HONEST MEDICINE: My Dream for the Future

April, 2008: Some of Honest Medicine’s Most Popular Articles and Audios

1) NEW: Honest Medicine on the Blogs – This posting features several comments left on blogs, such as the New York Times’ Well Blog and the Salon.com blog, in response to postings relevant to HonestMedicine’s mission. Among the subjects these blogs and comments addressed are: patients who research their symptoms online (“Googling”); mammograms; Dr. Christiane Northrup’s appearance, discussing thyroid disease, on the Oprah Winfrey Show; doctors who “steal hope”; and the overuse of diagnostic scans.

2) Rave Review: “An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family”
This collection, beautifully edited by author Nell Casey is, by far, one of the most touching anthologies on the topic of caregiving -- filled with real-life accounts by writers, some famous and some not-so-famous. Some of the best writing on this topic that I have read in many years. The book contains fascinating personal essays by such writers as: Stan Mack, Dr. Jerome Groopman, Eleanor Cooley, Ann Hood, Abigail Thomas and Susan Lehman. There is also a wonderful introduction by Frank McCourt.

3) HonestMedicine’s "SiCKO Files":

♣ Honest Medicine's Review of Michael Moore's SiCKO, was noticed by several websites, including one that hailed it as "a superb review from someone who knows." Michael Moore also linked to it from his website!

♣ Audio Interview with SiCKO “hitman” Lee Einer. In this interview Lee shares insurance industry "secrets" not included in the film.

♣ Article #1 Written By Lee Einer: "Faux Health Insurance for the Self-Employed: The Sham, The Scam, The Shame of It." This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of articles written by Lee Einer, the man Michael Moore called the Insurance Industry "Hitman" in SiCKO. It was Lee's job to make sure the insurance companies he worked for were saved from paying just about ANY large bill -- no matter what he had to do. This article is truly enlightening -- and frightening!

♣ Article #2 Written By Lee Einer: “The Truth About Self-Funded Plans.” The second in our series of articles written by Lee Einer, SiCKO’s "Hitman." In this article, Lee tells about a second kind of “insurance” that can be deceptive.

4) Honest Medicine’s Inspiration: Timothy Mark Fisher
      March 13, 1949 – November 8, 2005
My husband Tim Fisher was first diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in September, 1990. For fifteen years, until he died in November, 2005, we navigated our flawed medical system together. My tribute to him was written on the second anniversary of his death, and contains several wonderful true stories about Tim. He was, and continues to be, an inspiration.

5) Honest Medicine’s Audios

♣ Ronald Hoffman, MD, Integrative Physician/Author -- In this interview, Dr. Hoffman discusses his integrative approach to the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. Also included: a discussion of the ways in which so-called "trials" or "studies" of natural treatments are often intentionally set so that they will "fail."

♣ Nutritionist Liz Lipski -- This interview contains discussions of local/organic foods, hospital food and her books, Digestive Wellness and Digestive Wellness for Children.

♣ Integrative Cancer Specialist Dr. James Belanger -- This innovative naturopathic physician discusses his use of blood tests and natural supplements for keeping his patients' cancers in remission.

♣ Lee Einer, SiCKO "Hitman" -- see above

HONEST MEDICINE ON THE BLOGS

As visitors to HonestMedicine know, my mission is for this site is to provide people with important information about the healthcare and medical systems -- information that is too often not reported by mainstream media. It is my strong belief that only when people understand how the system REALLY works, will they be able to challenge it so they will get adequate care.

One way I've been doing this is by posting ARTICLES ON THIS SITE that address the misinformation that is so often propagated by mainstream media.

To this end, HonestMedicine:

● Exposed the fact that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) often uses video news releases (VNRs – or “fake news”) to promote its articles and studies -- even in cases where the authors have questionable connections to the pharmaceutical industry. This 3-part HonestMedicine article, "The JAMA Controversy," was recognized by several other sites –- for instance, here and here, so its message reached many more people than it would have otherwise reached.

● Has interviewed several experts who have discussed topics rarely covered by mainstream media.

    For instance:

● Lee Einer, SiCKO “Hitman," talked with me about insurance industry shinanegans “they” don’t want you to know about.

● Ronald Hoffman, MD, talked about how pharmaceutical companies often conduct their “studies” of natural treatments in a way that will purposely cause these treatments to “fail” their “tests.”

And now, insurance industry expert Lee Einer is writing articles for HonestMedicine, in which he tells about many extremely questionable insurance industry practices that are seldom reported by mainstream media.

COMMENTING ON OTHER PEOPLE’S BLOGS: ANOTHER WAY OF GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT

But posting articles and audio interviews on this site are only two of the ways HonestMedicine has been working to get important messages out to the public.

Another way is by leaving COMMENTS on other people’s blogs.

I have a strong commitment to leaving these comments; in fact, I consider it to be a big part of HonestMedicine’s mission. These comments are routinely noticed and written about by many blog owners (including the very popular Trisha Torrey on her patient advocate blog. And one comment I left on health columnist Julie Deardorff’s Chicago Tribune blog, led to my being quoted, and HonestMedicine's being cited, in a Chicago Tribune article, "Doctors, Patients, Just Don't Click Over Googling," which was later syndicated nationwide.

RECENT BLOG COMMENTS

These past two months have been really fruitful ones in the HonestMedicine “comments department,” with several being left on some very important blogs.  I would like to share some of these comments with you. I hope that, if you have important messages you, too, will start leaving comments on other people’s blogs! (The more important information that is “out there,” the better!)

I have posted an article on the “nuts and bolts” of HOW to write BLOG COMMENTS that will get NOTICED, and will MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the world on my other (marketing) blog, www.WebBasedPR.com. You may read this article, "What Makes a Comment Great?" here.

HONESTMEDICINE’S OCTOBER / NOVEMBER, 2007 COMMENTS

NOTE: If you want to get an important message out online (rather than just bringing traffic to your site), I believe you should NEVER leave comments that are “fluff.” Lots of people do it, and I know it’s common practice, but my 20+ years as a public relations consultant have taught me that it is important that you NOT do this – especially if you want to be known as an EXPERT. Notice that in all the instances below, I have posted comments ONLY when I thought I had IMPORTANT INFORMATION to add to the conversation. (Again, for the specifics of HOW to do this, see my article, "What Makes a Blog Comment Great?" on WebBasedPR.)

My COMMENT on JOE BIDEN’S Blog:

For National Breast Cancer Month, Senator Biden placed this VIDEO on his blog, in which he presented his “national strategy to eradicate breast cancer.”

Not surprisingly, his proposed strategy echoes mainstream media’s:

• insuring that annual mammograms are covered by insurance programs
• guaranteeing early access to preventative care and early detection programs, (especially for low income women)

While I feel that it’s admirable that Sen. Biden really cares about this issue, and wants to do everything he can to ensure that so many women don’t continue to die from breast cancer, I believe that he doesn't have the “whole story” about the “early detection” that is promoted so heavily during National Breast Cancer Month. (This should come as no surprise, since the “whole story” is so rarely addressed by mainstream media.)

I wanted my comment to address this missing information -- the other side of the story. I therefore provided lots of information about the “politics” surrounding the cancer industry and its political and financial ties with so many of the companies that produce pharmaceuticals, chemicals and medical detection devices -- the very companies that benefit most from the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. I also linked to a very important article, "Search and Destroy: Why Mammograms Are Not the Answer," by Shannon Brownlee on the topic of the overuse of mammograms. You can read my comment.

ON SALON.COM

On October 25th, Salon.com asked the question, “Is Thyroid Disease the New Hysteria?” in response to Mary Shomon’s posting on her About.com site concerning Oprah Winfrey’s recent show on Thyroid disease. On her show, Oprah’s guest expert, Dr. Christiane Northrup, analyzed thyroid disease in terms of spiritual factors -- completely omitting any mention of the specific blood tests that should be ordered when a thyroid problem is suspected.  Mary addressed Dr. Northrup’s serious omission very eloquently. In her posting, she also linked to Dr. Northrup’s discussion of thyroid disease on her site -- a discussion which DID, in fact, include lots of information about the blood tests.

I was puzzled as to WHY Dr. Northrup would purposely OMIT important information on nationwide television -- information she obviously KNOWS to be important. I addressed this omission in my comment.

ON THE NEW YORK TIMES HEALTH BLOG

In her excellent New York Times’ “Well” Blog, Tara Parker-Pope often questions our sacred cows. But, as you will see from my two recent comments, I felt that certain points of view were missing from some of her recent postings. I attempted to politely add to the conversation!

In her October 22nd posting, “When Doctors Steal Hope,” Ms. Parker-Pope questioned WHY doctors so often give patients the worst case scenarios of their prognoses, when confronted with a serious health problem. (I myself had written an article about this troubling phenomenon a few years back for the American Medical Association publication, AM News.)

In this posting, Ms. Parker-Pope related an instance, where an ER doctor told the family of an elderly woman who had just suffered a stroke, that there was nothing he could do for her. Ms. Parker-Pope also quoted the well-regarded physician / author Dr. Jerome Groopman ("How Doctors Think"), who gave his reasons WHY doctors act so negatively when confronted with their patients’ serious illnesses. Dr. Groopman, too, focused on the DOCTORS’ personal feelings in these circumstances.

MY COMMENT addressed what I have come to call “physician-centered” (as opposed to the more ideal “patient-centered”) approach to medicine, and pointed out that this apparent inability of doctors to see situations from the point of view of patients and their families, is a BIG PROBLEM. Again, I hope I added to the conversation in an intelligent way. 

In her November 27th POSTING, “Scans of Pregnant Women on the Rise,” Ms. Parker-Pope addressed another important -- and very troubling -- problem: too much radiation of pregnant women via CT scans. This time, I added to the conversation by commenting about Shannon Brownlee’s recently published book, “Overtreated”, which addresses the problem of patients being exposed to too much radiation with overscanning, and too much medical treatment, in general. (The subtitle of Ms. Brownlee’s book, by the way, is “How Modern Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.”) Thanks to Ms. Brownlee’s tireless promotion of this book, it is receiving the wide attention it richly deserves. As I write this, "Overtreated" is #2,150 in Amazon.com’s sales rank -- a tremendous feat for a book whose message many of the people in power probably don’t want to hear! As you might have guessed, I hope to interview Ms. Brownlee soon for HonestMedicine! (MY COMMENT)

These are just a few of the more recent examples of HONESTMEDICINE ON THE BLOGS. There are many, many others, which I would be happy to share with you. Just send me an email at [email protected].

♣ To learn how to write blog comments that will help you to showcase your expertise, please see my article, "What Makes a Blog Comment Great?" on my PR/Marketing Blog, www.WebBasedPR.com.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- Honest Medicine's Julia Schopick Responds to Sen. Joe Biden

As most of you know -- how can you miss it? -- October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With it come lots of pink ribbons and pink products, and lots of publicity advocating early detection through mammograms.

Sen. Joe Biden is a staunch supporter of early detection. On his blog there is a video where he eloquently expresses his longstanding support of the cause. He calls this video "Sen. Joe Biden's Strategy for Combatting Breast Cancer." I hope you will watch it.

As you might suspect, I have a different view of this topic than the one Sen. Biden espouses. I expressed my views in a comment following the video on his blog.

As you probably know (if you have left comments on other people's blogs), it is very difficult -- usually, impossible -- to include hyperlinks in these comments. I am reprinting my response to Sen. Biden here, as an HonestMedicine.com posting, in order to include the hyperlinks to all of the many resources and references that I cited in my comment.

I hope that visitors to my site who read this posting/comment will want to visit some of the websites I link to; I also hope you will want to read the articles and books I link to.

Dear Sen. Biden:

I admire (and am grateful for) your dedication to helping to eradicate breast cancer. It is an awful disease, which has touched the lives of many women I am close to. I hope you will read my comment (I guess it is really more like a letter -- even a tome!), and that some of the things I say will resonate with you, and that you will help to disseminate at least part of my message where it will make a difference.

As you know, every October, for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there’s a huge, multi-organization publicity campaign encouraging women to either buy “pink products” or to get mammograms -- or both. So, for one month out of every year, women and men alike work hard to do our parts to eradicate breast cancer.

At least, that’s what we think we are doing. It’s what we WANT to be doing.

But, most people aren’t really fully aware of the POLITICS that surround the entire “Cancer Industry.” (This phrase was coined by Ralph Moss, PhD, with his book of the same name.) This, and many other books, give lots of examples that demonstrate that the cancer industry has political and financial ties with pharmaceutical and chemical companies -- the very companies that benefit most from the chemotherapy that is given to treat cancer. (Pharmaceutical companies benefit because they provide the cancer treatments. Chemical companies benefit because they may actually be causing the cancers, as several books point out -- including Samuel Epstein, MD’s “The Politics of Cancer" (1978, 1998); and two books published in 2007: “Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic,” by Liz Armstrong, Guy Dauncey, and Anne Wordsworth; and “The Secret History of the War on Cancer,” by Dr. Devra Lee Davis.)

The Breast Cancer Industry is fraught with such ties. For instance, did you know that the American Cancer Society receives many donations from big pharmaceutical companies -- for instance, AstraZeneca’s $10 million donation, earlier this year? (Both Arimidex and Tamoxifen were developed by -- and are distributed by -- AstraZeneca!)

There are also political connections. For instance, when you buy pink products, with part of the money going to the Susan G. Koman Foundation, are you aware that Nancy Brinker, the founder of the organization, has heavy ties to the Republican party, and was named by George W. Bush to a US Ambassadorship? (She was also on governmental panels during the three most recent Republican presidents. Of course, these facts may not bother everyone -- but they may bother some of us.)

Numerous articles have been written about the politics and financial ties surrounding many National Breast Cancer Awareness Month activities. Several articles have been collected and posted on the thinkbeforeyoupink.org website. (Think Before You Pink is a project of “Breast Cancer Action,” an organization that advocates concentrating our research dollars on prevention, rather than treatment, and states in its annual report that it does not accept any funds from “pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or chemical companies, or any other entities that profit from or contribute to the breast cancer epidemic.”) Another organization with a similar agenda is the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

There are also lots of articles about the Cancer Industry on my website, www.HonestMedicine.com.

These are the on-the-surface financial concerns -- the fact that these organizations have financial ties to the very entities that benefit from their work.

But more recently, another concern has been raised -- a concern that is NOT at all being addressed by these organizations:

IS EARLY DETECTION WITH MAMMOGRAMS REALLY THE BEST WAY TO SAVE LIVES?

Several recent articles say that no, early detection with mammograms is NOT the best approach to treating breast cancer.

One of the most vocal, and highest profile, journalists to write about this is Shannon Brownlee, author of the recent excellent, and controversial, book, “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.” Her point is that Americans are being over-scanned, over-surgeried, and just plain over-treated, by our medical system, and that, in many cases, this over-treatment results in worse outcomes. This, and a book called “Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much,” by Maggie Mahar, are two very important books; I hope you will read both.

But, Ms. Brownlee addressed the mammogram issue YEARS BEFORE the publication of her book, in a 2002 “New Republic” cover story, “Search and Destroy: Why Mammograms Are Not the Answer.” Her main point in this excellent article -- and she uses numerous credible resources to back up her position  -- is that mammograms, in addition to being moneymakers for the institutions that provide them, are the first step toward a huge cash cow these hospitals will enjoy when their mammograms discover breast cancers: chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, etc.

But, as if this weren’t bad enough, it turns out that mammograms may be detecting more of the tiny (and less virulent) cancers, which might never have bothered women had they not been detected so early, and fewer of the aggressive cancers that kill. In other words, in some cases, mammograms may actually be doing more harm than good, by subjecting some women with potentially harmless tumors to potentially harmful treatments -- surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

But the best part about Shannon Brownlee is that she doesn't just criticize. She has a solution, too, which is to concentrate our research dollars on finding ways to tell whether a cancer is -- or isn’t -- the kind that will eventually kill a woman later on, so that doctors will not operate on all women with the tiniest (and least cancerous) of growths, telling them, “Boy, are you lucky we caught this so early!” (Well, maybe yes, and maybe no.)

So, maybe it’s time that the “think pink” companies and organizations look to avenues other than recommending that women buy products and get mammograms.

I realize that I have included many resources in this comment. I plan to put links to each and every one on my website.

Thank you so much for listening.
Julia Schopick
www.HonestMedicine.com