- The piece discusses the criticism faced by Dr. Oz for promoting untested weight loss supplements as magical or miraculous.
- Dr. Oz's influence on sales, known as the "Dr. Oz effect," is highlighted.
- The lack of regulation in the dietary supplement industry is brought up, with the FTC and FDA having limited authority.
- The supplement industry has grown significantly, but cases of negative side effects and deaths have been reported.
- Lawmakers have resisted regulation, with some receiving funds from the supplement industry.

This piece discusses the resistance of lawmakers to regulate dietary supplements and the influence of campaign contributions from the supplement industry. It also highlights the lack of regulation and accuracy in labeling for supplements. The piece criticizes the role of lobbying in preventing stricter regulations. It questions why Dr. Oz promotes certain products on TV and suggests that his desire to engage viewers may lead to misleading information. The piece concludes by demonstrating how it is possible to engage viewers without promoting potentially harmful products.

John Oliver outlines what, exactly is problematic about Dr. Oz and the nutrition supplement industry. Then he invites George R.R. Martin, Steve Buscemi, the Black and Gold Marching Elite, and some fake real housewives on the show to illustrate how to pander to an audience without hurting anyone. 

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-♪ ♪ I would like to talk about doctors.

They're among our most trusted professionals.

Nearly 70% of us rate 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 1 of America's most trusted docs.

But On Capitol Hill Tuesday, he was on the hot seat.

They criticized the talk show host for describing untested weight loss supplements as magical or miraculous.

I want you to 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 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat.

Are you a doctor or an Old West traveling salesman?

Have I got something miraculous for you, ladies and gentlemen?

A monkey's paw mixed with 5 petals of a rose and a thimble full of otter semen.

The Senate hearing was about the marketing of dietary supplements, and unfortunately, No 1 is more effective at that than Dr.

Oz's advice is so influential that 1 mention of a product can cause sales to skyrocket.

The phenomenon even has its own name, the Dr.

Oz touted a substance called green coffee bean extract, 1 company in Florida sold half a million bottles.

Name me 1 case where a man named Oz claimed mystical powers and led people horribly astray.

Oz effect is that magic pills don't technically exist, and Dr.

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 the best life without diet and exercise.

Do you believe there's a magic weight loss cure out there?

If you're selling something because it's magical, no.

No 1 is claiming there's a magic pill out there.

This little bean has scientists saying they found a magic weight loss cure for every body type.

That's clearly entirely different, because magic beans are a very real thing that you trade your cow for, so you can steal a golden harp from a giant.

And by the way, a recent study found the main ingredient in those magic beans not only failed 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.

I've got an ear growing out of my fucking back!

--LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE --Jeff's got herpes!

--LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE --Here's the issue.

Oz is a doctor, and 1 with degrees from 2 Ivy League schools.

He's also Dangerously likable watch how morning Joe reacted after seeing bits of his congressional testimony I bought them

like him a lot like you With really good advice.

I listen, if he's got magic coffee beans, I want some of that.

You just showed a report that implied they didn't work.

You basically just did an emperor's new clothes piece and then ended it by saying, by the way, the emperor's tailor was incredible.

Oz 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 recognize that oftentimes they don't have the scientific muster to present as fact.

If you want to keep spouting this bullshit, that's fine.

Call it, check this shit out with some guy named Mehmet.

The problem is, this Senate hearing is going to achieve nothing for a very chilling reason.

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, Gail, can only scratch the surface.

The disease is the fact that dietary supplements in the U.S.

There are 2 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.

Consumers were urged to write to their congressmen, or told they may have to kiss their vitamin C goodbye.

So did people write to their congressmen?

More people wrote to Congress about the supplement bill than wrote about the Vietnam War.

How good must the pro-vitamin protest songs have been?

There were actually no protest songs, 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.

don't want to lose your vitamins, make the FDA stop.

Senate and tell them that you want to take your vitamins in peace.

When you could plausibly say, hey, be quiet, everybody.

Let's all listen to what Mel Gibson has to say.

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.

They actually became the 2 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 honor 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 1 tiny agency which is possessed by a regulatory zeal equaling none.

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're obsessed with feet.

Now, the supplement industry will claim that it is 1 of the more highly regulated industries.

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 approval from the government, and you don't have to prove the safety or effectiveness of your product before putting it up for sale.

The industry is essentially supposed to police itself.

That's like 1 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.

Which may explain why, since 1994, the supplement industry has gone from making $4 billion to $32 billion 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 Oxy Elite Pro.

Orioles pitcher Steve Beckler, who died after taking ephedra during last spring training.

Ephedra stayed on the market an extra 2 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, What's the phrase?

-♪ Laugh track playing ♪ -And yet, lawmakers still resist regulation, because when 2 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.

Hatch and Harkin, who in 2012 had retained their title of the top 2 recipients of campaign funds from the supplement industry.

2 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 1 third contained no trace whatsoever of the plant advertised on the bottle.

If 1 in 3 milk bottles didn't contain milk, you might think twice about pouring the white mystery liquid all over your cereal.

your cereal ♪ -♪ All over your cereal ♪ But none of

this is likely to change, because companies have access to the 1, genuinely, truly effective wonder drug.

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's somehow legal process, all those pesky regulations just melt away into nothingness, giving you that comfortable corporate feeling of shitting money almost uncontrollably.

Ask your lawyers if lobbying is right for you.

Now, he says he wasn't paid to mention any particular products.

In an intent to engage viewers, I used 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...

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.

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?

Not entirely, because I feel like if it did, we wouldn't be hearing about it for the first time at 4 p.m.

Hey, did you hear that they cured cancer?

-♪♪ And look, the frustrating thing is, it's easy to fill a show with shameless pandering without dangerously misleading medical information.

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 R.R.

I just killed 3 of your favorite characters.

Okay, well, people seem to like that and no 1 got hurt, so let's keep pandering.

And look, look, neither I nor the puppy are making unsubstantiated claims about potentially harmful dietary supplements.

Look, because You don't need to, do you, precious?

Women in trashy dresses throwing wine in each other's faces.

They love T-shirts almost as much as they love celebrities dancing and guess what his Steve Buscemi tap dancing

Hey Steve, any thoughts Steve on the questionable benefits of dietary supplements?

Oh John, this isn't really the time or place for that discussion.

We engaged viewers without recommending any unregulated products that could potentially induce diabetes!

Please welcome the Black and Gold Marching Elite!

Our thanks to Tab Nights Extinguished in Leeds, and to George RR Martin, and the Black and Gold Marching Elite.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ I would like to talk about doctors. They're among our most trusted professionals. Nearly 70% of us rate 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.

Speaker 1: With his syndicated TV show, magazine, and website, Dr. Oz has become 1 of America's most trusted docs. But On Capitol Hill Tuesday, he was on the hot seat.

Speaker 0: Excuse me, but any seat Dr. Ross is sitting on is the hot seat. Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!

So, what did the doctor do?

Speaker 2: They criticized the talk show host for describing untested weight loss supplements as magical or miraculous.

Speaker 3: I want you to 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 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. Lightning in a bottle. It's a miracle flower to fight fat. Miracle flowers?

Speaker 0: Are you a doctor or an Old West traveling salesman? Have I got something miraculous for you, ladies and gentlemen? A monkey's paw mixed with 5 petals of a rose and a thimble full of otter semen. Guaranteed to cure your lumbago. Step right up,

Speaker 4: step right up here.

Speaker 0: The Senate hearing was about the marketing of dietary supplements, and unfortunately, No 1 is more effective at that than Dr. Oz.

Speaker 2: Oz's advice is so influential that 1 mention of a product can cause sales to skyrocket. The phenomenon even has its own name, the Dr. Oz effect. After Dr. Oz touted a substance called green coffee bean extract, 1 company in Florida sold half a million bottles.

Speaker 0: Well, what's so wrong with that? Name me 1 case where a man named Oz claimed mystical powers and led people horribly astray. Name me 1 case. You can't do it. -$5,000.

The only problem with the Dr. Oz effect is that magic pills don't technically exist, and Dr. Oz knows that.

Speaker 4: Do you believe that there's a miracle pill out there?

Speaker 3: There's not a pill that's gonna help you long-term lose weight and live the best life without diet and exercise.

Speaker 4: Do you believe there's a magic weight loss cure out there?

Speaker 3: It... The word... If you're selling something because it's magical, no.

Speaker 0: Right, right. That would be ridiculous. No 1 is claiming there's a magic pill out there. That would be stupid.

Speaker 3: This little bean has scientists saying they found a magic weight loss cure for every body type.

Speaker 0: 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 trade your cow for, so you can steal a golden harp from a giant. That's science.

And by the way, a recent study found the main ingredient in those magic beans not only failed 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. 0, I'm sorry you can't have any candy.

I've got an ear growing out of my fucking back! --LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE --Jeff's got herpes! Sorry, Jeff. --LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE --Here's the issue. Dr.

Oz is a doctor, and 1 with degrees from 2 Ivy League schools. He's also Dangerously likable watch how morning Joe reacted after seeing bits of his congressional testimony I bought them

Speaker 4: once it didn't can

Speaker 0: I just

Speaker 3: say? Like I will I will confirm or deny

Speaker 5: like him a lot like you With really good advice.

Speaker 4: Yes, great advice. I listen, if he's got magic coffee beans, I want some of that. Me too. No, I'm serious.

Speaker 0: You just showed a report that implied they didn't work. You basically just did an emperor's new clothes piece and then ended it by saying, by the way, the emperor's tailor was incredible. That guy can stitch. And to give Dr. Oz the benefit of overwhelming medical doubt, he seems to be standing by some of his claims.

Speaker 3: 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 fact.

Speaker 0: -... But that's the whole point. You're presenting it as a doctor. If you want to keep spouting this bullshit, that's fine. But don't call it your show, Dr.

Oz. Call it, check this shit out with some guy named Mehmet.

Speaker 4: Just... The problem is, that's... It's a good title, to

Speaker 0: be fair. The problem is, this Senate hearing is going to achieve nothing for a very chilling reason.

Speaker 2: 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, Gail, can only scratch the surface.

Speaker 0: She's right. Dr. Oz is just a symptom of the problem. The disease is the fact that dietary supplements in the U.S. Are shockingly unregulated.

There are 2 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?

Speaker 6: In 1993, the industry struck back. Consumers were urged to write to their congressmen, or told they may have to kiss their vitamin C goodbye. So did people write to their congressmen?

Speaker 1: More people wrote to Congress about the supplement bill than wrote about the Vietnam War. AUDIENCE GROANS

Speaker 0: What? How good must the pro-vitamin protest songs have been? Gin-seng! Huh! What is it good for?

Sexual dysfunction and type 2 diabetes! Say it again, y'all!

Speaker 4: Say it again!

Speaker 0: Actually... There were actually no protest songs, 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.

Speaker 7: Breathe! Hey, guys, guys, it's only vitamins.

Speaker 4: If you

Speaker 7: don't want to lose your vitamins, make the FDA stop. Call the U.S. Senate and tell them that you want to take your vitamins in peace. If enough of us do that,

Speaker 5: it'll work.

Speaker 4: -...it'll work. -...it'll

Speaker 0: 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 say.

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 them back then. They actually became the 2 top recipients of funds from the industry. And in a crazy coincidence, they co-sponsored a bill to deregulate it.

Speaker 5: I send to the desk a substitute amendment on behalf of Senators Hatch and Harkin. Today we honor 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 1 tiny agency which is possessed by a regulatory zeal equaling none.

Speaker 0: 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're obsessed with feet. You just tone it down a bit.

Now, the supplement industry will claim that it is 1 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 approval from the government, and you don't have to prove the safety or effectiveness of your product before putting it up for sale. The industry is essentially supposed to police itself.

That's like 1 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 $4 billion to $32 billion a year, with almost no side effects.

Speaker 8: People who consume tainted dietary supplements have suffered from negative side effects like severe bleeding, strokes, liver damage or even death.

Speaker 3: Health officials say the common item linked to several recent cases of acute liver failure in Hawaii is Oxy Elite Pro.

Speaker 9: Orioles pitcher Steve Beckler, who died after taking ephedra during last spring training. Ephedra stayed on the market an extra 2 years after many experts asked for a ban. Meantime, the number of deaths rose to 155, with 16,000 adverse events.

Speaker 0: Wow, that's enough to make you wish for an agency with a certain amount of, What's the phrase? Regulatory zeal. -♪ Laugh track playing ♪ -And yet, lawmakers still resist regulation, because when 2 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.

Speaker 5: The FDA already has a tremendous amount of regulatory oversight and enforcement tools when it comes to dietary supplements.

Speaker 10: Every supplement has a label, has the ingredients and the potency by law on every single item that is sold as a supplement.

Speaker 0: That's right. Hatch and Harkin, who in 2012 had retained their title of the top 2 recipients of campaign funds from the supplement industry. See? 2 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 1 third contained no trace whatsoever of the plant advertised on the bottle. If 1 in 3 milk bottles didn't contain milk, you might think twice about pouring the white mystery liquid all over your cereal.

-♪ All over

Speaker 4: your cereal ♪ -♪ All over your cereal ♪ But none of

Speaker 0: this is likely to change, because companies have access to the 1, 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's somehow legal process, all those pesky regulations just melt away into nothingness, giving you that comfortable corporate feeling of shitting money almost uncontrollably.

Ask your lawyers if lobbying is right for you. But...

Speaker 4: -...none of this, though... -...whoo!

Speaker 0: 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?

Speaker 3: In an intent to engage viewers, I used flowery language. I used language that was very passionate.

Speaker 0: 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. -...upon your private parts. -...upon your private parts.

-...upon

Speaker 4: your private parts.

Speaker 0: 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.

Speaker 3: Has this ever happened to you?

Speaker 8: Luckily, no. I'm not a girl that gets constipated.

Speaker 0: 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 entirely, because I feel like if it did, we wouldn't be hearing about it for the first time at 4 p.m. On a Wednesday afternoon. Hey, did you hear that they 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 R.R. Martin, the writer of Game

Speaker 4: of Thrones? Wouldn't that be fun? Okay, let's do it. Hey, George.

Speaker 0: George, how's the writing going?

Speaker 4: I just killed 3 of your favorite characters.

Speaker 0: What? It's not Aria. It's not Aria, is it? George, it's not Aria. Please tell me it's not Aria.

Just give me a clue, damn you, Martin! Okay, well, people seem to like that and no 1 got hurt, so let's keep pandering. Everyone likes puppies, don't they? Here's a puppy right now. Here's a puppy.

Hello, puppy. Hello, puppy. And look, look, neither I nor the 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. And look, look. Here's something else that people like. Women in trashy dresses throwing wine in each other's faces. Look!

Look!

Speaker 4: People love that. They love it.

Speaker 0: Calm down, ladies. Calm down. It's all fabricated. Let's keep pandering. Who wants a T-shirt?

Who wants a T-shirt?

Speaker 4: Let's pander it up. Who wants a T-shirt? Who wants a T-shirt? Who wants a...

Speaker 0: People love T-shirts. They love T-shirts almost as much as they love celebrities dancing and guess what his Steve Buscemi tap dancing

Speaker 4: Do you even know how to tap dance? Not really. Not really? No.

Speaker 0: Hey Steve, any thoughts Steve on the questionable benefits of dietary supplements?

Speaker 2: Oh John, this isn't really the time or place for that discussion.

Speaker 0: Exactly! That's the point! See, Dr. Ross? We've done it!

We engaged viewers without recommending any unregulated products that could potentially induce diabetes!

Speaker 4: And to celebrate this, Amanda Best,

Speaker 0: Please welcome the Black and Gold Marching Elite!

Speaker 4: CHEERING Hear that, Tom? See? It's amazing! That's our show tonight. Our thanks to Tab Nights Extinguished in Leeds, and to George RR Martin, and the Black and Gold Marching Elite.

Have a great week. Goodnight. Have a great week, goodbye. You

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