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Do you believe in magic? : the sense and nonsense of alternative medicine / Paul A. Offit, M.D.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper, [2013]Edition: First editionDescription: x, 322 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0062222961
  • 9780062222961 :
Other title:
  • Sense and nonsense of alternative medicine
Subject(s):
Contents:
Taking a look at alternative medicine -- Saving Joey Hofbauer -- Distrust of modern medicine. Rediscovering the past : Mehmet Oz and his superstars -- The lure of all things natural. The vitamin craze : Linus Pauling's ironic legacy -- Little supplement makers versus Big Pharma. The supplement industry gets a free pass : neutering the FDA ; Fifty-one thousand new supplements : which ones work? -- When the stars shine on alternative medicine. Menopause and aging : Suzanne Somers weighs in ; Autism's Pied Piper : Jenny McCarthy's crusade ; Chronic Lyme Disease : the Blumenthal Affair -- The hope business. Curing cancer : Steve Jobs, shark cartilage, coffee enemas, and more ; Sick children, desperate parents : Stanislaw Burzynski's urine cure -- Charismatic healers are hard to resist. Magic potions in the twenty-first century : Rashid Buttar and the lure of personality -- Why some alternative therapies really do work. The remarkably powerful, highly underrated placebo response ; When alternative medicine becomes quackery -- Albert Schweitzer and the witch doctor : a parable.
Summary: Medical expert Paul A. Offit, M.D., offers a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine industry, revealing how even though some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadly.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 615.5 O32 Available 33111007144898
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In Do You Believe in Magic?, medical expert Paul A. Offit, M.D., offers a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine industry, revealing how even though some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadly.



Dr. Offit reveals how alternative medicine--an unregulated industry under no legal obligation to prove its claims or admit its risks--can actually be harmful to our health.



Using dramatic real-life stories, Offit separates the sense from the nonsense, showing why any therapy--alternative or traditional--should be scrutinized. He also shows how some nontraditional methods can do a great deal of good, in some cases exceeding therapies offered by conventional practitioners.



An outspoken advocate for science-based health advocacy who is not afraid to take on media celebrities who promote alternative practices, Dr. Offit advises, "There's no such thing as alternative medicine. There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [259]-305) and index.

Taking a look at alternative medicine -- Saving Joey Hofbauer -- Distrust of modern medicine. Rediscovering the past : Mehmet Oz and his superstars -- The lure of all things natural. The vitamin craze : Linus Pauling's ironic legacy -- Little supplement makers versus Big Pharma. The supplement industry gets a free pass : neutering the FDA ; Fifty-one thousand new supplements : which ones work? -- When the stars shine on alternative medicine. Menopause and aging : Suzanne Somers weighs in ; Autism's Pied Piper : Jenny McCarthy's crusade ; Chronic Lyme Disease : the Blumenthal Affair -- The hope business. Curing cancer : Steve Jobs, shark cartilage, coffee enemas, and more ; Sick children, desperate parents : Stanislaw Burzynski's urine cure -- Charismatic healers are hard to resist. Magic potions in the twenty-first century : Rashid Buttar and the lure of personality -- Why some alternative therapies really do work. The remarkably powerful, highly underrated placebo response ; When alternative medicine becomes quackery -- Albert Schweitzer and the witch doctor : a parable.

Medical expert Paul A. Offit, M.D., offers a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine industry, revealing how even though some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadly.

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