Posted on 06/23/2005 6:41:33 AM PDT by Naomi4
Menopause Doc Fudged Data BURLINGTON, Vt., June 21, 2005
Millions of women have taken hormone therapy, only to learn in recent years that its health benefits were never proved and there were risks involved instead.
Now it turns out a key researcher who touted the benefits of hormone replacement is facing a five year jail term, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
Dr. Eric Poehlman was renowned for his groundbreaking research on women and menopause. He theorized that menopause makes women lose muscle and gain fat, and causes health problems hormones could help fix.
His work was considered so significant it prompted doctors to prescribe hormones for years - a treatment now called into question because of its health risks.
"Dr. Poehlman was a mentor to me in many ways," said Walter DeNino, Poehlman's research assistant at the University of Vermont.
But he discovered a dark side to his mentor, Attkisson reports.
It turns out menopausal women weren't deteriorating the way Poehlman thought they would in his study.
"In some cases, some patients improved in terms of heart disease risk and energy expenditure," DeNino said. "After menopause."
But the idea of healthier women after menopause jeopardized the foundation of Poehlman's work, so he did the unthinkable: he fabricated the data to make it fit his theory.
DeNino confronted him and turned him in to the university; they found it wasn't the first time.
Once Dr. Poehlman's fraud was exposed, the horrible implications were clear. Years of research which doctors relied on to treat menopausal women were now in serious doubt.
The case was referred to U.S. Attorney David Kirby.
"I think the scope of the wrongdoing in the case made it criminal," Kirby told Attkisson.
It was also criminal because Poehlman had used $2 million in government grants – taxpayer money - for studies to perpetrate his fraud.
Susan Real was in one of those faked studies. Back then, she was a bodybuilder entering menopause and, by volunteering for Poehlman's research, was hoping to "make a difference." Now, she knows she didn't.
"I was outraged. I felt exploited. And I was really amazed that anyone would be doing something like that," Real said.
Dr. Poehlman pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and faces up to five years in prison.
As for his one-time protégé, he's applying to medical school.
"I would like to think Dr. Poehlman is more or less an isolated case," DeNino said.
DeNino wants to become a researcher in his own right - he just no longer hopes to follow Poehlman's path.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
CBS running a story about fudged data, now that's irony.
My mother had uterine cancer. Insurance company refused to pay for her ovaries to be removed, she had them left. 2 year later, ovaries shrank, docs give her hormone replacement therapy. 6 years later she dies from ovarian cancer.
I am sorry to hear about your mother. Uterine and ovarian cancer are generally aggressive cancers. I think her ovaries should have been removed as a matter of course, (although I am not a doctor and only occasionally pretend to know as much as one).
Could she/you not have paid for it at the time of the hysterectomy EVEN if the insurance company was not covering that part of the surgery?
Un-natural use of hormones is scary when one learns even the rudiments of what they are capable of......a little look into weedkiller and other pesticide human pathology is a good place to start.
I'm sorry. Your poor mom. It's hard to lose your mom. When my mom was dying of cancer, one of the VERY old ladies in the Convalescent Hospital told me -- 'I still miss my mom, every day.' Who knew...
I don't know if they necessarily should have been removed, and I am also not a doctor, but I don't see why it would have been so much more difficult. I mean, they already would have opened her to get the uterus out. Just cauterize a few more blood vessels and take the ovaries out as well. It shouldn't raise the price that much.
Hormone replacement. This should be alongside of the Piltdown Man and Java Man and the rest of the evolutionary pantheon hoaxes as examples of trying to make supposed science fit an agenda.
Same thing will eventually be said about vaccinations, routine use of anitbiotics, mercury dental fillings, complications of abortion, and so many other medical issues that have most people DUPED.
Research and be smart.
FYI ping
It's a great temptation to only look at stuff that proves your point.
That being said, you'll have to take my Premarin out of my cold, dead hands.
Black cohosh and other natural things worked for me.
>>>Could she/you not have paid for it at the time of the hysterectomy EVEN if the insurance company was not covering that part of the surgery? >>>
I hysterically begged her to, but she listened the 'wise' doctors/insurance people. Bah!
>>>I'm sorry. Your poor mom. It's hard to lose your mom. When my mom was dying of cancer, one of the VERY old ladies in the Convalescent Hospital told me -- 'I still miss my mom, every day.' Who knew...>>>
It's been three years and it's still a kick in the gut sometimes at how much I miss her. I am 32 and an only child, my mother and I were very very close (like talk two or three times a day friendship close) so I lost my mom AND my best friend in one whack.
I'm not afraid of menopause...
sounds rather liberating.
It's more the thought of mental-pause
that gets me fibrillating!
Verrry intersting.
I wouldn't think it would raise the price that much more either. Might have to pay $500/ovary though but the peace of mind would certainly seem worth it.
Trouble with medical care in this country is that going in you have no idea what anything will cost. You can be charged any amount unless you are a large insurer or the government and have specific rate charts for every procedure and potential charge.
The individual does not have a chance in a system like this.
Also, a year or more after the initial surgery, the bills will still be coming in from specialists and medical groups and labs you have never heard of.
I lost my mother to breast cancer when she was 56 and I was 24.
It is hard.
Ohhh sister, I'm right beside you. My doctor even had me sign a waiver in order to get refills!
Stop hormone therapy in June/July/August in Texas? HA!
My doctor was totally opposite ... he was like, you're not buying into all that scare stuff about hormones, are you?
And, I'm like (valley girl talk for the older woman) no, I actually read the studies and the dangers cited were statistically insignificant.
And he says, you've done really well on them and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
And then this woman doc I went to for something else, warned me against stopping them as well, citing other bad things that happen to you, not delicate enough to mention here.
For some reason the MSM has jumped onto the scare bandwagon on this, along with a bunch of other stuff.
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