Hype: A Doctor's Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims, and Bad Advice - How to Tell What's Real and What's Not

Hype: A Doctor's Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims, and Bad Advice - How to Tell What's Real and What's Not by Nina Shapiro and Kristin Loberg

Healthcare is filled with hyped up fads. Many of these are based on the flimsiest of evidence. It can be hard to distinguish hype from valuable practices. This book mentions a number of not so good medical practices, and has a few general guidelines. One positive from the book is acknowledgment of the placebo effect. Placebos can provide benefit - even if you know they are only placebos. As long as it doesn't cause harm, we can still use it. For others, it gets complicated. Smoking was once argued as beneficial by doctors, while drinking was condemned. Now smoking is universally identified as bad, while moderate drinking is sometimes seen as beneficial.

People can be a little stupid when it comes to probabilities. A parent may drive a long distance to get organic produce. The driving has a greater probability of harm than the possible organic benefit. There are many other cases where we are drawn into hype. Many processed foods start with healthy ingredients, but process much of the benefit out of it. Screenings such as Mammograms and X Rays may identify conditions, but they also cause harm in themselves and can result in false positives that result in harmful treatments.

Medical treatments can be trickier. We can try to identify the current best practices. However, these may change. How do we know if our "alternative" treatment is quackery or the future of medicine?  Perhaps the best bet is to take it all. "Complementary" medicine can be helpful. Traditional medicine can also be helpful. If we can easily identify the expected benefits and harms of both we can make good decisions. Alas, getting the data can be challenging. The book did point to a source for probabilities, but finding it is challenge.