Dear Oprah, It was Fun While it Lasted!

It’s over between me and Oprah. If you are a regular reader of metabolism.com you probably know about my proposal to Oprah. Don’t get worked up, it wasn’t a marriage proposal. It was a proposal to create a Diabetes Lifestyles reality show for her new cable network. Here’s the background. Oprah is starting her “Own” network on cable and is hosting a contest for ideas to add to her line up. For the past 6 months visitors to Oprah’s website have been able to view all the ideas submitted by the public and vote for their favorite ones. My idea was to produce a Diabetes Lifestyle reality show called This Sweet Life. Over two months my idea acquired about 60 votes and was still in the running. The problem between Oprah and I started when she asked for a commitment. I’m not phobic about commitments but she asked for too much. In order to stay in the contest I had to commit to taking 6 weeks away from my medical practice to go to Los Angles to participate in filming of the conclusion of the contest. I’m sorry Oprah…I’m already committed to my medical practice so you can’t have me!

Maybe some other time. But it was fun while it lasted.

Gary Pepper, M.D., Editor-in-Chief, metabolism.com

4 Days and 1 Million Votes to Go

Well….we tried. Thanks to everyone who voted for my Diabetes Show idea for the Oprah channel. With only 40 votes so far and 4 days to go, there isn’t much hope of my idea getting recognized by the judges for the Oprah network contest.

I still think it would be great T.V. to have a behind the scenes and personal look at the lives of people with diabetes and their relationships with their health care providers.

Maybe someday I’ll get another opportunity to promote the idea.

Thanks again for those who supported the idea.

Dr. G. Pepper

Yikes! Only 13 Votes for Dr. Pepper’s Diabetes Show

C’mon gang! Since I posted a request for support for It’s a Sweet Life, not a single vote was registered. Oprah will never take this idea seriously unless more people show enthusiasm for it. Shouldn’t there be a show about diabetics, their struggles with the disease and their relationships with their health care providers? If that sounds like a worthy goal then “cut and paste” this URL into your browser and vote for “Gary’s” Health and Wellness show (not a Talk Show).

http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=4974&promo_id=1

Thanks!!

Dr. Oz, What Exactly Don’t You Know?

For a relatively small South Florida town, Jupiter has attracted a few national news stories. Recently there was the disturbed man who gunned down 4 members of his own family, and Tiger Woods is building his mother a house here. Bringing Dr. Oz to Jupiter is the recently confirmed pediatric brain tumor cluster just West of here. This has stirred up a lot of media attention and later this week Dr. Oz is doing a special on the cancer cluster.

What type of doctor is Dr. Oz? He is a heart surgeon. His training is in using a knife to cut the chest open and in sewing arteries together to heal the diseased heart. Why is he talking to the nation about a brain cancer cluster in South Florida? Why does he have a show where he lectures on everything from swine flu to diarrhea? This situation reminds me of a soap opera where the show’s doctor delivers a baby, removes someone’s brain cancer, and treats someone else for AIDS, all in the same episode. Sorry folks….that’s not the way the real world of medicine works.

O.K…so call me jealous. That doesn’t change the fact that our nation deserves real experts dealing out the facts, not some handsome Oprah pet doc pretending to be G-d’s gift to the medical world.

Operating on the heart requires constant practice and intense focus on only what lies underneath that knife. It shouldn’t come as a surprise therefore, that the last cardiac surgeon I would want operating on my heart is Dr. Oz.

Dr. Gary Pepper, Editor-in-Chief, Metabolism.com

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