Marc Siegel, MD

Marc Siegel, M.D. is on a mission to help us better understand and cope with the 'culture of fear' we currently live in and the role the government, media, and pharmaceutical giants play in cultivating this fear. The author of two books on this subject, False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic, he is expert at distilling the information, hype, and hysteria concerning the health threats that we face on a daily basis, helping us to better discern and place in perspective their true nature.

Siegel is an alumnus of Brown University and SUNY-Buffalo School of Medicine, a practicing internist, and Associate Professor at New York University School of Medicine. He is on the Advisory Board of the American Council on Science and Health, a consultant to the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the U.S. Senate Finance committee investigation of the 2001 bioterror crisis. He speaks regularly on topics such as the bird flu, the anthrax panic, SARS, the government's color-coded alerts, the West Nile virus, and other of-the-minute issues.

In these efforts, he contributes to such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fortune, Family Circle, Slate, and Publisher's Weekly (to name only a few). Siegel has also appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Today Show, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. The LA Times features him in a regular column, "The Unreal World."

Siegel's False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear, which has received much critical attention, including being named one of the best science books of 2005 by Discover, provides the platform for his methods of approaching and understanding the artificially created culture of fear. He talks about the government, media, and giant pharmaceutical companies as the primary culprits in propagating this constant fear of disasters, which rarely materialize and, perhaps most dangerously, cause high levels of stress, diverting us from much more legitimate and serious concerns, including AIDS and heart-disease.

In a 'Signature' review in Publisher's Weekly, Bob Kerrey, president of The New School, former governor and senator from Nebraska, and member of the 9/11 Commission, writes, "Siegel has done us a great service. His thorough research illuminates the biological, political, psychological and sociological facets of this important topic, and offers an alternative to the current landscape of perpetual high drama and pathological fear. I enthusiastically endorse his efforts, and urge readers to take his message to heart. This is a terrific and groundbreaking book." Siegel successfully demonstrates how to develop the emotional and intellectual skills necessary to overcoming the culture of fear.

Siegel's most recent book, Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic, applies his methods of better understanding health threats to the much-hyped bird flu. He addresses the commonly asked (and rarely understood) facts concerning the bird flu and utilizes a common sense approach to sooth people's fears. Siegel's message helps us to better make sense of and more effectively participate in the world as we confront it everyday.

THE INNER PULSE
Unlocking the Secret Code of Sickness and Health
(Based on his 2011 book release by the same name)
Dr. Siegel takes us into the heart of illness and healing through the inner pulse - the nexus of body, mind, and spirit that indicates the state of our health. He shares the riveting life-and-death stories of patients he has worked with over the years, as leading physician, and helps us understand why the inner pulse matters so much. One hospital patient who seems to be well on the way to recovery takes a sudden and drastic turn for the worse and dies unexpectedly. Another patient, thought to be only days or hours from death, bounces back seemingly miraculously to vigorous health. Many doctors believe that these dramatic turns of events are so far from the norm that we can't learn anything from them. In The Inner Pulse, Dr. Siegel asserts that these fascinating stories may revolutionize our understanding of illness, health, and healing. Though the inner pulse is an internal radar that cannot be measured in precise, scientific terms, Dr. Siegel reveals how you and your doctor can learn how to recognize it, understand what it is telling you about your physical health, and, in some cases, even influence it to promote healing and wellness. He explores the many ways in which the inner pulse reveals itself and confirms that your basic intuitions about your health may well be accurate and helps you use this self-awareness not only to gauge your own wellbeing but also to evaluate your physician's treatment decisions and help forge your path to recovery.

Any doctor will tell you that one of the most important factors in recovering from an illness is a patient's will to survive-the refusal to give up and the ability to keep fighting for life and health. What Dr. Siegel makes abundantly clear is the strong connection between the will to survive and a patient's strong connection to the inner pulse. Informed by the candid and moving account of Dr. Siegel's own story, ,b>The Inner Pulse digs deep to reveal crucial, untold mysteries.

False Alarm: The Truth About The Epidemic Of Fear
We dined meatless during the mad-cow scare and pleaded for Cipro to combat anthrax. We've spent summers worrying about SARS and West Nile, falls fearing the flu and winters worrying about the latest "bug de jour." Hardly a month goes by without an orange alert lurking in the background, and in lieu of the recent London attacks, it's safe to say we've all wondered, "Are We Next?"

Threats are constant, yet the exaggerated warning we heed are rarely as dangerous as we all fear. The problem? All of the pre-trauma stress and anxiety, as opposed to the actual occurrences themselves, are causing massive health problems among Americans, from strokes to panic attacks to heart disease.

In his program, Dr. Siegel explores our current culture of fear and the true harm all these false alarms are causing. He shows us how to put fears in proper perspective and provides healthier ways to deal with them. Although we are living in the safest times in history, our health is suffering by constantly stressing over our safety.

"Fact or Fiction"
Looking for something a bit different for a luncheon keynote or after dinner message? "Fact or Fiction" is a weekly column Dr. Siegel writes for the NY Daily News, where he covers the medical accuracy of medical TV shows, movies, and novels. This entertaining and informative keynote is based on this column and is sure to provide fun and fact at the same time.