This interesting story underscores, without question, why I'm not beholden to any advertisers or outside interests for anything regarding this Web site or my career as a whole health physician.

Pauley, like me, has refused to work as a paid spokesperson for any company, instead lending her good name and influence to charitable organizations.

Nevertheless, many New York Times readers were probably surprised and definitely deceived by her appearance in an advertising section.

It also illustrates the lengths that drug companies are willing to go to to sell their products. Drug companies spend $4 billion every year to market their drugs to you, and they spend $16 billion to influence physicians.

And that's not all; to ensure laws beneficial to the sale of their products, drug companies and their officials contributed at least $17 million to federal candidates in the 2004 elections, including:

• Nearly $1 million to President Bush.
• More than $500,000 to his opponent, John Kerry.
• At least 18 members of Congress received more than $100,000 apiece.

Drug companies employ almost 1,300 lobbyists, including 40 former members of Congress. They have spent more than $750 million over the past seven years on lobbying alone. According to government records analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity, that's more than any other industry!

With all that money being spent to ensure they have influence on the government, doctors, and patients, it is no wonder why two-thirds of doctor visits result in a drug being prescribed, and spending for prescription drugs is the fastest-growing category of health care expenditures.

This is also one of the major factors contributing to the reason physicians are the third leading cause of death in the United States, as they now have an over-reliance on using drugs as Band-Aids, rather than seeking the cause of the problem.

All of this is why I urge you to take better responsibility for your own health decisions and not rely on a face or a name, no matter how familiar, to tell you what to do.