Do You Believe in Magic?
The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine
by Paul A. Offit · first published 2013
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Medical expert Paul A. Offit, M.D., offers a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine industry, revealing how even though some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadly.
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Recommended reading on this includes "Do You Believe in Magic" by Dr. Paul Offit, the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (certainly one of the best children's hospitals in the world).
on “Vitamins, Supplements with Antioxidants Fuel Cancer” ↗…where it might be more opportunistic rather than non harmful for healthy immune systems. Paul Offit also has a great book on the other topic of what to look out for when it comes to quackery called "Do You Believe in Magic?" where he talks about Jenny McCarthy and various doctors who tried to support that movement.
on “Rapid Recovery from an Autism Spectrum Disorder After Treatment of Aspergillus” ↗I'm now reading a book called "Do you believe in magic"/ Paul Offit, it's on topic of alternative medicine. In 70's there was a very popular (and bogus) cancer cure called Laetrile (Hygrogen Cyanide) that was pushed by some doctors and organizations. Horrible…
on “Weight-loss drugs seem like another bit of sci-fi becoming fact” ↗Paul Offit writes about the FDA history in his book "Do you believe in Magic?". His argument is that the FDA tends to try to do what is "right" but the public opinion gets swayed to the point where it becomes political and we "do this to ourselves".
on “FTC Warns Pharma: May Go After Them for Sham Patents Designed to Delay Generics” ↗