NYT Has Never Heard Of Dr. Jennifer Daniels

An article on alternative treatments for diabetes recently appeared in the New York Times.

The article poses a question about “a classic conundrum in medicine: if doctors know that patients can help themselves without taking drugs, but they also know that patients are not likely to follow this advice, what should they do?” According to the author, a large, three-year long federal study says doctors should try to get patients to try diet and excercise instead of going for drug therapy.

This study obviously never asked Dr. Jennifer Daniels this question. Dr. Daniels was hounded out of the medical profession for making this same decision. A patient who agreed to follow a strict diet and excercise rather than start insulin shots, went on an alcoholic bender on vacation in the Carribean, and had to be treated for insulin shock upon his return to Syracuse.

Dr. Daniels did nothing wrong, but several authorities were out to get her. The mainstream medical profession still doesn’t trust natural cures (what they refer to as complementary and alternative medicine), preferring to use technology and drugs. The New York State medical board is one of many being sued for overzealous prosecution of racial and ethnic minorities for alleged malpractice

But, more than anything, it was Dr. Daniels’ opposition to the proposed Avenue of The Arts development project that ensured her fate. The successful lobbying campaign that torpedoed the dubiously financed project angered its developers, powerful former State Senator Tarky Lombardi and his longtime henchman Bob Herz. The rumor around this town has always been that the extraordinary persecution endured by Dr. Daniels has been meted out at the behest of Tarky Lombardi.

So the New York Times needs to amend its story. Tell your patient to amend their diet and excercise to avoid insulin treatments for diabetes, but only if you are not an ethnic/racial minority doctor, are not linked to any hint of complementary and alternative medicine and haven’t pissed off powerful political interests in your hometown.

Oh, by the way, Dr. Daniels was my physician and I received outstanding care during the time I was her patient.