Live Your Best Life Ever!

A wise medical doctor explained this to me: He said that when a patient comes to his office, they are coming to seek out his help. His education and knowledge doesn't encompass all the different foods and supplements on the market. Patients can go to health food stores and to other sources for free for that information. He said that if he were to charge a patient for telling them to go home and eat helathy, take a good multipvitamin and excercise, they'd accusme him of theft or at best , being a snake oil salesman. He was correct! A doctor can tell his patients to stop smoking, eat right, exercise and even help them by giving them aides to help them. But this is all information that we actually know and that we can reinforce for free almost anywhere. A medical doctor should be accessed only AFTER we have exhausted other alternatives unless it is something of serious proportions, like a lump in the breast. To expect medical doctors to also be alternative medicine doctors or nutritionists is wrong. Criticizing them because they are not all things health related is ignorance on our part. They go to school for many years and then intern, and they still only receive a short course on pharmacology. Your pharmacist is a good source for detailed information on medicine. And any pharmacist will tell you that there is no way to know all things about all drugs, have you seen a PDR (Physician's Desk Reference)" Yet, many expect their doctors to know everything about everything medically related.

Excellent article, one that captures a glimpse of the 'Oprahisation' of our culture. The sad truth is that millions of women, including my sisters, listen to her for advice on how to live their lives. I definitely would not put her on the level of a Maury Povich or a Jerry Springer, but the few times that I watch and listen to her are purely for entertainment.

You are the one to pay the cost for your choice.
Good old fashion values never go out of style
Fads Come and go
I can show ads of doctors promoting smoking and eating Lard
how doctors thought germs were not even present and many other ways our thinking changes

Your life is yours and I think your envyous of Oprahs success and friends

Oprah is a great entertainer but definitely a mixed bag. I cancelled a subscription to her magazine because the emphasis on glitzy glamour products befitting the budget of a billionaire didn't do much for me.
I would disagree with the authors on one point. Oprah hasn't failed to lose weight and keep it off because she fails to follow Oz and Greene's advice, they have failed her by providing bad advice: low-fat dieting and lots of aerobic exercise. That, combined with soy foods, are a great prescription for burnout. Along with ditching the soy, Oprah would do better to learn about good fats (including natural saturated fats) and weight training and interval training, with judicious resting.

Jennie McCarthy is definitely a mixed bag too, but suggesting that perhaps huge loads of vaccines shouldn't be put on tiny children's immune systems all at once is hardly "out there." When I was a kid we got a handful of vaccinations. Mostly I suffered through mumps, measles and chicken pox. Now kids get about 3 dozen vaccines, and sometimes quite a few of them together. That's a big science experiment going on affecting the most vulnerable members of society.

I especially disagree with Jenny McCarthy's rant against vaccines for young children. I'm a special education teacher who has worked with young children with autism for nearly 15 years. It's a complete disservice to parents of these children for McCarthy to imply that her son has been cured from autism. There is NO cure. Children can certainly make progress and become independent and more typical, but this takes very intensive--often expensive and time-consuming--intervention that many parents cannot afford. It's wrong for McCarthy to (a) make parents feel guilty for immunizing their children and (b) for claiming these children can be cured. I'm dissappointed that oprah didn't investigate autism further before having McCarthy on the show.

Wow, interesting article and interesting comments. I'm a longtime oprah fan, but lately she has become a little too "new age" and this sometimes comes off as arrogance

The entire world needs to get a sense of humor! Menopause is not a life and death situation and NO ONE person has the responsibility to inform us as to what we should do. It has to be a personal choice based on investigation, education, family history and experimentation. What works for one may not work for the other. Women are not stupid and in the past 5-6 years, have become their own "experts". They rely more on each other than they do the doctors, pharmaceutical companies or the FDA.

Let's all laugh and get along! See the first (and only) menopausal cartoon @ http://www.minniepauz.com

It's nice to see a major news outlet exposing Oprah for the quack she is. It's frightening to think about her legions of followers and their absolute and complete credulity.

I used to be one of Jenny McCarthy's biggest fans all the way back to her MTV days when she was the wild woman with a heart. Now the very sound of her voice can send me into an anxiety attack. In the United States, over half a million people, of which a majority are children, were born with a Primary Immune Deficiency better known to most people as a "bubble boy" disease. Impaired genetically, these children are unable to fight off invading pathogens. Giving these children a normal life as possible is maintained through intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG therapy, which temporarily replaces missing antibodies and helps protect against infections. The problem that Ms. McCarthy creates by spouting off her opinions-- Bubble boy children cannot be vaccinated with live virus vaccines like measles, mumps, rotavirus, BCG, and chicken pox (varicella). Nor do these children have the ability to fight off any of these diseases. So in two, three years from now when my child comes in contact with her child who has unknowingly contracted the chicken pox virus, she will lovingly nurse her child back to health and life will go in. I will be burying mine. Sound melodramatic? Just the horrifying facts that we live with everyday. Sometimes opinions are not just innocent statements, sometimes they destroy other people's lives. Especially when given the stamp of approval by someone with as much influence as Oprah Winfrey. I had no idea Ms. Winfrey had given Jenny McCarthy free reign on her stage without presenting facts such as those that affect my child. I am beyond disgusted, I am terrified to think that there are parents out there that might believe this stuff. Your sick child, the one who came down with an illness that could have been prevented by a vaccine, is a death warrant to my child. As always, there are two sides to every story and Oprah should know better. I wonder how I can get an invitation to the show to present this other side. I hope the people reading this board have better sense or at least the decency to truly read the acts. In the meantime, please give to the Immune Deficiency Foundation or the Jeffrey Modell Foundation.

Oprah is everywhere! won't lie, used to watch her show some time ago, but luckily gave it up quickly enough. it's like an addiction. an old film "Requiem for a dream" I found at http://www.picktorrent.com comes to my mind when I think about, how such personalities can change (or damage?) our life. but as a person can't but admire her: she knows what she does and does it best of all

Oprah is everywhere! won't lie, used to watch her show some time ago, but luckily gave it up quickly enough. it's like an addiction. an old film "Requiem for a dream" I found at http://www.picktorrent.com comes to my mind when I think about, how such personalities can change (or damage?) our life. but as a person can't but admire her: she knows what she does and does it best of all

Oprah if one goes to her website has a loophole and disclaimer under the contact/submit form- it states that Oprah can and will not pay for a story or words submitted to Harpo- it also states the information and dates of the words and submission can be changed, with out discussion. You submit to her and ABC you then lose the right to your experience, the experience, idea, plan, product is no longer kept confidential- the disclaimer states it can be shared and sold, without a right given to its author. And you wierd, old pathetic celebrity leeches out there watching T.V. and reading online. Her entourage of celebrity wealth, protects her-,actually she claims its an "aura"- when actually its business connections and Hollywood power players...health food and a really expensive lifestyle which can purchase clean everything.

And lets cite a quick example here- if Oprah were a mayor (MAYOR), and worked for the government- and the public wrote to her office, and under the contact form of her government offices submit contact form it stated, as it does under Oprah's contact form online right now as of this writing July 10, 2009, that Mayor Winfrey retains the right to your words, can sell them to companies, change your information and dates of submission- would the public trust her?

She'd be in prison. Spell that P-R-I-S-O-N. Prison.

Oprah is not a healer of the sick- she tries to ail others and profits from their well being. If Miss Winfry, truly cared for the ill- she would not persecute criminals- which who by her standards are truly the ill of the world. Never does she help criminals besides herself. People who molest others, or killers, rapists, homeboys turned to crime all are to be punished- their personal stories and history also are portrayed in a negaive light- and she goes on witch hunts for individuals she wants to use as an example,..all the while using a liberal consumer- their compassionate weakness and pyschology to make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Money talks and so does Oprah- but Oprah speaks she is speaking for others- only one catch she takes money which could have gone to the originator and person with the experience whose words are no longer theirs.

I have an inbox full- just full of spam mail from Oprah's show which is sent to my account because she sold my information and so do millions of people. Oprah works in publishing, her staff's writers also work in the media.

This was written by MikeAlike ( a Tunrecore Recording Artist-album title "Model Male" by MikeAlike available @ Amazon MP3 and iTunes)

This article was quite the diatribe. Does the author think the average person doesn't have a brain or shouldn't think critically about medical advice? If there is one important thing I've learned over the years, it's to NOT blindly accept my doctor's advice but to do my own research and find the best solution for myself; I am my own best advocate. This questioning isn't an Oprah movement. It's a common sense movement of the people who don't want live their lives on synthetic drugs, who want to get back to grass roots, who want to tap into wisdom and knowledge and not rely soley on science to solve our problems. Sounds to me like this journalist is out of touch with the average person and needs to get a grip.

The fact of the matter is that when someone becomes ill, and depending upon the severity of his/her illness, if you do not have the means, the knowledge, and the resilience to get rid of your illness, you are on your own. It is a sad fact, but a true one. So, what to do if you are in such a predicament? I believe we are fully responsible for our own health, and if this means to go to medical school to learn how to treat our own cancer, so be it.