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Flies in the Ointment: Essays on Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (SCAM) by [Mark Crislip]

Flies in the Ointment: Essays on Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (SCAM) Kindle Edition

by Mark Crislip (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A carefully selected and edited compendium of the best of Dr. Mark Crislip (the Puswhisperer)’s blog posts from sciencebasedmedicine.org. The sections have been edited for redundancy, updated for 2017, and classified into themes.

Supplements and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (SCAM) can be classified many ways; generally speaking, alternative remedies are:

Possible: mostly botanicals and herbal remedies. There is nothing impossible that a given plant product will affect a given disease, although often the provenance of a given herbal treatment is suspect.

Impossible: the rest of CAM. It will be equally impossible to cover every CAM practice, so just a few are treated in depth.

The book is classified as follows:

What’s the Harm? A general discussion of why SCAM is bad for people, animals, and the environment.

Alt-Facts: Why Scientific Thinking is Hard. A discussion of how and why our powers of logic are often powerless against SCAM.

Counting to Ten: Statistics for the Rest of Us. A somewhat technical section about statistical errors and fallacies, and why interpreting the literature is difficult even for clinicians. A must-read for lovers of math.

Realm of the Possible. A discussion of supplements, including the evolution of my thinking on probiotics.

Rectum? Damn Near Killed ‘Em. Probiotics and the Gut Microbiome

Herbs and Supplements

Eliminate the Impossible. Impossible treatments, their fallacies and risks.

Chiropractic

Homeopathy

Acupuncture

Miscellaneous Quack Remedies

Vaccines and Flu Woo. The fallacies behind anti-vaccination beliefs, and why you should always get your flu shot.

About the Author

Mark Crislip, MD has been practicing Infectious Diseases in since 1990. He writes for Medscape, with a popular blog entitled Rubor, Dolor, Calor, Tumor. He is an editor and writer for the Science-Based Medicine blog and the President of the Society for Science-Based Medicine. He is the author of two collections of clinical tales, Puswhisperer and Puswhisperer II.

Print length

267 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

January 5, 2018
File size

1054 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Crislip received his MD from OHSU in 1983 and has been practicing Infectious Disease medicine for over 25 years. Currently he is chief of infectious diseases at the Legacy Health hospital system in Portland, Oregon. He produces several podcasts, including QuackCast and Gobbet o'Pus, and regularly writes for medicine-related blogs. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Science in Medicine as well as a co-founder and the current president of the Society for Science-Based Medicine. He has been on the Top Docs list published by Portland Monthly magazine several times. His multimedia empire may be found at edgydoc.com, and two collections of his infectious disease case histories have been published by Bitingduck Press: Puswhisperer and Puswhisperer II.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B078TVBFLL
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bitingduck Press (January 5, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 5, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1054 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,731,194 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,352 in Herbal Remedies (Kindle Store)
- #3,753 in Alternative Therapies
- #4,029 in Herbal Remedies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
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9 global ratings

5 star		17%
4 star		53%
3 star		31%
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ECP

Typos etc! Just fix...Otherwise great!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

Typos etcetera distract! I realize these were blog posts, but, please, edit this book professionally ASAP--fix the typos, grammatical errors, awkward syntax and confusing formatting where the author's and outside sources' words run together!

Update: I should have mentioned that I found various sections with these problems, but many others read okay. The information is most important, and I had no qualms about that, so I'm adding back a star (from three to four) and still hoping for corrections in an update soon.

8 people found this helpful

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Brian R. Warren

Very interesting read but the typos are rather distracting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

The author has arguments both familiar and unique on various “woo” topics, including an environmental argument against the use of homeopathy that I had not previously considered. However, this collection of weblog posts, as entertaining and informative as it is, is in dire need of a copy editor.

One person found this helpful

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Chingachgook

Live better, longer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

I purchased this as soon as I saw it. I am a longtime fan of Mark Crislip and his clear delivery of fact and opinion, both properly labeled.
May I repeat it first? The world needs more Mark Crislip.
Buy it, give it. Live better, longer.

(The preceding is my opinion, back by years of Puscast, Gobbet o' Pus, and Rubor, Dolor, Tumor. I received nothing but enjoyment for this review ;-))

4 people found this helpful

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Chris Smart

good read...but

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

...for the love of God, man, HIRE a proofreader!

One person found this helpful

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Avid Reader

A call to put your critical thinking head on

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 19, 2017

In our quest for health we often rely on alternative therapies in addition to or even in place of science based medicine. We buy into the extraordinary claims of alternative practitioners without doing any research into their medical qualifications and the safety and efficacy of their treatments. In his book Mark Crislip shows how much we actually gamble with our health and even risk cutting our lives short in doing so. He also points out the environmental harm and the negative impact on our pocket books resulting from our gullibility when falling for pseudo medicine. Mark Crislip makes me stop and think.
Just recently I was recommended to go to a tattoo parlor and get my ear cartilage pierced to alleviate my migraine headaches. I think I will pass. I also know I will never get acupuncture or visit a chiropractor. Read this book and do your own research if you are considering alternative medicine. It might save you a lot of money and probably your health.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

3 people found this helpful

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Steve G

Blunt discussion of SCAM

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 18, 2017

I enjoyed this book, particularly Mark Crislip’s blunt, sarcastic, and evidence- and science-based approach. Some of the essays were a little technical but not overly. Crislip doesn’t sugar-coat anything which was very refreshing. I recommend this book for anyone interested in medicine or health, particularly if they are considering using SCAM (Supplements and Complementary and Alternative Medicine).
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

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