I've never been a huge fan of day time T.V. but if I HAVE to watch something, I'll usually choose shows like Ellen, Dr Phil and if I'm really pushed, Dr Oz. Usually for background noise when I'm doing tedious chores, like folding washing... YUK. To me, Dr Oz - the show - is just an advertising platform for the Medical industry and is rarely a source of factual medical information.
Recently, while I was scrolling through Facebook, I came across a 'sneak peak' video of one of Dr Oz's upcoming segments, which caught my eye. I watched the sneak peak, and of course, I was sucked in, and really wanted to watch the show. It was about a product called Black Salve, an all natural treatment for wounds, splinters, moles, sun spots, cancers and other skin problems.
Now, my husband and I have both treated numerous moles and sun spots, successfully, using Black Salve, as have many of our friends. I have also seen the aftermath of a hand melanoma treated clinically, as well as my Auntie's face after having, in total, 37 cancers and sun spots removed, tallying up to over 200 stitches. I feel I have enough first hand experience with Salve to be able to comment.
I'll explain a little about the product first. As stated above it is an Indian herb paste that you apply to your skin to draw out splinters, cancers, sun spots. Once applied to the desired 'spot' it will begin to react and over the course of a few days, it will pull any 'bad' tissues to the surface and forms an 'eschar' which then falls out, leaving healthy tissue underneath. Eventually, it grows back into normal healthy skin. After the eschar falls out, it can be frightening to see a large hole left, but with daily cleaning and application of some coconut oil, the tissue grows back and barely leaves a scar.
The Dr Oz Show
So, my husband and I finally sat down to watch the show last night, and WOW!! What a load of absolute hogwash!! It was actually almost laughable. To be honest, I lost every ounce of respect that I could have possibly had for Dr Oz, in that 10 minutes.
Dr Oz introduced the segment with the same 'sneak peak' I had originally seen, explaining that Black Salve is dangerous, corrosive and disfiguring, "leaving people with gaping holes", and shows that its listed on the FDA website as a fake cancer cure. It introduced an anonymous figure who "was too embarrassed to show her face", with the below snippets of audio playing in the background, assumed to be the woman's voice:
"I applied it and within minutes, it truly felt like someone had taken a lit cigar and held it to my skin"
"I had thousands of dollars worth of dermatology bills I was in so much pain"
He then had a guest dermatologist, Dr Dendy Englemen, join him. She reiterated his opinion of the Salve being corrosive, acidic and went as far as telling the audience that it will eat out healthy skin. She claimed to have seen many patients that had disfigured themselves whilst using salve. They gave a poor demonstration, with very little information, that hardly resembles the use of Black Salve.
They began talking about the pictures they had found on the web and how they trolled a couple of Facebook groups dedicated to the use of Black Salve. Dr Dendy stated that they had put some negative posts in the group and that they had been deleted by the next day because "they are monitoring these heavily and only keeping the positive information and taking out the negative and to me that screams scam when that happens".
Up next was a guest, Paulette, invited onto the show to recall her horrible experience using salve. She claimed that the salve had left a hole in her nose "the size of a large marble", that she had then had to have "about 8 or 9" surgeries on to repair. She said that they had taken a skin 'flap' from her forehead and grafted it to her nose. Paulette also suggested that using the Black Salve had contributed to her developing breast cancer.
Dr Oz then conducted a brief interview with a Medical Researcher, Greg Caton, who has been selling Black Salve online and helping many patients. (yes, the researcher was arrested in previous years, for selling 'unapproved drugs') but really, this interview gave no valuable input towards the story. I'd almost have considered it a waste of time.
The segment was then finished off with a statement from the FDA, recapping that Black Salve is on the 'Fake Cancer Cure' list, and a final warning from Dr Oz to steer clear of the product.
My Thoughts...
I can only speak for the Black Slave brand that I use, there are many others out there, and like with everything, there is bound to be some products with inferior quality. However, the fact that I do have first hand experience with this Black Salve, I can say, for sure, that a proper, good quality Salve DOES NOT CORRODE SKIN OR EAT AWAY AT HEALTHY TISSUE. I have successfully removed moles and sun spots (I hesitate to use words like tumour or cancer with out formal diagnosis) and have documented, not all, but most of my usage. I've chosen a less graphic example to share with you but here is some of my most recent salve:
Now here is why I think that Dr Oz's show was absolute crap...
Lets begin with Dr Dendy...The dermatologist who'd seen so many cases. Not one photo was shown, at all. Now, I know this doesn't automatically make it a lie, but USUALLY, on a show like this, if it were truly what they were saying it was, they would be flashing graphic photo's around everywhere. But not one?
Paulette brought along two photo's...one front on and one profile picture of the whole left in her nose from the Salve. They where flashed on the screen quick enough to see, but not to get a good look at. I have watched this part many times now, and I'm not even convinced that these photographs are of her. Even less convinced after I came across the same photographs on Google. Dr Oz questioned her about her 8 or 9 surgeries, but, once again, not a single photo out of 8 or 9 surgeries? There wasn't even a close up camera shot of Paulette to show scars, or while she was pointing out where the hole was and how the surgery was preformed. I'm really starting to find this hard to believe. In fact, the ONLY photo's and pictures they show are from Google or out of the Facebook groups that they trolled. Being a member of some of these groups, I know that other members are rather upset about their pictures being taken and used in such a misleading manner.
The biggest thing I noticed wrong with the segment was the anonymous guest that we heard from in the shows preview. She was never mentioned again! The two quotes above, happened to be her ONLY input in the show. Considering both of the quotes are only half sentences, there is a very real possibility that these words have been taken out of context, and mean something entirely different to how they're being portrayed.
So as far as I can see, there was really no truth or evidence in anything that The Dr Oz Show presented. During the whole segment he repeated words like CORROSIVE and DISFIGURING to increase FEAR and nothing more! So much for trying to help people, hey, Dr Oz!
Disclaimer
I am not a health professional and I am not encouraging the use of Black Salve or any other 'fake cancer cure'. This piece is merely a REFLECTION ON MY THOUGHTS of the show and nothing more.