In my Naturopathic practice, I answer many questions. Lately these have revolved around supplement recommendations offered by Dr. Mehmet Oz. I’ve encountered too many people who have been blindly following the advice of Dr. Oz after having freshly watched his TV program. These hopefuls watch the show and run into their local health food store in a mad frenzy searching for the latest in Dr. Oz recommended weight loss miracles, anti aging treatments, colon cleansers, you name it, he’s talked about it. These people literally spend hundreds of dollars on supplements they barely know anything about!The other day I heard about 2 ladies fighting over the last bottle of Raspberry Keytones at a health store, touted to help lose belly fat fast.

Who Is Dr Oz?
Don’t get me wrong: I think Dr Oz is a highly qualified and forward thinking modern doctor. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and went on to get a joint MD and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Wharton School. Since 2001, he has worked as a professor at Columbia University, where he teaches and directs research regarding heart replacement surgery, cardiac surgery and health care policy. He also performs hundreds of heart operations each year.

What I like most about Dr. Oz and the Dr. Oz Show is that he brings natural health to the forefront by raising awareness about how changing our lifestyle through diet and exercise can substantially improve our health. My fave is when he makes whole food recommendations!

So What’s The Big Deal?
There are however some limitations to accepting blind advice from Dr Oz. It’s always important to remember that a generalized approach to health can never be effective for every individual. Each and every one of us is a product of our personal lifestyle choices, diets, physical activity, biological makeup, environmental factors and vices. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work for everyone and this is the difficulty in prescribing allopathic drugs as well. The ‘one drug for every pathology’ approach fails to recognize that each individual suffers from disease in a very distinct fashion.

Dr. Oz recommends drinking grapefruit juice as part of his “Ultimate Summer Slim-Down.” However, grapefruit juice could be lethal for someone taking statins to lower high cholesterol and is contraindicated in the use of many medications. Far too often, “miracle supplements” appear on the Dr. Oz Show which have not been adequately vetted by the medical community.

Remember, an overload of supplements is not the answer to your health problems either as your liver has to work hard to detoxify these from the body. Isolated compounds are difficult for the body to recognize and assimilate, this is why I am a huge fan of whole food supplements which are easily assimilated and bioavailable to our cells.

The magic bullet approach to health just doesn’t work and that’s the reality. Fantasize all you like, but you’re not going to take one supplement which will erase all of your health woes. No one magic pill will blast your belly fat, eradicate all of your pain or tame all of your anxieties.

What Medical Advice Should People Follow?
A therapeutic, whole person centred approach of course! What I offer is a comprehensive, personalized approach to health that’s custom-tailored to your needs, precisely. We look at your health history, your current lifestyle, environmental factors that affect you, and the psychological issues that may be consuming your thoughts. Our goal is to create a unique program just for you. I provide whole food recipes, personalized meal plans, lifestyle support and mental/emotional advice to help you get through the most challenging of days. So, instead of blindly following the advice of one man on National TV, take his advice with a grain of buckwheat. Instead of investing in something that may or may not be for you (or even work for you), invest in a service that offers whole person  healing.