General Interest > Feed Your Head

Lincoln's Melancholy

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Anonymous:
Anon, Deborah will never understand the seriously
mentally ill. These feel good programs that she
idealistically talk about are pretty much non
existant. The few that have been tried also used
meds when the patients cycled.

She won't give up though, and she won't read the legitimate literature like Dr. Freedman's editorial
that you posted on this thread.

Anonymous:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 67-5710400

This book is about so much more than bad medicine. As well as covering, in good but not overwhelming detail, many 'alternative medicine' topics (such as homeopathy which he gleefully destroys) it also covers a wide range of simple misunderstandings, 'old-wives tales' and folk hokum to do with the human body - ranging from the classic, "Don't sit too close to the TV or you'll damage your eyes!" to why we go grey/get fat/go bald/etc/etc.

Wanjek writes with flair and gentle humour. On that note, however, I have noticed in some reviews posted here that people who actually hold any of the pseudoscientific beliefs that Wanjek so neatly destroys may take his humour more seriously. Personally I am heartened by this - Wanjek has clearly touched a nerve.

This book provides an excellent overview of the current state of play in alternative medicine, excellent refutations of AM's sacred cows and, most importantly, some damn good advice. It is hard to overstate the harm done by people's unquestioning belief in alternative medicine - the number of treatable cancers that don't get detected early enough because of someone's misplaced trust in an iridologist, the masses of beneficial medication that never get prescribed because people would rather take water endowed with mystical 'quantum memories' of some unproven herb that used to be there before getting diluted into practical non-existence, ... Wanjek, through this book, provides a serious and valuable tool for sufferers of serious illness to cut through the haze of crap on offer from every late night infomercial peddling false hope.

For those of us fortunate enough to NOT be suffering serious illness, and for those less fortunate who ARE, the book is thought provoking, funny, interesting and informative. And hey - sooner or later we all know someone who gets taken for a ride by some medical scam - this book will definitely come in handy.

Anonymous:
Bad Medicine? Bad book, too.

The book purports to contain "Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O," which immediately provoked the "Ooh!" response in me, as I'm also a big fan of skeptics like James Randi, Penn & Teller and the like. But the book itself disappoints in a major way.

The book is divided into seven sections. The first deals with body parts and common misconceptions about them, including the idea that certain areas of the tongue can only sense certain flavors, for instance, or that big brains aren't necessarily better. Sections two and three deal with aging and diseases, respectively. Sure, to some extent this stuff is entertaining, but it doesn't exactly seem to fall within the realm of "debunking myths"--in fact it almost seems common-sensical.

Section five is what I was "looking for" when I picked up this book--info on medicine quackery. Finally, I thought, I'd get to read about Professor Miracle Q. Crazypants' Magic Elixir For All What Ails You! But the section is surprisingly weak, sticking to topics like homeopathy, ayurveda, aromatherapy and qigong. While Wanjek does, for the most part, do a solid job of explaining why these "remedies" aren't valid, including a rather amusing explanation of how homeopathic medicine invalidates itself, the author takes a sharp detour into a chapter on herbs (which, as the author astutely points out, sometimes actually do things--duh) and how people used to be "a-feared" of vaccines.

The book, written by a guy who doesn't really have any academic credentials to speak of, aside from serving as an in-house science writer for NASA, MIT and the NIH (his bio also plugs his joke-writing skills as provided to both The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live), is definitely funny in places, to be sure. But he relentlessly hammers on his pet peeves in the book, regardless of whether or not they're relevant to the topic at hand--including his opinion of how anyone who watches TV is apparently "brain dead." Plus there are fundamental weaknesses in the text, primarily consisting of faulty logic, or a dearth of actual research and facts, or both. (A glimpse at the footnotes reveals that Wanjek is guilty of quoting his own medical stories, which almost entirely discredits him in my own mind.)

I can't entirely pan the book, as it wasn't a terrible read--I did finish it, after all. But, at the same time, it has serious flaws and is much, much too weak to stand on its own as any kind of an authoritative tome on the subject of quack medicine--especially considering that all of 42 pages is spent on this particular element of the book. Middle school students looking for an interesting book to do a book report on would do well to grab this text, but for those who hold more than a passing interest in medicine, this book is very nearly an insult to the intelligence.

http://www.86st.net/archive/2004/08/

Anonymous:
Excellent information, thank you!

Do you have any recommendations along
the lines of debunking these feel good
types of wishful thinking therapies that
don't exist:

"Humane and safe non-drug alternatives that
have been shown to be effective, safer
and more sustainable."

Anonymous:
Also, if you could provide a source
to debunk this type of statement:

"Potentially fatal metabolic problems... Weight gain... Diabetes... Structural damage to the higher level parts of the brain... Drug dependence... Involuntary muscle movements...not to mention the Bizarrely high costs of these drugs.

Sounds like a toss up to me.... And a real bitch if you ended up in a permanent hospital stay AND forced to take the drugs."

Obvioulsy, she refused to read Dr. Freedman's editorial.

The weight gain, diabeties and movement disorders
are well know and are being worked on.

Why still give the meds?

For the huge amount of people benefiting from the
medications these side effects are in small numbers.

Medications did get the MI out of hospitals.

There is very little involuntary treatment in this
country, and even a smaller number on "forced" medication rituals. Heck, even patients in jail can refuse meds.

So what is the problem here?

Folks like Deborah refuse to read, and/or acknowledge the fact and just put a damaging twist on these issues that can only serve to hurt people
and delay treatment.

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