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Martha Rosenberg

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Martha Rosenberg

An investigative reporter.

54 articles on KevinMD · 4 podcast episodes

marthace6.substack.com

About

Martha Rosenberg is an investigative reporter whose work has appeared in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Consumer Reports, Public Citizen, the Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, and other outlets. She studied at Rush Medical School and writes on health care, food, medicine, and public policy.

Rosenberg's reporting has been cited by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Public Library of Science Biology, ScienceDirect, the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy, the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Britannica, National Geographic, Hastings Law Journal, and Wikipedia. She is the author of several books, including Multidisciplinary Management of Chronic Pain: A Practical Guide for Clinicians, Born With a Junk Food Deficiency, Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Lies, and Food, Clothes, Men, Gas and Other Problems. She publishes on Substack, OpEdNews, and her Amazon author page.

Books

Latest articles

Health policy

Why the news ignores injuries to slaughterhouse workers

The public did not hear about the worker walkouts at slaughterhouses in Greeley, Colorado, and Monmouth, Illinois, earlier this year for the same reason it does not hear about worker injuries in general in the plants. Heavy machinery combined with…

The public did not hear about the worker walkouts at slaughterhouses in Greeley, Colorado, and Monmouth, Illinois, earlier this year for the same reason it does not hear about worker injuries in general in the plants.

Heavy machinery combined with wet floors, sharp knives, and frenzied line speeds makes meat and poultry plants some of the most dangerous workplaces in the U.S. Across industries, an average of 27 …

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Why the news ignores injuries to slaughterhouse workers

Drugs and prescribing

Are 12-step programs maligned because they sell nothing?

Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Cocaine Anonymous are free, self-supporting, and do not advertise. That's why many do not know about them and their success rate. Instituted in the 1930s, such programs promote no drugs and…

Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Cocaine Anonymous are free, self-supporting, and do not advertise. That’s why many do not know about them and their success rate. Instituted in the 1930s, such programs promote no drugs and use no psychiatric or psychology experts, relying instead on peer-to-peer healing and often meeting in church basements.

In the last decade, drugmakers and insurance companies, distressed by all that non-prescription health …

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Are 12-step programs maligned because they sell nothing?

Drugs and prescribing

The conflict of interest that discloses as nothing

With 66 percent of U.S. adults, some 131 million people, now taking prescription drugs, and with Medicare drug spending running into the hundreds of billions, it is worth asking how the pharmaceutical industry came to occupy so central a place…

With 66 percent of U.S. adults, some 131 million people, now taking prescription drugs, and with Medicare drug spending running into the hundreds of billions, it is worth asking how the pharmaceutical industry came to occupy so central a place in American health care. Several recent developments show how the relationship works.

The FDA announced this month that it is hiring more than 2,000 employees, rebuilding after reductions …

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The conflict of interest that discloses as nothing

Conditions and diseases

Breast implant removal leaves patients paying 3 times

Former cosmetic surgeon Robert Yoho, MD, after retiring from medical practice in 2019, became an author and health care whistleblower and recently addressed the "explant" trend in which breast implants are surgically removed. According to the American Society of Plastic…

Former cosmetic surgeon Robert Yoho, MD, after retiring from medical practice in 2019, became an author and health care whistleblower and recently addressed the “explant” trend in which breast implants are surgically removed. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 306,196 women bought breast augmentation in 2024. In 2021, the FDA added a boxed warning to implants cautioning that they are linked to breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma …

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Breast implant removal leaves patients paying 3 times

Drugs and prescribing

The Seroquel controversy most doctors have forgotten

Few drugs boast the rap sheet of Seroquel (quetiapine). After the pharmaceutical industry marketed atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel as amazingly superior to older antipsychotics like Thorazine and Haldol (pay no attention to their same tardive dyskinesia side effects), Seroquel became…

Few drugs boast the rap sheet of Seroquel (quetiapine). After the pharmaceutical industry marketed atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel as amazingly superior to older antipsychotics like Thorazine and Haldol (pay no attention to their same tardive dyskinesia side effects), Seroquel became its manufacturer’s second-best-selling drug globally, behind only Nexium and netting $5.3 billion in 2011. Many have forgotten Seroquel’s contested past, including how an early proponent went to prison in …

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The Seroquel controversy most doctors have forgotten

Drugs and prescribing

Prescription drug suicide risk is still being hidden

What if you were an MD/researcher at a top 10 medical school who came face-to-face with a lethal side effect to a popular drug? But, when you tried to reveal it, you were engulfed by a legal and professional character…

What if you were an MD/researcher at a top 10 medical school who came face-to-face with a lethal side effect to a popular drug? But, when you tried to reveal it, you were engulfed by a legal and professional character assassination campaign that included threats against your academic position and journal publishing history, physical surveillance by private investigators, and even a home break-in?

That is the basic plot of the newly …

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Prescription drug suicide risk is still being hidden

Drugs and prescribing

Why the fear of drugs in pregnancy can do its own harm

Marc Stone, MD served as deputy director for safety in the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Division of Psychiatry until 2024. Martha Rosenberg: Recent news items about Tylenol and SSRIs in pregnancy can bring up memories of thalidomide…

Marc Stone, MD served as deputy director for safety in the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Division of Psychiatry until 2024.

Martha Rosenberg: Recent news items about Tylenol and SSRIs in pregnancy can bring up memories of thalidomide and DES scares. Can you offer perspective?

Marc Stone: The thalidomide crisis was horrifying and so graphic, but the drug was never approved in the U.S., and there were only a few …

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Why the fear of drugs in pregnancy can do its own harm

Drugs and prescribing

A former FDA official on antidepressants and suicide risk

Marc Stone, MD served as deputy director for safety in the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research's Division of Psychiatry until 2024. Martha Rosenberg: Recently, in the Cato Institute journal Regulation you and co-authors Andrew Mosholder, MD and Tarek…

Marc Stone, MD served as deputy director for safety in the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Division of Psychiatry until 2024.

Martha Rosenberg: Recently, in the Cato Institute journal Regulation you and co-authors Andrew Mosholder, MD and Tarek Hammad, MD wrote that the FDA’s antidepressant warning did not kill American children through discouraging prescriptions as alleged in an earlier story. What did yours and Dr. Hammad’s earlier research on …

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A former FDA official on antidepressants and suicide risk

Drugs and prescribing

3 pharma conflicts of interest hiding in plain sight

1. Medical journals are going the way of newspapers, as in "extinct" Who remembers newspapers? Pre-smartphone compendiums of world and local events on paper that required reporters to investigate and inform? When newspapers lost their classified ads, their financial fulcrum,…

1. Medical journals are going the way of newspapers, as in “extinct”

Who remembers newspapers? Pre-smartphone compendiums of world and local events on paper that required reporters to investigate and inform?

When newspapers lost their classified ads, their financial fulcrum, to Craigslist, they lost their readers and reporters. No one could pay staff or printing or distribution without readers and advertisers, and the business model is otiose, especially because of the printing …

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3 pharma conflicts of interest hiding in plain sight

Conditions and diseases

The corporate money behind psychedelic drug legalization

In April, President Trump, with psychedelic advocates HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. and podcaster Joe Rogan at his side, signed the "Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness" executive order, which dramatically decreases some drug approval times. FDA Commissioner Makary…

In April, President Trump, with psychedelic advocates HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. and podcaster Joe Rogan at his side, signed the “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness” executive order, which dramatically decreases some drug approval times. FDA Commissioner Makary promptly issued priority review vouchers to companies that make psilocybin and the Ecstasy chemical cousin methylone.

Many public health professionals are surprised at how fast the move to legalize Schedule 1 …

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The corporate money behind psychedelic drug legalization

Conditions and diseases

Why the press stays silent on zoonotic viruses

Whether the spread of bird flu to dairy cows, pigs, cats, dogs and seals or the spread of COVID-19 to deer, minks and zoo animals, the press is often mum about zoonotic viruses when they jump species. Who, for example,…

Whether the spread of bird flu to dairy cows, pigs, cats, dogs and seals or the spread of COVID-19 to deer, minks and zoo animals, the press is often mum about zoonotic viruses when they jump species.

Who, for example, knows that Ebola can spread to dogs, pigs and antelopes? Is non-reporting of virus activity to forestall panic or protect commercial markets?

The spread of animal viruses is caused by domestication, warfare, …

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Why the press stays silent on zoonotic viruses

Health policy

RFK’s food pyramid is a win for industry, not health

When Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK) was confirmed as HHS director last February, overseeing the CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA, many worried that modern medicines would become unavailable or scarce. Instead, industry has received unexpected windfalls and green lights from the…

When Robert Kennedy Jr. (RFK) was confirmed as HHS director last February, overseeing the CDC, NIH, CMS, and FDA, many worried that modern medicines would become unavailable or scarce.

Instead, industry has received unexpected windfalls and green lights from the new policies. Exhibit A: the exoneration of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) from its well-documented links to cancer and cardiovascular effects. The “timing theories” at Wake Forest that helped turn HRT on …

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RFK’s food pyramid is a win for industry, not health

Drugs and prescribing

3 new pharma marketing tactics every physician should know

Weeks after a FiercePharma webinar told drug reps to make the lab worker their first sales point and not the patient's doctor (to avoid a delay in "therapy adoption"), the three-day Fierce Pharma Engage conference in San Diego unveiled more…

Weeks after a FiercePharma webinar told drug reps to make the lab worker their first sales point and not the patient’s doctor (to avoid a delay in “therapy adoption”), the three-day Fierce Pharma Engage conference in San Diego unveiled more aggressive, stealth sales tactics.

At the well-funded meet-and-greet with 700 well-turned-out attendees, 150 speakers, and 56 corporate sponsors, we learned that:

1. AI will take over interactions with doctors (HCPs)

Whether …

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3 new pharma marketing tactics every physician should know

Conditions and diseases

5 health-destroying myths perpetuated by marketing

Scent beads and laundry additives are innocuous If you are online or on broadcast you cannot miss it: personal care corporations telling you that you stink. Even if you are using deodorant on "those places," your body smells all over,…

Scent beads and laundry additives are innocuous

If you are online or on broadcast you cannot miss it: personal care corporations telling you that you stink. Even if you are using deodorant on “those places,” your body smells all over, say a disturbing number of ads, and the odor “transfers” all over your house. Just saying.

The manic ads for dryer sheets, detergents, fabric softeners, and scent “love stories” do not mention …

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5 health-destroying myths perpetuated by marketing

Health technology

Iterative mindset versus AI and GLP-1s: Why shortcuts weaken the brain

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest economic craze since cryptocurrencies, and GLP-1 agonists are the biggest health craze since statins. But are they as good for users as producers and Wall Street? Will they implode like their predecessors? We spoke…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest economic craze since cryptocurrencies, and GLP-1 agonists are the biggest health craze since statins. But are they as good for users as producers and Wall Street? Will they implode like their predecessors?

We spoke with behavior change expert Kyra Bobinet, MD, author of Unstoppable Brain: The New Neuroscience That Frees Us From Failure, Eases Our Stress, and Creates Lasting Change. She maintains that both …

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Iterative mindset versus AI and GLP-1s: Why shortcuts weaken the brain

Health policy

Understanding alternative drug funding programs

As elected officials and citizens brace for the possible expiration of federal subsidies for health insurance premiums, many wonder if there are alternatives to the confusing rebate/copay/deductible/premium drug coverage word salad (see: PSAOs, GPOs, NADACs, ASOs, MLRs, AWPs, WACs, U&Cs,…

As elected officials and citizens brace for the possible expiration of federal subsidies for health insurance premiums, many wonder if there are alternatives to the confusing rebate/copay/deductible/premium drug coverage word salad (see: PSAOs, GPOs, NADACs, ASOs, MLRs, AWPs, WACs, U&Cs, MACs, BERs, GERs, DFERs, GDRs, NDCs, DIRs, and ERISAs).

Just because patients don’t understand the opaque layers/players behind the drug procurement affordability crisis, doesn’t mean that lawmakers do, say experts (which …

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Understanding alternative drug funding programs

Drugs and prescribing

Are you neurodivergent or just bored?

Do you get bored when reading a boring book? Do you struggle to concentrate when you haven't had enough sleep? Do you have difficulty following instructions, make careless mistakes and forget to return calls? Are you sometimes the last one…

Do you get bored when reading a boring book? Do you struggle to concentrate when you haven’t had enough sleep? Do you have difficulty following instructions, make careless mistakes and forget to return calls? Are you sometimes the last one to “get” a joke?

You may be “suffering from” with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and are “neurodivergent” and “on the spectrum.”

Today’s ASD “neurodivergence” craze has spawned at least two lucrative and …

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Are you neurodivergent or just bored?

Drugs and prescribing

Drug giants face suit over hidden cancer risks

Bridgett Brown, a resident of California, developed breast cancer from using brand-name and generic versions of the antipsychotics Risperdal (risperidone) and Zyprexa (olanzapine) says a new lawsuit from the Wisner Baum law firm. Neither Brown or her two prescribing physicians…

Bridgett Brown, a resident of California, developed breast cancer from using brand-name and generic versions of the antipsychotics Risperdal (risperidone) and Zyprexa (olanzapine) says a new lawsuit from the Wisner Baum law firm.

Neither Brown or her two prescribing physicians knew or “had reason to know” that the drugs could cause breast cancer since the drug manufacturers “obfuscated and disclaimed such risks while promoting these dangerous, expensive drugs over safer, …

Read more…

Drug giants face suit over hidden cancer risks

Drugs and prescribing

How drug companies profit by inventing diseases

Funding from direct-to-consumer (DTC) "ask your doctor" drug ads has captured news media outlets and all but blocked important health stories like these. Read on. 1. "Hormone replacement therapy" (HRT) is back. It is said that those who forget the…

Funding from direct-to-consumer (DTC) “ask your doctor” drug ads has captured news media outlets and all but blocked important health stories like these. Read on.

1. “Hormone replacement therapy” (HRT) is back.

It is said that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and nowhere is this more evident than the re-marketing of HRT to menopausal women who do not remember the first debacle (which increased the risk …

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How drug companies profit by inventing diseases

Drugs and prescribing

How drugmakers manipulate your health from diagnosis to prescription

It is said that 57 percent of U.S. doctors receive drugmaker/industry funding and 66 percent of U.S. adults are now on prescription drugs. Any correlation? Drug ads now cast such a wide "symptom net," comedian Chris Rock said he expected…

It is said that 57 percent of U.S. doctors receive drugmaker/industry funding and 66 percent of U.S. adults are now on prescription drugs. Any correlation?

Drug ads now cast such a wide “symptom net,” comedian Chris Rock said he expected to hear, “Do you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning? You might be suffering from ….”

Here are six ways drugmakers hijack U.S. medicine

Diagnosing. Once upon a time …

Read more…

How drugmakers manipulate your health from diagnosis to prescription

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