After the Great Oz Has Spoken
You might’ve caught my head’s up regarding Oprah’s show on “The Silent Killer,” which aired yesterday. I did a live-chat over at HealthCentral before, during and after the show aired, and the response was anonymous: hype and sensationalism and scare-tactics all leading to gross misrepresentation of type 1 diabetes and the reality of many type 2’s. Immediately following the show I received a heart-wrenching email from a mom of a little boy with type 1 and member of the HealthCentral community, active in the Diabetes OC.
And the reality set in. Damage has been done. By Dr. Oz and Oprah and the media buzz about how you can “reverse diabetes” and if you think you can “eat sugar and carbs and just take insulin for it,” well, you’re gonna end up a double-amputee on dialysis. Not sure how they justified none of the experts being endocrinologists, diabetologists or PWD. I’m now officially anti-Oprah despite my previous and public admiration for the Queen of Talk. While she does mostly good, there’s a lot of fall-out that she and other media moguls never witness. I know I’m preachin’ to the choir here, but I wish more sensationalized news outlets would care that media is powerful, yet can be dangerous, especially on topics the public already are confused and miseducated on such as that “one” disease of diabetes. I
So if you’re interested in weighing in, ju st a head up that I posted most of my impassioned reply to the mom and her son with type 1in the form of an open letter over at Health-Central You can find it here.
And check out the comments on my Live-Chat post yesterday and join the conversation. Last bit of homework this Friday: if you haven’t read Kerri’s fabulous response to Oprah and Dr. Oz, go read it now. It’s fantastic, as ever.
Let’s get Oprah to respond and listen to us!
I’ve written her.
Have you?
I double-dog dare you!