WATCH ABOVE: Doctor Oz is taking on his critics. Why some in the medical community want to silence the famous TV doctor. Crystal Goomansingh reports.
He’s faced heavy scrutiny for his controversial advice about weight loss and health, but celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz says he’s working on a special episode of his daytime show that’ll respond to his critics.
Just days after 10 physicians called his advice “quack treatments” and urged Columbia University to remove Oz as a faculty member, the celebrity doctor announced that he’s recording an episode that’ll discuss the validity of his claims.
U.S. reports suggest the episode will air on Thursday – they say the material was put together on Tuesday or will be recorded today.
“We plan to show America who these authors are, because discussion of health topics should be free of intimidation,” a spokesman for the show told CNN.
READ MORE: Why Dr. Oz’s weight loss claims are being investigated
Oz, the cardiothoracic surgeon-turned-TV-personality, has already alluded to what he may be talking about on the episode. In a Vox.com interview, Oz said readers of the petition to Columbia University should consider who these critics are tied to.
“Did you know who those people were who were sending the petition? Did you know they work for companies and groups linked to pro-GMO groups?”
In a teaser on his website, Oz tells viewers he’s marking his 1,000th episode this month.
“I know I’ve irritated some potential allies in our quest to make America healthy. No matter our disagreements, freedom of speech is the most fundamental right we have as Americans. And these 10 doctors are trying to silence that right,” he said.
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The letter to the university’s dean of health sciences and medicine was put together by Dr. Henry Miller, a Stanford University professor.
“Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops. Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain,” the letter reads.
WATCH ABOVE: Dr. Oz continues to navigate through a sea of criticism for the advice he provides on his popular show, the latest coming from a group of doctors who sent a letter to Columbia University calling for Oz’s removal from its faculty.
“Thus, Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgments about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable,” it said.
Read the full letter here.
READ MORE: What Canadian doctors found when they studied Dr. Oz’s health claims
For his part, Miller told Vox that he’s written extensively about GMO regulation but he has no conflicts of interest.
Now that it’s been pulled into the kerfuffle, Columbia issued its own response to the doctors: “As I am sure you understand and appreciate, Columbia is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion,” it said to the doctors, according to TIME.
This isn’t the first time Oz has been slammed for his claims. In 2014, he even faced a grilling from U.S. senators who conducted hearings about his controversial advice.
“I get that you do a lot of good on your show. I understand that you give a lot of information that’s great information…you’re very talented and you’re obviously very bright,” Claire McCaskill, chair of the consumer protection panel, told Oz in June.
READ MORE: Canadian doctor explains why diets fail
“I don’t get why you need to say this stuff when you know it’s not true. When you have this amazing megaphone, why do you cheapen your show?” she asked.
Oz conceded that he’s used “flowery” language about certain supplements but he’s promised to improve on what he promotes to his followers. He told U.S. officials that he’ll publish a list of specific products he thinks will genuinely help consumers lose weight and get healthy.
Last December, doctors at the University of Alberta recorded four months’ worth of The Dr. Oz Show to see if his recommendations held any clout. Turns out, the findings suggest his messages fed to the masses weren’t exactly backed by research.
READ MORE: Do fad diets followed by celebrities work?
“The public may see these shows as educational, but in many ways we wonder if that’s really what they’re there for and perhaps they’re just there for entertainment,” co-researcher Dr. Mike Allan said.
They had to decide if the recommendations listed a benefit, if the information was specific, if it mentioned cost, the magnitude and if a conflict of interest was at play.
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Eighty of the strongest recommendations were also investigated to see if there was any scientific evidence to prop up the TV doctors’ claims.
“One out of three recommendations from The Dr. Oz Show has believable evidence and about half of the recommendations on The Doctors has believable evidence,” the researchers said. But for the most part, the research backing up these claims was often “absent, contradictory or of poor quality.”
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
Follow @Carmen_Chai
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