Steve Lopez' L.A. Times piece is ostensibly part of his ongoing investigation into the difficulty - or lack thereof - of obtaining medical marijuana in California. And Patel is a known source for herbal medicine, which she feels is often as effective and far gentler than chemical treatments.

Patel said she grew up in Chino Hills and went to medical school in the Caribbean, having wanted to be a doctor from the time she was 5.She ran a family practice and clinic in Hollywood, but grew weary of prescribing pharmaceuticals with potentially serious side effects to patients suffering from diabetes, AIDS, migraines and other maladies. Some of those patients asked if she would recommend marijuana instead...Patel said that if you haven't been previously diagnosed with a condition that has existed for at least six months, and you haven't tried conventional medicine, don't bother making an appointment with her. But she's convinced that marijuana, used properly, is improving the quality of life for many patients who got no such relief from prescription drugs.

Patel, although highly successful, doesn't seem to be taken very seriously by the press: as a scathing piece from 2007 pointed out, she uses the web address doc420.com. She uses old modeling shots in her ads. And on his visit, Lopez describes her as "wearing high heels, a tight-fitting white lab coat and lots of gold jewelry." Not, he implies, exactly helping the cause of medical marijuana as legitimate alternative. Patel says the 2007 piece was an unfair hatchet-job. Nevertheless, the photos are a...strong choice, as one of my friends in retail has been known to put it. Her website is full of glamour shots - and, it must be said, sexy music.

Patel should not be help up as the exemplar of either the medical marijuana cause nor women in medicine - although inevitably, she will be to a degree. And I'm guessing she's gotten a lot more press than other doctors prescribing the same course of treatment on equally defensible principles. Now, she's at liberty to advertise and present however she likes - but are, ahem, choices these strong doing a disservice to the cause? And in the land of Dr. 90210, is that her responsibility?

High Fashion In The Medicinal High Business [LA Times]

Dr. Sona Patel Official Myspace
I-Team investigation: Who is Doc 420? [ABCLocal]

Physician, social scientist, and Harvard professor Dr. Nicholas Christakis believes the fear of allergies has gotten out of hand, according to a new piece in Time. Christakis wrote a commentary on the problem in the British Medical Journal after a bus in his child's school district was completely evacuated after a single peanut was found on the bus floor.

Christakis argues that our fear of nut allergies is disproportionate to the actual problem. Roughly 3.3. million Americans have nut allergies and only 150 die of allergy-related causes every year, numbers on par with the 100 Americans who are killed by lightening every year. For comparison, 45,000 die in car crashes and 1,300 are killed in gun accidents.

Between 1997 and 2007 the number of children with food allergies increased 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control, but many doctors are questioning whether the numbers are rising because more patients are getting tested for allergies that otherwise would go undetected, or if our overly hygienic lifestyle is actually increasing the amount of allergies because the body can't build up its immunity. "There are kids with severe allergies and they need to be taken seriously," Christakis says, "but the problem with a disproportionate response is that it feeds the epidemic."

Christakis cited an article that compared Jewish children living in the U.K. and Israel and found that among Israeli children who were exposed to peanuts since infancy, only 0.17% developed a nut allergy, but in the U.K. where children rarely encountered peanuts, 2% developed an allergy. But, another study out this morning recommends that pregnant women avoid exposing themselves to nuts, peanuts, and shellfish during pregnancy to reduce the risk of their child developing a food allergy. But how much does the daily obsessing over what pregnant women eat or whether children are exposed to the occasional peanut actually help? "The reality is that the vast majority of kids — 95% plus — have no potential to get peanut allergies no matter what you do," says Dr. Robert Wood, chief of the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology department at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, "and there's one-half to 1% who are going to get it no matter what you do."

Have Americans Gone Nuts Over Nut Allergies? [Time]
Prenatal Nutrition, Postnatal Allergy Protection [Washington Post]

• Just to prove to American voters that they are really unfeeling, the Republican National Committee released word today that the California Republican Party is filing an FEC complaint against Barack Obama for his visit to his dying grandmother, who passed away today. Is anyone home over there? [Washington Post]
• If you weren't already aware, Barack Obama doesn't want to see your underwear. Panty-flinging should remain metaphorical. [Politico]
• Sarah Palin is definitely not releasing her medical records. I want to be angry about this, but I wouldn't want reporters pawing around my gynecological exams either. [CNN]
• Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, having lived the last 8 years with his head firmly up his ass, thinks that the U.S. will "lose a lot of stature throughout the world" if we elect Obama. [Politico]

• Speaking of embarrassing America, the KKK is recruiting again in Ohio because of Obama. [The New Republic]
• In other embarrassing news, robocalls have gone out to voters in Toledo to try to convince them they can avoid long polling place lines by voting by phone. I'm sure they're totally not Republican-funded. [Rolling Stone]
• Calls telling Democrats to vote on Wednesday have been made to voters in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, too. [Huffington Post]
• And Republican Senator Roger Wicker is so worried that he'll be voted out of office he's handing out sample ballots telling Mississippi voters he's a Democrat. [Huffington Post]
• Republican groups have started hitting Obama on his support for reproductive rights again through commercials, which will totally change the race for McCain. [Time]
• As will neocon Fred Kagan's idiotic weekend editorial that voters need to stop paying attention to the American economy, Wall Street and Main Street and start voting on what's happening on Baghdad's Haifa Street. Spencer Ackerman's got video of what Kagan knows about pretty much any street, which is to say "nothing." [Attackerman]

The film also highlights a program that gets it right, the New York City Gynecological Teach Associates, in which specially trained women talk medical students through a pelvic exam on their own bodies. The independent film still needs to raise money for the editing and distribution process; you can learn more here.


At Your Cervix [Official Site]