September 7, 1999
Date: Tue, Sep 7th 1999 15:47:15
From: sara@drDrew.com
To: mailinglist@drDrew.com
Subject: drDrew.com Newsletter -- September 7, 1999
THE OFFICIAL DRDREW.COM NEWSLETTER
September 6, 1999
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In this issue:
* Win a Trip to Hollywood to Meet Dr. Drew!
* A personal note from Dr. Drew on your letters and his role models
* Dr. Drew answers questions on dating, masturbation, baldness, and growth
hormones
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WIN A TRIP TO HOLLYWOOD TO MEET DR. DREW!
Now that you registered at drDrew.com, you are eligible to win a trip for
you and a friend to visit Hollywood and meet Dr. Drew. Also, every day, one of our members will win an autographed copy of the "Dr. Drew and Adam
Book." See site (www.drDrew.com) for details. You have a chance to win--make sure your friends do too!
Congratulations to drDrew.com daily book winners from last week: Summer1,
Geoduck, Piscesriot, Spiwi, Scotty_34, Bttrscotch, Rainbowed! See the
newsletter next week for this week's winners.
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Dear Member,
Again, I want to start by thanking you for your feedback. Last week^Òs
letters regarding people you've lost over the years were especially moving
and I appreciated your honesty. People wrote in about losing grandparents,
parents, and friends. A firefighter wrote in about a woman who died in a
crash that she was trying to help. I know how tough it is to lose someone
you love, and hopefully opening up like this offers you some resolution.
Here is an excerpt from one particularly moving letter from a police
officer who lost a fellow officer in the line of duty: ^ÓI felt I had been
there for him^Å[and] I felt my life had been turned upside down^ÅWhat I
needed, more than anything, was someone to give me a hug^Åseveral hugs^Åand
tell me it was okay to cry. I had one friend who figured this out, and I
will forever be more grateful to him than he will ever understand.^Ô
We've touched on some heavy topics in these past few newsletters, so I
thought I^Òd round out our discussion this time with something totally
different and answer another one of your questions to me. People often ask
me about who my role models are, and you might be surprised to know that
they haven't always been doctors.
When I was a junior in high school, there was a time that I lived and
breathed football. I planted myself in front of the television every
weekend watching football. I never missed a game. My favorite team in 1976
was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their defensive line was just amazing. Since
my only sense of power at that time was on the football field, Mean Joe
Green was my idol. Unfortunately, my attempts to play like him were pretty
pathetic.
In college, I had two professors who greatly influenced my life. One of my
political science professors taught me how to think in a principled way. He
was my Abraham Lincoln. Through his lectures and asking us good questions,
he taught me how to stay consistent in my beliefs.
In medical school, another professor impressed me with his level of
commitment to people. He would be in his patients^Ò rooms in the middle of
the night checking on them. He would help people day and night--in a pretty
amazing way. I remember looking at him through my own sleep-deprived
delirium and realizing he was at the hospital at 3am, supervising us and
checking in on patients. It^Òs why I continue to have sleep depravation and
cling to idealized notions of how I can help people.
Finally, I have to admit Barbara Walters is one of my role models. Meeting
her affected me in ways that surprised me and watching her in action was
incredible. I admired her professionalism, her listening skills, and her
ability to quickly synthesize information and respond with intelligent and
probing questions. I try to use these same skills when talking with people
I am interacting with and trying to help.
Now I turn the question over to you. Who are the people in your life who
you most admire? What are the qualities about them that you appreciate
most? How have they affected your lives, or how have you integrated what
you admire about them into your own life? My staff and I look forward to
reading your responses, and will post some of your letters when we launch
in a few weeks.
Stay well,
Dr. Drew
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
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QUESTION 1: I^Òm 15 and have only let myself get close to one guy, but I
think the only reason I let myself do that is because he lives 3 hours
away. I always push people away when they get too close. I don^Òt know why.
I just went out with one guy and found out he had a girlfriend of 6 months.
How can I open up to people and start a relationship that will last?
DR. DREW: At age 15 it is not at all unusual to have difficulty achieving
and/or having comfort with being vulnerable or being intimate. A convenient
way to prevent real intimacy from evolving is to develop relationships with
people who are unavailable. You state you just went out with a guy who had
a girlfriend of six months. This is really just further evidence that you
were choosing someone who was not genuinely available. It is not so much
that you are having difficulty opening up, it's that you are making choices
to be with people who are not available in the first place.
I suspect that something happened to you growing up where either one or
both of your parents, most commonly the father, was unavailable to you in
some way. Perhaps he left or abandoned you in some fashion, making it very
difficult for you to set up a genuine relationship later in life. Also,
people tend to seek relationships in their adult life that are
representations of their infantile experiences and fantasies. They are
trying to master or act out those fantasies in their adult life. In an
attempt to try and make things turn out right, they choose people with the
same qualities of those with whom they were involved in their early
childhood, and those people are in fact unavailable. The behaviors end up
being acted out repeatedly in the same manner as they were originally
experienced.
QUESTION 2: It seems that if I masturbate regularly, I have increased acne.
Does masturbation cause skin breakouts?
DR. DREW: There is absolutely no evidence that acne has anything to do with
masturbation or sexual activity. It is really rather startling how many
myths there are about acne. Some of them having trouble dying out,
including the notion that acne has anything to do with diet. Acne is caused
by bacteria on the face and a dysfunction of the pores. It can be treated
with many different topical agents and soaps as well as some systemic
antibiotics and/or other prescription medication for more severe forms of acne.
QUESTION 3: I have a question about male baldness. I^Òve heard that it^Òs
inherited from your mother^Òs side--like if your mother^Òs father is bald. Is
this true? Is there anything I can do to prevent this, like take any vitamins?
DR. DREW: Male baldness does tend to be an inherited trait. The exact
genetic cause of male pattern baldness is unknown and it also under the
influence of androgen hormones, such as testosterone. There are several
treatments available to help males keep their hair. For example, a solution
exists that is about 60% effective at keeping in and/or growing hair. There
is also a pill that has been backed for long-term use, but it is an
anti-androgen, that is to say it weakly blocks male sex hormones. Although
I am concerned about the potential long-term effects of this pill, there is
no clinical evidence to suggest it has any adverse effects. Vitamins do not
significantly impact hair loss or growth. Therefore, short of medication,
there is no known effective way to prevent or delay male baldness.
QUESTION 4: How is a normal person affected by taking growth hormones?
DR. DREW: Growth hormones are of grave concern to me. Body builders use
these a fair amount as a way to try to increase their muscle growth and
tendon strength. Before being available by genetically engineered methods,
the growth hormone was taken from cadavers. Some of this growth hormone was
even exposed to the mad cow disease virus. I do believe that in the next 10
years we are going to see this disease in people who took growth hormone 15
and 20 years ago.
Aside from the abuse of growth hormone not adding to one's overall health,
my primary concern is that it tends to cause an abnormal bony growth that
can entrap nerves, particularly the cranial nerves in and about the face.
This can cause paralysis of the facial muscles. The hormone can also cause
the entrapment of nerves in the extremities and cause things like carpal
tunnel syndrome. These can be very serious and unpleasant. Additionally,
growth hormone tends to change blood sugar metabolism and may increase the
rate of damage to blood vessels. This could potentially lead to heart
attacks and strokes.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: The content presented in this newsletter is not intended to
take the place of professional medical treatment. For specific medical
concerns, you should seek the advice of a qualified health provider.
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