Dr. Oz
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55)
able to measure energy,” he says. “But
I’m not willing to write off what a bil-
lion people think is possible, just be-
cause we can’t measure it in the West.”
media. If he’d stuck to the life of an
ivory-tower surgeon, Oz says now, “I’d
just be cursing the darkness for the rest
of my career. This is an opportunity to
light a torch.”
Oz also credits Lisa—with whom he
has four children, ages 10 to 24—for
another crucial part of his professional
development: she and her family in-
troduced him to the complementary
therapies that have become a core part
of his practice and show.
BORN IN CLEVELAND to Turkish
immigrants, Mehmet Oz was by all
accounts a golden boy—handsome,
studious, athletic, and full of defer-
ential charm. At Tower Hill School in
Wilmington, Delaware, he was an all-
state football player, recalls coach Steve
Hyde, but Oz also danced in the chorus
of Bye Bye Birdie, and “he approached
that with the same enthusiasm. He
stood out in everything he did.”
“Mehmet has always been a great
cal and social movement,” she says.
“ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IS NOT
JUST ANOTHER WAY OF LOWERING YOUR
CHOLESTEROL,” SAYS OZ.
“IT’S A DIFFERENT WAY OF THINKING
ABOUT THE ROLE OF HEALTH.”
guy,” says Michelle Bouchard, who has
been a friend since 1980. “But I remem-
ber being struck by the fact that he was
always so focused. He has always been
a man on a mission.”
Since 2008, Bouchard has helped
further Oz’s mission by serving as
president of HealthCorps, a non-
profit he founded to fight obesity and
foster mental resilience among U.S.
schoolchildren. Modeled on the Peace
Corps, the organization hires recent
college graduates for two-year stints
in schools, where they educate stu-
dents, teachers, and administrators
on healthy habits. Already, students in
HealthCorps schools are drinking less
soda and exercising more, one study
showed. The agency’s $5 million bud-
get includes grants from the Kellogg
Foundation and the City of New York.
HealthCorps currently serves 50
schools in 9 states, with plans to be
in all 50 states by 2013. But Oz’s long-
term goal, Bouchard says, is to make
Americans’ behavior so much health-
ier that HealthCorps is no longer
necessary. “He is spawning a politi-
all business when there’s writing to
be done. “He tolerates no downtime,”
Roizen says. “If I start to tell a joke that
isn’t a joke for the book, he’ll say, ‘Mike,
stay on point.’ Every movement has an
intent to get to a specific place.”
Oz also advocates for healthful poli-
cies, testifying before Congress about
how integrative medicine could help
rein in health care costs. A Republican
himself, Oz says no health care reform,
whether from the left or the right, can
succeed unless Americans transform
their lifestyle to avoid the diabetes,
heart disease, and other preventable
ailments that cripple the country finan-
cially as well as physically. Says Senator
Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland): “Dr.
Oz is one of the most influential people
out there promoting health care and
sound living.” She calls him “the sur-
geon general of the airwaves.”
Of course, Oz’s main platform these
days is his show, which he tapes across
the hall from where Jimmy Fallon tapes
NBC’s Late Night. Viewers come to Dr.
Oz for the pop quizzes, exercise tips,
and other light (CON TINUED ON PAGE 82)
