Serious doctors dont tell patients to pop silver bullet weight loss pills, endure juice detoxes and take all-natural extracts to melt their fat. Theyd be putting their medical practice and their medical license at risk.

Yet celebrity TV doc Dr. Mehmet Oz has preached such quackery for years on his daytime talk show, The Dr. Oz Show, but hes faced no repercussions. Quite the opposite, in fact. He has enjoyed sky-high ratings for hyping quick-fix, sensationalized tips and has become a mega-celebrity.

His viewers have fared much worse. According to the New York Daily News, Dr. Ozs solution for insomnia a knapsack heated rice footsie caused a man to suffer from third-degree burns on his feet and [remain] confined to his bed for weeks. How did this happen? Dr. Oz didnt give any proper instructions or proper warnings.

But Dr. Ozs bad advice doesnt end there.

For years, Dr. Oz has urged people to limit their fish intake because of mercury concerns. But researchers have shown seafood is the single most important food Americans can consume for good health, a fact reflected in the USDAs Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in abundance in fish, help to keep brains and hearts healthy throughout a person’s life. Limiting fish is the last thing that Americans should be doing.

Weve repeatedly pointed this out to Dr. Oz but hes refused to set the record straight. Fortunately, reporters are starting to question Dr. Ozs pseudoscientific and downright wacky advice:

• The New Yorkers Michael Specter observed that Dr. Oz has been “criticized by scientists for relying on flimsy or incomplete data, distorting the results, and wielding his vast influence in ways that threaten the health of anyone who watches the show. By freely mixing alternatives with proven therapies, Oz makes it nearly impossible for the viewer of his show to assess the impact of either; the process just diminishes the value of science.”
• Slates Julia Belluz and Steven J. Hoffman criticized Dr. Oz for endorsing treatments “backed by the barest of evidence or none at all” and that “beyond potential damage to peoples health and purses, [his] kind of peddling can also foster doubt and mistrust of science.”
• Forbes Trevor Butterworth implored readers to trust the FDA and ignore Dr. Oz after Oz told his viewers that apple juice is unsafe. Butterworth expressed deep concern over this trust a TV-doc lunacy, stating, “the disheartening part is that too many people will still choose to believe a television doctor over the massed ranks of PhDs and toxicologists at the Food and Drug Administration. Its time to see Dr. Oz as having crossed the canine rubicon and having abandoned science for a barking role in the theater of the absurd.
• The Los Angeles Times Chris Woolston criticized Dr. Oz for wander[ing] off the mainstream medical path. Dr. Ozs evidence-averse approach includes telling people to use grape seed extract to lose weight and examine their tongues to figure out whats wrong with their bodies.

The best prescription for Dr. Oz viewers: Change the channel.