The Mob Comes for Dr. Oz

(Dr. Mehmet Oz at ServiceNation Summit, photo: Jim Gillooly/PEI/Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)

In 2002, my mother was given a death sentence. Her oncologists told her she had only so many years to live after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Despite their woeful prognostications, Mom didn’t give up.

Even though her own oncologists poo-pooed alternatives, Mom tried all sorts of lifestyle adjustments, including green smoothies (blending vegetables and fruit together once a day to drink) — which she convinced all our high-risk family to drink faithfully.

Mom went on to live another 15 joyful years. And I believe these lifestyle adjustments made the critical difference in not only extending her life, but bringing greater quality to that life.

Who introduced my mother to green drinks? Of course, Dr. Oz did.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Mehmet Oz has been in the cross-hairs of a new phase of cancel culture. Typically, the “off with the head” calls arise because of some sin against socio-political dogma. In this case, Dr. Oz has been accused of another kind of heresy — transgressing a U.S. medical orthodoxy that sometimes likes to pretend it’s got things pretty much figured out.

Does it?

America’s medical outcomes. It’s very reassuring to believe that what we’re being offered in the U.S. healthcare system derives entirely from its “science base,” and that it represents the best possible care anyone could receive.

We like to tell ourselves things like that. But if we care about the whole truth, we can’t overlook some unsettling facts. For example, the U.S. spends more on health care as a share of the economy — nearly twice as much as the average high-income country — with Americans using expensive technologies more often than other countries as well. Yet our actual health outcomes are, or should be, shocking and saddening to most of us:

• The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy and highest suicide rates among the 11 nations.
• The U.S. has the highest chronic disease burden and an obesity rate that is two times higher than the average of other high-income countries.
• And compared with fellow high-income nations, the U.S. has among the highest number of hospitalizations from preventable causes and the highest rate of avoidable deaths.

We could go on. But the point is, at the very least, we Americans should practice a little humility at what what we know (and don’t know), and what we take for granted as “effective” health interventions, and “best practice” that everyone should follow.

We’re not exactly hitting a home-run right now!

Rather than staying open to new possibilities, however — instead of even considering potential departures from prevailing treatment approaches — too often, the history of American medicine has been sadly punishing of those who stray too far out of line.

Punishing heretics. Despite the intensity of online attacks in recent weeks, Dr. Oz is clearly not the first physicians to be accused of medical heresy.

In the years after both my mother and brother passed away from cancer (after following conventional approaches with exceeding faith), I found myself looking into this difficult history. What specifically prompted this was an experience in the hospital immediately prior to my brother’s stem cell transplant, as his last hope for healing. When I arrived in his room, Sam was eating green jello and a white roll for lunch.

Out of curiosity, I asked the attending physician, “Is there anything that we can do to boost Sam’s own immune system to fight this?”

The answer was definitive: “No, this stem cell transplant is really the only thing that can reverse the cancer.”

“Oh, okay.” Well, they’re the doctors, I thought. Who am I to question?

Of course, most patients and families feel in no position to question. We haven’t had time to extensively study what’s gone wrong in the body, or even find out what the scope of options are. We rely on individual physicians to guide us in these decisions.

Too often, however, American physicians have narrowly adopted standards that dismiss alternatives out of hand, including options that offer some real promise. For instance, I ended up finding compelling scientific evidence across many years that improved nutrition could not only prevent cancer, but also help fight it!

Why had we never been told that? And why had our doctors often discouraged paying too much attention to that?

Well, it turns out that a handful of physicians have been saying things like this — and even documenting heartening results. But decade after decade, taking cancer treatment as an example, these physicians have been punished. Sometimes these “out of the box,” innovative voices have had their licenses revoked. Other times, they have been driven from the country. And still other times, they have been imprisoned.

Rather than an extraneous tangent, I underscore that history here as directly relevant to the ongoing campaign to discredit Dr. Oz playing out right before our eyes.

Discrediting courageous doctors. In summary, while the intensity of rhetoric attacking Dr. Oz is striking, it’s helpful to appreciate Dr. Oz as the latest in a long list of practitioners getting pressured, publicly embarrassed, and even punished, for what?

For taking seriously the possibility of alternative approaches, and perspectives (not fully examined and considered), as offering something meaningful to those seeking healing.

That’s why.

Now, Dr. Oz would be the first to admit he’s made mistakes. Today, he would not stand behind everything he’s said and claimed. But the one who has never embraced a false idea too quickly, let him cast the first stone.

Mistakes are part of a journey of authentic learning and growing in life — especially for those willing to try new things, and experiment with new possibilities.

And arguably, mistakes are central to the practice of true scientific discovery. Indeed, without an allowance of mistakes, and the curiosity to go after new possibilities, very few new discoveries would ever happen! As philosopher Brent Slife has argued, the hallmark of science is investigation and examination in all its forms — including on the level of ideas.

A man of genuine curiosity. I happened to meet Dr. Oz recently myself — not as part of some big important meeting (I’m not that important!) I saw him in our building preparing for a film shoot, and I intruded on his quiet time to introduce myself and tell my mother’s story. He smiled, then asked me what I did. When he learned I worked for a tech company that makes apps to help people find deeper healing from depression, his face lit up “oh really, tell me more. Where can I find it?”

He pulled out his phone to try and find the app himself.

In the very moment when this busy man could have been politely dismissive, escorting me out the door with a pleasant nice-to-meet-you-NOW-will-you-let-me-prepare(?!), I saw something in his face that was unmistakable: authentic curiosity. An interest in learning something new…maybe even something he didn’t already know!

That is what Dr. Oz has — a curiosity America dearly needs right now (on all issues). The premature certainty is killing us!

Maybe that’s why so many of us have grown to love him as “America’s doctor.” We’ve watched as Dr. Oz consistently — year after year — has stood before us, and demonstrated what openness and eager interest in new possibilities looks like.

In full disclosure, Dr. Oz was visiting little old Logan Utah because he found out that Maven, a division of the company where I now work, has been innovating sleep products in exciting ways — and he decided to partner with us not only in studying what makes for more effective sleep, but in getting these products out to the masses.

We’re grateful that he’s still looking for new ways to make life better for people. Imagine if more doctors did the same?

Dear America, what we need is more, not less, doctors like Mehmet Oz — willing to push beyond and explore ideas not currently vogue in the medical orthodoxy, and reach out towards new possibilities that hold a promise of deeper healing for us all.