Everyting they need
27/06/13 05:36
I think I would describe myself as a private person. Yes, I have a public side. I address a congregation in public every Sunday and often invite others to come to our church. Yes, I have a web site and write a daily blog. But there are parts of my life I keep to myself and I prefer for it to be that way. When I see how public figures are treated by the media, it makes me shudder. I can’t imagine putting my family through the things that routinely happen to the families of politicians. I prefer for my family life to be private.
I prefer for my consultations with my physician to be private, too. I have little interest in media doctors. I don’t watch too much television, so I know very little about Dr. Oz, but I guess he is quite a media sensation. I hear from the people I serve all sorts of things about his advice on diet and exercise. “Dr. Oz says that green coffee bean extract will help every one lose weight.” “Dr. Oz says there is arsenic in apple juice.” “Dr. Oz says you should fill out a questionnaire for RealAge.” “Dr. Oz says that if you take the right supplements, you can reverse the effects of aging.”
As I said, I prefer to get my medical advice in the privacy of a medical office and not from the television, so I don’t have anything significant to say about the medical advice that comes from people talking about a media doctor.
Here is what I do know. I can think of two friends who are cardiovascular surgeons. Both were very serious people, intently engaged in their medical practices. One once said, “To be a cardiac surgeon means that you have to decide that it is the most important thing in the world. It requires such intense concentration and focus that everything else must be secondary to the practice of surgery. There can be no distractions.”
Dr. Oz seems to have a different approach. He is trained and certified as a Cardiothoracic surgeon. But for the past decade, he seems to be more focused on his television career than on the practice of surgery. I don’t mean to question his medical credentials. As far as I know he is a genuine expert. He is a professor in surgery at Columbia University and the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital. But the guy has a lot going on and singular focus on surgery doesn’t seem to be his number one priority.
To be sure, he didn’t really write the six New York Times bestsellers that bear his name. It’s pretty clear that his co-author Michael Roizen, did the hard work of writing the books. But they wouldn’t have made it to any bestseller list without Dr. Oz’s name and media presence.
What I do know is that Dr. Oz isn’t focused on any one area of medicine these days. He has stirred the pots with his advice on not just cardiovascular health, but also psychology, finance and life in general. He seems to believe that his expertise qualifies him to give advice on any topic, including those in which he has little formal training.
So, for the most part, I ignore the guy. If I were to need chest surgery, I’m pretty sure the guy wouldn’t be available and that’s just fine for me. If I have surgery, I think I would prefer a surgeon who focuses on surgery every day rather than one who has daily sessions with a makeup artist to prepare him for his television show.
But, somehow, I read a little blurb that appeared a couple of days ago in our local newspaper. It was a little three-sentence article about a new magazine that Dr. Oz is launching. The last sentence is a gem: “In a statement, Oz said the magazine ‘will provide women with everything they need to feel inspired and live a long, healthy, joyful life.’”
Everything they need to feel inspired? Everything? That’s quite a claim.
Let me get this right. A child of a very wealthy Istanbul family does well in school and earns scholarships that allow him to become a medical resident in the US. He graduates from Harvard University and then Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He does surgical residencies. And what in that background qualifies him as an expert in the spiritual health of women?
Oh, I forgot, he used to be a regular on the Oprah Winfrey show. Of course he is an expert on women’s spirituality.
Something tells me that no magazine “will provide women with everything they need to feel inspired and live a long, healthy, joyful life.”
It is probably unfair of me to criticize. I’m sure you could find all kinds of mistakes, false claims and poor advise in my blogs and other things that I have done. And, as I said, I know almost nothing about Dr. Oz. But it does seem to me that intense media attention tends to distort personalities and shape people in ways that are not always the best.
I wonder if any of Dr. Oz’s colleagues would claim that being on television has made him a more skilled surgeon. I wonder if the patients who undergo surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital find his monthly column in Esquire magazine to be meaningful for their recovery.
Our people have a history of over 4,000 years of struggle with a tendency toward idolatry. It seems that we are continually getting confused about the distinction between God and human beings. We want to believe that some humans are somehow better than others. We forget the basic tenet of our faith: there is only one God. The consequences of our confusion are always disastrous. Whenever we turn our worship from God to a king or another human, our spiritual health suffers. Based on that experience, I’m skeptical of a magazine that claims to offer everything women need to feel inspired.
But then I don’t watch that much television. I don’t know that much about Dr. Oz.
At the moment that seems to be a good thing.
I prefer for my consultations with my physician to be private, too. I have little interest in media doctors. I don’t watch too much television, so I know very little about Dr. Oz, but I guess he is quite a media sensation. I hear from the people I serve all sorts of things about his advice on diet and exercise. “Dr. Oz says that green coffee bean extract will help every one lose weight.” “Dr. Oz says there is arsenic in apple juice.” “Dr. Oz says you should fill out a questionnaire for RealAge.” “Dr. Oz says that if you take the right supplements, you can reverse the effects of aging.”
As I said, I prefer to get my medical advice in the privacy of a medical office and not from the television, so I don’t have anything significant to say about the medical advice that comes from people talking about a media doctor.
Here is what I do know. I can think of two friends who are cardiovascular surgeons. Both were very serious people, intently engaged in their medical practices. One once said, “To be a cardiac surgeon means that you have to decide that it is the most important thing in the world. It requires such intense concentration and focus that everything else must be secondary to the practice of surgery. There can be no distractions.”
Dr. Oz seems to have a different approach. He is trained and certified as a Cardiothoracic surgeon. But for the past decade, he seems to be more focused on his television career than on the practice of surgery. I don’t mean to question his medical credentials. As far as I know he is a genuine expert. He is a professor in surgery at Columbia University and the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital. But the guy has a lot going on and singular focus on surgery doesn’t seem to be his number one priority.
To be sure, he didn’t really write the six New York Times bestsellers that bear his name. It’s pretty clear that his co-author Michael Roizen, did the hard work of writing the books. But they wouldn’t have made it to any bestseller list without Dr. Oz’s name and media presence.
What I do know is that Dr. Oz isn’t focused on any one area of medicine these days. He has stirred the pots with his advice on not just cardiovascular health, but also psychology, finance and life in general. He seems to believe that his expertise qualifies him to give advice on any topic, including those in which he has little formal training.
So, for the most part, I ignore the guy. If I were to need chest surgery, I’m pretty sure the guy wouldn’t be available and that’s just fine for me. If I have surgery, I think I would prefer a surgeon who focuses on surgery every day rather than one who has daily sessions with a makeup artist to prepare him for his television show.
But, somehow, I read a little blurb that appeared a couple of days ago in our local newspaper. It was a little three-sentence article about a new magazine that Dr. Oz is launching. The last sentence is a gem: “In a statement, Oz said the magazine ‘will provide women with everything they need to feel inspired and live a long, healthy, joyful life.’”
Everything they need to feel inspired? Everything? That’s quite a claim.
Let me get this right. A child of a very wealthy Istanbul family does well in school and earns scholarships that allow him to become a medical resident in the US. He graduates from Harvard University and then Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He does surgical residencies. And what in that background qualifies him as an expert in the spiritual health of women?
Oh, I forgot, he used to be a regular on the Oprah Winfrey show. Of course he is an expert on women’s spirituality.
Something tells me that no magazine “will provide women with everything they need to feel inspired and live a long, healthy, joyful life.”
It is probably unfair of me to criticize. I’m sure you could find all kinds of mistakes, false claims and poor advise in my blogs and other things that I have done. And, as I said, I know almost nothing about Dr. Oz. But it does seem to me that intense media attention tends to distort personalities and shape people in ways that are not always the best.
I wonder if any of Dr. Oz’s colleagues would claim that being on television has made him a more skilled surgeon. I wonder if the patients who undergo surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital find his monthly column in Esquire magazine to be meaningful for their recovery.
Our people have a history of over 4,000 years of struggle with a tendency toward idolatry. It seems that we are continually getting confused about the distinction between God and human beings. We want to believe that some humans are somehow better than others. We forget the basic tenet of our faith: there is only one God. The consequences of our confusion are always disastrous. Whenever we turn our worship from God to a king or another human, our spiritual health suffers. Based on that experience, I’m skeptical of a magazine that claims to offer everything women need to feel inspired.
But then I don’t watch that much television. I don’t know that much about Dr. Oz.
At the moment that seems to be a good thing.