Newsweek just bashed the health coverage on Oprah’s show. Should we cut her some slack?
Newsweek put my girl Oprah on their cover recently. The story talks about Oprah, her "medical" advice and questionable guests--basically attacking the fact that she influences the masses with sketchy health experts and advice.They specifically called out Suzanne Somers and her theories on hormone replacement. "She swallows 60 vitamins and other preparations every day. She smears progesterone on her other arm two weeks a month. And once a day, she uses a syringe to inject estrogen directly into her vagina. The idea is to use these unregulated 'bio-identical' hormones to restore her levels back to what they were when she was in her 30s, thus fooling her body into thinking she's a younger woman."
Mainstream doctors debate the validity of hormone replacement treatments. Oprah offers us up guests with different perspectives. Personally I think Oprah is navigating her way through Women's issues just like the rest of us. She does the work weeding through it all and presents us with options. She succeeds at some, fails at others, and that's what we like about her.
Newsweek suggests that since 40 million people tune into Oprah every week, she yields huge influence and her word is taken as gospel. I somewhat agree. I know that I too, am guilty of running out and buying Dr. Oz's book and Dr. Northrup's - purely because I've seen them on Oprah. But I related to what they were talking about and I wanted to follow up for myself.
I'd like to remind Newsweek, that we, the Oprah viewers, are capable of listening and digesting the info and making our own decisions. We take what we want from it and leave the rest. Oprah shows us a diverse range and hey, it's her show, she can show us whatever she wants! Sometimes it can be flakey, other times not. Oprah haters can change the channel.
I appreciate that she at least tries to show us options. She's done a great job at educating the masses. More that anyone else has. So until someone else steps up to the plate with something better, I'll continue to see what she and her guests have to say.
