Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine

by Paul A. Offit

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, Health, Medical, Skepticism, Psychology

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Paul A. Offit, MD is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Offit is also the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics bestowed by the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Paul A. Offit has published more than 130 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recently recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC; for this achievement Dr. Offit received the Gold Medal from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Jonas Salk Medal from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Dr Paul Offit was also a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the author of multiple books.

from www.paul-offit.com

Reviews

[Liong · Rating 5 out of 5]

We should read this book to discover more about the sense and nonsense of Alternative Medicine.

We must understand how science works.

Sometimes alternative medicine works because of the placebo effect.

The placebo effect is real but it works with or without treatments according to the science experience and can be explained.

In my opinion, we should trust modern medicine with scientific research rather than believe In testimonials only.

We should be grateful that we have modern clinics and hospitals. 🙏

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a person who suffers from a chronic health condition, I’ve tried EVERYTHING to alleviate symptoms. Acupuncture, supplements, ayurveda, homeopathy, reiki. Name an alternative medicine, I’ve done it. And while some treatments mitigated pain, none--as promised--eradicated my condition. What finally helped? The correct, evidence-based medical treatment. I’ve spent THOUSANDS experimenting with potentially harmful therapies. Therapies that barely worked. Boy, do I wish I had read Dr. Paul Offit’s Do You Believe in Magic earlier. I would’ve saved both money and a fuckload of heartbreak.

Dr. Paul Offit has an extensive resume. He’s a pediatric doctor specializing in vaccines, immunology and virology. He’s a medical pioneer who is responsible for saving millions of lives. Translation: he knows of what he speaks. In Do You Believe in Magic, Dr. Offit creates an easily digestible read perfect for the medical layperson. He comprehensively evaluates various complementary and alternative treatments without condescension.


If you worry that Dr. Offit will discredit or disparage your healing modality, never fear. While he uses science to disprove fanciful treatments, he places the onus on the “doctor.” Patients and parents are given their due respect. Dr. Offit never wholly rejects complementary medicine--as long as it isn’t harmful. Offit’s central thesis is that complementary and alternative medicine CAN be used in conjunction with evidence-based treatment, but should never be a replacement. Offit is trying to make patients informed consumers, rather than victims of modern snake oil salesmen.

Summary: if you want sound, evidence-based medical advice, give this book a read.

[Jakob J. 🎃 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most frustrating thing about alternative medicine, is that there is, in reality, no such thing. If alternative medicine is beneficial, then it’s medicine, and there’s nothing alternative about it. The alternative in alternative medicine refers to it being an exclusive, proudly divergent industry from conventional medicine with its clinical trials, replicable studies, and recalls of harmful or ineffective drugs; and make no mistake, it is a massive and lucrative industry. To top it off, the completely unregulated market means that not only can its proponents and sellers make any wild claim about a particular treatment’s efficacy (often times they are magical cure-alls), but they can also charge virtually whatever they want. After all, how can you put a price tag on your health? You get what you pay for, right?

Paul Offit became the arch-villain and poster-boy for evil Big Pharma in Jenny McCarthy’s misguided campaign to stop children from being vaccinated. I happen to think he is fighting an important fight. He is a pediatrician and he devoted twenty five years to co-developing the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq. I’m sure many have seen the map displaying the resurgence of several preventable diseases due to vaccine fear and denialism over the past few years. This has in large part been due to a discredited medical researcher named Andrew Wakefield, who conducted doomed studies (with conflicts of interest up the ass) asserting that the MMR vaccine caused autism. Hardly an unknown story, so I won’t get into it here. Offit has written books, articles and has appeared in documentaries to push back against this anti-progress and ultimate irresponsibility.

Anything that is claimed to be a cure-all is probably a cure-nothing. Worse, it is probably a prevent-nothing, alleviate-nothing, but it is not always a harm-nothing. Even Offit, who has been studying medicine for decades, has had it recommended to him that he abandon his experience and, as the mantra often goes in alt-med circles, ‘take control of your health’. Of course there are debates going on within medical science as to the best, most effective, safest treatments for patients, as with any field of science (punctuated equilibrium, string theory, anyone?), but the naturopaths, homeopaths, acupuncturists and, often times, chiropractors, have somehow discovered that their treatments render all other drugs and therapies and treatments for various diseases irrelevant. It’s strange how practitioners (I use the title loosely) of these alternative methods rarely disparage each other’s methods (certainly not to the degree of conventional methods). Perhaps this is because the Achilles heel for one of them is the Achilles heel for all of them; namely, lack of evidence.

It’s very difficult to untangle the mess of products available on the market, their praise-singers (some of them real doctors), and how seriously to take them. Our world is replete with afflictions and ailments and pestilences that have forced every human being ever born to watch someone they love degenerate, writhe in pain, or die horribly. I think it could be inherent in us to flock to whatever promises an end to the suffering we will all one day endure. Denial of death is a common theme in all major religions (even tech-and-science ones like Kurzweil’s Singularity sect). Is it any wonder that anti-aging gurus and natural, side-effect free dogmas have such devoted followings? Offit takes much-deserved shots at the media darlings responsible for pumping this stuff through its many circuits. Not surprisingly, Oprah Winfrey was kind of the seed that sprouted the middle-America movement through daytime television (or perhaps, more appropriately, the virus that infected its viewers). Through Oprah, we got Dr. Oz, and through Dr. Oz, we got Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil; the trifecta of new-age healing, humors balancing, and energy restoration. Not that these people weren’t around prior to Oprah’s touting, but that on such a platform they became mainstream and highly trusted because, hey, they’re on TV!

Offit incorporates a concise history of medicine and uses it to convey why ancient remedies are not remedies at all. Science is a progressive endeavor, always rectifying itself to be most effectively applied, and rejecting past attempts which were borne of ignorance. My favorite example of this, which Offit explains perfectly, is acupuncture:

“Chinese physicians believed that energy flowed through a series of twelve meridians that ran in longitudinal arcs from head to toe, choosing the number twelve because there are twelve great rivers in China. To release vital energy, which they called chi, and restore normal balance between competing energies, which they called yin and yang, needles were placed under the skin along these meridian lines. The number of acupuncture points—about 260—was determined by the number of days in the year. Depending on the practitioner, needles were inserted up to four inches deep and left in place from a few seconds to a few hours.”

This exposes the arbitrary nature of ancient wisdoms. Just because something is old and has somehow endured, does not make it useful. This practice was implemented two hundred years before that Jesus fellow was allegedly born, when we didn’t know germs from demons, and the concept (or discovery) of the nervous system was centuries out.

There is quite a controversy stirring in the vitamin industry. I can hardly begin to sift through this mess. On the one hand, we know vitamins are essential. We also know that most of these vitamins are not produced by the body, so we have to ingest them, thus the Recommended Daily Allowance. Studies have been being conducted in recent years and they are controversial to a degree. Some experts have expressed their doubts as to the legitimacy of certain studies, though I haven’t been able to find which specific studies (all of them?). In more than one study, vitamin supplementation had been ostensibly linked to higher cancer risk and death. Linus Pauling, the nobel-prize-winning chemist and peace activist, was the grandfather of the vitamin craze, as Offit explains, “What few people realize…is that their fascination with vitamins can be traced back to one man…” He’s the reason Vitamin C is supreme in public consciousness. He recommended taking 3,000 milligrams of the stuff per day and that it could cure the common cold (inevitably, this gave way to even crazier claims of its curative powers), and here’s where I get really confused. On a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, one Dr. Rhonda Patrick bemoaned findings (again, which specific findings, I am not at all sure) that vitamin C, taken orally, was not effective in combating or preventing any illness. Dr. Patrick’s contention was that Pauling had taken his dosages intravenously and so the orally supplemented studies were moot. But, if that’s the case, why was Pauling recommending supplementation, and so much of it? A far as I can tell, Pauling never specified that it should be taken intravenously, and what’s more, that would be impractical for your average patient to inject themselves, or to hook up to an I.V. every day for vitamin intake. And why are ingestible vitamin C tablets and pills the only things readily available, if intravenous is the way to go? I know I’m missing something, and I’m no expert, but until evidence tips the scale in the other direction, I’ll eat oranges instead of supplementing. Apologists for Pauling ostensibly like to ask “do you have a Nobel Prize?”, to which I would respond, no, and neither does Pauling…in medicine.

The FDA is not perfect, and they have been pressured to and have allowed drugs to pass through the approval-stage without enough diligence, but here’s the thing; they are held accountable for mistakes and perfunctory approvals. The FDA issues recalls, pharmaceutical companies must face the consequences; the supplement industry has no such regulation in the first place and so never has to answer for its useless or potentially dangerous products. It has successfully merged leftist-anti-corporate animus with libertarian free-market-anti-government-intervention values. The market has spoken, and supplements are big business. Of course, its customers don’t like acknowledging this. No, these are the more natural products that big bad pharma doesn’t want you to know about! Gerry Kessler, founder of the supplement company Nature’s Plus “must have known that he couldn’t defeat the FDA by proving his product’s claims. His best chance was to persuade the American public that what the FDA really wanted was to limit their freedom.” Sound familier? Proponents of deregulation don’t care to rely on evidence, as it is often inconvenient for them. What they invoke is the freedom to sell snake oil, or tainted meat, or to pollute, or poison water, or eschew worker safety because it is their inalienable right to do so and these are acceptable prices to pay for their profits. (Yes, I am comparing the supplement industry to the oil, gas, and meatpacking industries [I invoke Upton Sinclair’s name far too often, but even Offit does in this chapter]). The market itself will not sort this stuff out, despite libertarian dogma, and I’m not suggesting government is the sole, or even the best, overseer of these practices, but the FDA was implemented for a noble, and inarguably necessary, reason, and it’s as good as whoever is conducting it at any given time, the government as a whole be damned.

“Although mainstream medicine hasn’t found a way to treat dementia or enhance memory, practitioners of alternative medicine claim that they have: ginkgo biloba.” This sentence resonates across so many fields, I could hardly contain myself as I read it. Neil degrasse Tyson has famously dubbed Intelligent Design a ‘philosophy of ignorance’, meaning, not that anyone advocating such a position is ignorant, but that the theory itself is based entirely on what we do not yet know. Alternative health claims are perfect corollaries to this philosophy of ignorance and sync up in parallel with the attitude of religious apologetics when it comes to morality, consciousness, the origins of life on earth and the cosmos as a whole. I like to call it the ‘you don’t have the answers, therefore we do’ argument.

Cranks and quacks are everywhere, sometimes they’re charlatans and hucksters, sometimes they’re well-meaning hopefuls, and sometimes they’re conspiracy nutcases who see the lack of forthcoming evidence in their favor as a personal affront and deliberate orchestration to hide the truth. All types can and have gained traction in the medical and health sphere. Wakefield, Oz, Pauling, Blumenthal, Burzynski are only a few of the more well-known proponents of unproven, or disproven treatments, causes, and preventions.

Magnanimously and justifiably, Offit ends with positive words on behalf of the placebo response (not effect, because it’s not a given treatment itself that does it, but the body’s [brain’s] response). The placebo response is spectacular. The brain can essentially be tricked into thinking it feels better. If someone feels something working, whether it’s homeopathy or a sugar pill, it’s that person’s mind creating a response to an interchangeable and expendable treatment. This has been remarkably useful for things like joint and muscle pain. The only problem is, it’s not an actual cure. It provides temporary relief, and that’s when, even if it helps you feel better and lifts your spirits, homeopathy (or any bogus treatment) becomes dangerous. Placebos, powerful though they may be, cannot cure cancer, diabetes, AIDS, or anything else. Being aware of its limitations is important, lest someone desist from their chemotherapy, insulin, dialysis, antiretroviral drugs in favor of coffee enemas, herbs, spices, and therapeutic touch. However responsive one may be to a placebo, there is no evidence to suggest it shrinks tumors or wards off terminal illness.

I think Offit’s thesis with this project is that we should not give alternative medicine a free pass “because we’re fed up with conventional medicine”. It’s saddening and maddening to live in a world that has no qualms with infecting us with horrible diseases and maladies, and doesn’t even have the courtesy to lay out obvious treatments for us. When it comes down to it, everything is natural, and natural does not equal good, or safe. This capriciousness in nature has paved the way for fearful people, parents in particular, to veritably lose their minds in their pursuit to keep themselves and their children safe and healthy.

I will take my leave with these fine words from the prologue to this book:

”I learned that all therapies should be held to the same high standard of proof; otherwise we’ll continue to be hoodwinked by healers who ask us to believe in them rather than in the science that fails to support their claims. And it’ll happen when we’re most vulnerable, most willing to spend whatever it takes for the promise of a cure.”

[Jonathan Hiskes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Offit delivers an impassioned call against the misuse of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), documenting troubling cases of people taking megadoses of vitamins without medical supervision, and fraudulent hucksters deceiving families desperate for miracle cures. This may be a public service, but it doesn't advance knowledge on the proper role for CAM, as Offit focuses only on irresponsible practitioners. He is more than a little arrogant in mocking non-mainstream, non-Western bodies of knowledge. And he is more than a little naive in arguing that all conventional medical practice rests on solid clinically tested foundations. Curiously, Offit notes that many Americans have turned to CAM out of dissatisfaction with the conventional system, yet he shows no interest in ways conventional care might be informed or re-formed with CAM influences (such as payment systems that allow doctors to spend more time with patients, or doctors with better training in nutrition and stress-reduction practices).

For a much more helpful approach to CAM and mainstream medicine, see David H. Freeman's 2011 Atlantic article, "The Triumph of New-Age Medicine." Freeman shows how modern medicine has been spectacularly successful with infectious diseases that used to end lives earlier. Now that we live longer, we face chronic diseases (cancer, heart issues) -- and we even have near-consensus on the roles that diet, exercise, and stress play as solutions. The key question is what kind of healer can help people with those factors -- a question Offit might have explored.

[Elizabeth Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

On one hand, I agree with just about everything the author says in this book. On the other hand, I can't help feeling that he's preaching to the choir (of which I'm a member), and I doubt that what he says here, and the way he says it, will do much to change the views of those who do "believe" in alternative medicines.

Still struggling to figure out what he could have done differently to pull those folks in and give them something to shift their mindsets, but not quite sure what it would have been. Perhaps a checklist of words or techniques to look for when evaluating promotions or publicity for alternative medicines and healing techniques? Stories from people who had pursued such treatments and had their minds changed by the failure of the efforts (rather than just third-party descriptions or lists of patients who tried it and then died)?

I'm reminded of something I read about the success of conservative media a few years ago, in which it was noted that recitations of "facts" are perceived as condescending to those who disagree with them, and that audiences of true believers are much more responsive to and convinced by personal stories told by people they can identify with (which are perceived as more "true" than actual statistical facts).

Thus a book like this might be more successful if, along with the litany of names and numbers of people who have died, pulled from various news accounts, we have personal stories from them or their surviving families talking about the failures involving them or their loved ones...which may be the only thing that will counter the positive testimonials paraded by the practitioners.

Just a thought.

[Gendou · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a vaccine against quackery.

Offit names several of these quacks, and describes the tragic consequences of their alternative (non-)medicine.

It contains demystifitude of these truly awful myths:
* Acupuncture
* Chiropractics
* Homeopathy
* Mega vitamins
* "Supplements"
* "Natural" medicine
* Anti-vaccine
* Antineoplastons
* Bogus cures for autism
* Bogus cures for cancer
* Chronic Lyme Disease

And debunkment of these truly awful people:
* Dr. Oz
* Dr. Mercola
* Deepak Chopra
* Andrew Weil
* Jenny McCarthy
* Suzanne Somers
* Stanislaw Burzynski
* Linus Pauling

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I have always had a great deal of curiosity for alternative therapies, so many people have claimed it has made a huge difference in their lives. After reading this book I think it might be a case of mind over matter. Offit tackles everything from the laetrile nightmare that cost so many people their lives, to Dr. Oz and his menage of alternative mystics and n to Suzanne Sommers and her multi million
empire based on the supposed assumption that not only did she recover from cancer by going her own way but that she has also found the fountain of youth. I am a skeptic, I will admit it, fr every one person that says something has helped them, there are usually many more that say it didn't. Vitamins are covered. Are they good for you? Many will probably be surprised at some of the contentions in this book. Am I any less confused, maybe some but as long as there are competing experts out there, some saying do this and others saying no, that is not good for you, do this, I will just keep using my common sense and make my way somewhat in the middle.

[Kris Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a four star book but I'm giving it a bonus star for dedicating 2 full pages to what an idiot Indiana's own Dan Burton is. I could probably write a ten page essay on my personal experiences related to Do You Believe in Magic, but it's summer and who wants to write that let alone read that. As someone who has dealt with rheumatoid arthritis for over fifteen years, I needed this book. It helped me reconcile a lot of my conflicted thinking. I've let media and individuals trick me into believing that I should have been pursuing "alternative" medicine since the beginning when Offit repeatedly reminds us that there are two types of medicine: medicine that works and medicine that doesn't. I appreciate that Offit doesn't touch food based therapies though I'm pretty sure he'd wary of a gluten free or casein free diet acting as a panacea for any given ailment. While I, too, am wary of elimination diets performing miracles, I remain a steadfast advocate on the powers of a plant-based diet for everyone!

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure what I was expecting from this book..but I felt like this was a repeat of a lot of other things I have read.. he is repeating the same stories about a lot of people.. I don't know why he bothered to put the 'sense' of alternative medicine in the title as he seems to have no use for any kind of it.. I would like to think that there is value in some supplements but I guess I need to do my own exploring to find that out for sure.. and maybe it is because I am a fan of Dr. Oz - Dr. Weil - and even Dr. Chopra that I found his put-downs of them hard to take... to me the whole idea of alternative medicine is to just use common sense.. and some of his stories were about people who did not do this... I guess I just felt like this was a very negative book...

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommended this book for any science-minded person with questions about alternative medicine. The main thrust of the book talks about specific therapies, celebrity spokespeople, and practitioners who peddle risky false-cures and are certainly extremely dangerous. I alarmed to see how many of these absurd people and treatments persist today. This book sent me down a PubMed rabbit hole reading about clinical trials and lit reviews of most treatments mentioned in the book.

[Note: Before the rest of my review, let me define some terms. I use the verb “works” when a treatment is scientifically proven, with peer-reviewed, repeatable, reputable, accurate results in a scientific trial. “Medicine” means evidence-based medicine. I will use the term “practitioner” to refer to people who practice alternative therapies and are definitely not medical doctors.]

Science denial is one of the most frustrating things in the world for me. Alternative medicine becomes really dangerous when practitioners discourage patients from using treatments that actually work. Any practitioner who claims that their therapy works just because it’s innately true is a total quack. If it works, test it. People who create something “miraculous” then refuse to have it tested or refuse to believe the results of a trial are hucksters and frauds. Any doctor who demands patients not question their methods or their treatments is a quack. So many of these alternative practitioners and celebrity spokespeople refer to conventional medicine as being dangerous, harmful, or something vital that doctors withhold from patients. That’s idiotic. Magic bullets don’t exist, but that won’t stop people from looking for them and believing in fake miracle cures. Sadly this book only briefly took on chiropractic, so I highly recommend How to Fake a Moon Landing’s chapter on it.

Throughout this book I was repeating to myself the mantra of the (highly recommended) medical history podcast Sawbones: CURE-ALLS CURE NOTHING. It was truly shocking to read how often coffee enemas are used to treat everything from cancer to aging to autism. That’s madness. Or how many many many different causes for a disease are put forth (for example autism being caused by misalignment of the spine, lack of oxygen, immune cell imbalance, heavy metal poisoning, incorrect wiring, chronic viral infections, intestinal parasites, lymph gland blockage -- to name just a few!), with myriad absurd and contradictory treatments (like chiropractic manipulation, hyperbaric chambers, infecting children with hookworms and whipworms, coffee enemas, magnetic stimulation, antiviral medications, chlorine dioxide [an industrial bleach], and lymphatic drainage massage, respective of the causes listed above).

Autism and cancer were probably the two most difficult sections, because it’s really clear how practitioners take advantage of desperate people. Even rational and reasonable people can be taken in when dealing with a traumatic diagnosis. So many of these therapies are so expensive, completely unregulated, and completely unproven. Stanislaw Burzynski’s antineoplastons (for cancer) Rashid Buttar’s use of chelation therapy/topical creams (for everything basically) are two horrifying science-denying “doctors” who prey on people in desperate situations.

One thing that stuck in my craw so bad: the lack of regulation in the vitamin/supplement industry. This is totally unconscionable to me. I don’t know why I assumed there was regulation in that industry, but it’s likely because of how vitamins are portrayed as essential and medical. The industry is seen as healthy and natural, but it is completely unregulated by the FDA (or anyone else!). Why should these supplements/remedies not be held to the same rigorous scrutiny as other drugs? They don’t have to report side effects! All the testing and regulation falls to the manufacturers and there is no regulatory oversight for manufacturing practices! They can also put virtually any health claim on a supplement label so long as it’s accompanied by, “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” That’s unbelievable. There are no guaranteed purity standards and no standardization of active ingredients. They have to prove NOTHING before selling a supplement or herbal remedy. And basically nothing after. I highly recommend this article from Science Based Medicine about supplement regulation (link). I also recommend this article (link) from the NYT about contaminants found in supplements, and this article (link) from Consumer Reports about the false claims of herbal remedies.

The last part of the book touched the very important effect of a lot of alternative therapies: the placebo effect. This can be incredibly effective with alternative treatments provided the treatment itself isn’t harmful and it’s not given with a discouragement toward actual medicine. Homeopathic “medicine” is literally just a placebo, so provided it’s not actively harmful it could possibly be beneficial in the short term. The placebo effect is powerful, and should be studied more to really understand how science can harness it better.

My only complaint is that there are tons of endnotes to support the claims made in the book, but no indication of that as you're reading. It makes the book more readable (you're not constantly being interrupted by numbers or symbols), but it makes it seem like he's pulling things out of the air unsupported. The support is there, it's just way at the end.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I can totally appreciate Dr. Offit's demand for evidence-based practices and his discussion on when alternative medicine becomes quackery, I strongly disagree with his underlying tenets that a) conventional medicine is entirely safe and effective (e.g., how many drugs get pulled from the market only after killing thousands of people and how many are used off-label?) and b) that alternative medicine is more or less based entirely in pseudoscience, and the best alternative medicine can offer is a placebo effect. In fact, I think this book reads more of a piece titled "The Dark Side of Alternative Medicine" than an objective discussion on what alternative medicine treatments work, what doesn't work, and what alternative treatments can truly cause harm. Dr. Offit may be a good storyteller, but he is not an expert on alternative medicine and it shows. It seems that he has a sole mission to totally discredit alternative medicine in its entirety.

His discussion on the supplements was truly disappointing. In this chapter, Dr. Offit thoroughly discredits supplementation of Vitamins C and E (rightfully so). He then proceeds to use this information to make a generalized statement about all vitamins and nutrients available in the industry. They are not useful and should be avoided.

Dr. Offit also dismisses out of hand therapies for which there is growing and very solid scientific evidence of profound efficacy - hallucinogens. Well designed research studies at world renowned university research centers by very distinguished researchers at Hopkins and NYU, as just two examples, are demonstrating powerfully beneficial outcomes for terminal cancer anxiety - others are showing similar results for PTSD, depression, addiction and more. In this chapter he discredits a certain hospital simply because of its proximity to the Summer Of Love movement epicenter of Haight-Ashbury cross streets.

I wish the book touched a little bit on why the alternative medicine industry was so large. Why do people spend so much money on alternative medicine? Perhaps the answer is because modern just medicine isn't perfect. Dr. Offit constructs a binary world of good modern medicine, bad alternative medicine. But I believe the answer really lies in the above question. If modern medicine hasn't been working folks, so all in all, what's a sick person to do?

Sadly the book doesn't provide much of an answer to that question, but it does caution readers to be on their guard when investigating the alternative medicine scene. The book was useful in that regard, but I cannot recommend this to my friends.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fairly brief survey of alt-med/pseudoscientific quackery. It covers a bunch of the Greatest Hits of Woo: Suzanne Somers, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Oz, cancer quackery (Burzynski, laetrile), the lack of regulation of the supplement industry, autism, and the placebo effect.

The only real flaw of the book is that it could easily have been twice as long, if not longer. In only 250 pages, Dr. Offit only gets to touch on a lot of the issues surrounding alternative medicine. If you've been a regular reader of blogs such as Respectful Insolence, a great deal of the material will be familiar to you. (I read the bibliography and went "know him, woo, woo, read that, read that, woo, woo, woo...." - Let no one accuse Dr. Offit of not having read the material he criticizes.)

I have two specific criticisms of the book: First, he attributes Steve Jobs' death to his decision to delay traditional cancer treatment. Other physicians have taken issue with this interpretation. Second, his chapter on harnessing the placebo effect is a bit of a mishmash and doesn't take the time to explore how this can be done ethically and the implications of encouraging quackery, particularly homeopathy.

If you're just dipping your toes into learning about alternative medicine and quackery, this is a good intro. Also read Trick or Treatment (Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh) which goes into greater depth on several topics, with a more rigorous focus.

[Text Addict · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in a clear and conversational tone, this book explains a lot about what's going on with the "alternative medicine" movement in the US. I actually found myself staying up late reading it because it was both so absorbing and so appalling that I couldn't put it down.

It's not likely to convince those who already believe in these things - but it also tackles some things that might have flown under the radar of even informed citizens, such as myself. I hadn't known, for instance, that studies have shown that people taking megavitamin supplements had higher incidences of cancer and heart disease than the control group. I didn't realize how self-serving the "Chronic Lyme Disease" crew actually are (they claim the bacteria can hide so well that there are no antibodies to find, which is absurd). And I hadn't read before that trials of acupuncture have actually been done that showed that retractable needles (which can be felt touching the skin but stop there) work just as well as regular needles (placebo effect in action).

And something I sort of know but hadn't really thought through before: All of these supplement type things are completely exempt from FDA regulation. Totally. They can grind up rat turds as part of their preparations or sell plain sugar pills as treatments and the US government has deliberately legislated away any power to do anything about it. Which is just insane and really needs to change.

The really short version of the book would probably be: There's no such thing as "alternative medicine" - there are things that work, which are medicine; and there are things that don't, which are not medicine (I'm paraphrasing from memory something that he actually says). Which must be followed up by an important question: If treatment X, Y, or Z works so well, why don't its proponents run formal clinical trials to demonstrate it?

Offit also gives space to the importance of the placebo effect, wondering what the medical profession can do to better harness it (and the ethical conundrums that arise from the very idea). Altogether a very interesting, and sometimes disturbing, examination of a very important social phenomenon.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but extremely one sided an annoying. The author seems totally on the side of big pharma and the FDA. He does acknowledge though that a lot of modern medicine (aspirin, for example) comes from old folk remedies and herbal treatments. But he seems to think if it isn't FDA approved as a drug, then it's useless. The FDA has done just as much harm as good. Drug recalls, anyone? In his view, if the FDA does it, it was just to lack of long enough trials or "oops", but if some trying to help someone does it, then they are money grubbing murderers. Yes, there are plenty of quackadoodles out there, but not everyone is. Those who do it only for the money claiming to cure cancer or autism with urine and good vibes truly are scum.
This book is very biased toward chemicals and states that man made are just as good as natural, which I don't believe. But then he turns around and claims man made vitamins are bad. Which is it? Make up your mind! I think some alternative medicine does work and can be a good idea. Even if it is just placebo. If its not hurting you or someone else, then fine. I for one, will continue to take glucosamine and chondrotin because its the of thing that works for my knees. Devils claw is the only thing that works for my back. It may be placebo, but for $10 a month, who cares?

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book! Offit does a great job of surveying the various alternative medical treatments out there from the anti-vaccine movement to chelation therapy to laetrile and all points in-between. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of alternative cures don't actually work; if there's good evidence they do then they usually become part of plain old medicine in general. Offit does go into detail about the placebo effect and the pros and cons of using alternative treatments to trigger it. All in all, this is a book worth reading, if only to be forewarned about some of the more dangerous quackeries out there.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a pediatrician in San Diego and have been in private practice for 40 years I am a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at UCSD School of Medicine. This book is one of many written by Dr. Offit that I have read. He is a major contributor to the process of refuting and debunklng the pseudoscience that is the underpinning for most of the alternative medical theories. This book is an outstanding addition to that process.

[Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Offit is out here doing the good work. I'm obsessed with his books and reading my way through all of them. This one was wondrous. Lots of important takeaways here, the most shocking of which was his look at the politicking around the dietary supplement industry and how they got away with being totally unregulated and rake in so much money while somehow convincing everyone they're the benevolent alternative to Big Pharma.

Another terrible takeaway: Oprah, what have you done?! I knew she'd wrought the horror that is Dr. Phil upon us, but we all make mistakes from time to time, but she's given platforms to SO many of these quackadoos! Oprah, please no.

Last terrible takeaway and then I'll stop being the dark raincloud raining all over your day: Offit points out that between Suzanne Somers and Siddhartha Mukherjee, Somers is the one who's been invited on TV more often to talk about her cancer-related "research" (it's not at all research in her case). Somers, star of Three's Company and operator of a website that hawks all manner of snake-oil type junks and devices for anti-aging and curing menopause and everything else that displeases you about your body and the progression of life you can think of, is more often given a highly visible public platform to talk about her pseudoscience than Pulitzer-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and extraordinarily accomplished doctor and researcher Mukherjee.

I hope that the people who need the information here most will read it.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the subtitle, you would think that this would be a balanced look at alternative medicine, but what it really is is a harangue against alternative medicine, with several stories about alternative medicine practitioners who duped people as his evidence that all alternative medicine is fake. Though he points out some important studies about the dangers of some 'alternatives' like taking too many vitamins, he categorically refuses to believe any alternatives can have a good effect other than the placebo effect, even though many herbs are known to have medicinal qualities. He even goes so far as to say that the herbs an African witch doctor gives his patients don't do anything more than a placebo, denying the handed-down herbal lore that's been helping people for hundreds of years. If it hasn't been made into a pill by big pharma, it's worthless. He doesn't just slam alternatives that have had studies prove they don't work (which I have to admit I'm skeptical of, because I know of instances where the herbs he talks about HAVE worked), but he denies any possibility that an alternative medicine can work even if a study hasn't been done on it. Overall a very disappointing book that mislabels itself.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Offit states, "The purpose of this book is to take a critical look at the field of alternative medicine--to separate fact from myth.... There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't."

Offit begins with the "Laetile" treatment for cancer which resulted in the deaths of many including actor Steve McQueen.

Offit takes on so called celebrities Oprah and Dr. Oz who hold out questionable therapies to a desperate public who distrust modern medicine based on the long and questionable early history of medicine. Offit puts modern medicine in its proper light, "From the beginning to the end of the twentieth century, the life span of Americans had increased by thirty years. None of this increase occurred because healers balanced humors, restored chi, or offered sacrifices to the gods; it occurred because we finally understood what caused diseases and how to treat or prevent them."

Do you take supplements? "On Oct 10, 2011, researchers from the University of Minnesota found that women who took supplemental multivitamins died at rates higher than those who didn't. Two days later, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic found that men who took Vitamin E had an increased risk of prostate cancer."

Perhaps in chemistry class you remember reading about Linus Pauling who revolutionized thinking about the bonding between atoms. Pauling went on to other accomplishments and to make other great discoveries.However, in 1966 when he was 65 years old, Pauling started experimenting with taking vitamins supplements. He noted his increased feeling of well being and so he wrote a book that suggested vitamin supplements as the cure for the common cold and flu.

Author Offit sites studies that show no correlation between supplements and curing the cold. Forty years later the common cold and the flu are still with us, so draw your own conclusions.

In 1971 Pauling doubled down and claimed that Vitamin C cured cancer. Later Pauling suggested that mega vitamins could cure every disease.

Offit points out, "Studies have shown that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower incidence of cancer and heart disease and live longer. The logic is obvious: if fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants--and people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables are healthier--then people who take supplemental antioxidants should also be healthier. In fact, they're less healthy."

Offit sites a 1994 National Cancer Institute Study, "Those taking vitamins and supplements were more likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease than those who didn't take them."

In 2005 a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found "those who took vitamin E were more likely to develop heart failure than those who didn't."

Offit cites more studies and concludes, "High doses of vitamins and supplements increase the risk of heart disease and cancer; for this reason, not a single national or international organization responsible for the public's health recommends them."

Offit asks the big question, "Despite a wealth of scientific evidence, most Americans don't know that megavitamins are unsafe. So why don't more people know about this? And why hasn't the FDA sounded an alarm? The answer is predictable: money and politics."

Enter the politicians, the lobbyists, the FDA, Hollywood, and lots of $$$.

"In the end, industry money trumped common sense. On May 11, 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act became law." The politicians always give it a nice name; too bad it is deceiving! "Put lamb's brain in a drug or food, and prepare to spend millions of dollars and a few years on studies showing that it is safe and effective; put it in a supplement and you're good to go, no evidence necessary."

An interesting thought of mine: politicians happily report negative stats comparing the US system of health care to other nations. The implication is that our doctors and health care facilities are not up to par. The real truth is that the US score is based on the fact that many do not have health insurance and on the bad health habits of so many in the US brought on by obesity, smoking and alcohol/drug abuse.

Meanwhile our politicians are in bed with supplement makers (and anyone with $$$), and so they look the other way on something that could negatively influence the health of real people.

Offit goes on to examine various supplements and studies evaluating their effectiveness.

Offit concludes that the best way to get the nutrients necessary for the human body is through diet.

Offit takes on Hollywood stars who have wares to sell in one chapter. If you have ever been tempted by those interviews with Suzanne Somers (and others), read this book!

Offit also has chapters on autism, Chronic Lyme Disease, shark cartilage, Burznski's urine cure, and modern snake oil salesmen. He also looks at why placebos appear to be effective.

If you live in CT, please read the chapter on Chronic Lyme Disease and the part played by now Senator Richard Blumenthal who serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Once again our politicians are willing to take $, play on the emotions of the sick, and garner power as they do it! Need I say it?? We need transparency and accountability in Washington, D.C.!

This book was a real eye opener for me and I highly recommend it to all. I know some of you are now thinking about those studies on vitamins and thinking, "Correlation does not prove causality." I agree on that point and it is possible that people with unhealthy habits take vitamins in hopes that the vitamins will cancel out all the bad things they take in their bodies. However, read the book and form your own opinion!

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones'; Flimflam; Quackery and Nostrums; Hucksters." One can provide a sense of Dr. Paul Offit's book by cherry picking words from the titles in his bibliography. Offit provides an energetic profile of some of the worst charlatans in the current iteration of nutritional pseudo-science. He names names: the celebrities Suzanne Somers, Jenny McCarthy; the mad doctors, Andrew Weil, Joe Mercola, and from Oprah's inner circle, Mehmet Oz. He details the invention of a new disease "Chronic Lyme Disease," the Burzynski urine cure for cancer, and more.

Chapter 8, “Curing Cancer: Steve Jobs, Shark Cartilage, Coffee Enemas, and More” gives a capsule history of medical chicanery in the early twentieth century. Men such as Albert Abrams, William Koch, Harry Hoxsey and Andew Ivey promoted the most astonishing "cures" to a public both gullible and desperate. Abrams was one of the first to exploit new technologies:

“Abrams claimed that cancers—as well as diseases like tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and syphilis—emitted different vibrations, like radio waves. To detect them, he invented the Dynamizer, a boxed jungle of coils, batteries, and rheostats. Two wires came out of the box: one plugged into a wall socket, and the other cupped onto the patients’ forehead. To make the correct diagnosis, Abrams took a drop of the patients’ blood and placed it inside the box. Patients then stripped to the waist, faced west, and stood in a dimly lit room while Abrams felt their abdomen. The Dynamizer could also detect the patients’ place of birth, ethnic background, year of death, religion (Jews had duller abdomens than Christians), and golf handicap. Abrams leased his machine for $250 (the equivalent of about $8,000 today), with a $5 monthly user fee. Robert Millikan, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923, described the Dynamizer as something “a ten-year-old boy would build to fool an eight-year-old.”

Or Koch:

“In the 1940s, William Koch invented a bogus cancer cure called glyoxylide, a combination of two carbon monoxide molecules. Unfortunately, carbon monoxide molecules don’t stay together very long—separating in less than a hundred-millionth of a second into a gas. Koch sold his cure to thousands of doctors, who charged $300 per injection. When analyzed, chemists found that Koch’s glyoxylide contained water—and water only”

Such flimflam might seem humorous now, " oh how silly and stupid our ancestors were, but we have progressed, we have a government agency, the FDA that protects us, a result of beneficent government." Would that this was true since, in addition to providing profiles of our current roster of quacks, Offit also details the all-too-successful lobbying efforts that placed the regulation of vitamins and supplements beyond the reach of the FDA. It's a brisk and often all too sad read. The stories of desperate parents willing to do anything and to spend everything to save a sick child only to have their child die and be left with only bitter memories and empty bank accounts is truly heart wrenching. Recommended.

[Yvonne Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally give a short 2-3 sentence comment on books, but this deserves more. I have a daughter who worked for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research in Seattle and she once made the comment that one can prove anything with a statistic. As I read this book, I noticed several things:
1- He always gave glowing comments about the FDA. Yes, the FDA is there to protect the American people but money and business can sometimes interfere with that process. For example, the close tie between the FDA and Monsanto. You can get alot of information on that relationship by reading 'Seeds of Deception'.
2- He has no mention of GMO's and the effect on our bodies, and which has crept into so many facets of our food supply. It is interesting that Europe will not let any GMO foods or farming in those countries.
3- There were a few section (sorry, don't have the page #'s) where he recommended foods in our diets such as breakfast cereals, pastries, etc. Excuse me, what was that again?
4- Yes, there are a lot of overzealous quacks out there and hopefully people will stop and think about their claims -- realizing that people facing desperate situations will listen to anything. I had a brother-in-law who did that -- he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer which could have been possibly cured by the radiation and chemo route but listened to the promises of a 'quick cure'. What bothered me about his book was that he just talked about the extreme claims. There are a few alternative practices out there that are beneficial.
5- He must hate chiropractors, making blanket statements that gave the impression that all chiropractors are bad. I had several situations over the years in which medical doctors could not find answers to several problems. One involved severe headaches. There are different methods in chiropractic treatment and the chiropractor that I use, knew the problem and using gentle manipulation (yes, there are chiropractors that use GENTLE manipulation) solved this problem. Recently, I had a problem with some twitching eye muscles and no answers from three medical doctors outside of saying I am just getting old, and my chiropractor said I might be deficient in calcium and magnesium. I took a little more calcium/magnesium and the 'twitching' went away. NOW, listen up! Not all chiropractors make claims that they can cure cancer, or any other disease.
6- Let's not forget his negative attitude towards raw milk. I raised our eight children on raw milk, and they were all healthy. I know a lot of people who did the same! Raw milk is safe, even safer now with the tough regulations that are placed on the farmers.

Health care in an individual situation and sometimes the 'medical' doctors do not have all the answers.

Additional comments added later: On the thought of vaccinations, 1--take a look at what is in the vaccination, and 2--some doctors plus some in Europe and feeling that the MMR should not be given to a child with a cold or flu and the three should be given separately.

We do have the popular 'media personalities' out there and let the observer beware; basically do your homework.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked under contract to the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Occasionally, the hotline was short staffed and they would put me (with limited training and more than a hint of sarcasm) on the phone lines where inevitably I would get the calls asking about male supplements.

To avoid any further discussion--THEY DO NOT WORK. If they did, they would hand these out in fourth grade and they would probably be in the water supply. The lay of the land is this "you get what you get, and stop throwing a fit."

Anyway, back to the book, the time I spent there made me just angry. I'm not sure how anyone would put coffee and enema together and get cancer cure--but there it is. And I really like coffee.

The main point of this book is this--there is no traditional medicine and alternative medicine. There is stuff that works and there is stuff that don't.

For those who really get benefits from alternative medicine, I encourage you to a) keep going, good for you and b) don't read this book. It's really a long rant, and although I enjoy rants (especially those with which I agree) it may not be for you.

The book is interesting and informative and wow detailed. I was reading the e-book version and wasn't seeing end notes and getting a bit peeved (I do love a good end note) until I was more than 50 pages from the end of the book and ran into the endnote section that was detailed like pointillism is tiny. He cites "The Lancet"--it's like he knows me and wants to run away with me to a big library full of peer-reviewed periodicals. Okay, may not, but I do love a good Lancet reference. I actually bought a sock pattern because it was named Lancet.

Good book, I had fun, but I admit he was singing directly to the choir.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a lot of value in this book. Living in the mecca of snake oil vendors (Utah), I decided years ago to not buy into all the claims of magic juice that cures whatever ails. The fancy double speak was underwhelming and did nothing to answer questions I had. Yet even when I took a hard line, I've still found myself wandering the homeopathic aisles at stores, comparing labels and walking away completely befuddled.

Offit breaks the book up into 12 easy to read and understand chapters. He explains the FDA, the Dr. Oz superstars, the mega vitamins and special diets, and the science behind all of it. Most disturbing is the politics behind all of it. Pharmaceutical companies have a reputation and have been trashed further with distrust and the "organic" touting companies. Offit does not defend pharmaceutical companies except to explain how drugs are tested and approved by the FDA. He is not a proponent for pharmacology but for science and information.

When we buy our food or drugs at the store, the ingredients are clearly listed. There is oversight in the conditions that our food and drugs are prepared. It is illegal to label our food and drugs with claims that have not been scientifically proven. This is not so when considering alternative medicine. Labels and "specialists" touting cures for cancer, autism, Chronic Lyme Disease (which is not a medically recognized condition), can not be supported by scientific evidence. In fact, the opposite has been true. Many treatments have proven to be nothing but expensive and time consuming. Additionally, some treatments have caused disability and death.

No matter what your political leanings, this is an excellent book to read to trace the ancestry of holistic medicine and the way it is helpful and harmful.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deeply appreciated Dr. Offit's analysis of the current 'alternative medicine' mindset that permeates far too much of America's thoughts. As I read through the accounts, the claims, the scientific evidence, I found myself noting people I wish would read this book - friends who don't vaccinate, friends who believe Chronic Lyme Disease is a 'thing', friends who are suspicious of doctors and yet don't question the practitioners of 'alternative medicine' (which will now forever be in quotation marks in my mind). His examples are riveting (and heartbreaking) as he traces modern medicine through the last two hundred years and how he shows that despite all our amazing technology, we still have shamans and witch doctors.

It's a strong book and it definitely taught me more than a few new things. I feel better informed about how to interact with modern medicine, I have a deeper appreciation and understanding of how it all works, and more than anything, it has cemented my frustration with the charlatans that would empty a desperate person's bank account with elixirs and supposed cures and would lead people astray in their desperation for answers.

[Keen Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When religion was strong and science was weak, men mistook magic for medicine. Now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.” Thomas Szasz

This is another one of these refreshingly insightful and eloquently written books that smash all the BS out there with hard, scientific fact. It brings to mind many of the recent classics in the genre, such as, “Bad Science”, “Trick Or Treatment” and even last year’s “The Angry Chef”, which are just some of the books that have also done great work in helping to combat some seriously dangerous lies, myths and chicanery. Where this slightly differs from those other works is with the strong emphasis placed on the vitamin/dietary supplement industry. Offit goes into the origins and explains the mechanics of how we’ve gotten to such an absurd situation today where a multi-billion dollar industry continues to go from strength to strength in spite of the lack of scientific evidence.

Some of the biggest names like, Dr Oz, Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil come under inspection. All of them endorsed and fawned over by Oprah. We also hear about darker characters like Stanislaw Burzynski with his antineoplastons, and Rashid Buttar and his chelation therapy. The courts and medical board chose to continually let them away with it and so they continue to profit by exploiting the most desperate and the vulnerable people, charging them tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in order, to, not cure, them of their often terminal illnesses.

We get an overview and insight into the origins and explanations behind some of the Eastern medicines, that are so often cloaked and sold with an alluring air of mystique and power, which is usually reflected in the prices charged. He explains that, “Ayurvedic medicine, founded in India two thousand years ago, is based on the ancient Greek notion of balancing humours. However, unlike Hippocrates’s four humours, ayurvedic medicine balances three humours, or doshas: wind (vata), choler (pitta), and phlegm (kapha). To determine whether doshas are out of balance, healers take a patient’s pulse.”

The Chinese one sounds more like an elaborate prank than medicine, but nevertheless he explains, “Because Chinese physicians were prohibited from dissecting human bodies, they didn’t know what nerves were. Or what the spinal cord was. Or what the brain was. Rather, they interpreted events inside the body based on what they could see outside, like rivers and sunsets. Chinese physicians believed that energy flowed through a series of twelve meridians that ran in longitudinal arcs from head to toe, choosing the number twelve because there are twelve great rivers in China. To release vital energy, which they called chi, and restore normal balance between competing energies, which they called yin and yang, needles were placed under the skin along these meridian lines. The number of acupuncture points-about 360-was determined by the number of days in the year.”

He takes up the fascinating and bewildering case of Linus Pauling. Pauling was the first person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes. He got into Vitamin C and was soon taking up to 300 times the RDA. He actively recommended that the public should take around 50 times the RDA. This in spite of at least 15 studies from a number of different countries showing that Vitamin C doesn’t treat the common cold at all. In spite of the studies and evidence they produced, Pauling wouldn’t let it go and went even further insisting that it could also treat cancer. He then went onto insist that taking it along with hugely excessive doses of other vitamins could cure everything from hay fever and heart disease to radiation poisoning and AIDS. Not only is there no evidence to show that vitamin C helps a cold, but many studies done, including in cancer patients, shows that taking supplements actually does harm, increasing the risk of cancer and heart diseases and increasing rates of mortality overall. This explains why not a single national or international organisation responsible for public health recommends them. Pauling and his wife both died of cancer.

We soon get to the political side of the issue. In 1975 William Proxmire introduced a bill banning the FDA from regulating megavitamins. This lead to the term, to Proxmire, being coined, meaning to obstruct scientific research in order for political gain. As Offit says, “So began an unprecedented experiment to test whether the unbridled use of vitamins and other supplements would help or hinder health, with the American public as the guinea pig.”

Matters were escalated around twenty years later, when Gerry Kessler, the founder of one of the nation’s most successful supplement companies, Nature’s Plus. Offit describes him as, “an aggressive, brilliant, persuasive man.” And he adds that he, “would convince millions of Americans that it was in their best interest not to know what they were buying.”

A familiarly depressing pattern begins to emerge, one of paying lobbyists, recruiting celebrities and creating a campaign of misleading information, through deliberate reframing. This included an OTT nationwide TV ad featuring Mel Gibson. Other celebs like, Whoopi Goldberg got involved too. As Offit says, “In the end, industry money trumped common sense. On May 11, 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act became law…The New York Times called it the ‘Snake Oil Protection Act.’”

The bottom line is, that thanks to the Supplement Act, the FDA doesn’t regulate them, so what this means is that they do not need to be tested before being sold to the public. The manufacturers do not even have to prove that their products are safe or effective, but of course in 2012 alone the dietary supplement business was worth $34 billion. So there will never be a FDA warning. “If people don’t read scientific journals, they won’t know that claims on the label are false and misleading.”

He goes onto explore the bizarre world of celebrity endorsement in the industry. He tells us about the unsettling case of the former actress Suzanne Somers. After a spell entertaining in Vegas, she went onto promote Thighmaster and then from there she got into the dietary supplement business. “Suzanne Somers isn’t just a citizen railing against the dying of the light. She’s a paid promoter of a $6 billion a year anti-ageing industry who hawks products that have no chance of helping, and because they include megavitamins, every chance of hurting-a huckster who wants you to ignore the science.”

A name that pops up again and again in here is dear old Oprah. The ever willing host who is only delighted to give a huge, global platform to promote, champion and profit to almost any clown who she thinks will boost ratings. It appears that she or her team don’t get too bogged down with proper research or allowing a trifling matter like lack of scientific evidence get in the way of her idea of entertainment. When all the hot air has been blown and many impressionable people have been deliberately mislead and exploited and worse, as long as the high ratings and revenue streams keep a coming. It’s all about ‘the brand’.

We learn about Jenny McCarthy and her frankly insane book on autism. She is just one of the many deluded individuals out there who believe that her celebrity status immediately qualifies her as an expert on whatever field she chooses to latch on to. But as that other medical professional, Oprah, exclaims, “She wrote the book, she knows what she’s talking about.”

We also learn about some dangerous politicians, like Richard Blumental, and his battle to promote the case of Chronic Lyme (a condition that is largely accepted not to exist by most qualified physicians). Even more worrying is Dan Burton, a Republican congressman. In 1977 he told the people of Indiana that they should ignore the FDA warnings about Laetrile. A product that proved to be so fatal, that the FDA were eventually forced to ban the sale of it 1987. Ten years later he was at it again when he spoke out against the FDA once more this time for banning ephedra, which also proved to be fatal. He introduced an unsuccessful legislation mandating HIV testing for every American. He sponsored a series of congressional hearings that offered a platform to one Andrew Wakefield, the very man who was responsible for the lie that MMR caused autism.

Offit also talks about other celebs, like the case of Steve Jobs. Apparently when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, in spite of initially having an excellent chance of survival, as it was detected fairly early on, he refused conventional treatment for 9 months. Instead he relied on acupuncture, herbal remedies and bowel cleansings as well as a diet of carrot and fruit juices. By the time he decided to have surgery, the cancer had already spread and so Offit tells us that, Jobs died of a treatable disease.

So this is another one of those excellent books that cleverly and concisely, strips away the misleading façade of ‘alternative’ medicine. It dismantles the corrupt architecture of supplements, pills, potions and philosophies out there. It also demonstrates how these ideas are clearly universally appealing, the ever irresistible allure of a simple solution to often complex and painful problems. We see how the smart and wealthy are just as vulnerable as the poor and impressionable to these techniques. After all who wants to accept that their or their loved one's pain and suffering cannot be cured?...Unfortunately sales exceed results and like all diseases dressed as cures they promise heaven, but more often than not they are more likely to deliver hell.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do You Believe in Magic?
Non-Fiction>Biology and Psychology>Medicine

Great research and wonderfully written with lots of sources and not very many anecdotes. He didn't really 'hate' on 'Alternative Medicine,' and the last chapter really gives the most compelling argument of how helpful they are. The issues that Offit has with the supplement and alternative medicine industry is that it is largely unregulated and there are plenty of quacks and opportunistic businesspeople who take full advantage of this. I really love the returning theme here--conventional medicine includes things from nature, and there is no such thing as alternative medicine; only medicine that works and methods that not not medicine because they do not work. There is a middle ground for things that work simply because they work as we expect them to, and Offit gives a good summary of this as well as a discussion about the psychological importance of painkilling, mood, and the immune system.

I recommend this for anyone interested in the 'truth' behind the supplement industry without any political rhetoric or grandstanding--just facts. This was fairly easy to read, most references are explained, there are many citations to take a further look into anything that would pique your interest that he may only cover on the surface, and it should be interesting to most people because we all have bodies that can get sick, feel pain, and need healing sometimes. I read it over about a day and half between other things in life...

"Because the truth is, there’s no such thing as conventional or alternative or complementary or integrative or holistic medicine. There’s only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t. And the best way to sort it out is by carefully evaluating scientific studies—not by visiting Internet chat rooms, reading magazine articles, or talking to friends."

"People have been living on earth for about 250,000 years. For the past 5,000, healers have been trying to heal the sick. For all but the past 200, they haven’t been very good at it."

"Antioxidants can also be found in fruits and vegetables—specifically, selenium, beta-carotene, and vitamins A, C, and E. Studies have shown that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower incidence of cancer and heart disease and live longer. The logic is obvious: if fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants—and people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables are healthier—then people who take supplemental antioxidants should also be healthier. In fact, they’re less healthy."

"Subjects were given vitamin E, beta-carotene, both, or neither. The results were clear: those taking vitamins and supplements were more likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease than those who didn’t take them—the opposite of what researchers had anticipated." ... "Again, subjects received vitamin A, beta-carotene, both, or neither. Investigators ended the study abruptly when they realized that those who took vitamins and supplements were dying from cancer and heart disease at rates 28 and 17 percent higher, respectively, than those who didn’t." ... "In 2008, a review of all existing studies involving more than 230,000 people who did or did not receive supplemental antioxidants found that vitamins increased the risk of cancer and heart disease."

"Because the dietary supplement industry is essentially unregulated, only 170 (0.3 percent) of the 54,000 products on the market have documented safety tests."

Foundation of the placebo effect: "Psychologists have also argued that the placebo effect is simply an exercise in conflict resolution." ... "Another explanation for the placebo effect is something called “regression to the mean,”" ... "yet another explanation for the placebo effect: the therapist’s presentation."

"If people can learn to stimulate or suppress their own immune responses, it’s not a leap to believe that placebos can impact a variety of diseases."

"Even though chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine don’t work better than placebos, that doesn’t mean that they don’t work as placebos."

"Now, because we have medicines that are much better than placebos, we often ignore the placebo response. To their credit, alternative practitioners haven’t."




Further reading I added to my TBR: Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations, Trick or Treatment, How and Why We Age

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mankind is at present going through the most prosperous era of its existence on the planet. Even while sustaining the largest population ever, many of them are well fed and taken care of. Hunger is, of course, still a curse to reckon with, but it is a legacy of the past and persists where unsettled conditions generated by civil war and turmoil prevail. An average person lives many years, if not decades, more than his forefathers did three or four generations ago. This revolution in life expectancy was achieved with spectacular progress in agriculture, medicine and technology. Needless to say, this explosion in productivity was made possible by shrewd application of scientific principles in these fields. However, people in modern societies are developing an aversion to science and its methods. They crave for organic farming and natural fertilizers, while wanting to throw out chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the medical field, the overarching concern is with harmful side effects of medicines used for life-threatening diseases. What organic farming is to agriculture is what alternative medicine is to healthcare. A long list of recipes and products are trumpeted in the conventional media and on the Internet. Most of the products advertised by homeopathy, Ayurveda and chiropractic offer solace little more than placebos. But these formulations can sometimes turn deadly too, as they demand their followers to shun modern medicine altogether. Not counting the exorbitant amounts they charge from patients, the atmosphere of scientific denialism associated with these practices is cause for concern. This book provides an overall view of the leading figures of alternative medicine and how it is practiced with its snake oil formulations. Paul Offit is a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and an expert on vaccines, immunology and virology. He is a professor of vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Alternative medicine has earned more respect than skeptics credit them and the author mentions that 42 per cent of US hospitals offer some form of alternative therapies. Patient demand is cited as the reason for this shift from established custom. This is in turn emphasized by the widespread notion – even among educated people – that mainstream medicine offers unnatural remedies with intolerable side effects, while alternative medicine employ natural substances which are safe by corollary. Nothing can be more distant from the truth. Offit lists a number of natural products which are deadly toxins even in trace quantities. In fact, all therapies should be held to the same high standard of proof or we’ll continue to be hoodwinked by healers who ask us to believe in them rather than in the science that fails to support their claims. There is no such thing as conventional, or alternative, or complementary medicine. There’s only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t. The best way to sort it out is by carefully evaluating scientific studies, and not by visiting Internet sites, reading magazine articles or simply talking to friends. Extensive clinical tests should be the sole basis for introducing or discarding a new drug. Of the 51000-odd nutritional supplements on the market, only four might be of some benefit proved by testing. Appeals on the long ancestry of alternative therapies like acupuncture and Ayurveda shall fool no one. The very fact that a system had stayed unchanged for millennia only proves its inadequacy to treat modern ailments.

Endorsement by celebrities is another trick by which charlatans captivate people’s minds. Scientists renowned in their field of research sometimes side with dubious products. The book tells the case of Linus Pauling, who was the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes – for chemistry and peace. Unfortunately, at the height of his reputation, he turned an advocate of quackery. He believed that vitamin C is the antidote of many diseases from common cold to cancer. Advocates of the megavitamin industry advised astronomically huge dosages in the range of 18000 mg per day. But studies show intake of vitamins in large doses increases the risk of heart diseases and cancer. The bitter irony was that Pauling’s wife died of stomach cancer and Pauling himself suffered from prostate cancer and passed away as a result. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple and one of the world’s leading innovators, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His was a neuroendocrine tumour and had excellent chances of recovery with early surgery. But, Jobs was a man of strange beliefs and practices. He used acupuncture, herbal remedies, bowel cleansings and a special cancer diet of carrots and fruit juices for nine crucial months after diagnosis! By the time he agreed to surgery, time was definitely not on his side. The cancer had spread and the innovator died of a treatable disease.

Quacks and shamans had always tried to sell their products to a gullible public. Statutes to regulate this trade began to be enforced by early twentieth century. This book contains an interesting narrative of the acts came into being in the US in spite of the hurdles put in its way. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 made it mandatory for the manufacturers to list out the ingredients of each recipe. The Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938 required safety testing before drugs were sold. The Kefauver – Harris Amendment of 1961 to the 1938 act forced the manufacturers to show that drugs were not only safe but effective. However, legal control began to loosen thereafter. The Proxmire Amendment of 1974 took FDA out of pursuit of the megavitamin industry. The ace regulation that gave the food supplement industry free rein was the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. This statute so thoroughly defanged the FDA that the law was mockingly referred to as the Snake Oil Protection Act.

As the book nears the end, one question comes up prominently on the reader’s mind. If the alternative remedies are so harmful and bad for health, then why do people flock to them with good results at least occasionally? Also, for terminally ill patients who have been forsaken by modern medicine, what’s wrong in trying out alternative medicine? Offit anticipates these questions and earmarks two chapters to explain this paradox. Alternative medicine works solely by the placebo effect, in which the patient feels confidence in the doctor and believes that the medication given to him will cure the disease and the feeling sometimes cures him! Often, even sugar pills and plain water can heal many maladies. The mechanism of betterment is analyzed in detail. If the alternative practitioners had left it at that, there was no problem. However, the author identifies four ways in which placebo medicine crosses the limit to quackery. The first is by recommending against conventional therapies that are helpful. Then they promote potentially harmful therapies without adequate warning. The third is that they drain the patient’s money. Most of these treatments are very costly. The fourth and lasting method is by promoting magical thinking, scientific denialism and encouragement of neglect of sound scientific principles.

The book is very easy to read with a thoroughly humorous presentation and complex concepts neatly explained. It attacks the false premise that doctors are evil and mainstream medicine can’t be trusted. Marketing hype with the terms ‘organic’, ‘natural’ and ‘antioxidant’ are examined threadbare and effortlessly routed. What the book lacks is a front-on attack on the bogus principles of homeopathy and the use of heavy metals in ayurvedic remedies. Both these topics get only scant attention and the caveats given by the author are fleeting. One or two chapters detailing these subjects would add much interest to future editions. The book provides a huge collection of notes compiled at the end.

The book is highly recommended.

[Sarah Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an Advance Reader Copy from HarperCollins.

Dr. Offit's book is a harsh indictment of alternative medicine, the majority of which he views as quackery that in many cases has no, or worse, harmful, effects. Offit argues that people who are desperate to improve their health or that of their loved ones fall for the false promise of healing from someone who offers strict guidelines that are clear and easy to follow, a personalized plan to wellness, and frequently the promise of ancient wisdom. Additionally, these therapies are frequently endorsed by well-known celebrities whose familiar face reels people in, including Jenny McCarthy's ill-advised ideas about preventing autism and Suzanne Somer's arguing that she has found the cure for aging, while conveniently omitting that she is making a fortune off the sale of her products and has had cosmetic surgery to reduce aging.

I was struck by the dozens and dozens of examples of treatable illnesses or cancers that people ignored in favor of alternative therapies - and led to their deaths. Offit even illuminates the fact that Steve Jobs had an operable tumor in his pancreas but chose alternative treatment until it was too late and his cancer had spread to other areas of his body. I was also personally alarmed by the section of the book that discusses vitamins and supplements. I have taken a multivitamin daily for years and had no clue that this was not only not supported by the FDA, but that as recently as October 2011, studies consistently have found that "women who took supplemental multivitamins died at higher rates than those who didn't." Yet these drugs are still sold in stores across the country and consumed by many, who believe that they are doing something good for their health.

I was excited to see Offit reference Siddhartha Mukherjee's book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer that I read and enjoyed. However, it was alarming when comparing the content of his writing to that of Suzanne Somers, both of which have sold well, although only Mukherjee's is told from a scientist's perspective. "Nowhere in Somers's book do we learn about oncogenes and their products, and nowhere in Mukherjee's do we learn about coffee enemas and miracle diets. It's as if they were written in parallel universes. In Mukherjee's universe, drugs have to be science-based, thoroughly tested, and proven to work before they're licensed by the FDA. In Somers's universe, treatments aren't science-based, proven to work, or licensed by the FDA; rather, they're promoted with testimonials and sold on websites." It's clear to me which I find more credible and what appears like a money making scheme.

The only problem I had with Offit's books is that he's incredibly biased. He practices conventional medicine and is clearly on the side of his profession and medical degree. I definitely buy what he's saying - mostly because it's not just opinion but substantiated by scientific studies and in-depth case studies - however, I recognize that his book is largely one-sided. In fact, I'm not sure why the sub-title "sense and nonsense of alternative medicine" is included because aside from one brief chapter, Offit using this book to prove the ills and pitfalls of alternative magic or as his title calls it "magic." Although I trust his judgement, I found it depressing that the only benefit he could offer up in defense of alternative therapies is the benefit of the placebo effect and the release of endorphins that this psychological belief can cause.

The bottom line of everything Offit discusses can be summed up in his words: "There's no such thing as alternative medicine. There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't."

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good exploration of the bullshit and fraudulent claims of SCAM (so-called alternative medicine) marred by the chapter on the placebo effect in which he makes a lot of excuses, ignoring evidence that the placebo effect disappears when controlled for objective vs. subjective measures, and the fact that placebo is triggered by interventions that actually work, making the use of known fake treatments ethically dubious. Offit started as a true-believer who then decided to actually put his beliefs to the test, and actually discarded them as they failed under scrutiny. This is much to his credit, and something that few people manage to do when it comes to beliefs around health.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today’s post is on “Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine” by Paul A. Offit, M.D. It is 305 pages long including notes and a bibliography. It is published by HarperCollins. It is a review of all current alternative medicine from the perspective of a doctor working with very sick people day in and day out. There Be Spoilers Ahead.



From the back of the book- A medical expect- the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia- offers a scathing, sure-to-be-headline-making expose 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.
A half-century ago, Acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, Chinese herbs, Christian exorcisms, dietary supplements, chiropractic manipulations, and transitional Indian remedies were considered to be on the fringe of medicine. Now these practices- known as alternative, complementary, holistic, and integrative medicine- have become mainstream, used by half of all Americans today seeking to burn fat, detoxify livers, shrink prostates, alleviate colds, stimulate brains, boost energy, reduce stress, enhance immunity, eliminate pain, prevent cancer, and enliven sex.
But as Dr. Paul A. Offit, the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, reveals, alternative medicine- an unregulated industry under no legal obligation to prove its claims or admits its risks- can actually be harmful to our health. In Do You Believe in Magic? He exposes the risks of alternative treatments, including megavitamins, acupuncture, dietary supplements, and Chinese herbs; debunks the treatments that don’t work, and explains why. He also takes on the media celebrities who promote alternative medicine, including Mehmet Oz, Suzanna Somers, and Jenny McCarthy. Using dramatic real-life stories, he separates the sense from the nonsense, showing why any therapy- alternative or traditional- should be scrutinized. He also shows how nontraditional methods can do a great deal of good, in some cases exceeding therapies offered by conventional practitioners. As he advises us, “There’s no such thing as alternative medicine. There’s only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t.”



Review- I really enjoyed this book. The topic is of interest to me personally because I have some health problems and I do some alternative methods. By the end of this book I was sure that Dr. Offit would not have any problems with what I do in my life. He takes apart the money making machine that is alternative medicine and he names names. It is interesting to learn about the beginnings of alternative medicine here in America and some from around the world. Offit gives information about both the good medicine that works and how good doctors fall from grace. The whole book comes down to this- do not use someone else’s wisdom for your own good judgment. Offit does not blame people for looking help or answers because medical science does not have all of them. He comes down hard on the people who steal from the hopeless. I felt Offit’s compassion for the families just trying to get some hope in dark places.



I give this one Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I was given this book from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.