June 2004

Barbara Seaman: Champion

by Dr. Madeline Behrendt

Longing to read a truthful article on health in a major magazine?

That's not as impossible as you may think.

In fact, in February 2004, O (Oprah) magazine published a brave and intelligent article that investigated the $2 billion‑a‑year reproductive medicine industry. The piece was so powerful, it drew a protest from the Association for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), claiming it could "scare women."

The article was written by noted author and journalist Barbara Seaman, no stranger to alerting women to the truth about medical practices, no matter how scary. Reading it, I thought, someone gets it! So, I had to contact her, and am delighted she agreed to an interview. The following reflects our (Internet) "conversation."

Barbara's many accomplishments include working to get patient pamphlets established (yes, someone had to fight for those), and being co‑founder of the National Women's Health Network, which states in its charter that it will never take a dime from the drug industry. And it never has.

Barbara's cautionary reporting has been appreciated by many. And although she has been attacked by those she's "unveiled," she wears those attacks well, boasting "JAMA gave me one of the worst (book) reviews I have ever seen in my life..."

During her long career, Barbara has seen how the conservative view towards medication was no longer admitted on talk shows and was rarely seen in magazines or newspapers that take drug advertising. Accordingly, she was un‑invited from various TV shows and fired from: Ladies Home Journal (due to pressure from a major advertiser, Johnson & Johnson), Family Circle (after being critical of HRT), and Hadassah magazine (due to pressure from Eli Lilly, which sponsors the Hadassah Organization's women's health division). But she's getting her message out in the media ‑‑ I saw her on TV while writing this, and we already mentioned O magazine.

Barbara had several troublesome pivotal experiences with medical practices. Her perspective on hormone therapy was stimulated at the deathbed of her Aunt Sally, who died at 49 from cancer, which the doctor attributed to estrogen medication. He advised Barbara to never take estrogen, and she never did in any of the forms (the Pill or HRT).

When she gained 15 pounds as a college freshman, she asked her GP for a diet. He suggested three cigarettes a day after each meal instead of dessert (this was 1953). He never advised her nicotine was addictive, and it took her decades to quit.

In 1957, her son was born during a pro‑infant formula environment. She wanted to nurse, however the doctor said "formula" and he wanted to be obeyed. She was given a laxative and her baby lost a third of his birth weight, becoming perilously ill. Barbara never again blindly trusted a doctor.

So, starting in 1960, she helped develop a new type of media reporting that trusted the reports and concerns of patients more than corporations or the AMA.

In addition to writing great articles, Barbara writes great books. These two belong in every chiropractor's lending library:

***  "The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth"

***  "The Doctor's Case Against The Pill"

The topics covered in her books are familiar to chiropractors and it is valuable to have them written about so well. Some excerpts:

‑‑ Off‑Labeling. While doctors might know the real science, they don't want to have to practice it to the letter, and half of what they prescribe is no more evidence‑based than your grandmother's chicken soup, or maybe even less.

‑‑ Social Control. Allows the medical industry to: lay claim to all activities concerning a medicalized condition, including deciding who's ill or healthy; and profit by placing women in the sick role and making them feel as though they have a disease only the medical industry can fix.

‑‑ Menopause. Nobody has ever died of menopause.

‑‑ CME. Should be called CPE: continuing product education.

‑‑ Sexism. Clinical trials are typically done on men weighing 150 lbs. or more, while the greatest number of drug users are elderly women weighing in the low 100s, who metabolize drugs differently. No wonder the highest frequency of death and adverse effects is in this population.

‑‑ A segmented medical system. The prescribing doctors tend not be the same ones who did the mopping up when the side effects of the Pill, pulmonary embolisms and strokes occurred in their young patients. These women were seen in the ER by lung surgeons and neurologists. Family practice doctors can state "we don't see this in our clinics," but they are disconnected from the medication's realities.

Both chiropractors and practice members will appreciate reading Barbara Seaman's books (available at amazon.com), and I want thank her from all of us for the work she has done. Bravo!

p.s. Happy Father's Day!

(Dr. Madeline Behrendt is chair of the WCA Council on Women's Health and associate editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation [JVSR]. An author and speaker, she is committed to connecting women to chiropractic and chiropractors to women, and may be contacted at drmadeline@drmadelinedc.com)