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Do You Believe in Magic?: Vitamins, Supplements, and All Things Natural: A Look Behind the Curtain Paperback – May 13, 2014

by Paul A. Offit M.D. (Author)

419 customer reviews

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In Do You Believe in Magic?, 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.

Dr. Offit reveals how alternative medicine—an unregulated industry under no legal obligation to prove its claims or admit its risks—can actually be harmful to our health.

Using dramatic real-life stories, Offit separates the sense from the nonsense, showing why any therapy—alternative or traditional—should be scrutinized. He also shows how some nontraditional methods can do a great deal of good, in some cases exceeding therapies offered by conventional practitioners.

An outspoken advocate for science-based health advocacy who is not afraid to take on media celebrities who promote alternative practices, Dr. Offit advises, “There’s no such thing as alternative medicine. There’s only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t.”

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Important and timely . . . Offit writes in a lucid and flowing style, and grounds a wealth of information within forceful and vivid narratives. This makes his argument - that we should be guided by science - accessible to a wide audience.” (New Republic)

“Lively. . . . Informative and well-written, the book deserves a wide audience among the general public, scientists, and health care professionals.” (Science)

“Convincing.” (Forbes)

“This excellent, easy-to-read look at the alternative-medicine industry is highly recommended.” (Library Journal (starred review))

“Do You Believe in Magic? is a briskly written, entertaining, and well-researched examination of those whom Offit considers ‘unclothed emperors’: purveyors of miracle cancer cures, fountains of youth, and the theory that vaccines cause autism.” (Boston Globe)

“Over the last decade [Offit] has become a leading debunker of mass misconceptions surrounding infections and vaccines, and now he is taking on the entire field of alternative medicine, from acupuncture to vitamins.” (New York Times)

“Offit is a wonderful storyteller who makes his message come alive. Each chapter is a story that grabs the reader’s interest and holds it.” (Skeptical Inquirer)

“A fascinating history of hucksters, and a critical chronology of how supplements escaped regulation. . . . A bravely unsentimental and dutifully researched guide for consumers to distinguish between quacks and a cure.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“A rousing good read, strong on human interest and filled with appalling and amazing data.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

“Offit is a rare combination of scientist, doctor, communicator and advocate. . . . What is needed is more people like [him] willing to engage the skeptics in a debate that just will not go away.” (Financial Times, on Deadly Choices)

From the Back Cover

A half century ago, acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, Chinese herbs, Christian exorcisms, dietary supplements, chiropractic manipulations, and ayurvedic remedies were considered on the fringe of medicine. Now these practices—known variably as alternative, complementary, holistic, or integrative medicine—have become mainstream, used by half of all Americans today to treat a variety of conditions, from excess weight to cancer.

But alternative medicine is an unregulated industry under no legal obligation to prove its claims or admit its risks, and many popular alternative therapies are ineffective, expensive, or even deadly. In Do You Believe in Magic? Dr. Offit debunks the treatments that don't work and tells us why, and takes on the media celebrities who promote alternative medicine. Using dramatic real-life stories, he separates the sense from the nonsense, explaining why any therapy—alternative or traditional—should be scrutinized. As Dr. Offit explains, some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, but "there's no such thing as alternative medicine. There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't."

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Product details

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (May 13, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062222988
ISBN-13: 978-0062222985
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 419 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #461 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Alternative Medicine > Healing
- #6377 in Books > Medical Books

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todd french

Great expose of supplement industry and examination of pseudo science

March 24, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Score another for science over superstition and pseudo science. This is a clearly written, well-researched book that gives us some straight talk on certain spurious health claims. It focuses mostly on the science behind supplements (which is not much science at all). People rail against the big pharmaceutical companies while unaware of how claims about supplements are often dead wrong, and in many cases criminally misleading. Your tap water is more highly regulated than the vitamins you buy. This book reveals a vast corporate empire-not around pharmaceuticals, which are, ironically, highly regulated and subjected to rigorous scientific testing, and describes the political machinations of the nutritional industry to keep us from learning that-in the case of most supplements-the emperor has NO clothes.
The truth is pretty clear but the supplement industry does not want you to know it. Read this book to find out how and why

2 people found this helpful

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H. Britt

Snake oil past and present

June 1, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a well documented book. The bibliography is as long as the text of the book. It goes through the history of snake oil past and present, attempting to explain why and how human beings are tricked into giving away their money and their health. He rightly explains that complimentary and alternative medicine is nothing more than unproven and wishful medicine. As soon as scientific studies are done it becomes part of mainstream medicine if it works, or should be discarded as garbage if it does not work.

Comment

April 5, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Interesting read giving reader lots to think about. Shows both sides of this story between modern medicine and alternative Medicine.

5 people found this helpful

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JeneratorRN

I love it when people speak common sense as a first language.

October 8, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Dr. Offit spoke volumes and these few pages. I’ve long been frustrated by the alternative medicine movements for the very reasons he described in this book. A close relative of mine was obscenely bilked by naturopaths as she desperately fought terminal cancer, so I have trouble being objective with the alternative medicine community. This was an excellent read showing the research why some things work, why some don’t, and how to avoid being taken by a

One person found this helpful

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Sherman L Sievers

Courageous and Evidence-based Good Read

May 15, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Very engaging writing style. Cites a vast array of evidence showing that scientific evaluation of treatments is our only hope of evaluating the effectiveness of treatments and ensuring their safety. The author is tireless and courageous in taking on a financially powerful industry that hopes to keep people in the dark.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Excellent book. Absolutely wonderful response to the mythology of ...

July 3, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Excellent book. Absolutely wonderful response to the mythology of alternative medicine which I really appreciated. Well written and incredibly interesting.

2 people found this helpful

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November 21, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Great book

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Stalwart

Placebos are good for you???

October 16, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Dr. Offit has apparently reviewed many studies, and herein compiles information on "alternative medicine" procedures, dietary supplements, and various other market excesses which have been studied, and found to be about as good as placebos, or more importantly, have NOT been studied because their suppliers and practitioners are making too much money on them to risk finding out that they are no good!

That is, in any case, the message of the book. There are, he says, a few supplements that are of some value, but everything else seems to work as well as placebos.

So, save your money, and start buying placebos instead of megavitamins and alternative medicine procedures.

4 people found this helpful

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Most recent customer reviews

marty

Three Stars

buyer beware and read the label and don't believe everything you hear and read and see on TV

Published 20 days ago

Thomas Kunst

Background of how we've arrived with alternative medicine in the U.S.

Interesting stories and results of testing on both medicine and alternative medicine.

Published 1 month ago

brent inman

A great primer on the placebo effect, quack medicine, and evidence-based medical science.

I especially liked the chapter on cancer and other alternative medicine history. Also the info on today’s medical charlatans.
Excellent!

Published 1 month ago

Kindle Customer kshoe

What every consumer should read

This is the most truthful and insightful book you need to read.. Congratulations to a real doctor. About time someone exposes Dr Oz.

Published 1 month ago

Steven J. Ceresnie

Everybody complains of his memory, but nobody of his judgement. —- La Rouchefoucaild

Children are getting sick and dying with contagious diseases because their parents are refusing to allow pediatricians to give their kids vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella...Read more

Published 2 months ago

mdauer

One of the physicians recommended this book to me

I work in an infectious disease medical office. One of the physicians recommended this book to me. I bought it so everyone else can read it.Read more

Published 3 months ago

Amazon Customer

Buy this book, buy 2 and give one to someone you love

I agree with every word in this book, and have lived through the stigma of trying to tell the truths of what works and what doesn’t.Read more

Published 5 months ago

Steve G

Yet again Dr. Offit creates a great book

I loved this book. Indeed I had previously read four books by Paul Offit (Pandora’s Lab, Bad Faith, Vaccinated, and The Cutter Incident) and loved all of them.Read more

Published 5 months ago

Michael H.

Entertaining and somewhat informative. Not nearly as science driven as I would have hoped.

In making the case against alternative medicine, Dr. Offit makes a lot of the same logical fallacies that he identifies correctly as flawed among alternative practicioners.Read more

Published 5 months ago

Nelson Amaya

There is no such thing as alternative medicine

Alternative medicine happens at the hinge of distrust and wishful thinking. There are good reasons to distrust parts of the scientific establishment; the corporate manipulation of...Read more

Published 6 months ago

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