BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Dr. Mehmet Oz was only 4 when he first realized how tenuous life can be. The guru who hosts his own syndicated medical-help show, “The Dr. Oz Show,” recalls what happened as though it were yesterday.

“I remember my sister, she’s one year younger than me, she pushed me toward the door and my leg hurt, and I didn’t realize what it was but I’d been stung by a bee, it was a wasp actually. I was terribly allergic,” he said.

“By the time I got home I told my father I was having trouble breathing. My father’s a doctor, and he knew there was a problem. I remember him rushing me to the hospital and as we sped along, I said to him, ‘Dad, what happened to all the color? There’s no color in the world?’

“I remember saying that because to me it was a very innocent but honest comment. All the color had drained out of all the trees, I grew up in Delaware, and it’s a very colorful area. My father slammed on the accelerator and I flew back in the car, and I don’t remember anything else. I passed out. I know now what happened. I was dying,” he said.

“I got to the emergency room, they resuscitated me. I got injections, and they did these big deals to try to keep me alive. But I survived and it made me appreciate mortality.”

It may have helped him understand, but it didn’t do much to slow him down. On another occasion, Oz’s curiosity got the better of him and it almost cost his life.

“When I was 7, I was in Istanbul, my parents would go there in the summers,” said Oz, who is of Turkish descent. “There was a fish pond and I remember seeing the fish and thinking, ‘How cool.’ And the next thing I knew I was in the water and was so close to the fish I could pat the fish. I looked up and I could see the shimmering light, all of a sudden everything got dark because I was suffocating.

“I looked up toward the light and my mother grabbed my hand and pulled me out, and after she was done spanking me, she started crying. I realized I could immerse myself in different worlds, but there were dangers associated with it, but yet it was worth doing. I spent the rest of my life immersing myself into things that were very foreign to me, recognizing the dangers,” he said.

It’s not the natural course of things for a thoracic surgeon to become a media sensation like the 51-year-old Oz. And it was a Visine commercial that started it all.

“Those are my wife’s eyes (in the commercial.) She was in the business, and would patiently listen to me come home and complain about the fact that my patients were getting the news too little, too late. And one day she came home and said, ‘Why don’t we do a show together. We’ll call it “Second Opinion.’”

They pitched it to Discovery Channel which launched a 23-part series. “That’s how I met Oprah (Winfrey), she was my first guest,” said Oz.

“So she invited me back on her show and we reprised my documentary on her program, over dozens of episodes. I did 80 programs with Oprah, and by the time we were done with the 80 programs, I’d learned a lot from Oprah.”

Finally Oz’s wife, Lisa, suggested he try his own medical show. “I thought about it for a while and said, ‘If you’ll support me and teach me how to do this, I’ll start off and do it.’

His wife was motivated, he says, because she wanted to see more of him.

“When I was in the operating room she couldn’t be with me, but when she was on the show she could help me. So she actually helps me and is very involved in some of the big decisions that we make. I work more closely now with her than I did when I was in surgery. And she likes that.” They have four children, one boy and three girls.

While Dr. Oz is very good at handing out advice, he can be bedeviled by problems himself. “I have a very hard time being still, and that’s not a small problem,” he said, tapping his foot and readjusting his position in the chair.

“I’ve tried to meditate probably for four years now. I took classes in it, I’ve really been diligent about it. This morning I got up, did my yoga and meditated and it’s such a battle for me to just take 20 minutes and not be thinking about my next interview, an idea from yesterday’s show, I could’ve done better last week, I could be better next week. And all those things clutter your mind and prevent you from having a real connection in life … you get isolated because you’re so busy doing this and brainstorming,” he said.

“You think it’s productive but it’s actually counterproductive at a certain point. It’s the single most important thing I talk to my wife about, how to be still long enough so I can see more clearly the big issues. You know in still water you can see deeper. You want to be able to see deeper, that’s the value I bring to the audience, to see a little deeper than they can see and help them clear their waters so they can see the same thing.”