Dr Erika Schwartz, MD.

GWYNETH PALTROW and a lesson about Osteopenia

Gwyneth Paltrow, the famous and beautiful actress, was diagnosed with early osteopenia at the age of 38 and created a media furor last week. The media loves a scary story and the Gwyneth Paltrow story appears to be scary at first glance indeed. The outcome of the story is not an improvement in the general knowledge about bone health, but rather more fearful people swept away by another celebrity calamity. With little knowledge about what osteopenia is, we find ourselves under attack to diagnose it early and treat it promptly. Or so the media would have us do. Gwyneth is... Read more →

The 12 Most Dangerous Supplements

Consumer Reports, usually a reliable guide on what to buy, is dishing some dubious advice in its September issue on “The 12 Most Dangerous Supplements.” The magazine identified 12 supplements “to avoid” and 11 “to consider’” based on research and case studies from Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. As a physician who works with supplements and FDA approved prescription medications I would like to tell readers there are several facts to bear in mind before they swallow the Consumer Reports story. The supplements “to avoid” are all herbs. Herbal supplementation is difficult at best for the western world to comprehend. Herbals... Read more →

The Estrogen Dilemma

The Birth Control Riddle

NEWSWEEK'S ATTACK ON OPRAH WILL NOT HELP THE PUBLIC

This week's Newsweek cover story is a harsh and lengthy attack on Oprah and her ever-expanding health care advocacy choices. The article questions the legitimacy of her choices and points out that some of her doctors and “experts” are far out of the medical mainstream. I have never been on the Oprah Show, but last winter I was interviewed by Oprah's main doctor Mehmet Oz on his satellite radio show. Patients and e-mails flooded my office for months. This spring I was quoted in Oprah’s magazine as they interviewed one of my patients about bioidentical hormones. I learned first hand... Read more →

Is Gardasil Reall Protecting Our Daughters?

Gardasil, the controversial cervical cancer vaccine that is heavily marketed to young girls and women through schools, government agencies, media and physicians, is again coming under scrutiny amid thousands of complaints linking it to health problems, CNN reported today. The vaccine has been the subject of 7,802 "adverse event" reports, including 18 deaths and two law suits, from the time the Food and Drug Administration approved its use two years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When Gardasil first came out in 2006, I wrote two blogs questioning its credibility and its safety. - http://www.drerika.com/blog?action=viewBlog&blogID=-671659212713105333 -... Read more →

Beware doctors with hidden agenda$

Readers of my blog are well aware of the dangers that arise when doctors and drug companies serve each other's interest and put profits ahead of patients. Here's another glaring example: World-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman , whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children, earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007. The full extent of the payments only came to light recently when a congressional committee forced him to confess. Unfortunately the problem is that Dr. Biederman is one of the... Read more →

Ghostwriting Scientific Articles Added to the Job Description of Big Pharma

Some drug companies will stop at nothing to push their products on an unsuspecting public, even when they kill people. Next time you read about glowing research on a new drug, remember this: Merck has just been exposed for writing its own research studies for its blockbuster drug Vioxx, then getting top doctors to put their names on the studies as if they'd actually done them. This way Merck managed to dupe prestigious medical journals into publishing their pseudo science. Next, the articles were picked up as gospel by the mainstream media and the treatment recommendation followed by unsuspecting, gullible... Read more →

National set of physician standards is an insult to every doctor and patient in this country

The medical establishment has climbed into bed with the nation's health insurers and agreed to a "national set of standards" for the public to measure physician performance. Memo to the public: Don't expect this to be the solution to your medical problems. Mainstream medicine and the insurers are equally responsible for the expensive mediocrity and lack of care that defines today's healthcare shambles. These two groups coming together are not going to fix anything, they are the ones that created much of the misfortune we now define as so-called healthcare. National standards won't motivate doctors to provide any better care... Read more →

Doctors are kept in the dark for two years about dangers of Vytorin as $200 million marketing campaign continues on TV

The peril of mass marketing prescription drugs to the public was evident again this weekend when the New England Journal of Medicine reported (3/30/08) that two frequently-prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, may not work and should be used only as a last resort. There's a lesson here every physician and every patient should pay attention to. Vytorin and Zetia's use has soared in the United States amid their ubiquitous, $200 million TV and print marketing blitz. (Vytorin ad on Youtube). In Canada, where advertising drugs to consumers is not allowed, sales are four times lower. The medications are major... Read more →