Ryan S. Brandenberg /Temple University

Dr. Mehmet Cengiz Öz

Medical school staff, students and alumni had the chance to get health advice from Dr. Mehmet Oz, Oprah Winfrey's go-to medical guru and host of the Emmy-award winning "Dr. Oz Show," when he visited Temple on April 9 as part of the School of Medicine's Lemole Lecture Series on Integrative Medicine.

During his talk, "It's All About You," Oz discussed ways that some ancient methods of healing could be blended with traditional Western medicine to effectively treat patients and to keep people healthy before a doctor is even needed.

"You hear about fads all the time, but if something's been a fad for more than 2000 years, you start to think there's something to it," he told the intimate crowd of invited guests at the Temple Performing Arts Center.

Oz credited his father-in-law, medical school alumnus Gerald Lemole, for piquing his interest in integrative medicine.

"Here was a man, famous for his operative skills, who had the wisdom to appreciate the value of unconventional approaches to healing. He appreciated the high tech and low tech that a doctor could use. It was this inspiration that lead me to create many of these programs at my own hospital," said Oz, who directs the Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Larry Kaiser, the medical school's newly appointed dean and chief executive officer of the Temple Health System was on hand to make opening remarks.

"Dr. Oz has been very interested in alternative and complementary approaches to medicine and wellness, and he has written a number of books on the subject, so he is here today because he is the ideal person to start off this lecture series," said Kaiser.

Oz told his audience that the best thing they can do for themselves is to be proactive. "We can offer these complementary medical services in the hospital, but if you're not doing them at home, you're not taking full advantage of them," he said.