Uncle! And yes, you are right.... partially....
Many of you have either commented or emailed me after reading my post the other day about celebrities dispensing medical advice. I told you I was tired of hearing celebrities tell me what drugs to buy or what medical decisions to make...
What I didn't make clear enough is really quite pivotal to the question. And the exploration is what really separates the emPatient (empowered patient) from someone who only thinks they are empowered.
Here are the distinctions I make:
There are a number of scenarios where celebrities get involved in dispensing medical advice. Sometimes they are paid to do so, or they profit from doing so. Sometimes they get involved because they have had a personal experience and want to donate their time and recognition to the cause. Sometimes they mix up the two. Figuring out who has what motivation is the key. Yes, we need to follow the money.
So - for example - Celebrities may promote a prescription or OTC drug, and are paid for their acting or posing in those ads. It doesn't matter whether they really have that medical problem or not. It's their job to act in that commercial or pose for that photo and they would not have made that commercial or ad if they weren't getting paid for it. They are giving medical advice. Not good!
Some celebrities have had an experience, then write a book of advice based on that experience. If they simply share their experience, and you learn something from that about taking care of yourself that helps you partner better with your doctors -- that's a good thing! Simply making money by selling books isn't the problem.
The problem is when they come between you and your doctor. When they parlay their personal experiences into giving you medical advice (use herbs to cure your cancer, or don't vaccinate your children) - and you take action on that medical advice without getting it confirmed from another credible source, preferably a medical professional... No way. That's just plain dangerous.
Some celebrities promote health-related causes. In some cases they do so because they have been touched by that medical problem themselves, or through a loved one, so -- as VOLUNTEERS -- they donate their time to help others learn about it, and hopefully prevent it. Think Katie Couric and colon cancer. Or Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives, The West Wing) who works hard on behalf of lung cancer, and who recently described her efforts at Dr. Lynne Eldridge's lung cancer blog. Their messages encourage you to get screened, or to control your disease (like diabetes). They aren't telling you what treatment choices to make. That's good!
But then there are those who get paid handsomely for showing up at fundraisers or who suffer from problems, then parlay them into profit as paid spokespeople. They lend their names to causes, maybe or maybe they have not had personal experience with that cause. Just because you like that celebrity, does that mean you should be donating to the cause? That's what the charity hopes for. Does it mean you should be buying the same drugs that help them? No, it does not. Think Kathleen Turner or former Olympian Mark Spitz. Of course, neither one has a medical degree. The awareness is a good thing. Asking for their drugs is not. (Here's what to do instead.)
Then there are those who donate time for some things, and get paid for others. Marcia Cross (another Desperate Housewives actor) is well-recognized for her philanthropy. She seems to support a dozen different causes... and then she does TV commercials for migraine medicine. You can see how simple it would be to mix up Marcia-Cross-donating-her-time-to-charities with Marcia-Cross-getting-paid-for-hawking-drugs -- but there is a huge difference in her motivation, and there should be a difference in how we regard her involvement in that "cause."
Hopefully that clarifies... We all need to learn to make distinctions between the valuable information -- and the noise. As with so much of our healthcare, we need to (all together now!) Follow the Money.
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Photos - Marcia Cross and Mark Spitz © Getty Images
