MOORESVILLE Jose Miranda has diabetes and kidney failure, but he considered himself lucky entering the free health care clinic in downtown Mooresville on Friday.
The doctor checking his heart rate, after all, was one of America's most famous physicians.
"Your heart sounds great!" Dr. Mehmet Oz told the Mooresville man. "You don't have any evidence that you have blockage in those arteries."
"I am very well-treated here, like a king," Miranda, 71, said. "I am very lucky."
Oz is a bestselling author and health expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." His syndicated daily talk show, "The Dr. Oz Show," debuts in September.
He came to Mooresville to raise money and awareness for HealthReach Community Clinic, which treats low-income residents who lack health insurance.
"The litmus test of a society is how we take care of our least," Oz told 350 devotees earlier in the day at nearby Charles Mack Citizen Center.
He entertained his audience for 1 1/2 hours, although his message that we need to take better care of ourselves was deadly serious.
"How many of you walked to school as kids?" Oz asked the virtually all-female audience.
After three quarters of the room stood, he asked how many of their children and grandchildren walk to school. Only two stood.
"The reason we cost 50 percent more to care for than Europeans is because we're 50 percent sicker," Oz said.
We need to walk more, eat high-fiber, high-protein breakfasts, get more vitamin D and omega-3 and trim our waists, he said, rattling off dozens more health tips.
"Forty percent of our kids will be diabetics if we don't do something about this," he said.
Emphasizing the role exercise plays in our well-being, he asked, "Are you willing to admit that your life is so out of control that you can't carve out 20 minutes a day" for a workout?
"Nothing I'm saying is radical," Oz said. "Every doctor says this. This is basic, simple stuff."
"He makes it plain to me," audience member Sarah Phifer, 63, of Mooresville said after the talk. "And he considers poor people."
Oz, who charged nothing for his appearance, showed up with good friends John and Christy Mack.
John Mack, a Mooresville native and chief executive of New York-based Morgan Stanley & Co., said he got to know Oz eight years ago through their roles at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Oz directs its cardiovascular institute and medicine program, and Mack is chairman of the hospital's board of directors.
Mooresville's Mack family is known for its philanthropy. The citizen center is one of many projects the family's financial contributions made possible.
John Mack said when he asked cousin Dolores Mack of Mooresville whether she'd like to have lunch with Oz, she said she'd also like Oz to help the free clinic.
Last year, the clinic handled about 2,800 patient visits and dispensed about 3,700 prescriptions at no cost to its patients.
Because of the poor economy, the number of residents seeking the clinic's services has doubled, while donations have remained flat, Executive Director Rory Crawford said.
At least until Friday.
The clinic raised about $25,000 in ticket sales for Oz's appearance, and the John and Christy Mack Foundation donated another $20,000.
"That's a whole month's operating expenses for us," Crawford said. To see more of The Charlotte Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charlotteobserver.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.