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Do You Believe In Magic?: The Sense And Nonsense Of Alternative Medicine (2013)

by Paul A. Offit(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0062223003 (ISBN13: 9780062223005)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Harper

review 1: A great takedown of the nutty health misinformation that modern Americans fall for, including supplements, vitamins, "natural" foods, Jenny McCarthy, fake medical treatments, and the modern charismatic healer movement of mainly TV doctors. Its dismantling of now-Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who successfully took on doctors and science to champion the right of suffering people to pay exorbitant amounts of money to quacks diagnosing a nonexistent disease and prescribing potentially life-threatening treatment, is an instant classic. (Blumenthal deserves a prize at least as noteworthy as any current congressional Republican climate change denier.) This book should be required reading for people who, say, are exposed to the Internet (and, I guess, don't have a degree in scie... morence or medicine).
review 2: This book was very interesting and easy to read, but it was missing a bit in my opinion. I get that the author wanted to make a point about alternative medicine, but I almost feel like he went too far in not addressing that some supplements or treatments can work in a capacity beyond the placebo effect. Some people are deficient in vitamins or minerals and they could benefit from taking certain pills. I understand that this doesn't support his argument, but it's something that I think would have made the book better since he would have been showing both sides of the argument. It would have made his thesis hit home better if he could have said, yes, a few things work or are necessary, but not these! I believe that would have worked better. less

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