Dr Erika Schwartz, MD.

Does All Diabetes need treatment with medications?

A quick uplifting success story. A 32 year old patient of mine came in with blood results that showed a sugar level of 350 ( normal is up to 100). He has a terrible family history of heart disease, diabetes and never exercises or eats right. Give you a hint: he drinks his coffee black with 3 sugars every morning! His cardiologist had referred him to a diabetologist who had immediately suggested he go on medication. The diabetologist thought he already had diabetes and his family history was so bad, he better start treating him now. I thought otherwise. I... Read more →

First Vioxx, then Celebrex...Now Alleve!!

From Premarin giving women cancer and strokes, to Vioxx causing heart attacks, to Celebrex also causing heart attacks, to Alleve increasing the incidence of heart problems, we are moving into the era of seriously doubting big pharmaceuticals....if we were not there already! It’s about time! In my 25 years of practice I have seen many drugs come and go. I have turned farther and farther away from drugs because I have learned that all of them have side-effects and no one talks about them until a few of us have either been maimed or worse. One thing I have learned... Read more →

Adult ADD and Drugs

On the Today Show this morning, Katie Couric interviewed the head of the ADHD section at NYU on the topic of adult ADHD. The physician talked of the importance of taking Strattera- manufactured by Ely Lilly to treat this condition in adults. Katie Couric asked an important question which in summary said.... We seem to be talking a lot about drugs… Is there anything else we can do to help people with ADD? Like exercise, counseling, etc. The physician retorted with a categorical- "Strattera works well." Ms. Couric asked about potential side-effects. The physician said the two patients who had... Read more →

The Stess/Aging Connection

The November 30, 2004 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported the results of a study conducted at the University of California in San Franciscothat found that chronic stress affects three significant markers for aging at the cellular level. While the information that stress causes faster aging is fact in the world of common sense, being able to translate it into scientific information is exciting new data. The study analyzed 58 healthy women, ages 20-50. 39 were the biologic mothers and caregivers to a chronically ill child and 19 were mothers of healthy children. The women filled... Read more →

Conflicts At The FDA

Yesterday, December 6, 2004, the New York Times carried a prominent and detailed article on the troubles the FDA is facing in the aftermath of the big Vioxx fiasco. You can read the article by clicking here (Free NY Times registration required). The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is a federal agency founded in 1906. Initially, its only role was to insure that claims made on medicine packages were not blatantly dishonest. As you can imagine, due to lots of scandals and problems surrounding the developing drug/pharmaceutical industry, in time, the government passed legislature to expand its role. In general,... Read more →

Over The Counter Remedies - Revisited

The other day I received a disturbing e-mail. I’d like to share its contents with you. The writer, a nurse, complained about my position on over the counter hormone supplements I shared with you in a recent Note Pad entry. Its author disagreed with me about the usefulness of over the counter progesterone, yam cream and some soy products. She also stated estradiol could be found in over the counter preparations. I checked out her statement on estradiol with the FDA just to be extra cautious before I replied. Just as I have told you, Estradiol is available by prescription... Read more →