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This article responds to Dr. Kathleen Kozak’s June 30, 2014 article, “Health Beat: The Wizardry of Dr. Oz’s Weight-Loss ‘Miracles,'” and the series of critics who took the Senate panel hearing grilling of Dr.Mehmet Oz to pile on further attacks.

Dr. Kozak’s questioning of Dr. Oz’s credibility, intentions, and education is unjustified, and does a disservice to a brilliant physician who has done so much to help educate and give hope to so many people. Dr. Oz is a person that I and millions of others consider to be one of the world’s smartest, and most courageous medical professionals and health care visionaries. Any discussion and defense of Dr. Oz must start with his exceptional background and experience, which gives him tremendous credibility.

In 1982 Dr. Oz received his undergraduate degree at . In 1986 he obtained �����Ի��� degrees, respectively, at the �����Ի���at . He was awarded the Captain’s Athletic Award for leadership in college and was class president and then student body president during medical school. Dr. Oz is brilliant.

Dr. Oz has been a professor at the Department of Surgery at  since 2001. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at . With his collaborators, he has authored over 400 research papers, book chapters and medical books and has received several patents.

Dr. Oz is also the founder and chairman of , a non-profit organization that pays a small stipend to recent college graduates to spend two years in high schools mentoring students about health, nutrition and fitness.

Dr. Oz became known as “America’s Doctor” after appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show starting in 2004. Since 2009, on The Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Oz has discussed hundreds of topics and products of enormous interest to millions of people who are very interested in complementary and alternative medicine (“CAM”).

With four million daily viewers, Dr. Oz has a huge audience of people looking for answers or alternatives for conditions they suffer from, for which their medical doctor offers no hope.

The 2007 National Health Interview Survey found that 38.3 percent of adults and 11.8 percent of children had used CAM in some form during the 12 months prior to the survey.

“I actually do personally believe in the items I talk about on the show. I passionately study them … I would give my audience the same advice I give my family, and I have given my family these products.” — Dr. Mehmet Oz

Millions of Americans are dissatisfied with allopathic medicine and they will always seek alternatives. The survey also revealed that Americans spent $33.9 billion out of pocket on CAM practices and products, including massage, chiropractic, supplements, yoga, naturopathy, and acupuncture. This is the powerful, grateful audience to which Dr. Oz speaks about topics that many in the medical world choose to remain so ignorant about.

Why does Dr. Oz find it necessary to essentially tweak his peers in the medical profession by speaking favorably and giving scientifically-unproven products a national audience for a few minutes?

“My job, I feel, on the show is to be a cheerleader for the audience, I want to look, and I do look everywhere, including in alternative healing traditions, for any evidence that might be supportive to them,” Oz said.

Dr. Oz said he used “flowery language” on the dietary supplements he was criticized about, to give his audience a little nudge of hope and motivation to lose weight, because they already know that adjusting diet and exercising are the things they need to do.

I believe Dr. Oz when he says he believes in the products he promotes. “I actually do personally believe in the items I talk about on the show. I passionately study them. I recognize that, oftentimes, they don’t have the scientific muster to present as fact. Nevertheless, I would give my audience the same advice I give my family, and I have given my family these products,” Oz said.

Dr. Kozak’s assertion that “science” dictates that only products that have been proven effective pursuant to double-blind clinical studies can be legitimately deemed “proven effective” is the standard attack on natural supplements.

We can spend a lot of time discussing FDA-cleared drugs that were used to treat many thousands or millions of people for years, only to be withdrawn from the market later because of health issues they caused, including increased death and strokes. Remember Vioxx, Bextra and Accutane, to name but a few?

Dr. Kozak criticizes the thousands of supplements that are being sold, including the ones discussed on The Dr. Oz show, because they don’t have “scientific proof” of their efficacy.

Let me explain something about the business of prescription drugs and supplements to people who do not have the MBA that Dr. Oz earned.

It costs $1.2 billion for a drug company to develop and bring a new drug to market with FDA clearance. It costs millions of dollars for any company to run double-blind clinical studies to establish any level of efficacy of any drug, supplement or medical device.

No supplement manufacturer will gain any economic advantage by spending a million dollars on double-blinded clinical studies without a patent.

The goals of these studies are to take products that a company has created or bought from another company, that are manufactured in a laboratory, using their formula, which they own.

If the clinical studies prove safety, ascertain the existence and prevalence of side effects that are deemed acceptable, and determine if they have proven some level of efficacy (not necessarily very much) for a particular condition, they can receive FDA clearance, but only for the particular condition studied in the expensive clinical study, usually involving thousands or tens of thousands of people.

Supplements made from ingredients found in nature, which is all supplements, cannot be patented. No supplement manufacturer will gain any economic advantage by spending a million dollars on double-blinded clinical studies without a patent.

When was the last time there were any injuries or deaths reported from people who have taken a product that was discussed on The Dr. Oz Show? Prescription drugs kills tens of thousands of people annually.

For me and millions of others, a product’s appearance on The Dr. Oz Show — and knowing Dr. Oz has personally evaluated it — is certainly good enough for me to read more about a product on the internet and, if I like what I read, possibly to try a product.

If the choice regarding taking advice about CAM products is between Dr. Oz and Dr. Kozak, I am going to stick with Dr. Oz.