Post by Tony Crispino on Dec 18, 2014 12:37:08 GMT -8
I have been stressing evidence based healthcare. Too bad the docs on TV don't always practice it. This article is about Dr. Oz, but it may as well be a doctor that makes the same mistakes treating prostate cancer...
Dr. Oz is wrong or baseless on advice he gives on his program
I am not the least bit surprised that much of what TV doctors tell you is mired in bias and less as much evidence based healthcare. Dr. Oz and Sanjay Gupta are a couple examples of doctors that are given "authoritative" status when in fact the paychecks they receive is not from patient care when they are on TV - it's from TV bosses. Huge Conflict of Interest (COI). Everyone should ask when they see TV doctors -Says who? Where did they get their information? Is it reliable or mired in bias? According to this article it's about 50/50 against the available evidence. If you can't answer any of those questions don't take them as authority. Find the answers or file it it under opinion. Could be good could be the opposite.
I would stress that it's not just TV doctors that use a great deal of educated bias. It's likely all doctors to some degree. And sometimes they have to. If there is no evidence for a best practice, then they will resort to opinion from their experience. But they should state it. For example from Dr. Oz - "Load up on carbs at breakfast" is not science and does not suit everybody. Simple carbs are a major cause of obesity. If you do not get enough exercise to burn them off then the carbs cause weight gain. That is counterintuitive to "lose weight". Again, ask the questions I proposed above then talk to your physician. He will know more about you than a TV paid doctor. Same goes with all those supplement commercials where a "Dr." who is sometimes actually a PHd versus an MD, wearing a smock with a stethoscope telling you "you need to take Super Beta Prostate" which is a product that is loaded with supplements that were proven bad for prostate health in clinical trials by SWOG and others.
Dr. Oz is wrong or baseless on advice he gives on his program
I am not the least bit surprised that much of what TV doctors tell you is mired in bias and less as much evidence based healthcare. Dr. Oz and Sanjay Gupta are a couple examples of doctors that are given "authoritative" status when in fact the paychecks they receive is not from patient care when they are on TV - it's from TV bosses. Huge Conflict of Interest (COI). Everyone should ask when they see TV doctors -Says who? Where did they get their information? Is it reliable or mired in bias? According to this article it's about 50/50 against the available evidence. If you can't answer any of those questions don't take them as authority. Find the answers or file it it under opinion. Could be good could be the opposite.
I would stress that it's not just TV doctors that use a great deal of educated bias. It's likely all doctors to some degree. And sometimes they have to. If there is no evidence for a best practice, then they will resort to opinion from their experience. But they should state it. For example from Dr. Oz - "Load up on carbs at breakfast" is not science and does not suit everybody. Simple carbs are a major cause of obesity. If you do not get enough exercise to burn them off then the carbs cause weight gain. That is counterintuitive to "lose weight". Again, ask the questions I proposed above then talk to your physician. He will know more about you than a TV paid doctor. Same goes with all those supplement commercials where a "Dr." who is sometimes actually a PHd versus an MD, wearing a smock with a stethoscope telling you "you need to take Super Beta Prostate" which is a product that is loaded with supplements that were proven bad for prostate health in clinical trials by SWOG and others.