News Coverage of H1N1 and Health Care Generally; Blog Xfer from Fall 2009

There is a lot of awareness and scrutiny right now -- perhaps 'criticism' related to what the media is providing us with for information.  I thought it would be interesting to add something here about our recent experience with The Denver Post doing a story about influenza. 

About two weeks ago, I saw that The Denver Post had a section cover story about H1N1 and knew I had just posted a blog about intestinal health, which included the VERY important information that a lot of your immune system's health goes on in the intestines.  I contacted Nancy, their Staff Writer (reporter) for our area, a neat gal I'd met a couple of months before at a fundraiser event in case she was interested and she (and her editor) were!  GREAT, a way to help more people find out about integrative medicine concepts, our clinic, or in my case, Lumigrate (so that it can grow to help more people).   Naturally, they wanted to have the story at the time that people might need it, so everyone flew into action.  I pounced on Dr. Rollins and Dr. Lepisto, as their schedules are so very booked up, and Dr. Rollins was traveling to California the next day, so first thing the next morning the interview took place.  We set her up with a lot of information and as she left, she said 'I wonder how many inches I'll get for the story' and I realized she has a really difficult job to take that much information, make it interesting and correct and condensed. 

In emails initially, in order to 'reinforce' the possibilities that exist with alternative treatments with influenza, I mentioned that my mother's grandfather was a physician in Chicago in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic -- an area particularly hard hit -- and didn't have one patient die because of the 'poison cocktails' he prescribed (milk with a very small amount of iodine).  And Nancy really picked up on that -- at the end of the interview that was her last question of us -- whether I'd take poison cocktails.  I grew up on the things and maybe it was part of the reason I embraced and sought out alternative treatement for my own head conditions -- and I certainly would enjoy knowing more history about that treatment and why it appears to have been effective for him and his patients all those years ago.  This became the 'human interest thread' that she came into and exited the story with, which was fun from my perspective, though I personally think it would have benefitted people more to have had some insight as to what my business is (or the doctor's integrative clinic), as they could have 'tuned into our websites' and gotten much more detail in my future blogs about the topic than she was able to put in her article.  One of my frustrations and observations about the internet is that it is so difficult for people to know where to find good information, and having a website that is growing in popularity despite this inherent dilution on the internet, it seems a service to their readers to get them directed toward continuing education on the topic.  But as you know, that is what I do at the end of the blogs -- streamline our customer's search and increase their odds of successful health!

Nancy had done her homework online and asked questions about the things she had read about and it was clear she was focused initially on doing a story about what people can do if and when they get ill, whereas it seemed wise since there wasn't influenza going on yet to talk about prevention.  Because that is kind of the foundation of integrative medicine, which is what 'we are all about'!  Dr. Rollins had some interesting facts about adrenal fatigue being shown in the 1918 epidemic to have been a factor, which is VERY interesting since that is now known to be one of the things causing the cascade of symptoms in fibromyalgia.   And Nancy did include that in the article, I was happy to see, as well as some of the information Dr. Lepisto had provided. 

At the conclusion of the interview, she said it was a state-wide story and I happened to know the 'Front Range' version of Dr. Rollins, a physician who years ago when I moved to Denver was seeing patients at an integrative medicine center.  They communicated and I was included in that as well, and was very pleased to see the information about vitamin D that he supplied was used in the story, and with enough detail to be helpful. That's really what we all want at the end of the day -- information got out, was read and hopefully utilized.  I think she wrote the story in a really friendly way and it was very readable, which then means it was a GREAT story.  I actually knew the story had run only because I mentioned the benefits of vitamin D at a gathering Monday night and the host had read the online Denver Post article earlier in the day, but didn't connect that it was ME the story lead in and out with. 

To read the 'comments' left by readers at the end of the online version is really interesting....   I guess I'm supposed to get some tin foil out and cover my head and NOT watch the sunset tonight because the Earth is flat.  She was offered references to the facts that were shared by the doctors but I don't think adding all that 'detail' makes a story readable.  But it does seem that the readership was kind of asking for more references and validation and it might have disspelled them somewhat had there been more mention of who the doctors or I am. 

But this obvious 'split' in the readers who commented on the story brings up an interesting concept related to validation and scientific methods.  It has been our 'way of doing business' for so many years -- get an idea, do a study to prove the effectiveness before having it be accepted and utilized.  Which is great, but then how long does it take for improvements and change to happen?  Years.  Sometimes, maybe common sense can be something we give credence to.  Then monitor data to be sure we're on the right track.  I used to work on a research project at Colorado State University for the National Park Service: it's expensive, so that is why many of these things never get 'validated'!  It took years to put in place 'the big' study they accomplished (which led to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990).  Perhaps finding more balance to these things in the future will allow health care to move forward faster -- looking at the reasoning and if something makes sense and then also looking for faster ways to get feedback and validation on something.  

I'll be continuing to bring you more information on the topic of influenza and getting your health up overall, and in the mean time, please DO read the very informative article now that you know more about the story behind the story.    AND read the comments under it and put in yours if you like!  It's one way YOU can contribute to health care 'reform'! In the mean time, I hope this has helped you understand more about how the information we get from these sources comes from beginning to end.

www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_13284305