The cult of celebrity doctors

Bonnie - Marni Jameson of the Los Angeles Times wrote this great piece on America's obsession with following the advice of celebrity doctors and gurus.

On occasion, clients question my advice when it differs from what television personalities such as Dr. Oz or Dr. Weil say.

In this excerpt, Marni explains exactly what I usually say to clients.

"One size does not fit all.

Seeking celebrity advice is not a health habit most doctors would recommend.

"If people have seen these doctors on television, they don't really care about their credentials; they assume they wouldn't be on TV unless they'd been screened and given the network stamp of approval," says Dr. Tom Linden, a psychiatrist and former broadcast journalist who is now a professor of medical and science journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

"We project onto these celebrities traits, wisdom and other abilities that they may or may not have," Linden says.

Yet the reliance on media-savvy medical gurus is understandable, in a way.

The cost of going to the doctor, the limited time patients get for visits and the increasingly restricted access to specialists have combined to push people away from their doctor's office and toward the Internet and its panel of celebrity experts, said David Halle, professor of sociology at UCLA.

"The risk is that these celebrity doctors deliver one-size-fits-all medicine."

Linden says today's celebrity doctors can be divided into two broad categories: medical journalists and medical showmen.

"The journalists operate under journalistic principles," he says. "The others operate outside the sphere of journalism and are in the world of informational entertainment."

Celebrity doctors have a purpose in bringing awareness to public health issues. However, to follow their advice to the letter is like joining lemmings to the sea. You are not one size fits all!