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People have told me that I should go on Oprah because of my book about medications. But I am glad I never did (not that I got the offer anyway) after learning about how Dr. Mehmet Oz, described as America’s Doctor, who makes frequent appearances on the Oprah Show and who authored several books in the popular series of You: The Owner’s Manual which he co-authors with Michael Roizen, MD, is a paid consultant for a website called RealAge that asks you a series of questions to find out your biological or “real” age. The web site has registered 27 million people.
I'm not really that old, am I?
Turns out this web site collects demographic information and sells its services to drug companies, who then use it to target specific groups to sell prescription medications to. For instance, if it turned out that you were at risk for pre-hypertension, they would send you emails with “information”, and then when you were “softened up” hit you up with a pitch about how you should take a medication for hypertension. Which all means, of course, that Dr. Oz gets automatic admission to the Drug News and Health Safety Blog team of MD Cheerleaders for Pharma!
Gimme a D! Go Dr. Oz!
I was actually on their radio show right after my book came out, interviewed by Dr. Michael Roizen, but that is as close as I ever got to the bright lights. It is actually kind of weird how much the media shies away from the issue of prescription medication safety, unless they have the feeling that “everyone else is going after the story.”
The newspaper article on the topic quoted a woman who appropriately stated that she didn’t appreciate having her personal information used for drug marketing. But then the article (I guess to have “balance”?) bizarrely quoted a former pharmaceutical saleswoman who stated that it is important to have all the information you can get so you can make informed decisions for yourself.
“Information”? Give me a break. And my comment on Dr. Oz’s behavior is go back and read your Hippocratic Oath, which sez above all do no harm. And sending blanket emails with scary messages to induce people to take prescription medications which could hurt them and that they may not need is a violation of that oath.
Hat tip to therapy patient.
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America?s Doctor Outed as Drug Pimp [re: Dr. Mehmet Oz and RealAge site] (Dr. Bremner, 3/26/09) http://tinyurl.com/cff8gk
Such whores continue to multiply like bacteria.
Doug,
This is discouraging news…
He had an interview on Oprah Radio with Dr. Hyla Cass – a holistic psychiatrist from California….
I was hopeful that there might be at least one guy out there who might be able to get more of the message on natural healing for “mental illness”, and now this….
I swear, just when I thought there might be some hope to get a message out through something as powerful as the Oprah show….
What is it about the Oprah show? I never really got the Oprah show…but, I guess a lot of women think she hung the moon – My wife likes to watch.
So, on the side against the drugging of a society with psych drugs – We’ve got Breggin, and you, and who else?…..
Discouraged….What can I say?
Duane
Charles Whitfield MD, friend of mine from Atlanta who reads this site.
http://www.cbwhit.com/charleshome.htm
I am not necessarily against any or all prescription meds in any context, but this just makes my moral meter go tilt, along the lines of the CNN TV medical show hosted by Sanjay Gupta that plays in Drs. offices interspersed with drug ads.
The topic of alternative treatments has come up several times throughout these blogs but has not been directly addressed–so, what I’d like to know is, does BigPharma also have a hand in the research (by NCCAM PIs and others) that discredits alternative therapies? There’s not much scientific support for many therapies, but is that good, unbiased data, or skewed to promote the perception that these therapies are all superstition and placebo effects? I can’t imagine anything that would threaten Pharma more than for it to be generally known that you could maybe grow a little something in your backyard that would help you just as much as some high-priced pharmaceutical. Surely they’re working to protect their interests here as well.
I don’t really know who is doing the NCCAM research, although one trial did not show SSRI (was it Prozac or Zoloft?) better than St John’s Wort, although neither were better than placebo. That one everyone sort of conveniently forgot about.
Pharma is like a big, hungry beast without scruples. If they can’t reach their target in one way, they go after their target in a different way.
Consider this:
A certain amount of money is spent on R&D for a particular drug. Pharma knows exactly how much they need to sell to make back their R&D costs and start “minting” money. Once R&D has done its job, then it is up to the marketing departments to sell the drug in ANY WAY they can think of, ethical or otherwise.
Here’s one that really gets me because I am such a fervent animal lover. My veterinarian (I could give you his name and number, Dr. Bremner) told me that when a drug fails as a human drug for whatever reason, it is marketed as a VETERINARY drug. Jesus!!! My vet thinks that is OK because there is little research on drugs solely for pet use (due to the R&D cost) so this is a way for vets to get their hands on new drugs. There are of course certain drugs that might cause problems after, say, 10 years which would not matter if it were given to an 8 year old dog. Still, when the vet hands you a drug, you might wonder if it is really effective and also you might wonder if there are any horrible side effects that Pharma knows about, but your vet does not. Some of my dogs and I have been “beta testers”. I am a good observer, and sensitive to my dogs, so I am the client who runs back with reports on the side effects of the drug. It’s not good, and this is a whole additional arena of abuse inflicted by Pharma.
It was odd to choose the former drug rep as spokesperson (though maybe it was done on purpose to subtly discredit the pro argument?), however, it is important to recognize that her view represents a majority opinion in the US on the role and ethics of advertising. The defense of advertising is that it provides choice (sacred choice!).
For anyone unfamiliar with it, here’s the argument: The viewer or recipient of an ad is, after all, free to say no thanks. But if the ad hadn’t reached them, they would not have had the choice, and so they might have lost out on something they really needed or would have liked. Thus, advertisements are an agent of free choice and the more of them there are, and the more they can find our particular “unmet needs” directly, the more choice they give us.
Don’t scoff. Many of our laws concerning ads (or the lack of them) are based on that argument.
Holders of this view must somehow think that advertising contains only informational content or, like MDs who welcome drug reps into their offices, they believe that they can filter out the advertising and take away only the information. They also apparently have underdeveloped senses of privacy.
And by the way, thank you for choosing to read this comment.
Oprah basically just knows how to make a ton of money pandering to the mainstream…
her program on bipolar disorder a year or two ago had EVERY single participant talk about how they had been VIOLENT and meds had saved them…
that was grossly offensive. the so-called mentally ill are more often victims of violence then perpetrators but Oprah catered to the fears of mainstream Americans and helped enforce fear of non-drug approaches as well as fear of anyone with a diagnosis.
I can’t stand Oprah, though I recognize she is quite seductive and charismatic in her way…and well…if she one day decided one of our messages was worth sharing I suppose it would be worth taking advantage of…but she I don’t trust…she seems slimy like a politician…has never seemed real to me.
In my opinion, Oprah is popular and also gets a lot out of her guests because she is so empathetic and expresses feelings well.
Referring to my own comment just previous.
My psychiatrist also is very empathetic and expresses feelings well, and it’s one reason he gets so much from me. The qualities Oprah has can be used for good.
I took that quiz on Facebook and it made me laugh, it gave me my own age back because it never asked about kidney failure
. Not sure they are getting really helpful information when they ignore major organs such as kidneys and livers too. 
Doug, I am shocked, SHOCKED that this kind of marketing would come from such a noble industry as big pharma. . .
What this business needs is a couple of guys just crazy enough to write a hit Broadway musical based solely on the side-effects of medications, as listed in their television commercials. And Doug, you and I are just the guys to do it. . . .
Seriously, those ads! Once I have heard “lymphoma”, “Parkinson’s tremors that may become permanent” and “death”, I’ll take the illness, thank you.
One of my transplant drugs can cause lymphoma in rare cases, but it’s still better than the alternative….. not so much for restless legs or social phobia or going to the bathroom too much
Therapy Patient, you can fake empathy…
If you’re really good at it, it’s called sociopathy!
I don’t think she’s a sociopath, just not terribly deep. I don’t even think she’s faking it…she’s not all bad…I think she means well…but doesn’t really get the big picture.
Ha ha! So are you going to dance in your boots Duncan? As for Alison, I will never forget sitting in jury selection for a childhood sexual abuse case in DeKalb County GA, where the defending attorney asked the potential juror next to me, who was a black woman, if her son had ever been pulled over un necessarily by DeKalb police (whom are universally hated). She said yes, and was included. She then whispered to me, “I was sexually abused at age 5, too bad he didn’t ask me about that.”
As for narcissists, they can be charming, and sometimes more difficult to control than sociopaths, and I think the label applies to someone who could engage in this realage nonsense and consider it to be ok.
Earlier today I found him listed as a speaker for “over 75K” but they may have pulled that down now, here is an example, you can even click “add to cart”.
http://www.thespeakeragency.com/speaker-details.cfm?SpeakerID=10290
He already makes so much money why does he have to sell out like that?
I think the crash and burn related to greed/quest for status is a good stress test for narcissists. And he lists 400 publications in his bio. What did he actually do on those papers? Experience says probably just schmoozing.
wow this is crazy shit. (oops)!
Where in the article does it say this, “And sending blanket emails with scary messages to induce people to take prescription medications which could hurt them and that they may not need is a violation of that oath.” There is no mention of “blanket” emails – rather, they are targeted emails. It’s called Permission Marketing. Do you know how to opt-out? It’s called email. There’s nothing wrong with what RealAge is doing. And Tara Parker Pope retracted some of her uniformed statements about RealAge – it does not sell, rent, or allow access to user’s data. Read up before you post!!