Caution : Snake Oil! How Statistical Thinking Can Help Us Expose Misinformation about Our Health

by Heinz Kohler

The headlines keep coming. Every day, we meet new health-related stories about prescription and over-the-counter drugs, medical devices and procedures, the lifestyle we should adopt, foods we should favor, and dietary supplements that would surely add years to our lives. Rightly, we dismiss much of this as pure snake oil. Mayonnaise prevents Alzheimer's? Chelation therapy blasts away arterial plaque? Food coloring lowers bad cholesterol? Cinnamon clobbers diabetes? Grapefruit erases breast cancer? Watermelon slashes prostate cancer? Come on But what about more serious-sounding claims? True enough, reports about ACE inhibitors and beta blockers, Advil and Motrin, 64-slice CT scans and PSA tests, drug-coated stents and the DASH diet appear to be far removed from snake oil, but false claims about any of these, this book asserts, are snake oil no less than absurd and fantastic claims about mayonnaise and Alzheimer's. Consider how glowing press releases of one time, even by renowned medical journals or the FDA, are often followed by conflicting stories at a later time, which makes us ask: Will fancy cholesterol drugs save us from heart attacks or will they destroy our liver? Is the once-a-day baby aspirin the "cure of the century" or a stroke-causing hoax? Will Avandia fight our diabetes or give us a heart attack? "CAUTION: SNAKE OIL " offers a remedy: If we care to separate bogus claims from the real thing, we must adopt the special way of statistical thinking that is routinely employed by the best of those who undertake the scientific studies that alone can generate medical knowledge we can trust.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction

418 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2010

About the author

HEINZ KOHLER was born in Berlin, Germany, where he grew up before and during World War II. By the war's end, he found himself in rural East Germany and spent years watching the Nazi tyranny give way to a Communist one. He made it to West Berlin before the Wall went up and came to the United States in the late 1950s. Since 1961, he was associated with Amherst College, Massachusetts, where he became the Willard Long Thorp Professor of Economics, taught Economics as well as Statistics and published numerous textbooks on both subjects. His most recent books include the series SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET, Book 1: Extraordinary Birds, Book 2: Brainteasers, Book 3: Unusual Plants, Book 4: Remarkable Animals, Book 5: Wonders of the World, Book 6: The World's Greatest Inventions, Book 7: Exploring Northern Europe, Book 8: Exploring Western Europe, Book 9: Exploring Southwestern Europe, Book 10: Exploring Central Europe, Book 11: Exploring Africa, Book 12: Exploring Southeastern Europe, Book 13: Exploring Russia and Central Asia, Book 14: Exploring Western Asia, Book 15: Exploring Southern Asia, Book 16: Exploring Eastern Asia, Book 17: Exploring Australia and Oceania, Book 18: Exploring North America, and Book 19: exploring Central America--all of which introduce the Internet equivalent of the late 1800s, CAUTION: SNAKE OIL! which shows how statistical thinking can help us expose misinformation about our health, and MY NAME WAS FIVE, a memoir of World War II.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to win a copy of this book from right here, signed by the Author as they so often are. First, I should certainly thank both the Author and Goodreads, because it's an awesome thing to win a free signed book. That said, I'm trying to judge the book solely based off of the book itself, ignoring the fact that I got the book for free. I haven't finished the book yet, it is a fairly large book and I sadly don't have a lot of free time to read. That said, I've made a large dent in the book and wanted to write some of my thoughts out. The book has quite a bit of information, some useful and occasionally some that seems to serve more as filler. Honestly I think that's the biggest issue with the book thus far, it seems to be padded a bit, lots of information that seems as if it's simply there to up the page count. Aside from that, another reviewer here mentioned it already, but there is definitely a bit of fear mongering in the book. It's not horribly over the top and doesn't ruin any of the information, but it was noticeable in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, the book is still certainly worth your time, but like most books it just has a few flaws. Once I actually finish reading I'll update my review, until then I feel comfortable giving the book 4/5 Stars. Good, even great at some points, but not amazing.

[Colleen Mertens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a contest here on Goodreads. The book reads like a college textbook on statistics. The first couple of chapters were harder to read since they introduced the basic concepts of statistics to start you on the way to researching medical claims. The later chapters get easier to read since they show you how to apply what the first couple of chapters teach. It was interesting to learn some of what the book taught. I can't say I was surprised by the results of any of the lessons in the book.

[Moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far I am finding this informative and educational! I received this in a giveaway as a signed copy, and I was so excited! Rightfully so, as I started reading it and couldn't put it down... information about prescription drugs and things like antioxidents. He backs up what he is saying with authentic studies.

And in the back of the book there is a extensive list of websites that are health related... I can't wait to get in there and start visiting some of those!

Thanks!

[Hdaysal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative!!

[Eric Troy]

So far I do not like the tone of this book. There seems to be a bit of fear-mongering going on which seems out of place in a book purporting to help us navigate conflicting and sometimes fraudulent medical and health claims, since so much of these claims are accompanied by a "fear" message. Weird that the author sounds much like the alternative-medicine hacks that statistical thinking should help combat.