“The Dr. Oz Show,” which has come under fire from physicians and politicians for promoting “miracle” cures with no evidence, will launch a new weekly segment on the connections between spirituality and health that veers, once again, into the territory of miracles.
Christian author and motivational speaker Priscilla Shirer and several pastors will join Oz for “Faithful Fridays.”
Among the topics to be explored: “Miraculous medical recoveries only God can explain,” according to a press release from the show.
Such claims are bound to raise eyebrows. Medical experts caution that there isn’t scientific evidence to back up the dramatic claims of faith healers to cure disease.
When STAT asked whether the show’s host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, would temper segments on faith healing by including skepticism from medical experts, as he has on occasion in the past, a spokeswoman for the show responded: “Can you clarify what you mean by skepticism because that doesn’t sounds completely accurate?” She did not respond to further requests for information.
Oz has impressive medical credentials: He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical school and has been a professor in Columbia University’s department of surgery since 2001.
But he’s opened himself to criticism for embracing some fringe scientific views and hosting questionable experts on his show.
Back in 2011, Dr. Oz did a series on Issam Nemeh, a self-proclaimed faith healer who treated patients with acupuncture, prayer, and “infra-ray light,” among other treatments.
Criticism of Oz exploded after he used his show to promote a product called green coffee bean extract as a weight-loss “miracle.” The product was peddled by supplement marketer and frequent show guest Lindsey Duncan, who had a financial stake in the companies making the extract.
However, the study that Duncan used as evidence was retracted. An investigation by the Federal Trade Commission ensued, and ultimately, Duncan agreed to pay $9 million to settle with consumers who’d purchased the product.
In a Senate hearing on consumer protections in June 2014, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) told Oz she was concerned that he was “melding medical advice, news, and entertainment in a way that harms consumers.”
Some of Oz’s peers in the medical community have grown fed up with him, too. In April 2015, a group of doctors sent a letter to the dean of Columbia’s medical school saying it was “unacceptable” for Oz to maintain his faculty appointment.
“He has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain,” the letter read.
Columbia responded that faculty members had were free to express themselves in the public sphere.
Oz most recently grabbed the spotlight by when then-candidate Donald Trump came on his show to disclose results of his most recent physical.
About the Author Reprints
I AM WRITING TO ENQUIRE IF YOU WOULD BE IN TERESTED IN THE MEDICAL MIRACLE STORY OF MY BROTHER, WHO HAS SURVIVED 16 HEART ATTACKS AND DIED 3 TIMES, AND AT 255 POUNDS HAS LOST 60 POUNDS AND NOW WEIGHS 195 POUNDS WHICH HE HAS LOST AFTER WORKING-OUT 3 TIMES A WEEK AT HIS LOCAL GYM. ALL MEDICAL EXPERIENCES IS DOCUMENTED IN HIS MEDICAL RECORDS. I THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. JERRY HONEYCUTT CELL# 508-364-3523
I missed the ame of the book on Miracles that was highlighted on this Dr. Oz. Faithful Fridays. Can you provide it?
Thank you!
Betty Hicks
This might sound grim, but it really does make me wish these faith healers would actually try working at a hospital in the palliative care unit for a few days, just to watch them fail horribly … http://i.imgur.com/TYEjTL3.jpg
There ARE people healed of cancer, cataracts, chrohn’s , addison’s etc. in Jesus’s name. I encourage you to seek out books and sources of well documented miracles. I myself am a Provider and have been healed of bilateral PE in 5 days and bilateral cataracts. I have the documentation to prove it. Faith in Jesus is hard for some people.
Oh Goody. The Donald Trump of medicine!!
Exactly. It’s just garbage for the gullible.
I watched your show today and I have already cut back on snacks and pop, which has helped my mental well being. The one thing that bothers me is being able to go on to a suitable life after the loss of my husband. I have always had faith in God and thank him for being alive, but just can’t get past the point of why I have to be left alone.
Any real doctor would tell you to cut down on snacks and pop. You need a good therapist to help you deal with your loss. Turn off this snake oil salesman! He gets paid for endorsing those products and services!!!!
Thank you, Dr. Oz, for having the courage to bring this topic on the air. Thank you for bring Christian pastors to your program. I am a Christian and I watch your program. You are a blessing to all of us!!!!
He is Muslim. He has never been a christian.
i’m 61 yr old women that had brain cancer and I can’t get my life back in order. please help with you faith team I believe in god almighty and I want him by my side to lift me up and get my engine rolling again. i’m scared.
Kim, I am 65 and my brother is 73. God will give you the strength you need to whatever end. God is with us when we have Him in our hearts. He will never desert you, we just need to lean on Him.
Kim, I can identify with you. My brother went through liver cancer and had half of his liver removed 5 years ago. Now his cancer is back and he doesn’t have enough liver to remove to get rid of the tumor. We of course don’t want to lose our brother, but we also want God’s will to be done. So we pray to have God heal him if it is within His will.
I know how it is to be scared and God understands that. Just reach out to Him through prayer and He will give you what you need. I will also pray for you!
God Bless You and hold you up.
i’m a 61 yr old women who had brain cancer and I can’t get my shit together and get my life back together and get my life back in order believe in god almighty and each day I slipping away. no consintration.so if your team can help let me know 724-377-0286.Scaredkim
Unless you can tell him how he can profit from your misery, he’s not interested.