastern mysticism rather than Christianity).

As time went on, however, we did notice that, more and more, Dr. Oz seemed to want to "go with the flow" and "give the people what they want" to the point of promoting pseudoscience. So why would Steve agree to be on Dr. Oz's show? It was a difficult decision, actually. Even in our wildest dreams we had no idea that our criticisms were even being noticed by Dr. Oz or his producers, much less having any effect. So, on the one hand, we were grateful to Dr. Oz's producers for inviting our representative on the show. On the other hand there was very little time for Steve to make a decision, much less prepare, and, given Dr. Oz's history, Steve and the rest of us were all—understandably, I believe—wary about how he might end up being portrayed.

In the end, given that the mission of SBM is to promote science in medicine and medicine based on good science, we agreed that this invitation was an opportunity that we had to seize, even knowing the risk that Steve might be portrayed unfavorably. Even though, as I write this, I haven't seen the episode yet, I have seen the preview. What I see is that my fears weren't unfounded. The very title ("Controversial medicine: Why your doctor is afraid of alternative health") is clearly slanted against science-based medicine. Worse, even in just the brief promo clip presented, Dr. Oz:

  • Challenges Steve by asking, "Why do you not want me to talk about these therapies on the show?" This is a distortion of our position. Nothing could be further from the truth to claim that we don't want Dr. Oz to talk about these therapies. What we don't wnat him to do is to promote them as efficacious when they are not. What we want is a skeptical, science-based assessment of them. Despite the claim by Dr. Oz and his producers that we are "afraid" of alternative health, nothing could be further from the truth. We crave an open dialogue based on the science.

  • Says it's "very dismissive" of Steve to challenge these therapies as not working. This is the infamous "don't be closed-minded" gambit. Of course, the problem with being too open-minded is that your brains might fall out.

No wonder our readers are pessimistic at how Steve will be portrayed in the episode, and no wonder I took umbrage at being called "afraid" of alternative medicine.

More disturbingly, though, of late Dr. Oz has been also promoting pseudoscience and what can only be described, in my opinion, as quackery. The snake oil that Dr. Oz has promoted over the last several months includes Dr. Joe Mercola, one of the biggest promoters of "alternative" health, whom Dr. Oz first had on his show about a year ago and then defiantly defended in a return appearance in early 2011. Then, in a rapid one-two punch, Dr. Oz had an ayurvedic yogi named Cameron Alborzian, who promoted highly dubious medicine, including "tongue diagnosis," to be followed a few days later by something I would never, even in my most cynical assessment of Dr. Oz, expected, namely the appearance of faith healer Issam Nemeh on his show. Worse, Dr. Oz showed zero signs of skepticism.

Unfortunately, Dr. Oz wasn't done. In rapid succession next Dr. Oz endorsed a diet that he once eschewed as quackery and then, to top it all off, invited psychic John Edward onto his show, asking Is talking to the dead a new kind of therapy? This latter episode so shocked me that I basically said, "Stick a fork in him, Dr. Oz is done when it comes to SBM." Dr. Oz's descent was complete, and that is now the trouble with Dr. Oz and much of the reason why in 2011 the James Randi Educational Foundation awarded him the The Media Pigasus Award for the second year in a row. I fear he very well may three-peat in 2012.

Further reading about Dr. Oz

I hope that our regular readers will comment on Dr. Novella's appearance, both here and in Dr. Novella's post about his experience, the latter of which will be posted this evening. I also invite Dr. Oz viewers to join in. Just register a user name and password here. In the meantime, here is a collection of critical posts and articles about Dr. Oz.

From Science-Based Medicine:

From other sources: