Dr. Nancy Snyderman

Monday, March 24, 2003

By Patricia Sheridan, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A head and neck surgeon and Johnson & Johnson executive, Dr. Nancy Snyderman is national spokeswoman for "Me Time Day" March 28. It's a national day for women to take time for themselves. A former ABC medical correspondent, she is author of "Dr. Nancy Snyderman's Guide to Good Health for Women Over Forty," and other books. Snyderman did her residency in Pittsburgh. Her brother, who also a physician, lives and works here. For more information on Me Time Day go to http://www.WE-Womensentertainment.com.

Q. What is so important about women finding time for themselves?

A. Because we don't. We are naturally nurturers and caregivers and we have a tendency to give, give, give until there's nothing left. It's not selfish, it's self preservational.

Q. Realistically, how do you do that?

A. Well it's interesting, I did it this morning. I got up early, did a lot of paperwork then I rode my horse for an hour. It was time all about me and my horse and it gave me more energy to tackle the rest of my day.

Sometimes those moments will come at the end of the day, if you just pour a hot bath or take time for a walk. Some days, they don't happen at all. You know I'm someone who's fiercely independent but I don't do solitude well. So for a lot of us it's a learned skill, but one we are trying to master.

Q. Does the national obsession with youth affect women more than men?

A. Well, I think there are a couple of things that affect us more, like youth and weight -- we are a country of extremes. We are either eating too much or worried about anorexia. I don't think we do this aging process well. I had dinner with a German surgeon and he turned to me and said, "You Americans fascinate me. You are the only culture where you think that dying is an option." Aging gracefully is an oxymoron. We all want to look good and feel good, but this artificial sense that you don't have any wrinkles and your waistline stays at 24 inches is too much pressure. I thought we went through the '60s and '70s to solve all this crap. But Madison Avenue is cagier and more inventive than we are. At the age of 50, I said screw it. This is the way I look and I've got cotton underwear.

Q. What do you see as the biggest challenge women face today?

A. Learning how to say no. No is a complete sentence. No doesn't mean forever. It just means right now, thank you very much, but I'm not interested.

Q. How difficult was it for you to leave ABC for Johnson & Johnson?

A. You know it was painfully difficult only because I have loved the 15 years I had there. But everything I could be or wanted to be I had done and I left at what I think was the top of my game. I thought I've been lucky enough. I've been a surgeon, a correspondent, a mom and Johnson & Johnson came to me with a creative idea and a clean slate. It's really getting to do stuff that's never been done before. I'd be a liar if I told you I didn't miss it, especially now we are gearing up for war and I'm not in the mix of things. That's the kind of stuff that gets your adrenaline going.

Q. How disastrous would a biological/chemical attack be?

A. Well, smallpox I'm not so worried about. In fact, I'm not going to get inoculated. Other things, anthrax, chemical products, I don't know. It depends on how big the strike is. Are we at risk? Sure. Will something happen? I have no doubt about it.

Q. What is the state of medicine today?

A. It's in transition. The fact is the quality of health care in this country is as good as you can get anywhere in the world. The thing that concerns me is the lack of access and the fact that it's such an unlevel playing field. I worry about people's color, the working poor, the uninsured. I worry that we talk about preventive health care, but we just give it lip service. We have to balance the extraordinary leaps we've made in high-tech medicine and really go back to basics. If we don't take care of our children's health, the decline of this country and this civilization is a foregone conclusion. Our children for the first time in American history have an expected shorter life span than their parents. That's scary as hell.

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