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93 reviews for:
Do You Believe in Magic?: Vitamins, Supplements, and All Things Natural: A Look Behind the Curtain
Paul A. Offit
4.07 AVERAGE
93 reviews for:
Do You Believe in Magic?: Vitamins, Supplements, and All Things Natural: A Look Behind the Curtain
Paul A. Offit
4.07 AVERAGE
A quick read, it should be read by everyone over the age of 18. This is truly a self-help book that isn’t posing as one.
Offit is demonized by the anti-vaccination movement but he’s simply a scientist at heart who’s trying to educate people who are taken in by charlatans, profiteers and celebrity spokespeople (redundant?). It’s frightening how powerful the platforms of Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and others of that ilk are.
Every year a new fashionable OTC miracle cure emerges and then quietly disappears as sales decline because the results don’t match the promise, only to be replaced by another miracle cure. This book is a refreshing antidote to all of those new and exciting miracle cures. And unlike those cures the information here is actually good for you.
Offit is demonized by the anti-vaccination movement but he’s simply a scientist at heart who’s trying to educate people who are taken in by charlatans, profiteers and celebrity spokespeople (redundant?). It’s frightening how powerful the platforms of Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and others of that ilk are.
Every year a new fashionable OTC miracle cure emerges and then quietly disappears as sales decline because the results don’t match the promise, only to be replaced by another miracle cure. This book is a refreshing antidote to all of those new and exciting miracle cures. And unlike those cures the information here is actually good for you.
This book is so enlightening on the reasons people fall for and believe in pseudoscience. I am very science minded for factual information and even I learned things in this book
This grave me a better understanding of the placebo response. where it can be of value and also where it can be used to rip off, or worse.
Very well done! I so enjoyed Offit's book on vaccines, and now was glad to see the take on alternative medicine. There are a lot of charlatans out there. He pretty much decimated the nutritional-supplement industry; I kept waiting to see if he'd choose to tackle other nutrition issues, but he didn't really. Alternative cancer treatments, check, megavitamin doses, check. He didn't really go after chiropractic or homeopathy as much as he could have. I mean, homeopathy is an entire system just BEGGING for someone to turn a rational eye on it. (The water remembers? Really? And just how do you have to knock that tube to make it remember????) Yeah. But very interesting, a quite entertaining read.
Should be required reading for anyone who makes medical decisions, so for everybody. Debunks popular myths about herbal "remedies", overdoing vitamins, and non FDA approved treatments for cancer and chronic pain. Basically, if you're considering any form of "alternative medicine", keep I mind that you may as we'll save money and just buy sugar pills to trigger the placebo effect.
A pretty scornful tone, almost sarcastic at times. Considering that many of the current medicines he touts are derived from plants and such, he makes it sound easy to tell where true and smart medicine starts and nonsense ends. I think in real life, it's not that easy and he belittles what could have been an interesting topic.
funny
informative
fast-paced
Well written and informative. Footnotes in the text linking to the studies he mentions would have been enormously helpful, and their absence is the only reason I didn't give five stars. There are notes for each chapter at the end of the book.
It's clear early in the book that he has little patience for "alternative"medicine, and while that attitude is certainly warranted, I think a less condescending and more objective tone would have helped the book. The tone doesn't damage his point or undermine the truth of what he's saying, but I think it would have helped people who are heavily invested in "alternative" remedies or people who are simply curious and uninformed about the topic to be more receptive to his message. This is especially the case because I think some skepticism toward Big Pharma is warranted (Offit even recently wrote a book on the topic called Overkill). I think emphasizing that scientific evidence is what matters would have gone a long way in this regard.
There is a tone shift in the last section of the book, where he talks about why people think "alternative" medicine works and how sometimes it does and that these methods have a place in healthcare. Expanding on this idea and how to implement it in the real world or just in the reader's life would have been helpful.
It's clear early in the book that he has little patience for "alternative"medicine, and while that attitude is certainly warranted, I think a less condescending and more objective tone would have helped the book. The tone doesn't damage his point or undermine the truth of what he's saying, but I think it would have helped people who are heavily invested in "alternative" remedies or people who are simply curious and uninformed about the topic to be more receptive to his message. This is especially the case because I think some skepticism toward Big Pharma is warranted (Offit even recently wrote a book on the topic called Overkill). I think emphasizing that scientific evidence is what matters would have gone a long way in this regard.
There is a tone shift in the last section of the book, where he talks about why people think "alternative" medicine works and how sometimes it does and that these methods have a place in healthcare. Expanding on this idea and how to implement it in the real world or just in the reader's life would have been helpful.
challenging
informative
fast-paced