Hospitality Design - November 2017 - 137

changemakers

the health guru

Mehmet Oz
Doctor and talk show host
Dr. Mehmet Oz rose to stardom as Oprah's
energetic, health-focused friend and regular
on her self-titled talk show before making a
name in TV in his own right. "She's a great
teacher, and I really benefited from the fact
that she took me under her wing and was
willing to spend time teaching me how to
learn her business," he says. For the past eight
years on his afternoon show, he's entertained
audiences while providing medical and lifestyle
guidance. Yet the nine-time Emmy winner still
finds time to practice medicine and operate one day a week.
For Oz, the road to success was paved by his parents, who
immigrated to Cleveland from Turkey in the 1950s (they returned
around 1990 after their kids had grown). He often found himself
going around with his father, also a doctor, visiting patients. "I loved
how [they] would respect him coming into their rooms and giving
them advice," he explains. "When I was 7, my dad asked, 'What do
you want to be?' I said, 'I think I'll be a heart surgeon,' because that's
what he was, and I never changed my mind." He graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the rest is
history. "It's the perfect fit for my personality," he adds.

He joined the Wellness Board for Six Senses in
2015, which he saw as "an opportunity to teach people
how to experience more outside their home," he says.
Wellness is no longer "one-size-fits-all, and the more
you can take advantage of knowing exactly what's
happening in your body, you can customize a plan
for a better lifestyle." It's a deeper connection with
one's self that allows for rejuvenation and renewal,
he says, and it includes food, activity, and your
mental outlook. Spas, it just so happens, are often
the facilitators behind this mindset, providing
the right tools and encouraging guests to "think
differently about their health when they're on
vacation" and carry those tips into everyday life so
"you start to apply it to your routine," he says.
In his new book Food Can Fix You, Oz
explores how grocery stores can be viewed as
pharmacies because food, like antibiotics, can help heal the body.
It points to even graver concerns affecting people and their bodies,
including a lack of sleep that leads to myriad problems ("If you sleep
more, you'll live more years," he says) and how the digital world is
impacting stress levels and physical behavior. Oz sees a world where
AI-powered assistants like Siri and Alexa will become wellness
coaches, taking in those moments of constant observation and
delivering a healthy solution like "ordering you a carrot juice," he
says. "[They will] make it easier for you to do the right thing when it
comes to wellness." Indeed, people are looking to gurus like Oz and
Six Senses to help them on their health journeys. They have, he says,
"a hungry appetite for it."

Photos courtesy of DR. OZ

Dr. Oz chats with Arianna Huffington
on the set of his talk show

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