Charlie Rose

Viewer  04/02/2008 10:14 PM Report

I very much appreciate and enjoy *most* of what Dr. Oz shares in his books, media interviews, and programs. I applaud you for making public health and weight management a topic on your show. However, I would like to comment objectively that, even as a supporter of Dr. Oz and a fan of his efforts in general, I am surprised that his comments on Sleep Apnea have not been more well informed. Unfortunately, he provided some misinformation on your show.

At its best, Sleep Apnea causes major sleep disruptions to those who have it, and to those who live in proximity to the loud snoring. But at its worst, Sleep Apnea, a disorder marked by halted breathing throughout the night, can render its patient dead for lack of oxygen. I'm sure Dr. Oz may not have intended to suggest that measuring your neck is the appropriate tool for diagnosis of this deadly disorder, but it did come across that way. When individuals are highlighted by the media as experts in any field, there comes a responsibility to either offer valid information on any topic broached, or to clearly indicate that is not the field of expertise for you.

I am concerned that in Dr. Oz's trivialized brush over of Sleep Apnea, a mother might not pursue the legitimate medical course for her young child who may have Sleep Apnea and be at risk of death, but who may NOT have a 17 inch neck. Please also note that the most widely accepted and effective lifesaving form of treatment for Sleep Apnea is a specific medical device that manages the patient's needs while s/he sleeps at night via a mask...NOT weight loss.

Thank you for reading my concerns, and I do hope that perhaps you could do a show in the future to correct the misinformation projected on this topic. Unfortunately, Dr. Oz spoke on a topic that is less ruled by variant opinions and novel ideas than solid medical research and treatments. I know the viewing audience and public would be appreciative to learn more about Sleep Apnea, including to disspell myths.

Best Regards,

A Caring Viewer

Deleen Foy  11/05/2007 06:51 PM Report

I need to know about baretts diease , and would like to get off protonic 40mg. I am 70 years . Is there any natural thing I can do.

Deleen Foy  11/05/2007 06:51 PM Report

I need to know about baretts diease , and would like to get off protonic 40mg. I am 70 years . Is there any natural thing I can do.

NR  08/07/2007 08:18 PM Report

I thoroughly enjoyed this show and I especially appreciate how Dr. Oz is able to explain medical issues in such an engaging manner. As for the posts criticizing his comments about Sleep Apnea, I understand your concerns, but I don't feel what Dr. Oz said was as detrimental as it has been portrayed. I didn't take his comments to mean that a 17-inch neck is the only indication of the disease. He was merely pointing out that, if someone has a 17-inch neck (or larger), it is likely that s/he might have Sleep Apnea. Nothing he said made me, someone who is completely ignorant of the disease, think that only overweight people or only people with large necks would have the disease and that no one else should be concerned about having it. On the contrary, what his comments said to me was that, even if you don't have any other symptoms, if you do have a large neck, you should consider that you may have the disease. I don't think that his comment would (or was meant to) suggest that thinner people shouldn't be on the lookout for signs of the disease.

Judith  07/29/2007 08:12 PM Report

Dr. Oz was inspiring and credible. I made sure my best friend watched this show because I think it might help motivate her to take better care of herself. Charlie, you help many people with these high quality updates on health.

Louise  07/29/2007 03:00 PM Report

Dr. Oz needs to get out in the real world more if he thinks that average Americans really have a choice in which hospital they get to use. Health insurance (if you're even fortunate enough to have any) and/or HMOs usually dictate which hospitals you can use. Yes, you theoretically have a "choice" to go to another hospital than those the insurance company approves, IF you can afford the higher deductibles imposed when the insurance company denies coverage for the other locations.

MANUEL VAZQUEZ  07/28/2007 04:34 PM Report

Iwould like to thank Dr. Oz for his very enlightening presentation which helps to bring some order into the chaos of the overweight and abesity dilemma of the american people. I think that those who critcized Dr. Oz of his mention of sleep apnea,and diabetes fail to recognize that these were correlations and not the subject matter. Never the less it is important because of their most serious implecations that people become familiar with the subjects of obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, types I and II, hypertension and cardiac arrythmias as they inter-relate with one another as well as the very real weight problem in this country. I think if what Dr. Oz says is true, and I believe him, that diets don't work 98% of the time, then we should take Dr. Oz very seriously.

Jim  07/27/2007 07:37 PM Report

Dr. Oz is so enthusiastic. I wish more doctors were like him. The book sounds really interesting, and I definitely want to check it out.

For others who are battling with weight gain like me, I bought some cool magnets for my refrigerator recently that are pretty helpful. They have the nutritional information for 50 healthy foods. You can check them out at www.simplememoryart.com. They are great because they let me know what I should eat each time I open the refrigerator.

Jan Rhoads  07/27/2007 05:44 PM Report

7-27-07 This down-to-earth interview is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for everyone, both the healthy and the not-so-healthy. Covering a myriad topics, Dr. Mehmet Oz was both illuminating and inspiring on the subject of what 'overweight/obesity in America' amounts to physiologically ("there are a dozen redundant biological systems involved in fat storage"), how we got there as a nation ("U.S. food production per person is 4000 calories/day, but we only need 2000/day"), and what we can do about it as individuals ("diet smart, instead of diet hard"). He freely discussed vignettes from his latest book, "YOU on a Diet: the owner's manual to waist management" published October 2006 (highly recommended).

Dr. Oz gave many simple examples for determining/improving relative body health: e.g., ignoring the complex BMI calculation, as an upper body weight limit, your waist size should be less than 1/2 your height (in inches); to avoid hunger and eat less at dinner, just munch on some tree nuts high in omega-3 (walnuts, almonds, etc.) 1/2 hour before your meal; and, the common denominator among the 3 longest-lived societies in the world is simply walking a 1/2 hour per day (which is apparently all we need to do ourselves). Dr. Oz speaks in such simple layman terms about these complex nutritional topics, that all of us, including the 'healthy' ones, can profit from spending 20 precious minutes with him here with Charlie Rose.

NOTE: You may also want to check out Charlieâ??s equally-fascinating interviews of Dr. Oz on 10-24-03 and 5-10-05, both of which I highly recommend for their nutritional revelations and their highly-charged motivational value. Dr. Oz must be doing/eating something right! Here on 7-25-07, Dr. Oz is sitting in the exact same chair with the same lean, handsome profile and similar dark suit as he did in Charlieâ??s interview on 10-24-03, nearly 4 years ago. The 5-10-05 interview also includes his co-author, Dr. Michael F. Roizen, who diligently separated most of the "wheat from the chaff" in the 35,000 reports/books they researched in writing all 3 of their well-informed books, including "You, the Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier and Younger" published May 2005.

Patrick  07/27/2007 05:31 PM Report

I enjoyed the segment on Dr. Oz. He argues, in part, as many people do, that Americans need to be more involved in their healthcare decisions. However, there is a fact about our medical system that disempowers people to choose the best and most cost effective health care. Specifically, unlike other market based systems that provide market signals to consumers and businesses, there is virtually no way to comparison shop between medical facilities. Try calling a hospital and asking them how much something will cost, and no one can tell you. Ask for a bill of what you bought, and no one can give you one. I wish American's were empowered to comparison shop between hospital providers both in terms of quality of service and cost of service. If that was the case, the quality would increase and the cost would decrease of medical care in the United States. But alas consumers are not empowered in this way, and the market signals, such empower would bring about, regarding the quality and cost of services are not transmitted to hospitals. It seems like such a basic point - without a bill of costs and a way to tell is you got value for money - consumers cannot make informed medical decisions. I am surprised there isn't some movement to make it a reality.

Patrick

Doug Kamp  07/27/2007 04:59 PM Report

How nice it was to view Dr. Oz as part of my daily Charlie Rose fix. I am a recent convert to the growing legions of people in America who recognize how good nutrition and preventative self-care in general affect quality of life in a big way. The gold standard for me in this subject right now, although Dr. Oz's book "You: The Owners Manual" (published in 2005) looks to be a good introduction as well, is "Lessons from the Miracle Doctors" by Jon Barron. It is a short book (free as a download) that any educated person can read and understand quickly, and which opens up for exploration vast new territories currently outside the average person's daily concerns. Finallyâ?¦ Good luck to all those who take proactive steps in addressing their own personal health care. You will be helping others too, by functioning at a more efficient and natural level of being, and as an information conduit for a subject vastly underrated and misunderstood by major media. Another tip of the hat to the Charlie Rose crew too. Thank you for your service.

Cynthia Hart  07/27/2007 12:49 PM Report

It is too bad that Dr. Oz felt qualifed to comment on areas of medicine in which he is obviously not trained. Would he tell all diabetics to loose 30% of their weight and all would be fine? I'm sure that if he did the AMA would contact him instantly to warn him that many diabetics are thin and could die without treatment. Unfortuantely since sleep apnea is not as well known as diabetes the outcry against his comment about sleep apnea is unlikly to be addressed and thousands of people with it who could have been alerted to their dangerous condition will go untreated.

Sleep apnea can kill. A case was recently featured on Mystery Diagnosis in which the subject had heart arhythems (not certain of the correct term) up to 160 beats per min that neither the hospital nor his doctor could keep under control nor find a reason for them. It took one of his own parishoners who worked doing sleep studies to recognize the other signs of sleep apnea. And this was with a person who MATCHED the signs of sleep apnea.

What about the thousands of us who don't? I see comments every day on sleep apnea forums from women who are young and thin who are asking how can thier diagnosis by correct when they are not men and not overweight.

I AM overweight, but I'm female. Not only that but my sleep apnea is caused not by my stoping breathing but by slow, shallow breathing that causes my blood oxygen levels to get too low. The biggest sign that I have sleep apnea was that I was loosing congnitive function. It took a nerve specialist to suspect the problem. This is a medical condition that is under reported and often mis-understood. It is terrible that your show has now contributed to this misunderstanding and perhaps helped to send some people to their deaths by not getting treated because they don't think snoring is dangerous.

Mary C.  07/27/2007 12:09 AM Report

Dr. Oz seems to be very knowledgeable about weight loss. However the comments that Dr. Oz made about sleep apnea on the show could mislead people about the diagnosis and treatment. Please ask Dr. Oz to contact the American Sleep Apnea Association (www.sleepapnea.org) in order to update his comments regarding sleep apnea

To the staff at the Charlie Rose show: Please consider doing a show about Sleep Related Disordered Breathing which includes the various forms of Sleep Apnea (Central, Obstructive, and Mixed) as well as Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome. The current information in the media focuses on the initial descriptions of sleep apnea from the early 1980â??s, doesnâ??t include the newest treatment advancements, and is limited to only one category of condition/patient - the middle-aged, obese, male who snores very loudly.

Please note that people of all ages, men, women, and children, can have sleep apnea. Also, a person does not have to be overweight to have sleep apnea. Weight loss is recommended for people who are overweight and have sleep apnea, however it is not considered to be the â??bestâ?? treatment for sleep apnea as was indicated on the show. The â??gold standardâ?? treatment for sleep apnea is considered to be CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). The newest types of CPAP are auto-PAP which are designed to automatically respond to a patientâ??s breathing on a breath-to-breath basis. Many people are unaware that sleep disorders have been linked to other serious conditions including attention deficit disorder, depression, idiopathic hypertension, type 2 diabetes, etc.

Below are listed several experts, as well as quotes with sources and other sources of information about sleep apnea below.

1.

AMERICAN SLEEP APNEA ASSOCIATION (ASAA)

1424 K Street NW

Suite 302

Washington, DC 20005

Tel: (202) 293-3650

Fax: (202) 293-3656

Internet address: http://www.sleepapnea.org

2.

Following is a short list of experts:

Dr. William C. Dement of Stanford University

http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/psychiatry/frdActionServlet?choiceId=facProfile&fid=4532

Dr. Christian Guilleminault of Stanford University

http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/Christian_Guilleminault/

Prof. Colin Sullivan

Inventor of CPAP

http://www.medicine.usyd.edu.au/central/resp/colin_sullivan.htm

Dr. Peter Farrell, ResMed Chairman and CEO

http://www.resmed.com/en-us/dealers/medical_research/farrell-favorites.html?menu=clinicians

David P. White, MD

Division of Sleep Medicine

Harvard Medical School

http://sleep.med.harvard.edu/people/faculty/148/David+P+White+MD

3.

â??The best treatment for severe obstructive and mixed sleep apnea is a system known as continuous positive airflow pressure (CPAP), sometimes referred to as nasal continuous positive airflow pressure (nCPAP).â??

Source: University of Maryland Medical Center

Site:http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/continuous_positive_airflow_pressure_cpap_devices_used_sle ep_apnea_000065_8.htm

4.

â??How serious is sleep apnea? It is a potentially life-threatening condition that requires immediate medical attention. The risks of undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea include heart attacks, strokes, impotence, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and heart disease. In addition, obstructive sleep apnea causes daytime sleepiness that can result in accidents, lost productivity and interpersonal relationship problems. The severity of the symptoms may be mild, moderate or severe.â??

Source: Stanford University â??

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/apnea.html

5..

â??INFANT SLEEP APNEAâ??

Source: Standford University

Site: http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/infantapnea.html

6.

â??CHILDHOOD SLEEP APNEAâ??

Source: Stanford University

Site: http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/childapnea.html

7.

WOMEN and SLEEP APNEA

â??â??For a long time physicians believed that men were more likely than women to get obstructive sleep apnea, but weâ??ve shown thatâ??s not necessarily true,â?? says Maninder Kalra, MD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of pediatrics at the UC College of Medicine. â??Our study reinforces the need for awareness and early detection of the disease in women who are at increased risk for breathing disorders related to sleep.â??

Site: http://healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/3052/

6

â??Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome-One Decade Laterâ??

From Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The term upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) was coined to describe a group of patients who did not meet the criteria for diagnosis of obstructive apnea-hypopnea syndrome and thus were left untreated. Today, most of the patients with UARS remain undiagnosed and are left untreated. RECENT FINDINGS: Today, the clinical picture of UARS is better defined. We have learned that patients usually seek treatment with a somatic functional syndrome rather than sleep-disordered breathing or even a disorder of excessive daytime sleepiness. Therefore, most of these patients are seen by psychiatrists. In addition, recent technologic advances have allowed a better recognition of the problem. We have learned that obstructive apnea-hypopnea syndrome is associated with a local neurologic impairment that is responsible for the occurrence of the hypopnea and apneas. In contrast, patients with UARS have an intact local neurologic system and have the ability to respond to minor changes in upper airway dimension and resistance to airflow. New treatment options including internal jaw distraction osteogenesis are used and are promising for treatment of patients with UARS. SUMMARY: The clinical presentation of patients with UARS is similar to the presentation of subjects with functional somatic syndrome. To diagnose UARS, nocturnal polysomnography should include additional measurement channels.

PMID: 15510051 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\

Site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

Thank you for your great show and website.

Karen Ledbetter  07/26/2007 09:45 PM Report

Dr Oz needs to educate himself on Sleep Apnea before he starts to say very public comments on the Oprah Show, this show, and wherever else he is promoting his book. I have severe sleep apnea. I was diagnosed about a month ago, and sleep every night with a BiPap machine. Losing 5% of your body weight to reduce your apneas by 30% is not the answer. I have 120 apnea events per hour (Proven by not one but 2 Sleep Studies.) My oxygen level was down to 78% and only reached the desired level of 89% 3% of the 241 minutes I slept. I have the kind of Sleep Apnea that will kill me if it is not treated. I am not a fat old man with a big neck, I am a 30 pound overweight 50 year old woman. My doctor realizes that my weight gain was caused by the sleep apnea. I stayed in stage 1 sleep 87% of the night 13% stage two, no stage 3,4 or REM sleep) Stage one sleep is useless sleep. It is the point where you are just falling asleep. I spent every night for a very long time fall asleep wake right up. Every muscle in my body hurt. I fell asleep everywhere doing anything. Then towards the end I started sitting on the side of my bed sleeping sitting straight up. Try it sometime. The day my husband told me I needed to go to a doctor TODAY I woke up sleeping like that and hurt so bad and was crying so hard. I told my husband I wanted to die, I couldn't live like this anymore. I knew very little about sleep apnea, never for a minute thought I had it, and it was killing me little by little. It can affect every organ in your body because they need oxygen to function. If you suspect you or someone you love has sleep apnea PLEASE do not listen to Dr. Oz and go on a diet. Don't measure your neck. Go to your doctor get a sleep study done and SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Michael Lang  07/26/2007 06:37 PM Report

This guy was a kick in the pants and I will be sure to buy his book when it comes out in paperback. One thing really bothers me though. He is one of Oprah's diet Gurus. Oprah is a classic example of YO YO dieting. On one cover of her magazine she looks like the svelte beauty queen winner she was in her youth and on another cover she looks like Aunt Jemima. Recently she has been looking like Aunt Jemima. Are we to blame the good doctor for these latest results? Here is a women with an IQ high enough to boil water, more money than Midas who can afford to have a personal chef serve her measured meals and a personal trainer who will force her to exercise and still YO Yos. Beauty queen, Aunt Jemima If Oprah can't control her weight with all the resources at her disposal what are we mere mortals going to do?

One thing for sure is, that eating a couple of nuts before dinner and foregoing desert is probably not going to solve the problem. In the Dieters Dilemma ,"Eating less and weighing more" by William Bennet MD ,the best book on dieting ever written, describes the set point and how it makes your body almost completly resistant to any effort placed on it by our will to change our body mass. Essentially our body is one giant and very precise servo mechanism which resists any change to what it perceives to be our Ideal weight whether 90 or 900 lbs. Think of it as a giant rubber band the thinner you get the farther that rubber band is stretched creating an ever larger ravenous return force. Lets call it the Hookes law of dieting. The return force on this rubber band does not care if you lost the weight slow, lost it fast , or temporarily fooled it using one of the wizards tricks. All it cares is how far its been stretched . Say you over eat during the winter holidays stuffing yourself from Thanksgiving to New Years with complete abandon and gain 10lbs. Over time and over the next couple of months , you will gradually unconsciously lose the weight you gained and return back to normal

it is true that eating sweets and fat will change your setpoint and cause you to gain weight. Which is why I used to tell people that the best way to lose weight is to walk an hour a day and don't eat anything that tastes good but now I am starting to doubt the soundness of even this simple advice. The most famous advocate of this simple plan was Doctor Dean Cornish whose diet was both low in fat and low in sugar. On the cover of his early books, he looked concentration camp thin but on the cover of his latest books as his body has aged, he gotten a little pudgy. May be its the digital photography or maybe rumor has it, he frequents on a regular basis, a very good French restaurant in San Francisco, called Fleur de Lys. I just hope, that he is not a man of his word and does not practice what he preaches and his theory of weight loss is still a good one

The good doctor Oz claimed he performed 100 pushups a day to increase his muscle mass. if thats what he is doing he is waisting his time. If he wants to increase his muscle mass, any gym rat will tell you the best way is to lift heavy weights, with low reps 3-6 infrequently using the largest muscles of your body. This means heavy low rep deadlifts and deep squats. Where has this guy been all his life Harvard. The guy who really knows about staying lean into old age is CLarence Bass, the famous Mr Ripped . a lawyer in Albuquerque who at 70 still has washboard abs and can squat with over 500lbs. He has a website and you really should have him on your show.

Patricia Strong, MSW  07/26/2007 04:04 PM Report

Thanks for introducing more people to this outstanding physician who cares deeply about others.

I jumped up in the middle of the night to measure my waist even though most people consider me thin. I feel wonderful at my weight.

It is nice that a non-Oprah group could be introduced to him and his way of getting health information into the lives of others.

carl losito  07/26/2007 12:02 PM Report

Dr. Oz is fantastic. He is educating the public about their health in a friendly and life-altering way. He is in my thoughts and prayers.