My Opinion | Medical Myths That Can Kill You: And the 101 Truths That Will Save, Extend, and Improve Your...

A scientist speaks | Medical Myths That Can Kill You: And the 101 Truths That Will Save, Extend, and Improve Your Life | Nancy L. Md Snyderman

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	• Medical Myths That Can Kill You: And the 101 Truths That Will Save, Extend, and Improve Your Life Nancy L. Md Snyderman Crown, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Interesting and Useful!

"Medical Myths That Can Kill You" actually consists mostly of truths that can save, extend, and improve your life.

The material is organized around seven myths (Annual checkups are obsolete, vaccinations are just for kids, doctors don't play favorites, only old people get heart disease and stroke,'natural' means safe, etc. The greater value, however, consists of learning that sunglasses can prevent blindness (cataracts), vitamin C doesn't prevent colds or reduce their severity - unless you are subject to high stress (marathon runners, skiers), washing contact lenses with tap water can lead to serious eye infections, smoking increases the risk of colon cancer - and it doesn't decline after quitting, donating blood may lower the risk of hear disease (less iron), etc.

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My Opinion

Dear Nancy
Your advice is so highly regarded. What is best is that when you speak to everyone, You have such a way with comunicating. Which I belive is a gift. Thank you so much for helping so many people.
Sincerly Michael L. Chapman
Maine, 04042

A scientist speaks

The probability that a "street" myth is actually helpful is just about 50% and quite possibly less. Take for example to oft repeated 8-glasses-a-day-of-water thing. For many people, such as anyone over 50, this will raise their blood pressure often to dangerous levels. Try it on yourself and see. Studies say the vitamins often increase mortality rather than increase it. Take Calcium ot not take Calcium, eat garlic ot it does nothing; all goes to show that nearly anything that is pushed by the lay public and repeated in media turns out to be worth nothing. Believers make up benefits on the spot, they don't need studies. they are actually smarter than "eggheads".

Best is to ignore all these marvelous benefits, eat simple, traditional food and only take medicine/vitamins/water/calcium/garlic etc. etc. when you are sick.
Normal person needs nothing. We live in the fattest, most well-nourished country in the world. I think our bodies know this.

Ms. Snyderman has done well to speak out against these myths. Her story holds together, if occasionally mildly contradictory.

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Interesting factoids, but misleading at times

As a practicing family doctor and author of Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely: Making Intelligent Choices in America's Healthcare System, I am a strong believer in empowering and educating patients so that they can make the right decisions to get the most out of life. As the only doctor in my family I don't think it is fair that only the people I know or care for are privy to the truth about staying healthy, so I looked forward to reading this book which has a similar same perspective.

Overall, the book was a mixed blessing. It has interesting factoids, ideas we should all take to heart, but at times is misleading. As a consumer and a patient, I thought the truths and news you can use pieces were interesting. As a primary care doctor and patient advocate, however, I felt that many parts of the book were misleading. Perhaps one of the faults is it tries to be too ambitious and attempts to cover too many topics, which often are not in depth enough to be of much value.

Dr. Snyderman points out correctly multiple times that the path to good health is through prevention by adopting healthy habits, staying physically active, and maintaining a sensible weight. The structure of the book reflects this preventive focus and chooses to debunk many myths with these clever chapter titles - Annual Checkups Are Obsolete, Vaccinations Are Just For Kids, Doctor's Don't Play Favorites, Only Old People Get Heart Disease and Stroke, We're Losing the War on Cancer, Natural Means "Safe", and You Can Just Snap Out of Mental Illness. She tackles the truth about herbal and dietary supplements, the unproven value of full body scans, as well as the importance of vaccinations and preventive screening tests for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Throughout the book there are plenty of truth tidbits including, "you cannot catch sexually transmitted diseases from toilet seats; you do not need to drink eight glasses of water every day", among many others and news you can use segments that will make some readers hopefully more aware of what is myth and what is fact. These small sidebars were very interesting. I think patients and consumers will find these factoids topics of conversation.

As a practicing doctor, however, there are many areas which are misleading and others that provide information too superficial to be of value. Dr. Snyderman is correct in one of her chapters that heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in this country. However, she uses two individuals, a twenty-six year old former beauty pageant winner, who suffered from a stroke, and a forty year old woman, who died suddenly from swimming, as reasons why we should be concerned. The problem is that these type of occurrences are extremely unlikely and rare for these age groups and gender. The typical cause of these problems, atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries didn't cause these cases. The former was most likely due to a heart wall septal defect or a blood clotting disorder, known as a hypercoagulable state. The latter was probably due to sudden cardiac death from a fatal arrhythmia, like ventricular fibrillation.

In the area of stroke, she talks about atrial fibrillation, a heart arrhythmia, as the leading cause of stroke. It is a cause, but this heart condition is typically found in patients over age 60 and far more common in people over 80 years old. She doesn't say that and one would naturally and wrongly assume based on the prior patient stories that it can happen at younger ages, which again is extremely unlikely.

Other areas that are covered superficially include when Dr. Snyderman discusses cancer and mental illness. She pushes for prevention as well as clarifies myths that still exist among the public. Unfortunately in the chapter on cancer, she also talks about various cancer treatments which isn't thorough enough and doesn't seem to fit in a book with this preventive theme. For the mental illness, one of the best written sections because of her personal experience, again the book is rather too ambitious and tries to cover anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder and the various treatment options even as she admits that "it is impossible to go into as much detail as I would like to". Though she gives a website reference, perhaps it may have been better only to cover depression as she and her husband both had experienced it, and acknowledge the other conditions.

Overall, I wanted to like this book as I believe the intent of giving the public the facts about what they can do to stay healthy and well is vital. I think as a practicing doctor and insider, however, the book at times it is misleading, in some areas is too light in content and in others the information deviates from the book's intent of wellness and health promotion.

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Not as informative as I had thought.

I think this book was well written, but like so many other medical informative books, it's just one opinion against another. Each side has all the proof necessary to make the statements, but the bottom line is: one side is not being truthful. So , it's still WHO you want to believe. I'm sorry I purchased this book, I should have known better.

Do you know what?s really good for you?

In this age of countless miracle cures, it?s vital to separate the myths that endanger your health from the medical facts you need.

FACT:
Unfiltered coffee can clog your arteries.

FACT:
Donating blood may lower your risk of heart disease.

FACT:
You don?t really need eight glasses of water a day.

FACT:
Coughing won?t help if you?re having a heart attack. (But aspirin will!)

We?ve become a nation of cyberchondriacs, diagnosing ourselves with false information and half-truths found on sketchy websites. In Medical Myths That Can Kill You, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, chief medical editor for NBC News, provides clear, practical, scientifically proven advice that can lead you to a healthier, happier life.

Discover the simple, everyday things that affect well-being, and get the information you need to revitalize your body, maintain your longevity, manage your care, and possibly even save a life?yours.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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