When listening to advice from health experts, it is also important to be critical. This is clear when comparing two very famous health experts, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and Dr. Andrew Weil, both of whom are very outspoken in the media. "Dr. Laura" is an American mental health expert famous for her radio psychology programs, and Dr. Weil is a best-selling author and lecturer on holistic medicine and nutrition. When comparing them based on the criteria of experience, certification, number of patients in given field, apparent bias, sponsorship sources, and surrounding controversies, it appears that Dr. Schlessinger is an unreliable source while Dr. Weil can be deemed reliable.
Criteria | Dr. Andrew Thomas Weil ( Reliable) | Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger (Unreliable) |
How many years experience? | Dr. Andrew Weil is the founder and Program Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM) at University of Arizona since 1994 (Wikipedia, 2007). Andrew Weil, M.D., has devoted the past thirty years to developing, practicing, and teaching others about the principles of integrative medicine (American Academy of Achievement, 2005). | On- air radio career for more than 30 years |
What kind of certification? | Andrew Weil received an A.B. degree in biology (botany) from Harvard in 1964 and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1968. After completing a medical internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco (American Academy of Achievement, 2005) | MS, M Phil, Ph.D. (physiology), Columbia University (college of Physician and Surgeons) (Drlaura, 2007) Licensed Marriage, Family and child Counsellor (MFCC), California. Past member of the Biological Sciences Faculty of the University of Southern California (five years) and the graduate Psychology faculty of Pepperdine University (eight years) (Drlaura, 2007). |
How many patients he/ she has treated for a particular problem? | In 30 years, Dr. Andrew Weil has seen countless people... | |
English: Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
English: Smoke from fires near Pepperdine Universi...