Dr. Oz and I must be doing something right – otherwise, we wouldn’t incur the wrath of the medical establishment, Big Pharma and Big Agra.
Recently, 10 doctors lobbied Columbia University to oust celebrity physician Mehmet Oz from the distinguished university’s hospital and its department of health sciences and medicine.
In a letter to the department’s dean of faculty, the doctors attacked him for presenting alternative and natural cures on his syndicated TV program, The Dr. Oz Show.
They also chastised him for being concerned about genetically modified crops.
Welcome to my world, Dr. Oz.
Since graduating from medical school almost three decades ago, I have found myself in trouble often for taking on Big Pharma, Big Agra, and the so-called “respected” medical establishment.
Forgive me, but I plead guilty to the crime of caring about the health and happiness of my patients more than emptying their wallets.
But there is a clear reason why Big Medicine is so opposed to natural remedies – it can’t make enough money from them.
Putting profit before health not only neglects the best interests of patients, it means that the medical establishment ignores our interconnectedness with nature and the medicinal benefits it provides through countless plants, flowers and trees.
The 17th century English poet John Donne famously wrote: “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.” It is this sense of being part of something much bigger than ourselves that has been be lost in our technology and profit-driven age.
Throughout the last century, so much ancient, accumulated, traditional wisdom has been thrown away. Health has taken a backseat to putting patients on Big Pharma’s hamster wheel of highly profitable medications.
By daring to tell the truth – that for every disease there exists a natural, non-toxic, non-drug cure – I am considered a threat to Big Pharma’s profits.
By daring to reveal that GMO foods have been linked to depression, fatigue, infections, brain fog, nausea and even cancer, I am a threat to Big Agra’s profits.
And by daring to suggest that doctors should focus on root-cause cures and what makes people healthy instead of the profitable management of disease, the medical establishment regards me as dangerous.
In their letter attacking Dr. Oz, the authors accused him of having “disdain for science and evidence-based medicine.” And they claim that he promoted “quack treatments and cures.”
At least they are predictable… And their motives are obvious.
Many of the letter’s writers have well-documented ties to Big Agra and the tobacco industry.1
Dr. Gilbert Ross, one of the doctors who signed the letter, serves as the executive director of the American Council on Science and Health. The funding for this group, which presents itself as an unbiased source of scientific studies, comes largely from Big Agra giants, like Monsanto.
Four other signatures on that letter also belonged to doctors with links to the group.
No wonder they oppose any criticism of GMOs. If they didn’t, they would be biting the hand that feeds them.
Other supporters of the American Council on Science and Health include Big Pharma giants Bayer and Bristol Meyers Squibb, and at least three tobacco conglomerates.2
And the letter’s lead author, Dr. Henry Miller, has been a vocal opponent of the campaign to label GMO products.3
But this isn’t the first time Dr. Oz has been under attack. A few years back, after he declared omega-3 fatty acids to be a vital, natural nutrient and recommended fish oil, new studies suddenly emerged to discredit fish oil.
But these studies failed to stand up to withering criticism about their methods.
I also consider omega-3s to be vital nutrients. And there is a truckload of science that agrees.
A Harvard University study, for example, estimates that omega-3 deficiencies contribute to the deaths of up to 96,000 Americans every year.4
Yet those doctors would likely label omega-3s as a “quack treatment.”
In fact, Omega-3 fats are extremely important to your health. They are anti-inflammatory and without them, your risk of these diseases skyrockets:
- Heart disease;
- Stroke;
- Diabetes;
- Arthritis;
- Depression;
- Skin disorders;
- Eyesight degeneration;
- Autoimmune diseases;
- Cancer.
It’s difficult to get enough omega-3s from your diet these days. Today’s processed foods have ramped up our intake of omega- 6s, which neutralize the benefits of omega-3s. We need omega-6s, but not too many. The ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s should be about 2 to 1.
We’ve also tainted our traditional sources – fatty cold-water fish. Dietitians recommend no more than two 8-ounce servings of fish a week. But that doesn’t provide enough omega-3s.
Meanwhile, our plant sources of omega-3s have become less potent, because our soil has been stripped of nutrients by Big Agra’s shortsighted farming methods.
But I don’t recommend fish oil. It’s very difficult to find fish oil that hasn’t been tainted by the pollution in our oceans.
I tell my patients that the best sources of omega-3s are supplements that contain krill oil or calamarine oil – or a combination of both.
These oils contain substantial quantities of the most potent omega-3s – DHA and EPA.
And I recommend that you combine krill oil with natural astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant that can help DHA cross a blood-brain barrier more efficiently
Calamarine oil comes from squid, which live the darkest depths of the sea, well below the toxic waste caught in currents near the surface.
Based on my experience, your daily doses of omega-3s should include 500 mg. of DHA and about 60 mg. of EPA.
The attacks from mainstream medicine and their cohorts in Big Agra and Big Pharma on natural and inexpensive remedies are nothing new. And just like Dr. Oz, I won’t be silenced.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
1. Dr. Mehmet Oz. “Exclusive: Dr. Oz says ‘We’re not going anywhere.’ Time. time.com/3831926/dr-oz-criticism-answers/. Retrieved 4-29-15.
2. Kroll, A., and Schulman, J. “Leaked documents reveal the secret finances of a pro-industry science group.” Mother Jones. Oct. 28, 2013.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/american-council-science-health-leaked-documents-fundraising.
3. Dr. Mehmet Oz. “Exclusive: Dr. Oz says ‘We’re not going anywhere.’ Time. time.com/3831926/dr-oz-criticism-answers/. Retrieved 4-29-15.
4. Danaei G, Ding EL, Mozafarrian D, Taylor B, et al. “The preventable causes of death in the United States: comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors.” PLOS Medicine. 2009; 6(4): e1000058.