Customer Reviews

Mavericks of Medicine: Exploring the Future of Medicine with Andrew Weil, Jack Kevorkian, Bernie Siegel, Ray Kurzweil, and Others

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While there is no question that medical science has dramatically improved over the last two centuries, the medical community is still an extremely conservative group. The social environment has also changed; socialized medicine and governmental management now means that even relatively slight changes can have a billion-dollar price tag. The massive pharmaceutical companies pull in billions of dollars in revenues, which they will do a great deal to protect.
However, despite all the massive machines and the broad spectrum of medicinal chemicals, medicine is still largely an art. There is also a great deal about the workings of the human body that is not known, in fact most of the knowledge in some areas is little more than informed speculation.
In this book, Brown interviews several people that are very knowledgeable, but operate on what would be called the fringes of medicine. Their feelings are diverse, yet none is what you would describe as beyond the bounds into quackery. Each person truly believes in what they claim, and nearly all of them practice their beliefs on themselves. Most of their claims involve holistic or a form of natural medicine.
What makes this book different from many others is that the interviewees are very knowledgeable in what would be called hard science. They cite scientific findings, biological processes and historical precedent. If you do not have a fairly solid background in science, specifically biology, then you will have a difficult time following many of the interviews.
It is certain that not all of the claims made in this book will ultimately prove to be valid. However, if it were possible to look ahead one hundred years, there is no question in my mind that at least one of these visionary proposals will be part of the medical mainstream. The key question is of course, "Which one(s)?"

There are basically two kinds of people in this world: those who go with the flow, follow the crowd, and living their lives completely content with the status quo no matter what; and those who are constantly bucking the trend, charting new territory, and remaining on the cutting-edge at all times. The member of that latter group are sometimes referred to as "mavericks" and rightfully so. In the realm of medicine, there are quite a few of these rebels out there making their mark in their various fields and noted interviewer David Jay Brown spoke with quite a few of them for this book.

This was the book where I first heard about heavy metal toxicity and how chelation therapy can help remove these from your body thanks to the great work Dr. Garry Gordon is doing. I'd never even heard of him before this book and most of the "mavericks" included are virtual unknowns outside of the medical and health community. Aside from Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Barry Sears, and Dr. Jack Kevorkian, none of these professionals were familiar enough for me to realize they're making their mark within their various fields. But all that changed after reading this book!

Brown says history has shown us how some of the biggest advancements in medicine have taken place when at first they seemed crazy by conventional standards until finally the brave men and women on the frontlines of change were later vindicated by those who came after. I'm sure if the late, great Dr. Robert C. Atkins were still with us that he would have most definitely been one of those Brown would have included in his book. Low-carb diets may be laughed at, mocked, and scorned by much of the health industry today, there is a day coming when it will be so normal that citizens of the future will wonder why we ever ate any other way.

Because science and medicine tend to be very conservative, nothing much usually changes since new ideas are routinely dismissed as quackery since we already know what works. That's the basis for a book like this one which highlights some of the latest breakthroughs that you may not have heard about yet -- but you will! While conventional wisdom may say much of the information you'll read is hogwash, Brown if fully convinced you shouldn't necessarily throw the baby out with the bath water. He readily acknowledges that not all "mavericks" are necessarily right, but their forward-thinking ideas begin a fruitful conversation and debate about improvements that can happen if they are simply tried.

Regardless of which side of the socialized medicine discussion in America you are on, there are opinions expressed both for and against. Additionally, you get a sense of the lack of trust in the way things are run in medicine these days, including how federal government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who are working in conjunction with pharmaceutical and food industries rather than on behalf of the American people. One of the interviews is with a man who sued the FDA for unconstitutionally withholding health information from the public -- and won! The truth is getting out there thanks to these brave leaders in medicine.

Perhaps the most controversial interview Brown conducted was with Dr. Kevorkian who gained a reputation in the 1990's as "Dr. Death" for his physician-assisted suicide of patients who wanted to end their pain. Not surprisingly, Dr. Kevorkian believes that euthanasia is the proper role of a doctor and yet he's currently serving a prison sentence for murder of an ALS patient. Brown cites a study that shows eight out of ten people support a patient's right to die and yet it's illegal. Dr. Kevorkian believes it is due to the financial interests involved.

With experts in nutrition, natural medicine, chronic fatigue syndrome, anti-aging, immortality, the mind-body connection, the spiritual component to health, and so much more, Mavericks of Medicine is an outstanding resource for anyone wanting to open their minds to much more than the same old, same old you've been reading about in newspapers and seeing on the television news every night. This is the wave of the future and Brown has captured a quick snapshot of what is happening behind-the-scenes that will become front-page medical news in the years and decades to come.

David Jay Brown has chosen a remarkable set of scientists and other personalities in the medical arena to interview for this book. I am privileged to be among them. Whatever your speciality (if any) or your areas of biomedical interest, most if not all of these interviews will be highly informative and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

This is a major piece of work. A must read for those of us
that don't have the time to sift through all the medical and science journals but are nevertheless interested in science and our own
bodies. If you want to know something always go to the top person in
the field and that is exactly what David Brown did. Thanks David, just reading the book was good medicine and perhaps adding a few years to my life.