TV Doctors: real or fake

Dr. Oz (according to wikipedia: Mehmet Cengiz Oz (Turkish: Öz, pronounced [ˈøz]; born June 11, 1960), best known as Dr. Oz, is a Turkish-American cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and host and commentator for the syndicated daily television program focusing on medical issues/personal health, The Dr. Oz Show.)

Thousands of American women follow what this man says to the T (even men take his word without question). I will admit that he is answering tons of questions that people are too scared to ask their own doctors and that is great however when he is no longer answering questions with a medical background personally I think that is bullshit. I'm sure he hasn't sold out completely but now he is going back on his previous statements to promote a diet, that is selling out!

Here is a link to an article from the Chicago Tribune, you dont have to read it i will summarize and comment! http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2011/02/dr-oz-and-the-hormone-diet.html

So basically there is a (well, we'll call it new) diet called the HCG diet (or hormone diet), Dr. Oz featured this 'diet' on his show last week sometime (I did not see this episode). HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is a hormone secreted in about the first 11 weeks of pregnancy, this is the hormone that is tested in urine to determine pregnancy. The diet involves taking a small injection (or pill) daily of this hormone combined with a 500 calorie diet, it will apparently help you lose 1-2 pounds a day and 6 weeks of this treatment can cost $800. I researched the use of HCG as a diet drug quickly on a widely recognized online medical journal database (PubMed). I found numerous research articles (mostly from Europe) dating back to the 1960s all of which said that using HCG as a weight loss drug was just as good as the placebo (sugar pill). From the Chicago Tribune article "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called the weight-loss products "fraudulent." "

Ok back to Dr. Oz, a statement from the man himself, "Initially, this diet may help you rapidly drop pounds. Ultimately, it destroys your metabolism, as you are essentially starving yourself," Oz, a celebrity surgeon, wrote three months ago. "Another negative side effect is the loss of muscle mass, so much that you will no longer be able to effectively burn calories." So he himself said that the drug is useless and harmful, now in this episode he admits that his wife has used it and had many individuals who had had successful bouts with the drug on the show. To me this is definatly selling out. Why would you put yourself on a 500 calorie diet?? To be starving all the time does not seem like fun! Or to inject yourself with female pregnancy hormones there is no long-term research on what injections of that will do to your body in the future.

Basically I think you should get off your butt, stop eating fast food and start working out not risk your body's integrity by taking some random hormone. And make sure you research things before you spend money on anything. Also to lose and keep weight off you should only lose 1%  of your body weight a week not a day.

Oh and last but not least don't believe everything you see on TV without research and read the small print.

E