Dr. Mehmet Oz, the once-respected physician who famously sold out and now hawks pseudoscientific nonsense on his TV show, has found a way to sink even lower.

On Twitter this afternoon, he suggested that astrology could “reveal a great deal about our health.”

For centuries, we have used astrological signs to examine our personality and how we interact with those around us, however, these signs may reveal a great deal about our health as well. Discover what your astrological sign can tell you about your health: https://t.co/fPCAK7nd48 pic.twitter.com/6p6VYe4sJz — Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) June 6, 2018

That link goes to a slideshow that includes statements like these:

On the Vitruvian man diagram, Leos are embodied by the arms, forearms, and hands. Astrologer Rebecca Gordon explains that for Leos, “their goal is communication, to serve as a messenger of an illuminated mind.” Pain or tightness in the hands and fingers may occur more often for this star sign.

That statement is entirely meaningless, and not just because I substituted Leos for Geminis and it didn’t make one damn bit of difference.

The point is: Those words could apply to anybody — when you get older, you’ll feel pain and tightness — which is why it doesn’t tell you anything useful about your health.

Not your physical health, anyway.

At Vox, Brian Resnick gives some more context to the tweet:

This [slideshow] is drawn from a 2017 episode of The Dr. Oz Show in which he invites astrologer Rebecca Gordon to explain the connection between horoscope and health. Gordon has been featured on the show several times. And it seems Gordon is returning to the show this week to discuss the same topic.

So Oz is pushing nonsense on Twitter to promote nonsense on his show. It’s a feedback loop that makes everyone dumber.

John Oliver said it perfectly a few years ago during a segment denouncing Oz:

You are also the admittedly handsome ringmaster of a middling, mid-afternoon televised snake oil dispensary. And it says something that, even when you do a show with seven fake models of human feces, the biggest piece of shit on the stage has his name in the title.

For critical thinkers, Oz’s tweet is just frustrating. But for the sort of people who watch his show and take him seriously, it could be far more damaging. If they feel pain and tightness in their bodies, does Oz want them to seek out an astrologer or a physician?

Based on this tweet, he doesn’t even seem to think there’s a difference.

(Image via Shutterstock)

