PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: SANJAY GUPTA A candid conversation with TV’s most respected doctor about staying healthy, avoiding bogus medical advice and the upside to marijuana Yes, there is a doctor in the house. Whether appears on 60 Minutes. Since that pace is Mondays, many Fridays and often on it’s mass injuries in an earthquake, a celeb- too breezy, Gupta writes novels, competes in Thursdays too. But I like the balance. rity cancer scare or the war on obesity, Dr. triathlons (before his first race, at the age of My job at the hospital gives meaning to Sanjay Gupta is the source millions rely on 40, he taught himself to swim by watching my job on TV and vice versa. They’re for health information. CNN’s chief medi- YouTube videos) and spends quality time with similar challenges in many ways. They cal correspondent zips from war zones to his wife and three young daughters. both have the element of surprise. You virus hot zones and somehow finds time to Contributing writer David Hochman, who need to stay sharp and on your game, on practice brain surgery three days a week. last interviewed Bill Maher, met with Gupta top of the latest information, and both get When, say, a measles outbreak or a congres- during a week when Ebola was back in the your adrenaline going in a serious way. sional health care hearing makes headlines news. “I was astonished that Sanjay never PLAYBOY: Health news has become a at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, the multi- lost his focus or his cool even as the pres- media circus all its own in recent years. Emmy-winning newsman barely has time sures mounted to find quick answers about Scary viruses, various doping scandals, to pee before Wolf Blitzer once again barks the virus,” Hochman says. “People were debates on vaccinations, autism, genet- out, “Doctor, tell us the latest.” panicking, but the doctor, operating on vir- ics research, assisted suicide. What hap- Born and raised outside Detroit, where his tually no sleep, remained the picture of in- pened to “Take two aspirin and call me immigrant Indian parents worked as engi- telligent reassurance.” in the morning”? neers for Ford Motor Company, Gupta has GUPTA: It’s why I got into the news busi- always been a go-to sort of guy. He spent PLAYBOY: Which is tougher, brain surgery ness, actually—to help people make weekends as a kid reading in the library, got or the news business? sense of the immense amount of infor- accepted into a medical school program at the GUPTA: It’s funny. When I did my mation out there. I don’t think more is age of 16, began practicing neurosurgery in residency in neurosurgery, I couldn’t happening on the health front. I think his early 20s and was writing speeches in the imagine anything more demanding or people are just more tuned in to these Clinton White House before the age of 30. physically exhausting. But now I have issues. But it doesn’t have to be over- When he landed a job on the medical staff weeks at CNN when I’ll go five days on whelming. You end up choosing what’s at Emory University in Atlanta in 2001, he three-and-a-half hours of sleep a night important to you. If you’re not dealing figured he’d hatch plan B as a TV talking if there’s breaking health news. They’re with, say, Alzheimer’s in your family, you head. He now juggles time in the OR with both extremely busy, intense jobs. Some switch the channel if I’m talking about it. his CNN gig and as a special correspon- weeks I practically live in the newsroom, But if you are dealing with Alzheimer’s, it dent for CBS News, where he occasionally and I still see patients and do surgery on could be the most important five minutes PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIUS BUGGE “News gets out and it’s not easy for people who “I like and respect Dr. Oz. He clearly over - “There’s a funny thing about doping in the aren’t scientists to parse the information in a extended his language, and I think he would NFL. I don’t think we’re missing it; I think meaningful way. That’s my main responsibility tell you that. I understand the predicament. we’ve just become complacent. There’s no as a journalist. I’m a consumer of this content You have to engage the viewer. But I don’t way these guys can be that gigantic. Clearly too, so I want to know what’s true.” think he’s irresponsible.” there’s doping going on in the NFL.” 1 of information you get all day, all month full picture. Good information requires ways have a ton of news to report, but or all year. The question is how to make a little more digging. Which populations you have to come up with a show every it broadly relevant to people. benefit most? Are there generic factors day that may not be based on the news. PLAYBOY: When a health crisis—let’s take that matter? What’s the metadata over That’s challenging. Also, to get people Ebola—becomes news, do you worry the long term on this study? Like every- to watch you, you have to engage the about crossing the line to fearmongering? thing else, it’s ultimately up to you to viewer. He explained himself by call- GUPTA: That’s a fair question. I think make smart decisions about your health ing it flowery language. That’s a subjec- it’s a tough balance to strike. Remem- and health care. tive thing. It might have gone over the ber avian flu? It killed 70 percent of PLAYBOY: Margarine used to be healthy; line, but I don’t think he’s irresponsible. the people who got it in Southeast Asia. now it’s poison. Green tea extends life; Ninety-nine percent of his messages are m As with Ebola, we worried that people green tea has no effect on life span. completely accurate and really impor- would get on planes and bring that flu Sleep too little, you die younger; sleep tant. The more people hear information virus back to the United States. There too much, you die younger. As someone about our bodies, our diet, our fitness, was no reason to believe it wouldn’t be who’s reporting on all this, why should the healthier we become. as lethal here as it was in Asia. People you be trusted? PLAYBOY: What’s your biggest concern were worried, so we reported on it. It GUPTA: It’s one of the more challenging about the health of America right now? didn’t come to the States and spread. parts of my job. We’ve tried not to get GUPTA: I think it’s sugar. The thing about Did that mean it never would? It’s a into the habit of reporting every study sugar is that it’s insidious. We get it in hard call. We’ll always be judged by that comes out. A big part of the problem our sodas, our juices, our cereals and what ultimately happens. If avian flu is that people want shortcuts to health. candy, of course, but it’s also in our ended up being bigger than anybody You eat açai berries and you’re going to sauces, breads, yogurts. Even if some- thought, people would say, “Why didn’t lose weight? Sounds great. But there are thing’s not sweet there’s often a ton of you tell us more about this?” no cure-alls. We go through these trend sugar added to make it moist. As human I’ve been working in news for 13 cycles: Everybody’s eating grapefruit or beings, we used to have to work for our years, and if I’ve learned anything it’s drinking coconut water or taking some sugar. You got it once a year after har- that you can’t dismiss people’s fears. If vest when fruit fell from the trees. You all that people know about a disease like could eat as many apples as you wanted. Ebola is what they’ve seen in The Hot Even honey was protected by the bees. Zone or Outbreak, you can understand But now we eat as much as 130 pounds the interest. It’s new and it’s scary. I’m of it a year. And that’s killing us. conflicted about whether we give these PLAYBOY: Should we treat sugar the way scares too much attention. On the other We’re one of we treat tobacco? hand, people don’t watch CNN all day GUPTA: I think people just need to be long. I think it’s at most 15 minutes ev- the fattest more aware. Obesity and obesity- related ery few days for the average viewer. Part diseases are the biggest health issues in of the reason we cover stories over and countries on the the United States, and that means dia- over again is because it’s unlikely that betes, heart disease, stroke, certain can- someone watching today at noon will be planet. People cers, those types of things. It’s a result watching at eight o’clock and again at of what the American diet has become. midnight. If nothing new is happening, Chicken wings, sodas, ketchup, energy we’ll taper off the coverage. just say, “I’ll get drinks—they all have a ton of sugar.