Dr. Oz Apparently Considers Himself Something of a Pee Sommelier

Dr. Mehmet Oz once claimed that medical schools force prospective doctors to drink human urine as part of their training. In an old interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that resurfaced over the weekend, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Pennsylvania elaborated on a seemingly lifelong personal fascination with all things pee.

In a clip from his own show that was shared by the left-leaning Twitter account PatriotTakes, Oz was shown telling an audience member that urine has a “nutty” scent “if you haven’t had anything fancy.”

Oz elaborated in his interview with Kimmel, saying that urine can be helpful to diagnose various illnesses and conditions. “A diabetic’s [urine] tastes like wine, cherry wine,” Oz told a bewildered Kimmel. (The Kimmel episode aired in October 2009, Business Insider reported.)

“How do you know how it tastes? Who’s tasting it?” Kimmel asked. “You gotta do it in med school, you do,” Oz responded. 

Doctors who’ve also been through medical school responded on Twitter to clarify that they were not forced to drink piss as part of their training. 

“No medical school requires students to taste urine, unlike what Dr. Oz may have said previously,” Dr. Zachary Rubin, an Illinois-based allergist, said in a tweet.

“Dr. Oz is a straight-up wackadoodle,” San Diego oncologist Dr. Rebecca Shatsky tweeted. “Contrary to what he may have said this week, medical school does not make med students taste their urine.”

“I’m embarrassed to be making this PSA, but given a public figure actually said this on camera, here we are,” she added.

Oz’s opponent, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, shared the clip Sunday and called Oz “the G-O-Pee nominee for Senate in PA.” 

During the interview with Kimmel, Oz explained that his fascination began earlier than medical school. “When I was a kid, I was so excited about the human body,” Oz told Kimmel. “When you lost something that came out of you, you want to know what’s going on. Where it comes from, what’s going on… I asked questions, I’d touch.” 

“I was a bad boy,” Oz added.

Oz appears to have done multiple urine-centric episodes of his own show. In a promo for one 2011 episode of the show, Oz boasted that “for the first time ever on national television, we are testing urine.” More examples of Oz’s groundbreaking work include exploring the nuances of pooping on his show and on his Twitter account. 

In the same interview with Kimmel, Oz talked about being “so fascinated by needles” as a child that he once stabbed his sister in the head with one as an experiment. “I still remember, I swear, watching her head from behind, and I threw it in there, and it didn’t go in,” Oz said. “The skull got in the way. I got no brain, I got nothing back.”

“I have to say,” Kimmel replied. “You must be one of the craziest people we’ve ever had on the show.”