Dr. Oz and Nutritional Supplements: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

I would like to talk about doctors there among our most trusted professionals nearly 70% of us write them highly on ethical standards our lives and occasionally our balls are in their hands which is why it was especially troubling last week to see this with his syndicated TV show magazine and website dr. oz has become one of America's most trusted Doc's but on Capitol Hill Tuesday he was on the hot seat excuse me but any seat dr. oz is sitting on is the hot seat so what did the doctor do they criticized the talk-show hosts for describing untested weight loss supplements as magical or miraculous I want you write it down Garcinia cambogia because it may be the simple solution you've been looking for to bust your body fat for good now I've got the number-one miracle and a bottle to burn your fat lightning in a bottle it's a miracle flower to fight fat miracle flowers are you a doctor or an Old West traveling salesman and I got something miraculous for you ladies and gentlemen and monkeys pour mixed with five petals of a rose and a thimble full of otter semen guaranteed to cure your lumbago step right up step right over here the Senate hearing was about the marketing of dietary supplements and unfortunately no one is more effective at that than dr. oz Oz's advice is so influential that one mention of a product can cause sales to skyrocket the phenomenon even has its own name dr. oz effect after dr. oz touted a substance called green coffee bean extract one company in Florida sold half a million bottles well what what's so wrong with that name me one case where a man named oz claimed mystical powers and led people horribly as namely one case you can't do it the only problem with the dr.oz effect is that magic pills don't technically exist and dr. oz knows that do you believe that there's a miracle pill out there there's not a pill that's gonna help you long-term lose weight and live your best life without diet and exercise do you believe there's a magic weight-loss cure out there it the word Metin if you're selling something because it's magical no that would be ridiculous no one is claiming there's a magic pill out there that would be stupid this little bean has scientists saying date time and magic weight-loss cure for every body type see he never said there was a magic pill he said there was a magic bean that's clearly entirely different because magic beans are a very real thing that you tried to cow for so you can steal a golden heart from a giant that's science and by the way a recent study found the main ingredient in those magic beans not only fails to help lab mice it gave them the early symptoms of diabetes though if you're a lab mouse with diabetes you got off easy good luck getting any sympathy in the lab mouse support group oh I'm sorry you can't have any candy I've got an ear growing out of my back Jeff's got herpes sorry Jeff his his mission dr. oz is a doctor and one word degrees from two Ivy League schools he's also dangerously likeable watch how morning joe reacted after seeing bits of his congressional testimony i live up in once it didn't can I just say for us I like duck I will confirm or deny like I'm a lot like diners coming here with really good advice rated by nod and listen if he's got magic coffee beans I want some of it you just showed a report that implied they didn't work he basically just in an emperor's new clothes piece and they ended it by saying by the way the Emperor's tailor was incredible that guy can stitch and to give dr. Ross the benefit of overwhelming medical doubt he seems to be standing by some of his claims I actually do personally believe in the items that I talk about in the show I passionately study them I recognize that oftentimes they don't have the scientific muster to present as fat but that's the whole point you're presenting it as a doctor if you want to keep spouting this that's fine but don't call it your show dr. oz call it check this out with son God knows Mehmet just title to be fair the problem is this Senate hearing is going to achieve nothing for a very chilling reason beyond embarrassing dr. oz there's very little that Congress can do in this arena it is the Federal Trade Commission's job to go after online scams and even they Yale can only scratch the surface she's right dr. oz is just a symptom of the problem the disease is the fact that dietary supplements in the US are shockingly unregulated there are two agencies who theoretically oversee things the FTC and the FDA the FTC is supposed to regulate the marketing of supplements but by their own admission they give great deference to the FDA on whether a company's health claim can be supported the problem with that is the FDA has little authority to investigate the contents of supplements until people are already getting sick from them that sounds crazy and in the past they actually tried to change this in the late 1980s 38 people died from l-tryptophan supplements and in response the FDA tried to expand its authority how did that go in 1993 the industry struck back consumers were urged to write to their congressman or told they may have to kiss their vitamin C goodbye so did people write to their congressman more people wrote to Congress about the supplement bill then wrote about the Vietnam War what how good must the pro-vitamin protest songs have been ginseng huh what is it good for sexual dysfunction of type two diabetes so you Daniel actually there were actually no protests on but there were PSAs put out by the supplement industry featuring not just jackbooted thugs coming to take your vitamins but a surprise celebrity cameo breathe hey guys it's only vitamins if you don't want to lose your vitamins make the FDA stop call the US Senate and tell them that you want to take your vitamins in peace if enough of us do that it'll work Oh 1993 it was a different time when you could plausibly say hey be quiet everybody let's all listen to what Mel Gibson has to show and the supplement industry didn't just pay for ads they gave money to lawmakers like Republican senator Orrin Hatch and Democratic Senator Tom Harkin this was then back then they actually became the two top recipients of funds from the industry and in a crazy coincidence they co-sponsored a bill to deregulate it I send to the desk a substitute amendment on behalf of senators hatch and Harkin today we honored the wishes of 100 million people consumers of dietary supplements people who simply want the ability to lead healthy lifestyles without the constant intervention of one tiny agency which is possessed by a regulatory zeal equaling none regulatory zeal he just criticized a regulatory agency for being too into regulating things that's like accusing your podiatrist of having a foot fetish dude dude dude you you're obsessed with feet it just tone it down a bit now the supplement industry will claim that it is one of the more highly regulated industries see how true you think that is because if you're a supplement company today you do not need approval from the FDA before a product is marketed you can make health claims without prior approved all from the government and you don't have to prove the safety or effectiveness of your products before putting it up for sale the industry is essentially supposed to police itself that's not one of those porn sites that asks you to enter your own age which basically just ends up teaching children how to subtract 18 from the current year it doesn't work which may explain why since 1994 the supplement industry has gone from making four billion dollars to thirty two billion dollars a year with almost no side effects people who consume tainted dietary supplements have suffered from negative side effects like severe bleeding strokes liver damage or even death health officials say the common item linked to several recent cases of acute liver failure in Hawaii is oxyelite pro Orioles pitcher Steve bechler who died after taking a federer during last spring training ephedra stayed on the market an extra two years after many experts asked for a ban meantime the number of deaths rose to 155 with 16,000 adverse events wow that's enough to make you wish for an agency with a certain amount of them what's the phrase regulatory zeal and yet lawmakers still resist regulation because when two years ago a bill was proposed suggesting supplements should carry warning labels about potentially dangerous side effects you'll never guess who popped up again the FDA already has a tremendous amount of regulatory oversight and enforcement tools when it comes to dietary supplements every supplement has a label has the ingredients and the potency by law on every single item that is sold as a supplement that's right Hatchin harken who in 2012 had retained their title of the top two recipients of campaign funds from the supplement industry see two decades later those campaign contributions still working who says nutritional supplements don't have long-lasting effects and by the way on the point that Senator Harkin made about how every supplement has a label saying what's inside it well funny story when a group of researchers recently DNA tested supplements from a dozen North American companies they found that one-third contained no trace whatsoever of the plant advertised on the bottle if one in three milk bottles didn't contain milk you might think twice about pouring the white mystery liquid all over your cereal but none of this is likely to change because companies have access to the one genuinely truly effective wonder drug it's called lobbying and here's how the science works FDA regulation can really stop up your profits jamming up your whole money-making system which can lead to painful effects on the company's bottom line but with lobbying somehow legal process all those pesky regulations just melt away into nothingness giving you that comfortable corporate feeling of money almost uncontrollably ask your lawyers if lobbying is right for you none of that stock none of this answers the key dr. oz question now he says he wasn't paid to mention any particular products so why say those things on TV at all in intent to engage viewers I use flowery language I used language that was very passionate that makes sense because we're all looking for flowery language from our physicians like the sunlight shines upon the hidden grassy meadow so does chlamydia cast a warm glow upon your private parts and when he says engaging viewers that is the problem perhaps his fatal flaw is that he's done 870 daily hour-long shows about health and medicine which is impossible sooner or later you're going to get tired of doing shows about what your poop should look like with Cameron Diaz this is ever happen to you and luckily no I'm not a girl that gets constipated good good for you lucky you Diaz lucky you and instead of that you're gonna get tempted to overstretch and do a show with a title like can an aspirin a day keep cancer away to which the answer is clearly no not not entirely because I feel like if it did we wouldn't be hearing about it for the first time at 4:00 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon hey did you hear that I cured cancer no I was watching Wendy Williams and look the frustrating thing is it's easy to fill a show with shameless pandering without dangerously misleading medical information here I'll show you I'll show you pandering that you wouldn't believe hey everyone wouldn't it be great if we had a Skype interview with george RR martin the writer of Game of Thrones let's do it hey George George ha how's the writing going I just killed threatened your favorite character what it's not aria it's not aria is it George is not Aria please tell me it's not aria just give me a clue damn you Martin okay what what people seem to like that and no one got hurt so let's keep pandering um everyone likes puppies don't they he's a puppy right now here's a puppy hello puppy in know puppy look look neither I nor a puppy are making unsubstantiated claims about potentially harmful dietary supplements you're not doing that are you puppy look because you don't need to do you precious you don't need to unlock look here's a here's something else that people like women in trashy dresses throwing wine in each other's faces um go ladies calm down it's all fabricated let's keep pandering um who wants a t-shirt who wants a people love t-shirts they know t-shirts almost as much as they love celebrities dancing and guess what his Steve Buscemi tap dancing we even know any thoughts the only questionable benefits of dietary supplements Oh John this isn't really the time or place for that discussion exactly that's the point see dr. Moss we've done it we engage viewers without recommending any unregulated products we can reduce diabetes please welcome the black and gold Marty elite you

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 15,243,529

Rating: 4.8842006 out of 5

Keywords: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, George RR Martin, Dr. Oz, Nutrition Supplements, Steve Buscemi, Real Housewives, black and gold marching elite

Id: WA0wKeokWUU

Length: 16min 25sec (985 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 22 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/ChicagoBeerFan]

I like how he really goes in-depth into an issue.

[u/Menzlo]

Can we talk for a second about Steve Buscemi's killer moves? I was seriously impressed.

[u/thatguy77992]

Good! Fuck Dr. Oz, what a fraudulent piece of shit.

[u/Auto_Grammar_Bot]

If Last Week Tonight clips become a regular feature on /r/videos , I will be happy.

[u/theghostwithoutaname]

He didn't thank the puppy for being on the show.

[u/african_nigorilla]

If Dr Oz keeps fucking around with his face is going to start becoming one of those cat people. Weird eyebrows are step one.

[u/ukfashman]

The show is 30mins long, the clip is 16mins long, nice

[u/[deleted]]

This motherfucker just keeps getting funnier every video I watch.

[u/jimboslice29]

Well at least GRRM is writing