So, among the usual health tips, what have THE DOCTORS given us so far? A lot of silly live demos - including one in which a black volunteer from the audience was humiliated by a skincare guru smearing white goo all over his face. Then there was the time a couple wondered how their baby's eye color could be different from theirs. Now here's a great question that I'm sure has haunted marriages down through the ages and probably has been the cause of much needless suspicion! A perfect chance for Dr. Travis to explain how dominant traits (brown eyes) and recessive traits (light or blue eyes) interact. He could have finally explained to the public how two brown-eyed parents can easily produce a blue-eyed child. He could have also explained that brown eyes simply have more melanin (pigment) than light eyes and he could have pointed out that, in many individuals, pigment appears in eyes and hair later in childhood. We got none of the above. He simply observed that one parent had flecks of brown in his eyes and therefore could pass that on genetically.
Okay, it's daytime TV - so keep it simple, fast, and program for the lowest IQ possible, right? Cast your regulars and guest doctors on their likability and their Hollywood good looks. So what if your hottie Dr. Lisa has a tendency toward whininess and crankiness. I'll never forget the time she casually referred to plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew as "The plastic guy over there." Plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew seems to think he's also automatically a dermatologist but seems to know next to nothing about dark circles under the eyes, simply putting them down to "Mediterranean origin" or allergies. It would have been helpful to viewers if he had explained that the "Mediterranean origin" dark circles are the brown genetic ones that result from pigmentation. The effective treatment for these consists of lightening creams or bleaching agents. And the blue/red pigmentation is almost always due to ruptured capillaries; it's treated with entirely different preparations. Just knowing that distinction - the brown vs. the blue/red would have been helpful to a lot of people.
Another dismal failure was the remote segment that was supposed to inform us as to whether we should drink bottled water or tap water. We hear a lot from the tap water side - including that they test their water every 24 hours. If they had bothered to consult anyone from the bottled water side (a glaring omission) they would have found out that bottled water companies test EVERY HOUR. This is a medical program but they never bother to mention that most who drink tap water are now drinking a percentage of "reprocessed" waste water. Much to the surprise of modern science, traces of antibiotics and other prescription drugs which are routinely flushed down the toilet (the standard medical method of disposal) are being ingested by tap water drinkers. Shouldn't a drinking water quality segment on a show called THE DOCTORS at least mention this? The bacteriologist who finds a high level of bacteria in one sample of bottled water doesn't bother to mention whether this is a harmful bacteria or what symptoms (if any) it might produce. Other things that should have come up would be trihalomethanes which are only produced in piped tap water and the more effective and chlorine-free ozonation process which all bottled water companies must use to purify their water.
The worst thing I've seen yet is Dr. Lisa in Chicago, drooling over and raving about what she authoritatively calls "healthy" hot dogs. Two of the four hot dogs she raves about are regular beef hot dogs which are WAY too high in saturated fat and sodium. Even the turkey dog is relatively high in saturated fat and sodium and low in nutrition. "SELF" magazine's online nutrition guide gives turkey dogs 1.5 out of 5 stars for healthfulness. According to Dr. Lisa, "healthy sauerkraut" and simple vegetable garnishes like tomatoes apparently transform the hot dog into a health food. She exaggerates the vitamin and fiber content of sauerkraut, which is on the low side and she somehow forgets all about its huge sugar and sodium content. In an era when black people suffer from diabetes and heart disease at staggering rates and in which legislation has had to be invoked to prevent more fast food restaurants from opening in black neighborhoods this is just what we need: a black M.D. telling the world how healthy hot dogs are. At the close of the segment we see all the other docs happily chewing away on hot dogs as well! I'm suspicious - was the hot dog segment a product placement deal? Are people paying for the chance to have a doctor pitch their product? There have been a slew of questionable products promoted on the show with the doctors saying they "might work". Well, just when did supposed professionals in the medical field stop waiting for scientific proof? I have to ask again - are these real doctors? The producers of this show are asleep at the wheel. Do they not know how to do elementary research on the net? Doesn't anyone know that nutrition levels of foods are easily checked with official USDA charts? Do the "doctors" not know basic genetics? Do they not care at all about accuracy or dispensing accurate information? Or are they simply hungry to break into the media field at any cost?
Okay, it's daytime TV - so keep it simple, fast, and program for the lowest IQ possible, right? Cast your regulars and guest doctors on their likability and their Hollywood good looks. So what if your hottie Dr. Lisa has a tendency toward whininess and crankiness. I'll never forget the time she casually referred to plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew as "The plastic guy over there." Plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew seems to think he's also automatically a dermatologist but seems to know next to nothing about dark circles under the eyes, simply putting them down to "Mediterranean origin" or allergies. It would have been helpful to viewers if he had explained that the "Mediterranean origin" dark circles are the brown genetic ones that result from pigmentation. The effective treatment for these consists of lightening creams or bleaching agents. And the blue/red pigmentation is almost always due to ruptured capillaries; it's treated with entirely different preparations. Just knowing that distinction - the brown vs. the blue/red would have been helpful to a lot of people.
Another dismal failure was the remote segment that was supposed to inform us as to whether we should drink bottled water or tap water. We hear a lot from the tap water side - including that they test their water every 24 hours. If they had bothered to consult anyone from the bottled water side (a glaring omission) they would have found out that bottled water companies test EVERY HOUR. This is a medical program but they never bother to mention that most who drink tap water are now drinking a percentage of "reprocessed" waste water. Much to the surprise of modern science, traces of antibiotics and other prescription drugs which are routinely flushed down the toilet (the standard medical method of disposal) are being ingested by tap water drinkers. Shouldn't a drinking water quality segment on a show called THE DOCTORS at least mention this? The bacteriologist who finds a high level of bacteria in one sample of bottled water doesn't bother to mention whether this is a harmful bacteria or what symptoms (if any) it might produce. Other things that should have come up would be trihalomethanes which are only produced in piped tap water and the more effective and chlorine-free ozonation process which all bottled water companies must use to purify their water.
The worst thing I've seen yet is Dr. Lisa in Chicago, drooling over and raving about what she authoritatively calls "healthy" hot dogs. Two of the four hot dogs she raves about are regular beef hot dogs which are WAY too high in saturated fat and sodium. Even the turkey dog is relatively high in saturated fat and sodium and low in nutrition. "SELF" magazine's online nutrition guide gives turkey dogs 1.5 out of 5 stars for healthfulness. According to Dr. Lisa, "healthy sauerkraut" and simple vegetable garnishes like tomatoes apparently transform the hot dog into a health food. She exaggerates the vitamin and fiber content of sauerkraut, which is on the low side and she somehow forgets all about its huge sugar and sodium content. In an era when black people suffer from diabetes and heart disease at staggering rates and in which legislation has had to be invoked to prevent more fast food restaurants from opening in black neighborhoods this is just what we need: a black M.D. telling the world how healthy hot dogs are. At the close of the segment we see all the other docs happily chewing away on hot dogs as well! I'm suspicious - was the hot dog segment a product placement deal? Are people paying for the chance to have a doctor pitch their product? There have been a slew of questionable products promoted on the show with the doctors saying they "might work". Well, just when did supposed professionals in the medical field stop waiting for scientific proof? I have to ask again - are these real doctors? The producers of this show are asleep at the wheel. Do they not know how to do elementary research on the net? Doesn't anyone know that nutrition levels of foods are easily checked with official USDA charts? Do the "doctors" not know basic genetics? Do they not care at all about accuracy or dispensing accurate information? Or are they simply hungry to break into the media field at any cost?