The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America (Consumer Health Library) [Hardcover]

Stephen Barrett (Author), William T. Jarvis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Consumer Health Library | Publication Date: October 1993

The "Health Robbers", featuring over twenty highly respected authorities, explains the dangers of quack medicine, "alternative" cancer remedies, health fads, and "miracle diets." It argues for stronger laws and more vigorous policing of the marketplace. The essays answer such questions as: Are "organic" foods worth their extra cost? Can acupuncture cure anything? Can diet cure arthritis? Will spinal adjustments help my health? Will amino acids "pump up" my muscles? The answers to some of these questions should seem obvious, but the details in this volume, written in an informative, highly readable and easy-to-understand style, will astound you. Quackery is often harmful because it turns ill people away from legitimate and trusted therapeutic procedures. However, its heaviest toll is the financial loss, not only of those who pay directly, but to everyone who pays for bogus treatments through taxes, insurance premiums, and other ways that are less obvious.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arguing that "quackery is at an all-time high," psychiatrist Barrett ( Health Schemes, Scams and Frauds ) and Jarvis, an adviser to the American Council on Science and Health, in a comprehensive if not altogether well-balanced survey, come down hard on misleading advertising and news media, sales and network marketing of weight-control and beauty systems. The authors also deplore patients who renounce established practices for alternative remedies, self-doctoring with herbs, vitamins, etc., along with psychic and cult healing. One questions their failure to distinguish among forms of non-traditional treatment, in effect putting chiropractic into the same category as, say, faith healing, although the efficacy of chiropractic and acupuncture is no longer a very controversial issue. The authors conclude with a review of our health laws and agencies (Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration) and other sources of information and avenues to redress abuse. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 526 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879758554
• ISBN-13: 978-0879758554
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #930,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science is just another word for ... the study of nature., February 24, 2008

By 

Gregory E. Smith (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America (Consumer Health Library) (Hardcover)

Look, you don't have to be a medical export, or a scientist, to understand what science is. Science is nothing more than the study of nature!

Scientific method: Experiment. Observe. Eliminate as many variables that may affect the results as possible. Study ALL results, expected and non-expected. Share ALL results with peers, who challenge your results by conducting independent experiments and observations to verify. Hypothesize based on the FULL body of verified results. Repeat.

Scientific method has yielded an astounding bounty of discoveries in the short amount of time since it has started to be widely practiced.

True modern medicine is just applying scientific method to the act of healing people. This method has enabled human life to overcome and endure many diseases on a scale unimagined just 175 years ago, when medicine was largely a hunch-based-on-anecdotes practice.

Are there bad practices and practitioners in modern medicine? Of course there are, as there are in any human endeavor, especially when so much money is at stake. But science and the foundations of modern medicine are not to blame for this. Modern medicine is there to serve you -- you just need to steer clear of bad practice and practitioners as best you can.

Turning to those who have abandoned science, never embraced it in the first place, and/or found they could make a lucrative living by taking a stand against it, is an enourmous gamble. Pointless at best, it is possibly harmful to your health, especially if you have a genuine health concern that is not self-healing and that requires truly effective therapies to provide a better outcome.

People can fool us into feeling things or believing things that have been repeatedly scientifically debunked. Sadly, nobody is better at fooling us then ourselves. That is the nature of self-awareness; we are no longer unbiased observers, especially when it comes to our own selves, which is why pseudo-science thrives in the alternative "health and well-being" industry. But, to paraphrase Richard Feynman, "nature cannot be fooled".

Read this book for a very educational look into the nature of the deceptions that accompany most alternative therapies. You may not believe it now, but this knowledge WILL bring you closer to nature, which is, by the way, just another word for reality.

30 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superlative Expose on Quackery in Alternative Medicine, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America (Consumer Health Library) (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book. It taught me much about why and how different types of scams are perpetrated by different types of alternative medicine huxters. It was very objectively written, with opinions that were backed up with excellent references. A great book to survey all forms of health quackery currently being hawked to the public.

40 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this and help stop the insanity, July 25, 2000

By 

John Marsilia (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America (Consumer Health Library) (Hardcover)

This book is a needed antidote to the thousands of hucksters who are fleecing the American public. Giving hope to people in trouble is commendable, but knowingly spreading false cures and making millions off the gullible is reprehensible. I urge you to read this so that you or anyone you love may not be taken by the frauds and fakes in the irrational alternative medicine movement.