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

LastWeekTonight

10M subscribers • 13 videos on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 1 person, in Hacker News.
  • Presented by John Oliver, as the video describes them
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 12 years ago, in an area where guidance changes.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

19M views12 years ago1 recommendation

NutritionEvidence and public healthSupplementsHealth claims and misinformationPublic health and policy

John Oliver critiques the lack of regulation in the dietary supplement industry and the promotion of unproven health products by Dr. Oz.

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. Connect with Last Week Tonight online... Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would: Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight Follow us on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news: Twitter.com/LastWeekTonight Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once: hbo.com/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver

Why it's here

1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended as a humorous yet informative critique of the dietary supplement industry and the lack of regulation surrounding health claims.

Fishysoupin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Vitamin D insufficiency may account for almost 90% of Covid-19 deaths”

…. The "misinformation" people are battling is about a) unsubstantiated health claims and b) the fact that supplement manufacturers don't need to provide any evidence or follow any regulations regarding what's actually in the supplements. That means they can say they're selling e.g. Vitamin C but it's just sugar. John Oliver has a good video on it: link to this video…
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gopalvin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Aspirin could dramatically cut cancer risk, according to biggest study yet”

Next I'll be hearing I should chew willow bark instead of paying for Aspirin :) Even if this worked, the amount of misinformation about this has inoculated me against taking medical decisions myself (other than avoiding the free Twix littered in the office kitchen). John Oliver covered this style of journalism, rather sarcastically a while back. link to this video
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dumbneurologistin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Scientists Reverse Brain Damage in Drowned Toddler?”

Haha. This is an incredibly polite reply, sharpened to a very fine point. I'm grateful I have something to contribute to a site that I've gotten an incredible amount out of. And it's a powerful reminder that very very smart people can have a hard time critically appraising medical claims. As powerful as the internet is, medicine is really complicated, and it's easy for doctors to forget that. I'll let the surgeon speak for him/herself, but for my part: I am raising the issue of industry size and quackery to give other readers context. It doesn't make the article wrong necessarily, but I would want to have that context as a non-expert reader trying to understand how it fits into the larger bo…
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nindalfin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Larry King has died”

…government reversed course. The unelected experts in Government tried to do the right thing. It’s the people who were so easily misled that forced the end of regulation for dietary supplements. Paraphrasing what Terry Pratchett said, the problem here isn’t that we have the wrong sort of government, it’s that we have the wrong sort of people. 1 - link to this video…
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