Celebrity physician and TV star Dr Mehmet Oz has been accused of cynical marketing tactics, after he used his mother’s dementia to advertise supplements that experts say haven’t any proven profit.
In a video posted to X, the presenter of the Dr Oz Show shared a video by which he claimed that omega-3 supplements sold by the firm he’s believed to receive payment from has ‘probably slowed the progression of her Alzheimers’, alongside exercising and eating less carbs.
In the video, he shared links to the aforementioned omega-3 complement, sold by the firm iHerb, where he’s Global Advisor.
‘There’s plenty of good evidence that vitamin supplements are only really helpful in individuals with cognitive decline in the event that they have some type of vitamin deficiency,’ Professor Robert Howard, a University College London psychiatrist who makes a speciality of old age, told the Daily Mail.
‘But for those who’re already eating weight loss program then there’s absolutely no profit in any respect in taking supplements like omega-3 for dementia,’ Professor Howard said.
Dr Oz says mmega-3s may help slow dementia symptoms, but recent studies haven’t come to similar conclusions
Omega-3 was shown to have little to no profit in slowing or stopping the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, in keeping with a 2016 review of three studies of the complement by researchers from the University Halle‐Wittenberg.
Experts have accused the center surgeon-turned-TV host of selling ‘worthless’ supplements.
‘I’m sorry about Dr Oz’s mum but there’s no good evidence supporting the products he endorses having any efficacy in slowing progression of Alzheimer’s’, Professor Howard, wrote in reply to Dr Oz.
‘…what he’s promising to individuals with dementia and their desperate families is baloney.’
Howard said that folks in vulnerable positions, with family members affected by dementia will see tweets like Dr Oz’s and ‘waste their time, money and hope on something which is not going to assist.’
Dr Eric Widera, a professor of drugs at University of California San Francisco wrote that the video was an example of Dr Oz trying ‘to earn a living off fear.’
iHerb and Dr Oz announced their partnership on October 4, 2023. It is unclear if he makes money from this partnership, but he’s listed online as their Global Advisor.
He’s also featured in three promotional videos on the corporate’s website touring the facilities, fawning over the standard control measures on the factory- like air conditioned rooms and labelling stations.
Dr Oz has previously promoted other iHerb products, like prebiotics, in written testimony published on the corporate website – and has promoted their supplements on his YouTube show ‘Dr. Oz’.
It’s not unheard of for doctors to take money from pharmaceutical corporations to advertise drugs, Professor Howard said. However he added, ‘it might be disappointing if he was exploiting his moms dementia to sell something that he had financial interest in.’
Dr Oz has previously come under fire for promoting a vitamin marketing company called Usana. The company – which was investigated by federal authorities for its predatory business practices – paid at the very least $50 million to be featured on Dr Oz’s show, the Associated Press reported.
Dr Oz together with his mother Suna, who was diagnosed with dementia at age 81, in 2019.
In 2014, he was summoned to testify before the US Congress about his promotion of a questionable weight reduction complement called Garcinia Cambogia. Two years later, he was the goal of a category motion lawsuit about that very same complement, with jurors complaining that he knowingly platformed a product with no ‘credible scientific evidence’.
At the 2014 hearing, then Missouri Sen Claire McCaskill scolded Dr Oz, saying, ‘I do not get why it’s worthwhile to say these items because you recognize it isn’t true. When you’ve this amazing megaphone, why would you cheapen your show?’
Around the time he announced his bid for the Pennsylvania senate seat in 2022, formal medical institutions began turning their backs on Dr Oz.
Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the hospital that Dr Oz worked since at the very least 1986, quietly removed him from their website in 2022.
The ousting followed an open letter from 10 practicing physicians across the country accusing Dr Oz of displaying, ‘an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures within the interest of private financial gain.’
Omega-3’s supposed advantages for reducing the danger of dementia are rooted in research on the Mediterranean weight loss program, Dr Keith Vossel, a neurologist at UCLA, told the Daily Mail.
Some early studies linked eating a weight loss program wealthy in omega-3 fats- contained inside fish and nuts – could reduce your risk of dementia buy as much as 41 percent.
However, these studies didn’t keep the participants in a lab for the entire time.
Since they were free to live their lives as normal, there is no solution to know in the event that they adhered strictly to the prescribed weight loss program, and in the event that they effects were a consequence of something.
Meanwhile, a swathe of other studies have found that eating an omega-3 heavy weight loss program doesn’t protect from developing dementia.
Currently, the AS reports, the information is simply too conflicting to conclude that omega-3 does anything for dementia.
‘There is currently not enough evidence to say that a weight loss program wealthy in omega-3 will reduce an individual’s risk of developing dementia,’ the Alzheimers Society wrote.
If you might be unable to eat fish and nuts for some reason, Dr Vossel said, then you definately might consider taking some omega-3s every once and some time, after talking to your personal doctor.
But nobody brand shall be the important thing to unlocking your brain health he said. He cautioned people to be wary of doctors promoting specific brands.
‘I feel anytime you hear a physician who’s connected with an organization that is promoting a product, you’ve to take what they are saying with a giant grain of salt,’ Dr Vossel said.
‘Unfortunately, there are large influences from pharmaceutical corporations on our medical care, and potentially how we discuss drugs with patient’s. So it is important to maintain an arms length.’