Ask Dr. Marie

You’ve finally wrestled your way onto your doctor’s calendar for six full minutes of his or her undivided attention — now what? Since so many of us sashay out of our physician’s office without answers to our most nagging concerns, AOL Health suggests that you show up with an actual list — starting with a few important questions that patients often forget to pose. The straight-talking Marie Savard, M.D., author of “Ask Dr. Marie,” gave us the list of seven questions that she most wishes her patients would ask her.

PHILADELPHIA,Feb. 2/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –NewCourtland, a leading long-term care provider of community services, affordable senior housing, nursing homes, education and workforce development, announced that health expert Dr. Marie Savard, has joined its Network as corporate medical director.

As corporate medical director, Dr. Savard will serve as the chief medical advisor to NewCourtland’s Board of Trustees and will represent the physician’s perspective on the senior management team.   Dr. Savard will coordinate and oversee all medical care and clinical standards in use throughout NewCourtland’s Network, which today encompasses seven nursing homes, a growing number of home and community-based services including its home health agency, telehealth company, a LIFE program which is modeled after the nationally renowned PACE program, and an adult day center slated to open in the spring of 2010.

With a new year upon us, I am hoping we get a rest from Sally Field’s perky voice on television. You know, the voice that reminds us there is “something about osteoporosis that you might not know” while selling us on her favorite osteoporosis treatment. You know those ads; they appear almost nightly on our TV screens and in magazines. As a postmenopausal woman at risk for osteoporosis and a practitioner who has cared for elderly women for almost thirty years, I DO care a lot about this disease. But I don’t care for the commercials. 

So why am I so annoyed?

A recent article by one of my favorite health writers for the New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope, questioned the decision of millions of women not to take the drug tamoxifen to lower their odds of developing breast cancer. I was stunned by her conclusions. I always thought these women were making a wise and reasonable choice based on the evidence and I strongly disagreed with her conclusions.

Today “Good Morning America” shared the story of Beth Jones, who struggled with an eating disorder that continued during her three pregnancies. Jones, who is featured on a special program airing tonight on the Discovery Health called “‘I’m Pregnant and … I Have an Eating Disorder,” has spent much of her life obsessed with diet and exercise.

While Jones gave birth to healthy babies, “GMA” medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard says having an eating disorder during pregnancy can pose serious risks.

“Most women with eating disorders have a difficult time getting pregnant, and when they do there are risks,” Savard said.

While the past decade has seen great strides in medical technology, it hasn’t seen solutions to all of our health problems.

There were novel viruses that threatened to kill us all. There were toxins in our children’s toys, and we were told to worry about the junk they were eating.

Some of these threats turned out to be almost nonexistent. Others were arguably overblown. Some caused widespread harm.

So what new threats have been robbing you of sleep since the annual odometer rolled over from 1999 to 2000? Join us as we take a look at the top ten new threats of the last ten years.

After the recent controversy over new breast cancer screening guidelines, the recommendations issued today by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to do fewer Pap tests may seem like another blow to women’s health. But the truth is, it isn’t.

The leading experts and gynecologists who care for women recommend the following:

1)      All women should begin receiving a Pap test at age 21.

2)      Women ages 21 to 30 should have a Pap test every other year.

3)      Women ages 30 and over should have a Pap test (with the addition of an HPV test done at the same time as an option) every three years.

Screening tests for early detection of cancer have undergone a lot of scrutiny lately. Just a few weeks ago the American Cancer Society (ACS) issued a press release reminding us that the Cancer Society may have overstated the benefits of screening and underemphasized the potential harm when it came to testing for early breast and prostate cancer. They went on to discuss the limitations of screening women for early breast cancer with mammograms and screening men for prostate cancer with the simple PSA blood test. This week, the United States Preventive Task Force (USPTF) has issued new guidelines for breast cancer screening. I suspect that explains why the ACS issued their recent comments, knowing these guidelines were about to be released.  

Ever since the American Cancer Society’s announcement last week that breast and prostate screening tests may not be all that they are cracked up to be, women have been more confused than ever about the benefits of common tests for early cancer detection. Many experts spoke out emphasizing the importance of early detection of cancer through screening tests and the Pap test to detect cervical cancer early was once again described as the gold standard.  

My friend, Louise, was diagnosed with cervical cancer a few years ago. The good news is that she was diagnosed early. The bad news is that she learned too late that both her Pap test and HPV test were abnormal a year earlier and she could have been spared a hysterectomy if only she had known. Yet Louise was like so many others that believe when it comes to hearing about test results, no news is good news. She never called back the office of her gynecologist to learn of her results. Her doctors apparently sent her a letter notifying her of the findings, but she never received it. The commonly held belief among patients and doctors’ offices that “no news is good news” couldn’t be farther from the truth. When it comes to test results, no news is just that, “no news”. All too often abnormal test results get filed, misplaced, or simply ignored. Patients may not learn of their abnormal results until it is too late.