News and Analysis by PC Magazine
Oprah Winfrey has once again teamed up with surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, but this time they are not dispensing medical advice – they're suing more than three dozen companies that have allegedly been using the duo's image and likeness to hawk dietary supplements on the Internet. The companies, including FWM Laboratories, Inc. and CPX Interactive LLC, are accused of posting photos and videos of Oprah and Dr. Oz without permission, as well as crafting fake endorsements and testimonials from both TV personalities.
Dr. Oz has appeared in more than 55 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show since 1995, and will star in his own TV show starting in September. The suit, filed in District Court in New York, notes three particular episodes from 2005, 2008, and 2009 during which Dr. Oz discussed colon health, the acai berry, and resveratrol, respectively.
Immediately after the airing of these shows, the suit contends, the companies in question set up Web sites hawking products related to colon health, the acai berry, and resveratrol using photos, videos, and URLs that made it look like Dr. Oz was pushing these products.
The companies are also accused of using embedded meta-tags for search engine optimization purposes, purchasing keywords for sponsored links in search engine results, and placing banner ads via AOL with Oprah and Dr. Oz's images.
They also registered a number of domain names using Oprah and Dr. Oz's names, like drozresveratroltrial.com, (see below) and set up fake blogs and news sites that showed their products in a positive light.
The companies also used video services like YouTube to upload footage from the Oprah Winfrey Show featuring Dr. Oz, which lawyers claim is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Had their permission been sought, plaintiffs would have flatly refused to consent to the use of plaintiffs' property in connection with the infringing products," the suit said.
In addition, the suit claims that consumers who did purchase items on these sites were often met with credit card scams and undelivered orders.
These Web sites have the potential to damage Dr. Oz's reputation as a surgeon at Columbia University as well as Oprah's credibility, and they pose health risks to consumers who believe the false information on the Web sites, according to the suit.
Oprah's company Harpo has already tried to address this issue via cease-and-desist letters, notices on Oprah.com, and through work with Internet service providers and search engines, but to no avail.
Among the charges are trademark infringement, trademark dilution, cybersquatting, unjust enrichment, and deceptive trade practices.
Lawyers for Dr. Oz and Oprah are requesting that the court shut down these Web sites, and hand down damages not limited to $150,000 per work infringed under the Copyright Act, and $100,000 per infringing domain name under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.
Dr Oz Resveratrol Research As Seen on Oprah - A Comprehensive Breakdown on This NEW Anti-Aging Tab!
By Rob R Carmichael
Here they highlighted the hot spots or "Blue Zones" as they are called, where in certain places around the globe being a centenarian is not at all unusual.
The most common source of resveratrol is red wine. Resv, an extract that comes from grapes, vines and other plants, has been found to possess certain properties that may be important in maintaining optimal health. Having isolated this nutrient from organic red grapes skin, a standardized extract has been manufactured to create one of the most useful nutrients in safeguarding ones health.
Chemists actually took wine apart years ago to find out what makes it tick. Basically, it contains a whole host of plant compounds. Unfortunately, resveratrol and some of the other beneficial components were put aside as toxic-ants, and nobody paid much notice to them until one scientist attempted to figure out why the French were able to eat so much fat and stay healthy.
The answer to this French paradox was discovered to be resveratrol found in red wine.
While red wine contains resv, the quantity varies wildly depending on the time of harvest, where the grapes are grown and other factors. After more than three years of painstaking research, a standardized resv extract is now available as a dietary supplement. This grape extract contains a multitude of polyphenols that are naturally contained in red wine such as flavonoids, proanthocyandins, anthocyanins, etc.
Another crucial aspect of resveratrol is that it can be paired with other phytofactors to potentially enhance its effectiveness. Resv naturally grows with other polyphenols such as quercetin in plants such as grapes. Quercetin may therefore enhance resv's bio-availability. The resveratrol used in the pharmaceutical product is extracted from organic grapes and is a natural recipe that includes many alternative polyphenols. Another European plant extract, indole-3-carbinol, or the I3C, may also work synergistically with resv.
Since resveratrol research began in the 1990s, it has been the subject of thousands of scientific papers, making it one of the most intensely debated studies regarding health supplements sold on the market today. Findings from published scientific literature indicates that it may be the most powerful plant extract for maintaining optimal health.
With such positive research, drinking wine in moderation therefore appears to be a healthy recommendation. However, drinking wine is obviously not the best way for getting a consistent amount of resv as it's concentration varies, depending on the growing conditions of the grapes and how the wine is made. If the wine isn't made with organic grapes, it may not contain any resveratrol.
Over the last three years, the Life Extension Foundation has been working with a European pharmaceutical manufacturer to produce a high-potency resv extract as a low cost dietary supplement. The result of this collaboration is a standardized grape formula containing resv in a specified amount suggested by medical studies to favorably impact the health of your body.
In order to make this promising nutrient as widely available as possible, resveratrol is now sold not only in the U.S but globally.
