Written by yvonnethornton on April 25th, 2011
If you’ve been watching Dancing With The Stars, you know that one of the stars, Kirstie Alley, is getting more out of her appearances than just some fun in the spotlight. According to ABC News, Ms. Alley says she hasn’t weighed herself in several weeks, but she knows she’s lost weight on the show because she’s dropped several dress sizes. The before and after photographs say it all.
This is a far cry from where she was when she started filming “Fat Actress” and her goal is to trim down even further.
Boy, can I relate, as I’m sure so many women can. Like Kirstie Alley (and maybe some of you), I’ve struggled with weight all my life. And like Kirstie Alley, I got down to my slimmest, healthiest weight when I got serious about ballroom dancing (although nobody has yet invited me to appear on Dancing With The Stars).
You can see more pictures of me at dance exhibitions and competitions, here.
Dr. Yvonne Thornton at the New York Hilton Dance Showcase
So many of us women don’t exercise enough and my guess is that’s because exercise, for the most part, isn’t a lot of fun. But dancing? Those of us who dance would do it if it didn’t offer any other benefits. Trimming down and staying fit are wonderful side-effects of a night of pure enjoyment – and there are other health benefits as well.
I’m so happy that dancing is catching on across the U.S. And Kirstie Alley is a great role model for those of us who didn’t start out with super-model bodies or metabolisms.
Give it a try. Even if you’ve never danced before, there’s almost certain to be a studio nearby where you can take your first lesson. You don’t need a partner; most schools will pair you up. You’ll feel great, you’ll look great, and you’ll have a blast.
See you on the dance floor.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in General health news, Women's health issues | No Responses »
Tags: ballroom dancing as exercise, Dancing With the Stars, Kirstie Alley, weight loss
Written by yvonnethornton on April 12th, 2011
I’m delighted to report that my keynote address to The Young Women’s Leadership Network was covered by C-SPAN for BookTV. I had been interviewed a few years ago by Brian Lamb for his program Q&A on C-SPAN [], to talk about my first memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, and it was a great experience.
Now, on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday April 17, the program, broadcast from The New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, will capture me addressing 400 high school girls from East Harlem who are interested in math and science for their Career Day. I will be discussing my recent memoir, Something to Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy.
C-SPAN book discussions are always in-depth, unlike so many other television “sound-bite” interviews, which is why I’m so happy to know that BookTV selected my presentation of the new book for their broadcast. Hope you’ll take a break from the last minute tax return rush to join me.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Media appearances, Publishing news, Something To Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy, The Ditchdigger's Daughters | No Responses »
Tags: BookTV, C-Span, Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton, The Young Women’s Leadership Network
Written by yvonnethornton on April 5th, 2011
There is a synthetic form of progestin called hydroxyprogesterone caproate, or 17P, that is used to prevent mothers-to-be from delivering prematurely. Treating a mother at risk of having a preemie with hydroxyprogesterone caproate was found, in tax-payer funded studies by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, to reduce the incidence of pre-term births, which naturally means that babies suffer fewer of the complications that plague preeemies. The studies also found that giving this drug to mothers-to-be at risk of premature delivery could save the health care system at least $2billion per year.
Until recently, the drug had been available only through “compounding pharmacies” (pharmacies that formulate drugs that aren’t commercially available), at a cost of about $10 to $20 per dose. But the FDA recently licensed one manufacturer, KV Pharmaceuticals, to manufacture the drug commercially, and exclusively, for the next seven years.
What usually happens at the point where a manufacturer is given exclusive rights to market a drug is that compounding pharmacies are told that they may no longer produce the drug.
And that would have happened this time – if KV Pharmaceuticals hadn’t done something that has caused a huge uproar in the maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics community. It raised the price of the drug from the $10 to $20 per dose that compounding pharmacies had been charging to (are you sitting down?) $1,500 per dose.
No, that’s not a typo.
They raised the price by an average of 100 times what it had been.
Remember, it was tax-payer dollars that funded much of the research, so the raise in price could not be attributed simply to recouping research costs. And driving the price that high would put it out of reach of most women (and babies) who needed it. A full course of the drug, given between the 16th and 36th weeks of pregnancy, had previously cost about $400. The price increase would push that cost to $30,000!
This story, at least, has a happy ending. Although, according to this article in the Seattle Times, KV Pharmaceuticals agreed to drop the price to $690 per dose (still outrageously high, in the opinion of most in the obstetrics community), the FDA decided to allow compounding pharmacies to continue to formulate the drug when presented with a prescription.
But just imagine all the mothers and babies who would have suffered had the FDA allowed KV to put profits ahead of all else, and ordered compounding pharmacies to cease formulating the prescription.
As a maternal-fetal specialist and a mother, it sends shivers up my spine.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Childbirth & delivery, Health care policy, Pregnancy, Women's health issues, Women's health news, Your newborn baby | No Responses »
Tags: 17P, drug maker price gouging, hydroxyprogesterone caproate, Makeena, pre-term, preemies, premature babies, SMFM, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Written by yvonnethornton on March 30th, 2011
One of the biggest changes in health care that comes as a result of last year’s vote to institute health care reform, hasn’t begun to take shape yet. This is the inception of the “Health Care Exchange” marketplaces – due to take effect by January 2014. And once the health care exchanges get rolling, we’ll finally see the full impact of health care reform.
But what is a Health Care Exchange, exactly, and how will it affect you? Think of it as a health insurance “store,” where individuals and small businesses get to choose the best policies for their needs. Only those insurers that meet certain requirements will be allowed to sell their policies in this “store.” For example, each insurer will have to offer plans with certain “essential benefits” and will not be able to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, nor will they be able to exclude coverage for benefits that such people need. Most states will run their own Health Care Exchanges but some might opt to partner with neighboring states, while others might let the federal government run their exchanges.
A big question everyone wants answered: will insurance sold on the Health Care Exchanges be affordable? Here is where health care reform shows its muscle. Insurers, under the health care law, must pay out from 80 to 85 percent of premiums for health care costs. And, according to this article in the Washington Post:
People who make less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $14,484 this year, will qualify for Medicaid in all states, under the law. Above that, sliding-scale subsidies for private insurance on the exchanges will be available for residents who make up to 400 percent of the poverty level, about $43,560 this year. Most people will be required to have coverage of some sort beginning in 2014.
But probably the best cost controls come from the transparency of the Health Care Exchange system, because consumers and small businesses will be able compare one policy to another in terms of cost, coverage, deductibles, and exclusions, before they buy. And maybe – just maybe – that will bring health insurance costs in the U.S. more in line with other developed countries where people typically get much better coverage at much lower cost.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in General health news, Health care policy, Women's health issues | No Responses »
Tags: health care exchanges, health care reform, health insurance
Written by yvonnethornton on March 11th, 2011
Because of my lofty ambitions for my children, which I wrote about at length in Something to Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy, I’ve been compared often lately to Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. She and I were both guests on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning show last week.
You can hear the program here.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Media appearances, Something To Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy | No Responses »
Tags: Amy Chua, Dr. Yvonne Thornton, Lioness Mom, NPR book interview, Something To Prove, tiger mom, Tiger Mother
Written by yvonnethornton on March 7th, 2011
A study by the CDC, appearing in the journal Pediatrics shows, once again, that smoking cigarettes during pregnancy (with its nicotine and other toxic substances) is a health risk to your baby. Reuters Health reports:
…women who smoked early in pregnancy were 30 percent more likely to give birth to babies with obstructions in the flow of blood from the heart to the lungs, and nearly 40 percent more likely to have babies with openings in the upper chambers of their hearts.
We’ve known for many years of the dangers of smoking during pregnancy, and this study just adds to that knowledge. Mothers-to-be take note: what goes into your body affects your baby—possibly for a lifetime.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Pregnancy, Women's health issues, Women's health news, Your newborn baby | No Responses »
Tags: CDC study on smoking and pregnancy, Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton, health risks to babies, newborn, smoking and birth defects, smoking and pregnancy
Written by yvonnethornton on March 5th, 2011
In a report published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) [] warned against using prescription opiate-based painkillers such as codeine, hydrocodone or oxycodone (brand names include Vicodin and Oxycontin) during pregnancy.
According to an article about the CDC report:
In the study of data from 10 states, the CDC researchers found that 2 percent to 3 percent of mothers interviewed received prescription opioid pain killers, or analgesics, just before they got pregnant or early in their pregnancy. Any illicit use of painkillers was not assessed.
For those women, the risk of having a baby with hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a critical heart defect — was about double that of women who took no opioid drugs.
Risks of other birth defects, including spina bifida (a type of neural tube defect), hydrocephaly (build up of fluid in the brain), congenital glaucoma (eye defect), and gastroschisis (a defect of the abdominal wall), also somewhat increased among babies whose mothers took these drugs either shortly before or during pregnancy.
I have concerns about the generalization of both articles, but the conclusions may be valid. Taking a drug before you’re pregnant, or up to 17 days after conception, is unlikely to cause birth defects. It will either cause a miscarriage or will have no effect. But because most women don’t know precisely when they conceived, it’s best to avoid taking drugs at any time during pregnancy.
The greatest risk to a developing baby from a pregnant mother taking potentially toxic drugs occurs between 17 days post-conception to 12 weeks (end of the first trimester).
You’ve probably heard of Thalidomide, a sedative given in the 1950s to pregnant women in their first trimester. It dramatically illustrated the risks to a fetus’s development from drug effects during the critical first weeks. Thalidomide given early in pregnancy stunted the development of babies’ arms, legs, hands and feet, and caused other limb deformities.
If you’re pregnant, or planning to be, you should also be aware that most drugs, whether prescription or over-the-counter can have unknown effects on a growing fetus. The bottom line is: Every drug is, in some sense, a poison. Don’t consider any drug safe in pregnancy unless prescribed by someone who knows its toxicity as well as the risks and benefits of the drug.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Health care policy, Pregnancy, Women's health issues, Women's health news, Your newborn baby | No Responses »
Tags: babies, birth defects, CDC, drugs during pregnancy, opioids, Pregnancy
Written by yvonnethornton on February 21st, 2011
As you might already know, I’m a staunch advocate for access to health care, and cheered when health care reform became the law last year. We need the opportunity to stay well and keep our families well, and we need to be able to afford medical care when things go wrong. As a mother and a physician, I’ve seen firsthand how imperative this is.
There are those who say we should repeal the recent landmark health care reforms that Congress passed last year. But that would mean that some people would be shut out of health care completely. Some seem to believe it’s just those who are too poor to afford health insurance, or who can afford it but choose not to buy it, who go without. Those are faulty assumptions, as this op ed by the co-founder of Palm Computer, who was denied insurance before the new law passed, shows:
It never occurred to me that we would be denied! Yes, we had listed a bunch of minor ailments, but nothing serious. No cancer, no chronic diseases like asthma or diabetes, no hospital stays.
Why were we denied? What were these pre-existing conditions that put us into high-risk categories? For me, it was a corn on my toe for which my podiatrist had recommended an in-office procedure. My daughter was denied because she takes regular medication for a common teenage issue. My husband was denied because his ophthalmologist had identified a slow-growing cataract. Basically, if there is any possible procedure in your future, insurers will deny you.
If a woman with $millions couldn’t get approved because of a corn on her toe, what would happen to the average woman, or a child, with a more serious issue if health care reform were repealed?
We need to keep ourselves informed about what’s really at stake. And, trust me, there’s a great deal at stake. If health care reform is repealed, we go back to the days when life-saving care is denied to people who can’t pay the costs—oftentimes, hundreds of thousands of dollars—out-of-pocket. We go back to seeing our kids kicked off our policies when they’re just out of high school and don’t yet have jobs that offer health insurance. We go back to denials for pre-existing conditions as tiny—and ludicrous—as a corn on the toe. Or acne. Or depression. Nevermind more serious illnesses.
We can’t go back. Look at how far we’ve come. Please, be as informed as possible about your new rights under health care reform. You can find most of the information you need at this website set up by the government to guide you through your options and your rights.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in General health news, Health care policy, Women's health issues, Women's health news | No Responses »
Tags: don't repeal healthcare bill, health care reform, health insurance, healthcare legislation, healthcare reform, Palm Computing co-founder Dubinsky rejected by health insurers due to corn on her toe, Yvonne S. Thornton
Written by yvonnethornton on February 8th, 2011
Linda Villarosa, a reporter for The Root (part of the Washington Post family), an online magazine that focuses on black perspectives, recently interviewed me about Something To Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy. I’ve been interviewed by more media than I can name, at this point, and each reporter has wanted to discuss slightly different aspects of my new memoir. Ms. Villarosa was most interested in contrasting Something To Prove with another memoir that recently came out, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a widely publicized book about an Asian mom who pushes her kids to excel.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
In her book, Chua, a Yale Law professor, discusses her struggle to raise brilliant, accomplished children — straight-A students and musical prodigies — using the lessons of her super-strict Chinese immigrant parents.
But another mom, also the author of a memoir that landed in bookstores about the same time as Chua’s, has already done it. She, too, was raised by super-strict, old-world parents, and she brought up her kids the same way. This mom, however, is black, and she prefers to be called a lioness.
“Parents don’t have high-enough expectations; they give up on their kids,” says Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton, 63, author of the new book Something to Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy. “No, I’m not a Tiger Mom; I’m a lioness. I growl when I need to growl, and set the bar high.”
The article went on to point to some of the issues I raised in Something to Prove about juggling motherhood and a career.
A few days earlier, I was again on NPR, this time chatting with Michel Martin on TELL ME MORE. We focused mostly on my father’s wisdom, which inspired me in so many ways, from my career decisions to the way I raised my own family. (And there’s not a day that goes by that Donald Thornton, AKA Daddy, doesn’t still guide my decisions). You can hear the interview and read the transcript, here.
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Posted in Media appearances, Something To Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy | No Responses »
Tags: African-American parents, Amy Chua, black parenting, NPR, parenting black children, Something To Prove, The Root, tiger mom, Tiger Mother, Yvonne Thornton
Written by yvonnethornton on February 4th, 2011
Anyone who has read my new memoir, Something to Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy, knows that I encountered at least as much gender bias as racial bias in my career. Now, a new study by economics professor Anthony T. Lo Sasso, PhD, and coauthors, of the University Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago, shows that women doctors are routinely paid much less than their male counterparts. Worse, the gap between the pay offered male and female doctors has been widening, according to this article about the study from MedPage:
Among new physicians entering the work force, women earned almost $17,000 a year less than their male counterparts — almost regardless of which specialty they picked — according to an analysis of starting salaries over a 10-year period.
In fact, the analysis of starting salaries for more than 8,000 physicians found that the pay gap between men and women increased almost fivefold — from $3,600 in 1999 to $16,819 in 2008.
It’s great to have the pay gap out in the open, but I must take exception to the way the authors of the study seem to place the blame for lower pay on the shoulders of the women doctors. The authors speculate that the pay gap might be explained because women take jobs that give them more balance between lifestyle and career, or because women are poor negotiators.
I am married to a fellow physician, and I’m sure he’d agree that I’m a terrific negotiator, and I’ve always worked as hard, if not harder, than him or any male physician we know. This is true of all the working women I know: physicians, administrators, nurses, executives, salespeople – all women. Blaming women for bias against them is just another aspect of the bias.
The perpetuation of the myth that it’s a woman’s own fault if she’s paid less, or passed over for promotion in favor of a less qualified man, must end. We women have to cry foul every time we hear it.
It’s still true that women must work twice as hard as men to be thought half as good. Even now, in the 21st century.
Isn’t it time that changed?
– Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH.
Posted in Something To Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill a Father’s Legacy, Something to Prove: Memoirs of a Ditchdigger's Daughter, Women's health issues | No Responses »
Tags: gender bias, Something To Prove, Women MDs earn less than men
