If you watch Oprah, you saw this week that Suzanne Somers was talking about something called bioidentical hormones. What is this? Well, this goes into the discussion of the controversial topic of hormone replacement therapy at menopause. In years past, it was standard practice to place patients on estrogen to combat the symptoms of hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
You may remember a big deal being made about estrogen a few years ago, It was in fact something called the Women's Health Initiative in 2002 which revealed that estrogen therapy, according to their data, actually slightly increased the risk of heart disease. According to this WebMD article, subsequent studies have somewhat confirmed that data.
Anyway, all these questions have left women to wonder whether prescription hormone replacement therapy was for them. Then, steps in the alternative medicine community. Especially since 2002, this industry has been trying to find alternatives to prescription therapy.
In the video above, the newsmagazine 20/20 analyzes the claims that Suzanne Somers made in a 2007 book. This report is almost a year old, but brings up some of the same claims that Ms. Somers made on this week's Oprah show. In addition to checking out the video above, there is this news article with quotes from an Ob/Gyn physician on the topic of bioidentical hormones.
The day after the Oprah show ran, I received many questions from my patients on bioidenticals. What did I tell them? Well, for me, there are still a lot of questions of whether they substances work. I just don't see good data out there yet to convince me. In addition, I don't believe that there have been adequate safety studies done on these substances yet.
What are your thoughts on bioidentical hormones? Leave them in the comments below. And, I invite you to my live internet radio show tonight called The Night Shift with Dr. A in which we're scheduled to discuss this topic as well tonight.
Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time (0200 GMT)
Join us for a very important Doctor Anonymous Show. Our special guest co-host will be Dr. Gwenn from the website Pediatrics Now. Our guest will be Dr. V and his blog is called "Parenting Solved: Compelling commentary on parenting and child health." He is also the author of the book "Colic Solved: The Essential Guide to Infant Reflux and the Care of Your Crying, Difficult-to-Soothe Baby." (I also invite you to check out the video above)
During the second part of the show, we'll be discussing the recent acquisition of Wellsphere which occured this week. Dr. Val wrote an article entitled, "How The Health Blogosphere Was Scammed." In addition, twitter has had a lot of discussion on this. You can follow the discussion with the label #wellsphere. Much of the discussion surrounds medical bloggers submitting blog posts and other content to wellsphere without receiving any compensation while this company did.
The frustration out there in new media medicine (ie-medical blogsosphere) is palpable. This is clearly exhibited by the screen shot below from our friend Kerri Morrone Sparling who - formerly - had content on the Wellsphere site. (Of note, the screen shot below was taken before her account was deleted) In turn, other people who used to have content on the site have changed their profiles similarly. Do you have a Wellsphere story to share? To try to get the word out to more people, I encourage you to write a blog post about it and tell your readers, your colleagues, and everyone else about this story. If you leave a link here, I'll try to gather all the stories on this blog post to let people know that this has affected a lot of people - and a lot of people out there are very mad.
I also invite you to join us for the live internet radio show which will be Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time on BlogTalkRadio. Even if you cannot join the show live, you can always listen later, because the show is archived on a podcast. (Update: Check out posts written by Dr. Rob called "All is Not Well(Sphere)," Chronic Babe called "About the whole Wellsphere debacle," Staticnrg has an interesting logo, and hopefully more posts on this topic.)
If you do listen live, you can even take part in the chat room. It is truly "The show within the show." You can even call in and say hello. A great opportunity to interact with medbloggers you've only read about. And, you will be able to see me on the live webcam during the show!
For first time Blog Talk Radio listeners: *Although it is not required to listen to the show, I encourage you to register on the BlogTalkRadio site prior to the show. I think it will make the process easier.
*To get to my show site, click here. As show time gets closer, keep hitting "refresh" on your browser until you see the "Play/Chat" button. Then, of course, press the "Play/Chat" button.
*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the green "Chat Now" button. If you are registered with the BTR site, your registered name and picture will appear in the chat room.
*You can also call into the show. The number is on my show site. If you have a headset microphone, you can "call" into the show by looking for the "Click To Talk" button at the top of the chat box to try out the BTR VoIP option. Hope these tips are helpful!
Update: There have been some questions with regard to show 71. I will try to address some of them here. I did talk a little about the situation on show 72. So, I encourage you to listen to the latter part of that show. As I stated there, I do not intend to release the second part of the show. Sorry for the inconvenience.
As far as the first part of the show, in the near future, I do intend to release the portion of the show with Doctor V from the blog "Parenting Solved" and author of the book "Colic Solved." That segment of the show also featured Dr. Gwenn from the website "Pediatrics Now."
In case you don't know, the "review of systems" is the laundry list of questions at the end of the medical interview that may tip you off to something you may have missed during the first part of the interview. Docs with little time to see the patient, sometimes gets into "tunnel vision" and, sometimes go down the wrong path. A quick review of systems may help you get back on track.
Above is a video from our new blog buddy Dr. Katie as she is practicing the Review of Systems for class. Ah, the Review of Systems through the eyes of a medical student. I remember how nervous I felt wondering whether I would forget "this" system or "that" system. Anyway, a good review for me. Thanks Katie! (make sure you watch the entire thing - the last 5 secs are GOLD)
This month, Dr. Gwenn has asked Doctor V to be on the show. He runs the blog called "Parenting Solved: Compelling commentary on parenting and child health." Doctor V has also written a book called "Colic Solved: The Essential Guide to Infant Reflux and the Care of Your Crying, Difficult-to-Soothe Baby."
In addition to our guests, I will have a HUGE announcement having to do with my February 5th, 2009 show. So, join us the Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time on BlogTalkRadio for Dr. A Show number 71.
And, hey, if you cannot catch us live, that's ok. All my shows are archived and available for download. So, can you listen anytime! But, if you do listen live, you will be able to participate in our live, interactive chat room. You'll also have the opportunity to call in to join the conversation, and even see my shining face on my webcam. See you for the show!
Thanks so much to my co-host Kim for all of her hard work to put this show together. (Can also download the show here. Also, don't forget to check out the video post) She definitely did a lot of show prep including contacting and inviting the guests - and writing some great questions. Kim also primarily ran the interviews during the show. Great job Kim!
Thanks also to the guests on the show tonight. First was Stacy from the blog called "The Adventures of Stacy Without An E." Our second guest was Tracy from the blog called "Kaply, Inc." Not only did we have a great conversation about their blogs, but also we had a great conversation about how it was to live with chronic kidney disease and to live with dialysis.
Also, don't forget to join me for the "Night Shift with Dr. A" which will be on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time. My co-host for that show will be Kat from the BTR show "Llanview Lowdown." We'll talk a little medicine, a little health, entertainment, pop culture, and whatever else comes up. Hope to see you for the Night Shift!
Thursday, January 22nd, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time (0200 GMT)
Join us tonight for Doctor Anonymous Show 69 where we will have a special co-host. You may remember Kim from Dr. A Show 57 who works in a dialysis center and she is also a nursing student. Kim has graciously set up two guests for our discussion on dialysis and chronic kidney disease. Joining us for the show will be Stacy from the blog "Stacy Without An E" and Tracy from the blog "Kaply, Inc."
If you do listen live, you can even take part in the chat room. It is truly "The show within the show." You can even call in and say hello. A great opportunity to interact with medbloggers you've only read about. And, you will be able to see me on the live webcam during the show! See you tonight!
For first time Blog Talk Radio listeners: *Although it is not required to listen to the show, I encourage you to register on the BlogTalkRadio site prior to the show. I think it will make the process easier.
*To get to my show site, click here. As show time gets closer, keep hitting "refresh" on your browser until you see the "Play/Chat" button. Then, of course, press the "Play/Chat" button.
*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the green "Chat Now" button. If you are registered with the BTR site, your registered name and picture will appear in the chat room.
*You can also call into the show. The number is on my show site. If you have a headset microphone, you can "call" into the show by looking for the "Click To Talk" button at the top of the chat box to try out the BTR VoIP option. Hope these tips are helpful!
Everyone knows how excited I am that more and more medbloggers are video posting. I wanted to welcome Katie from the blog "Dr. Katie Goes to Med School." She's from Detroit, Michigan, and her blog profile describes herself as, "A 20-something girl trying to balance medical school and real-life."
In this video post, Katie said that she worked in Thailand for a year (how cool is that?). She also talks about an upcoming test about blood disorders. Definitely check out all the cool highlighting in her book. Finally, she has some random thoughts on bobby pins. Why not show Katie some love and check out her blog and her 2nd video post. Great job Katie! Looking forward to more video posts!
Just want to give a little shout out to our buddy Emergiblog who is hosting Change of Shift Volume 3, Number 15. In case you don't know CoS is a blog carnival about nurses and nursing. I hosted it once (and probably should again one of these days) and it gives great insight into this field.
At the end of this week's edition, Kim states that Change of Shift is having a type of "identity crisis" in stating that even though anyone can submit posts, the blog carnival needs to keep nursing focused. So, she's looking for some brainstorming. If you're a nurse or having an interest in nursing, I encourage you to check out this week's CoS and also leave some comments on the future of CoS.
This week, The Doctor Anonymous Show welcomes our good friend Kim as a special co-host. You remember Kim from Dr. A Show 57 where she talked about life as a dialysis tech and a nursing student. Well, for our show this week, the topic is "Chronic Kidney Disease" and we'll talk about issues like dialysis with two special guests.
Stacy is from the blog "Stacy Without An E." His blog profile states, "I am a tortured soul who can twist between the most interesting, entertaining and engaging individual you've ever met to the most foul, grouchy, twisted and sarcastic schmuck ever. Both sides usually battle for complete control of my soul." We'll be talking about his life as a dialysis patient going to an outpatient clinic.
So, join us on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 9pm Eastern Time on BlogTalkRadio for the next episode of The Doctor Anonymous Show. Finally, I still need your vote in the Twitter Shorty Award finals. The polls close on Friday night, and I have fallen into 2nd place in the health category. Thanks so much if you have voted already! But, I will need your help to try to find more votes in these last days of the race. Thanks in advance for anything you can do to help. Well, don't pay people like these people were doing. Sheesh!
If you haven't checked it out already, Grand Rounds Vol 5 Number 18 is now up and running at MedPage Today. The host is the one and only Dr. Val Jones from Getting Better with Dr. Val. With today's inauguration and the country having high hopes in the changes occurring in Washington, D.C., Dr. Val has chosen to highlight posts talking about healthcare reform.
Thanks to Dr. Val for including my post this week:
"Twitter may be a proving ground of how we overcome our fears, satisfy our cautions and extend the reach of our health care system with web-based technologies and communities." Doctor Anonymous
As I have said in the past, I admit that I haven't mentioned GR in a while. I have to admit that I've been a lazy medical blogger in that I haven't written anything for this fabulous blog carnival in a while. If you don't know what Grand Rounds is, it is a weekly compilation of the best posts from the medical blogosphere that moves to different sites each week. And, who doesn't like reading about medicine and science? Next week, Grand Rounds moves to our friends over at Chronic Babe.
