But beyond the 30-minute exercise-equipment commercials are the more medical ones. Jane Seymour, the British actress, for example, has her name on a line of skin care products. Everyone wants to look younger and, according to Seymour’s experts in white coats, the unique chemistry of her products can produce these results better than anything else. I am suspicious. Not because I know anything about dermatology. It’s more about what lengths Seymour will go to make a buck. A few years ago a large pharma company, caught up in using celebrities to promote prescription drugs, hired Seymour to go on webcasts and interview programs to talk about her grandmother’s diabetes and how XXXX product can help people like her. Seymour loves her grandmother and urged us all to consider the new diabetes product for the people we love and ourselves.

It seemed like a stretch to me and pharma marketing at its worst. So now flash forward eight years or so and Seymour is at it again. It’s made not to look like an endorsement… different from the sports stars that put their name on expensive shoes. No, this is Jane as a product owner (I don’t believe it) trying to help all of us look as beautiful as she is.

I am betting the same benefit can come from easily available and inexpensive products. Or, to be contrarian, we can do nothing and just keep our faces clean. Wrinkles from natural aging are not such a bad thing, are they?

Actually, her infomercial is harmless. And she really is pretty to look at.

I flip the channel. There’s former game show Hugh Downs, now in his 80s, playing the role of a Larry King-style host (same old fashioned microphone), and interviewing the editor of a new book – a compendium of secrets your doctor will never tell you – secrets to help you feel better, secrets the drug companies don’t want you to know. Man, was I disappointed in Hugh, the nice fellow who hosted “Concentration” on morning television when I had to stay home sick in my elementary school years. And didn’t he host a show for seniors on public television about healthy aging? Didn’t he host 20/20 from ABC News?

Oh, no! Hugh had now stooped to hosting infomercials with a hard sell pitch for a book. $39.95. Operators are standing by, and if you call now they’ll give you two more books free. Again, it wasn’t that I had a big beef with the book. It’s just another person reaching into your wallet. But Hugh Downs fell a few rungs in my book. He’s now at the Jane Seymour level. Come to think of it, he has pretty nice skin too.

We’re still in the harmless category. But then there’s more real, so-called “medical” products. Again, these guys suggest the FDA, the AMA, almost every licensed M.D., and certainly all the drug companies are in cahoots to take your money and keep you sick, while the sponsor’s product makes an end run around all of them and can make you pain free, energetic, and healthier. I get so angry about these charlatans and, unfortunately, some of them precede me on the radio. I just hope my listeners are more intelligent and think for themselves and save their money.

Here’s a simple tip. One of the shows preaches colon cleansing as the answer for better health. The pitch is this: after years of eating toxic foods the toxins are still in your body setting the stage for many ailments including cancer. Buy Dr. XXXX’s product and use it religiously and you’ll put those worries aside. You can catch more on the colon cleansing debate on Dr. Z’s blog.

My brother-in-law has a better and cheaper suggestion, a tip from his chiropractor: Sprinkle a little flax seed on your morning cereal each day. It works like a charm!

So tying this all together: There is big money behind infomercials. Many shows cost $100,000 or more to make for television, $10,000 or more for 30 minutes on radio. And in both cases the airtime adds plenty to the expense. They are buying the time to make all that back and a healthy profit. They are using celebrities to make it more attractive. But is it real, true, worth your money or worth risking your health?

Not in my book.

I know I am medically conservative, just as my neighbor, radio talk show host Michael Medved, is politically conservative. While I don’t agree at all with Michael’s politics. I do agree with his thinking man’s approach. Don’t be duped by slick packaging, don’t be naïve that everyone is in a conspiracy to keep information from you, and, when it comes to medical questions, put them to your doctor, or a second doctor. They can handle it and will answer. I’ll bet you money if you write Jane Seymour or Hugh Downs or Doctor Colon Cleanser you won’t get a thoughtful answer if you hear back at all.

Yours in the television and radio audience,

Andrew

I am not a very religious person and I am not a Christian, but I did think of that song as we approach the New Year. Yesterday I got that call you hate to receive from your teenager: “Dad, it’s Ruthie (our 14-year-old). Hannah and I have been in an accident. We are okay, the police are here and the ambulance guy wants to talk with you.” My heart is thumping and I am 1,200 miles away. The EMT comes on. “Your daughter has an abrasion over her eye but it is not serious. Doesn’t even need a bandage.” I breathe again. And her friend had a sore neck but was otherwise okay. More good news.

The details of the accident were concerning. On a rain-slick freeway, Hannah was trying to change lanes. The car to her right would not let her in. He sped up just as she was coming in to that lane. She tried to switch back. Blocked. She may have panicked as a young driver. Her brakes locked. The car did two 360s but miraculously no one hit them. Their car hit the center guard rail and came to a stop facing the wrong way.

They were very lucky and I am so thankful. But who can I thank? Ms. Underwood’s song has been ringing in my ears and I think about the New Year and resolutions. Hopefully, Ruthie, even as a passenger, can avoid potentially dangerous situations in the future. Was the weather too bad to venture out? Should they have driven slower? Was this a lesson about the danger on our highways? What can I do better as a parent?

I have often looked back at my own teenage years and recognized I had been lucky to have survived some tight spots along the way. Maybe you can say the same. Whatever may have protected us, may it continue through the new year. Here’s wishing you and yours a happy and safe new year. And, as our Uncle Elliott always says, “Kiss the kids.” I know I’ll be kissing Ruthie a lot!

-Andrew

There are agencies that help with care at home and (if you can navigate the rules, insurance and Medicare), can help defray the cost. But it is often a tension-filled experience for many reasons. You are being asked to help “parent your parent” and they may not take kindly to this. You may be unfamiliar with the lingo and the rules, or may be torn in too many directions with other responsibilities. You may have siblings – even ones who live at a distance – who are not in agreement with your approach (nor appreciative) and think they know better.

How do you prepare for the inevitable situation of needing help caring for a loved one at home – or at an outside facility? There are geriatric care managers who can help but it will cost you. That may be money well spent. And discharge planners at hospitals may have some guidance, so will ratings on the Medicare.gov Web site. Your loved one’s doctor’s office may have advice, as well. But the best advice is to sit down as a family and discuss these almost certain eventualities long before the crisis hits. It’s like living in tornado or hurricane country. You know it will happen, so you have to be prepared. It’s the same with someone needing home care and/or adult daycare, assisted living or other kinds of long-term care. Few families can do it on their own anymore.

On one of my most recent Patient Power programs, I interviewed two former nurses and healthcare administrators who consult with organizations that provide such care. They share secrets of how you, the consumer, can get the best. Be sure to listen because it’s very likely you will need this information before long. The price of not knowing what to do is: Stress, family conflict, and possibly poorer health outcomes for someone you love.

-Andrew

The fact is a scary number of our children will predecease us because they are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes and heart trouble. You will begin hearing more and more of children having heart attack or stroke.

How can this be?

The truth is, 17 percent of kids in the United States are overweight, and in some ethnic groups it is much higher, especially among Hispanics and African-Americans. Many kids eat fast food every day. They eat junk food, and they are not active. Too often this behavior is modeled by their parents.

Then there’s the food industry trying to make a buck by giving us what we want. Yes, there are food labels, but many people don’t read them.

If you want to see this problem in full swing, take a seat near the check-out at a Wal- Mart, an American crossroads. You will be bowled over by the number of customers shopping who are overweight. Their kids will be with them and besides sharing facial features they will often share body shape too. It’s our future and it’s not pretty.

On a radio show this week, I interviewed a pediatrician from Kaiser Permanente who is really worried. On the bright side, I featured a Kaiser patient, Ashley, a 15-year-old. She has completed a 16 session program with her mom at Kaiser to turn things around. Ashley weighed 147 lbs. and is 5’1”. Her mom is the same height and weighed almost 200 lbs. Anthony, Ashley’s father, working with mom, banned junk food from the house, they are exercising, making smarter eating choices, losing weight and making a new beginning for life.

This is the cure. And to all of the adults out there, part of the prevention depends on us getting our act together. Implementing good food choices in the schools along with exercise requirements should also be part of the prevention program. We need a cultural shift or else the bombshell that will kill our future economy will be an overweight population, lower productivity and much higher healthcare costs.

Am I crying wolf? Walk around your neighborhood or spend 15 minutes at Wal-Mart. I am worried but ready to do my part.

-Andrew

Katie is the president of her junior class and is running cross country as any healthy teen might do. But three years ago her world fell apart when what looked like a bug bite on her forearm turned out to be malignant melanoma, a serious cancer. She soon had multiple surgeries and immunotherapy with Interferon. During treatment she had to give up things that she loved like her soccer team. She had to try to explain to her teenage friends about cancer and it wasn’t easy to learn to speak out on the subject.

Her hair thinned and she was tired. But Katie persevered with help from great medical care at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and the University of Washington.

Katie appeared on my radio show with bright blue eyes, energy and no sign of cancer at present. She is also co-chairperson of a big melanoma symposium coming up to raise awareness for this serious disease where they will talk about prevention (sunscreen!!), treatment, research, and support.

I continue to be awe struck by young people who have incredible strength and hope. Katie has the ambition to be a nurse, she wants to give back. And I feel confident she will; she already is.

So while the nation’s policy makers debate healthcare reform, young Katie inspires us on a more personal level. She touched my heart as she does most everyone she meets. I invite you to hear the replay of my program with Katie and her doctor, David Byrd, on Patient Power’s website.

That’s what happened to my friend Jamie. Jamie had just had his 50th birthday earlier this summer and life was good. He was a director of information technology for a large company and spent many lunch breaks on fast bike rides with his friends and co-workers. These serious cyclists had been doing that for years.

One bright sunny day, tragedy struck on one of those rides. A stick became lodged in the spokes of Jamie’s front wheel, and in a split second locked the bike and launched him head first onto the pavement. Yes, he was wearing a helmet, but that didn’t protect his head from being jarred so hard that it caused a serious injury to his spine.

Jamie laid on the pavement able to hear everything around him and knew his life would never be the same. He was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, the Level I trauma center in Seattle. Along the way, Jamie was given steroids to lessen the inflammation around his spine and other meds to ensure his survival as well as giving him the best chance to walk again.

Another friend of mine, coincidentally, became Jamie’s doctor, Jens Chapman, a noted spine surgeon. But the judgment was Jamie didn’t need spine surgery right away.

Jamie was in intensive care for a few days and then hospitalized for five weeks, including his time as a rehab inpatient. Following his inpatient experience were the painful days and nights at home.

Yesterday, I saw Jamie in person as he came to the radio studio to appear on my Patient Power show about spinal cord injury. Jens Chapman was there too along with Jamie’s rehabilitation medicine doctor, Barry Goldstein.

Jamie was eloquent in describing his determination to have small victories for what he can do for himself…first just using his fingers to take the paper off a straw, to dress himself, to feed himself, to give up using a wheelchair, and then a walker.

Yesterday, he was incredible. He limited his use of a cane and even climbed stairs as we toured the radio and television complex. Sure, he had stiffness, spasms and pain. But it was another victory for Jamie. And on the air, he shared his vision of doing better long-term.

He may or may not ride a bike again. Pain may nag him for many years or for the rest of his life. But he is a portrait of courage and inspiring to me as I tell his story to help others.

Jamie was not doing a risky activity – just like you probably did nothing to bring on your illness, if you have one. As the old saying goes, “s**t happens.” But it’s what we do next that truly defines us. I am proud to know Jamie and in awe of his courage. I am happy to be in health communications to help bring his story to you.

-Andrew

However, I am also a patient who has benefited from a clinical trial. So here’s what I hate about the media: Time and again they paint clinical research with the broad brush of questionable experiments with you and me as “guinea pigs.” TIME Magazine did it in a memorable cover story years ago with a naked woman pictured crouching in the shadows under an oversized lab bell jar. And the Seattle Times did it in a headline and a one-sided article last June.

Today, I devoted one hour of radio and online airtime to try to undo some of the damage. In the studio with me for my latest Patient Power program were two very highly regarded physicians from the University of Washington. One is a cardiologist and the other is a trauma surgeon. Together, they save lives.

They are involved in clinical studies involving people who may have only minutes to live. These people may be unconscious and cannot give their consent to be in a clinical study, BUT investigational medicines or procedures could make the difference in saving their lives. A variety of government agencies and an oversight committee at the UW have given the go ahead to conduct two key trials. The first trial involves a more concentrated saline solution in IV fluids to be administered to trauma victims at the scene. This procedure is already approved in 14 European countries. The second trial involves giving CPR to cardiac arrest victims for three minutes before using the electrical charges of a defibrillator. The idea is to condition the heart for the shock.

Now back to the “guinea pig” controversy. The Seattle Times suggested it was ethically wrong to have anyone participate in a trial without them giving their permission first. But with people unconscious and near death that is not possible. Many agencies approve of doing this without a patient’s consent. But The Seattle Times questions this in its headline and takes one more jab at clinical research in general. Because what people remember is the “guinea pig” aspect and in turn apply that mode of thinking to medical research across the board. Maybe that’s why most adult clinical trials for cancer have to beg for patients.

In the media’s rush to sell newspapers, magazine and get ratings they have, time and again, undermined the very best of clinical research. Some of those very reporters and editors may one day find themselves at death’s door, or go through it, because of the anti-research climate they perpetuate. What a shame when journalists don’t responsibly consider the messes they create.

-Andrew

I am an entrepreneurial kind of guy. I spent some time in “Hollywood” and thought it was cool that some big movie deals were actually worked out by producers and studios over lunch at a deli and with the terms scratched out on a napkin. It really does happen.

So when it comes to partnering on programs for patients, like interviews and webcasts, I believe a producer/host like me should be able to just pick up the phone or send an e-mail to the right person at the national society for this or that and invite them to help publicize a worthy upcoming program.

It has worked that way in the past. When the associations are small and run by a visionary who also happens to be a former patient or caregiver, they often say yes. But increasingly these days the advocacy groups are run like corporations and they are very cautious and/or they want to totally control a project. I can understand their hesitation. But, as a risk taker, I try to convince them that the opportunity I am presenting is truly good for patients, whether or not their society gets paid money or not.

Sadly, in some recent examples, there are societies that have not only stonewalled, but haven’t even called me back. I’ve interviewed world experts – even docs from certain advocacy group’s own medical advisory boards – but now these societies want to pretend that none of this took place. And who loses? You do. Or patients out there who don’t know Patient Power or EverydayHealth. It’s a shame isn’t it?

I know I may be creating a stir. But it really bugs me when the quest for donor contributions and the desire to be seen as the only organization for patients in a given field takes over and precludes working together with other worthy efforts.

I am hesitant to name names but I am really disappointed in some organizations I used to respect.

Organizations should work together for the best interests of patients. Period.

It started with me doing what you probably do too – glance at the photos of friends and family when you are in someone else’s house. Typically, these are on their refrigerator, held there by magnetized frames.

So there I was in the kitchen of my friend Shellie after a Jewish New Year gathering. “Who’s that?” I asked of the nice fridge photo of two little girls in a bathtub full of suds. “Oh, they are my niece’s twin girls,” Shellie answered. “Her sister-in-law was a surrogate mother for them because my niece became infertile after being treated for breast cancer.”

Wow! I now remembered Shellie’s niece had been treated for breast cancer, but I knew nothing of this incredible story. Here are the details: The niece, living in Northern California had been diagnosed with breast cancer at 28 when she was pregnant with her first child. The baby was born, and the mom underwent aggressive therapy. Later, there was a recurrence. Again, she came through okay. But the still young woman and her husband wanted to have more children, but by then the drugs had shut down her fertility.

As a gift of love her caring sister-in-law, living hundreds of miles away in Yakima, Washington offered to be a surrogate mother for a donated egg and sperm from the natural father. The result was twin girls – birthed by their aunt.

Now the California family is planning to move to Washington state, so they can all live close by. You can imagine the bond.

I am still processing this story in my own head. And I am told the niece has a great prognosis and can look forward to many years with her three children, her husband and a sister-in-law who is also a best friend.

It never ceases to amaze me how people step up in unusual ways to help those of us who have been sick to go on and celebrate life. So while photos can tell a story, that photo of the little girls in the bathtub tells a story I’ll never forget.

-Andrew

Bill had heard I had been treated for CLL (my in-laws had told him) and he wanted to know more. I think he also wanted to feel connected to someone else with the disease. He hadn’t been on the Internet nor contacted any patient support society. His only connection to CLL was through his HMO specialist and his knowledge of the two elderly residents of his condo complex who had previously succumbed to the disease.

Bill rattled on about his long high school teaching career, his hospitalizations for this and that, his confidence in his doctor, and how good he felt this late afternoon. He was chatty, to say the least. I tried to help him feel empowered to get the best medicine if and when he needed it and to become smarter about the latest news about CLL. Bill took note of some Web sites I mentioned and said he’d follow up. I hope he will.

But the interchange reminded me to look beyond our “club” of proactive patients who read everything on the web, attend in-person, telephone and web lectures, and go armed to every doctor’s appointment with a list of questions. Bill isn’t like that and maybe most people aren’t.

So I am thinking of how to help. Maybe writing a newspaper column for older folks and going on TV to preach how, these days, we all need to “get smart” about our conditions because our regular doctor may not be current on critical information that can help.

We can all help the “Bills” of the world right now. Strike up conversation in the doctor’s waiting room. Help people understand there are so many resources out there now to help; HealthTalk is a great one, PatientPower is too.

As I fly home, I am questioning whether I encouraged Bill enough to play a more active role in his care. I think so. But next time I am at the pool, I’ll go looking for him.

-Andrew