If you have any doubt about how much influence a doctor with a TV show has on millions of viewers, open a tea business.  When we start receiving phone calls and visits from people requesting certain teas or medicinal herbs, I simply ask: “Dr. TV?”  I know my 80-something-year-old neighbor has been watching when I get her phone call at the store and am told I need to bring in a certain herbal tea because Dr. TV said it was good for something.  
 
Our problem is that we don’t carry some of what has been recommended to viewers and they themselves really don’t know anything at all about these requested products in terms of how much to drink, how to brew them, when to consume them or not, or whether there are any possible interactions with medications.  A typical call after a show recently went something like: “Do you have such-and-such an herbal tea?”  Pause.  “Dr. TV recommended it?”  Pause.  “Yes.  It’s supposed to help with my cravings.”  Another popular one this week: “Do you carry a tea that sounds like poo-something?”  Pause.  “Pu-erh?”  Pause.  “I think that might be it.  It’s supposed to help me lose weight.”  About a month and a half ago, there was a run on hibiscus tea.  “Dr. TV recommended it?”  Pause.  “Yes.  It’s supposed to help my blood pressure.”  
 
Personally, I am totally into organic, natural, and healthy and I don’t take any medications.  I’m also aware that people viewing the Dr. TV show seem to really believe that bilberry can stop a hard-core food craving or that pu-erh can help them lose weight without radically changing an over-eating, sedentary lifestyle.  It seems they are looking for a “magic bullet” in liquid form that will change their lives quickly and without much pain or strain.  I have the feeling they really aren’t hearing everything the doctor is saying.
 
Studies on true teas as well as rooibos (herbal) are available.  They are easier to find than data on many herbs, it seems to me.  Recently, there was an excellent post on T Ching by Adela Hasas, Master Herbalist, that anyone who is interested in herbal benefits should read.  As tea business owners, we are allowed to state some of tea’s benefits without running into trouble with the FDA.
 
But I’m just sayin’ … when someone gets the idea that drinking bilberry tea (and how long would they stick with that, I wonder, once they taste bilberry?) will stop their life-long addiction to chocolate or whatever, I’m not good with being part of that, even if I can making a buck selling it.  I am sure that Dr. TV wouldn’t be either, if he knew that’s what they were hearing.
 
There is no magic bullet to take the place of a healthy, disciplined lifestyle and there never will be.  I’m sure any doctor would agree.