Dean Edell
Encyclopedia
Doctor Dean Edell is an American
physician
and broadcaster who hosted the Dr. Dean Edell radio program, a syndicated radio talk show
which aired live from 1979 until December 10, 2010.
state 26 March 1941 to a Jewish family, Edell studied zoology
at Cornell University
and earned his M.D. from Cornell University Medical School in 1967. He later opened a private ophthalmology
practice in San Diego, California
and acted as an instructor of Anatomy
and a clinical instructor at the University of California, San Diego
. Edell soon left private practice. He later said that he "... didn't like medicine originally...I kind of found the thing I love the most, which is really the information and communicating the information".
He spent the next several years experimenting with lifestyles that included buying and selling antiques
, acting as a silversmith
and goldsmith
, organic farming, painting
, living in a 1950s
-vintage bus and engaging in a self-described hand-to-mouth existence that included scavenging
for food thrown out by grocery stores. During this period he describes himself as a hippie
.
In the mid 1970s, Edell served as medical director of the County Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center in Sacramento, California
. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
in 1980, and currently lives in rural Mendocino County
.
Edell maintains collections of Chinese art
, Chinese snuff bottle
s, and rare books on anatomy
. On October 5 2007, Christie's
held an auction of Edell's anatomy art collection.
Edell's sister is a Hollywood costume designer.
, and aired weekday afternoons on America's Talk
on XM Radio. It was estimated to have 1.5 million unique listeners a week. The show's opening theme music (presently, in 2008) is "You Get What You Give
" by New Radicals
.
The program's format included commentary from Edell, and his conversations with callers on medical-related topics. He reported recent developments in medical science and exposed what he believed to be fraud, particularly in the areas of food supplements, holistic healing
, and opposition to vaccination
s. He frequently summarized complicated medical material in lay terms, and was fond of tackling controversial concepts from a viewpoint based on the scientific method
.
On his program Edell was critical of drugs such as methylphenidate
and the increasing number of diagnoses for attention deficit disorder (ADD) among children, based partially on Edell's own experience as someone who, if younger, might have been diagnosed with ADD. He also was outspoken in his criticism of routine circumcision
. He was critical of complementary and alternative medicine and those who oppose childhood vaccines.
On December 1, 2010, Edell announced his retirement from radio after flagship station KGO dropped the show in favor of a local news hour. At first, Edell's syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks, said it planned to continue the show in 2011 with a new host.
(San Francisco Bay Area) newscasts. He has now retired from these regular television reports.
On February 4, 2011, Dr. Edell made a few post-retirement radio appearances on KSVY in Sonoma, California
, broadcast on that station and on Internet radio network iRadioLA.
-based The HealthCentral Network. The site no longer publishes new content by Edell, though his advice column and articles which predate the bankruptcy are featured prominently.
Recognition Award, and the American Heart Association
Award.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and broadcaster who hosted the Dr. Dean Edell radio program, a syndicated radio talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
which aired live from 1979 until December 10, 2010.
Private life
Born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
state 26 March 1941 to a Jewish family, Edell studied zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and earned his M.D. from Cornell University Medical School in 1967. He later opened a private ophthalmology
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...
practice in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
and acted as an instructor of Anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
and a clinical instructor at the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
. Edell soon left private practice. He later said that he "... didn't like medicine originally...I kind of found the thing I love the most, which is really the information and communicating the information".
He spent the next several years experimenting with lifestyles that included buying and selling antiques
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
, acting as a silversmith
Silversmith
A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...
and goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
, organic farming, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, living in a 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
-vintage bus and engaging in a self-described hand-to-mouth existence that included scavenging
Dumpster diving
Dumpster diving is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but that may be useful to the dumpster diver.-Etymology and alternate names:...
for food thrown out by grocery stores. During this period he describes himself as a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
.
In the mid 1970s, Edell served as medical director of the County Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
in 1980, and currently lives in rural Mendocino County
Mendocino County, California
Mendocino County is a county located on the north coast of the U.S. state of California, north of the greater San Francisco Bay Area and west of the Central Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 87,841, up from 86,265 at the 2000 census...
.
Edell maintains collections of Chinese art
Chinese art
Chinese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in China or by Chinese artists or performers. Early so-called "stone age art" dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. This early period was followed by a series of art...
, Chinese snuff bottle
Snuff bottle
Snuff bottles were used by the Chinese during the Qing Dynasty to contain powdered tobacco. Smoking tobacco was illegal during the Dynasty, but the use of snuff was allowed because the Chinese considered snuff to be a remedy for common illnesses such as colds, headaches and stomach disorders....
s, and rare books on anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
. On October 5 2007, Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
held an auction of Edell's anatomy art collection.
Edell's sister is a Hollywood costume designer.
The Dr. Dean Edell radio program
In 1979, Edell began broadcasting regularly on KGO-AM radio in San Francisco. The Dr. Dean Edell radio program was in continuous production since then, and was, by 2005, syndicated to over 200 markets by Premiere Radio NetworksPremiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States based on popularity of programming...
, and aired weekday afternoons on America's Talk
America's Talk
America's Talk is a news and talk radio channel on XM Satellite Radio, launched on 2007-11-19 on channel 158 and moved to 166 on 2011-05-04. Much like its sister talk channel XM Talk 168, it is a general news/talk focused channel. It was programmed by Sean Compton until 2008-04-01, in Cincinnati,...
on XM Radio. It was estimated to have 1.5 million unique listeners a week. The show's opening theme music (presently, in 2008) is "You Get What You Give
You Get What You Give
"You Get What You Give" is a song by the New Radicals. It was an international hit, the first and most successful single from their album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. It reached No. 30 on Billboard Hot 100 Airplay in January 1999, No. 36 on the overall Hot 100 and No. 8 on the Billboard...
" by New Radicals
New Radicals
New Radicals were an American pop rock band active in the late 1990s, centered on frontman Gregg Alexander, who wrote and produced all of their songs and was the sole constant member...
.
The program's format included commentary from Edell, and his conversations with callers on medical-related topics. He reported recent developments in medical science and exposed what he believed to be fraud, particularly in the areas of food supplements, holistic healing
Holistic health
Holistic health is a concept in medical practice upholding that all aspects of people's needs, psychological, physical and social should be taken into account and seen as a whole. As defined above, the holistic view on treatment is widely accepted in medicine...
, and opposition to vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
s. He frequently summarized complicated medical material in lay terms, and was fond of tackling controversial concepts from a viewpoint based on the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
.
On his program Edell was critical of drugs such as methylphenidate
Methylphenidate
Methylphenidate is a psychostimulant drug approved for treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and narcolepsy. It may also be prescribed for off-label use in treatment-resistant cases of lethargy, depression, neural insult and obesity...
and the increasing number of diagnoses for attention deficit disorder (ADD) among children, based partially on Edell's own experience as someone who, if younger, might have been diagnosed with ADD. He also was outspoken in his criticism of routine circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
. He was critical of complementary and alternative medicine and those who oppose childhood vaccines.
On December 1, 2010, Edell announced his retirement from radio after flagship station KGO dropped the show in favor of a local news hour. At first, Edell's syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks, said it planned to continue the show in 2011 with a new host.
Other radio and television broadcasts
Edell anchors Medical Minutes, a series of ten weekly radio medical reports. He also hosts a quarterly series of TV specials called "Medical Breakthroughs Presented by HealthCentral", which are syndicated to local stations via the HealthCentral Network. Up until March 2007, Edell did nightly health reports for KGO-TVKGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
(San Francisco Bay Area) newscasts. He has now retired from these regular television reports.
On February 4, 2011, Dr. Edell made a few post-retirement radio appearances on KSVY in Sonoma, California
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
, broadcast on that station and on Internet radio network iRadioLA.
Periodicals
Edell was the author of the "Edell Health Letter", published from 1982 until 1994. The editorial staff of Healthcentral.com wrote articles based on his radio show topics on HealthCentral.com from 1999 until 2001 when the site went bankrupt and was sold to new owners.Books
- The Brush & The Stone, Art Media Resources, 1999
- Eat, Drink, & Be Merry, Harper, 2000
- Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Healthiness, Harper, 2005
Websites
In 1999, Edell launched the aforementioned HealthCentral, a website featuring both personally authored content and general health-related information with the mission of "becoming your favorite consumer health information service." Edell lost his ownership position in this company when it filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The site is now owned and operated by Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
-based The HealthCentral Network. The site no longer publishes new content by Edell, though his advice column and articles which predate the bankruptcy are featured prominently.
Dr. Dean Edell Reading Glasses
Edell has endorsed and lent his name to a line of reading glasses sold in the United States since the mid-1980s.Awards
Edell has won media awards for his work, including the C. Everett Koop Media Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, a national Emmy, the American Cancer SocietyAmerican Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
Recognition Award, and the American Heart Association
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a non-profit organization in the United States that fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas...
Award.
External links
- Dean Edell streaming on the web
- "About Dr. Dean". Retrieved Dec. 23, 2005
- uncredited (Oct. 10, 2001) "HealthCentral Files Chapter 11"East Bay Business Times
- abc7news.com Edell's TV bio
- kgoam810.com Edell's radio bio
- HEALTHCENTRAL.COM
- Dean Edell Retirement Video From KGO-TV
- Dean Edell interview on the Skeptics Guide to the Universe (Episode 154, Segment 3, July 2, 2008)
- Dean Edell interview on the Skeptics Guide to the Universe (Episode 250, Segment 4, April 28, 2010)